Popular Technology Volume I Part 5

7. The following description of the mode of cultivating this plant, and preparing it for the tobacconist, is applicable to the state of Maryland. A little variation in some of the details, would render it applicable to other parts of the world.

8. A small piece of ground, say one-sixteenth of an acre, is prepared by burning a large quant.i.ty of brush upon it. The surface is rendered light and even, by means of a hoe and rake; and the seeds, mixed with ashes, are sown as equally as possible. After they have been covered with earth, the ground is trodden down with the bare feet. The tobacco beds are made in March, and the plants become fit for the field in eight or ten weeks.

9. The field, in which the cultivation of the crop is to be continued, is ploughed two or three times, and then cross-ploughed into equal checks, in each of which is made a hill. Immediately after a rain, the plants are transferred to these hills, in the same manner in which cabbages are transplanted. While the tobacco is growing, the ground is ploughed several times, in order to keep it light, and to aid in destroying the weeds. When the plants are nearly grown, the tops are lopped or cut off, to prevent them from running to seed, and to cause the leaves to grow larger and thicker.

10. In July or August, the tobacco-worms begin to make their appearance, and to threaten the whole crop with destruction. To arrest the ravages of these insidious enemies, all hands, both great and small, together with all the turkeys that can be mustered, are brought into the field. These worms are produced from the eggs of a large insect, called the horn-bug.

11. The tobacco, when ripe, is cut near the ground, and hung on small sticks about five feet in length, generally by pegs driven into the stalks. These sticks are then laid upon poles, arranged at proper distances from each other in the tobacco-house, shed, or hovel, as the case may be. It is then suffered to dry gradually in the atmosphere; or a large fire is made in the tobacco-house, to effect the drying more rapidly.

12. The leaves are next stripped from the stalks, and tied in small bunches according to their quality. This can only be done when _in order_, or rather, when the leaves are rendered tough by the absorption of moisture from the atmosphere. These bunches, when the leaves are so damp that they will not break, and so dry that they will not heat, are packed in hogs-heads by the aid of a large lever press.

The tobacco is inspected in public warehouses, by men who have been appointed for the purpose by the public authorities.

THE TOBACCONIST.

1. It is the business of the tobacconist to convert the leaves of the tobacco plant into snuff, cigars, and smoking and chewing tobacco.

2. Although there may seem to be a great variety of snuffs, yet they may be all reduced to three kinds, viz., Scotch, rappee, and maccouba.

These are variously modified by the quality of the tobacco, by some little variation in the manufacture, and by the articles employed in communicating the desired flavour.

3. In manufacturing snuff, the tobacco is ground in a mill of a peculiar construction. Before the weed is submitted to this operation, it is reduced to a certain degree of fineness, by means of a cutting machine; and then spread in a heap, one or two feet thick, and sprinkled with water, that it may _heat_ and _sweat_. The time required in this preparation depends upon the state of the weather, and the kind of snuff for which the tobacco is designed.

4. Scotch snuff is made of the strongest sort of tobacco, and is put up in bladders and bottles without being scented. Rappee and maccouba are put up in jars and bottles; and the former is generally scented with bergamot, and the latter with the ottar of roses. Sometimes, several ingredients, agreeable to the olfactory nerves, are employed.

5. Cigars are composed of two parts, called the _wrapper_ and the _filling_. The former is made of pieces of thin leaves, cut to a proper shape, and the latter of those which are more broken. In all cases, the leaves used in the manufacture of cigars are deprived of the stems, which are reserved, either to be converted into inferior kinds of snuff, or for exportation to Holland, where they are usually flattened between rollers, and afterwards cut fine for smoking tobacco, to be sold to the poorer cla.s.s of people.

6. The value of cigars depends chiefly on the quality of the tobacco.

The best kind for this purpose, grows on the island of Cuba, near Havana. Tobacco from this seed is raised in many other places; and such, among tobacconists, is called _seed_; but it pa.s.ses, among smokers of limited experience, for the real Havana. A very fine silky tobacco of this sort, is cultivated in Connecticut, which is much esteemed.

7. An expert hand will make five or six hundred Spanish cigars in a day, or from one thousand to fifteen hundred of those composed of Maryland or Kentucky tobacco. Making cigars, being light work, is well adapted to females, of whom great numbers are regularly employed in this branch of business. Tobacco intended for the pipe, is cut in a machine; and, after having been properly dried, it is put up in papers of different sizes.

8. Chewing tobacco is almost exclusively prepared from the species of this plant which is cultivated in Virginia, chiefly in the vicinity of James river. It is better adapted to this purpose than any other, on account of its superior strength, and the great amount of resinous matter which it contains.

9. The first operation in preparing chewing tobacco, is that of depriving the leaves of the stems. The former are then twisted by hand into plugs of different sizes, or spun into a continued thread by the aid of the _tobacco-wheel_, which is a simple machine moved by a crank. The thread thus produced is formed into bunches, or twists, containing a definite amount of tobacco.

10. The tobacco, having been put into the form desired, is moistened with water, packed in strong kegs, and then pressed with powerful screw-presses. The whole process is completed by heating the kegs, with their contents, for several days, in an oven or a tight room made for the purpose. The same change in the quality of the tobacco is also produced by suffering it to stand nine or twelve months, before it is disposed of to the consumers.

11. Snuff is very commonly used in the Southern states, as a dentifrice; or, at least, it is applied to the teeth with this ostensible object. The application is made by means of a small stick, having the fibres minutely divided at one end. Although the tobacco seems to have the desired effect upon the teeth, so far as respects their appearance, yet its stimulating and narcotic powers are more to be dreaded in this mode of using it than in any other. Many females ruin their complexion and const.i.tution, by _rubbing snuff_; and the deleterious effects of the practice are so well known, that few are willing to avow it.

12. Tobacco is used, in some one of its various forms, by a great majority of mankind; and, although it is generally acknowledged to be, in most cases, injurious to the const.i.tution, and often destructive of health, yet its consumption seems to be on the increase. It is one of the objects of trade, even in the most obscure parts of the world; and its devotees must and will have a supply, even though they stint themselves in food and clothing.

13. As regards the influence which this plant a.s.sumes over its votaries, it may be cla.s.sed with alcohol and opium; although its effects are not so destructive; nor is the expense so considerable; yet this is an item by no means unworthy of attention, as the aggregate sum annually expended for this useless narcotic in the United States, would be sufficient for the support of common schools in every part of the country.

14. The general use of tobacco is perpetuated from generation to generation, by the desire, common to children and young people, to act and appear like older persons. Few ever begin the use of this nauseous weed, because it is agreeable to the senses to which it is applied; but because they fancy, in their childish simplicity, that it confers upon them some additional importance.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

THE MANUFACTURER OF CLOTH.

1. Men, in the primitive ages, were clad with the skins of animals, until they had acquired sufficient skill to employ a better material.

It cannot be determined from history, at what time cloth began to be manufactured from animal or vegetable fibre; but it is evident, that it was done at a very early period, even long before the flood.

2. The fibres of the vegetable kind, most commonly applied to this purpose, are the bark of several kinds of trees, together with hemp, flax, and cotton; and those of the animal kingdom are, silk, the wool of the sheep and lama, and the hair, or wool, of the goat and camel.

3. That the general process of manufacturing cloth may be perfectly understood, the manner of performing several operations must be separately described. For the purpose of ill.u.s.tration, cotton, wool, and flax, will be selected; because these are the materials of which our clothing is princ.i.p.ally fabricated. The operations of making cloth, may be comprised under _carding_ and _combing_, _spinning_, _weaving_, and _dressing_.

4. _Carding and Combing._--Wool and cotton are carded, with the view of disentangling the fibres, and arranging them longitudinally in small rolls. This is done by means of the teeth of two instruments, called cards, used by hand on the knee, or by the carding machine, which acts on the same principle, although far more expeditiously.

5. Machines for carding wool are to be found in every district of country in the United States, in which the people manufacture much of their woollen cloths in their own families. On account of the roughness of the fibres of wool, it is necessary to cover them well with grease or oil, that they may move freely on each other during the carding and spinning.

6. Long, coa.r.s.e, or hard wools, used in the manufacture of camlets, bombazines, circa.s.sians, and other worsted fabrics, are not carded, but combed. In England, and in other countries where much of this kind of wool is used, wool-combing forms a distinct trade. The operation consists, chiefly, in drawing the locks through steel combs, the teeth of which are similar to our common flax-hatchel. The comb is heated to a certain temperature, to cause the fibres to straighten, and to remove from them the roughness which might otherwise cause the cloth made of them to thicken in was.h.i.+ng, like flannel.

7. The old method of combing wool, however, has been in part superseded by the application of machines, the first of which was invented by Edmund Cartwright, of England, about the year 1790. The fibres of flax are arranged in a parallel direction, and freed from tow, by drawing them through a hatchel.

8. _Spinning._--The process of spinning consists in twisting the fibres into threads. The most simple method by which this is effected, is that by the common spinning-wheel. Of this well-known machine there are two kinds; one of which is applied to spinning wool, cotton, and tow, and the other, to spinning flax.

9. This operation is, in most cases, performed by females in the following manner. The roll of cotton or wool is attached to the spindle, which is put in rapid motion by a band pa.s.sing over it from the rim, or periphery of the wheel. While the spinster is turning the wheel with the right hand, she brings back from the spindle her left, with which she has laid hold of the roll a few inches from the upper end. When the yarn thus produced has been sufficiently twisted, she turns it upon the spindle, and repeats the same operation, until it is full. This yarn is formed into skeins by winding it upon a reel.

10. The mode of spinning tow is a little different. The material having been formed into _bats_ by hand-cards, the fibres are drawn out from between the fingers and thumb by the twisted thread, while the spinster gradually moves backward. Worsted is spun from combed wool nearly in the same manner.

11. The _flax_ or _little wheel_ is moved by the foot, so that both hands of the spinster are used in supplying, disposing, and occasionally wetting the fibres, as they are drawn from the distaff.

Two bands pa.s.s from the periphery of the wheel, each of which performs a distinct office: the one keeps in motion the spindle, which twists the thread; the other moves the fliers, which wind the thread upon a spool, as fast as it is produced.

12. Spinning was almost exclusively performed in the modes just described, until the year 1767, when Richard Heargreaves, of England, invented a machine for spinning cotton, which he called a _jenny_.

This consisted, at first, of eight spindles, moved by a common wheel, or cylinder, which was turned by hand. The number of spindles was afterwards increased to eighty-four.

13. In 1769, Richard Arkwright, also an Englishman, invented the _water-spinning-frame_. The essential and most important feature of this invention, consists in drawing out the cotton, by causing it to pa.s.s between successive pairs of rollers, which revolve with different velocities, and which act as subst.i.tutes for the thumb and fingers, as applied in common spinning. These rollers are combined with the spindle and fliers of the common flax-wheel.

14. Another machine was invented by Samuel Crompton, in 1779. It is called a _mule_, because it combines the principles of the two preceding machines. It produces finer yarn than either of them, and has nearly superseded the jenny. Before the cotton is submitted to the spinning machine, it is prepared by several others, by which it is carded, extended, and partially twisted.

15. In the manufactories, the fine, short wools, used in the fabrication of broadcloths, flannels, and a variety of other cloths, are carded by machinery, and spun on a _slubbing_ or _roving-machine_, or on a _jenny_ or _mule_, in each of which the spindles are mounted on a carriage, which is moved backwards in stretching and twisting the material, and forwards in winding the thread upon the spindle.

16. Worsted still continues to be spun, in most cases, on the common spinning-wheel, as it can be done more perfectly in this way, than by any other machine which has. .h.i.therto been invented. Several machines have been constructed, which spin coa.r.s.e threads of flax very well, and with great rapidity; but the materials for fine linen fabrics are still spun on the ancient flax-wheel.

17. _Weaving._--The first step preparatory to weaving, is to form a warp, consisting of a number of threads, which extend through the whole piece. To produce this parallel arrangement, the yarn is wound upon spools, which are afterwards placed in a frame perpendicularly by means of rods, on which they move as upon an axle. From these spools, the yarns are stretched upon pegs to the length of the proposed web, and are carried round or doubled a sufficient number of times to make it the proper width. The same object is more expeditiously effected, by winding the yarn spirally on a revolving frame.

18. The next step consists in winding the warp on a cylindrical beam, which is usually about ten inches in diameter. The threads, having been put through a harness, composed of moveable parts, called _heddles_, and also through a sley, or reed, are fastened on the other side to a large rod, from which three ropes extend to another cylinder, on which the cloth is wound, as fast as it is woven.

19. The heddles are suspended from cross-pieces, on the top of the loom, by means of cords and pulleys, and, during the operation of weaving, are moved up and down alternately by the aid of _treadles_.

This reciprocal motion causes the web to open; and, while in this position, a shuttle, containing the _woof_, _weft_, or _filling_ on a quill or bobbin, is pa.s.sed through from right to left, or from left to right, as often as the position of the warp is changed. The threads of the filling are beaten up by the reed, or sley, which is placed in the _lay_.

20. Weaving is a business extensive in its application, being divided into almost as many branches as there are woven fabrics. Plain cotton, linen, woollen, and twilled cloths, silks, satins, carpets, &c., are all woven in looms of some kind, constructed on the same general principles. Power-looms, driven by water or steam, are now generally introduced into the cotton and woollen manufactories, both in Europe and in this country. One person can attend to two of these looms at the same time, and each one will weave between twenty and forty yards in a day.

21. _Dressing._--Cotton fabrics, when the webs are taken from the loom, are covered with an irregular nap, or down, formed by the protruding ends of the fibres. From the finest cottons, this is removed, by drawing them rapidly over an iron cylinder, kept red-hot by a fire within. The flame of coal-gas has recently been applied, to effect the same object.