Popular Technology Volume I Part 9

1. This business is nearly allied to the foregoing, and is, therefore, often carried on in conjunction with it. This is especially the case in villages and small towns, where sufficient business cannot be obtained in the exclusive pursuit of one branch.

2. The customers of the lady's dress-maker are not always easily pleased, as they frequently expect more from her skill than it is possible to accomplish. She, however, can do much towards concealing the defects of nature; and, by padding and other means, can sometimes render the person tolerably well proportioned, when, in its natural shape, it would be quite inelegant. It is to be regretted, however, that dress-makers are guided by fas.h.i.+on and whim in moulding the external form of females, rather than by the best specimens of the human figure, as exhibited by eminent painters and sculptors.

3. The dress-maker should have some acquaintance with the anatomy and functions of those parts to which pressure is usually applied; for, who that knows the structure, size, and office of the liver, and other internal organs of digestion and vitality, would venture to apply to them a compressive force calculated to interfere most seriously, if not dangerously, with their healthful action?

4. The fas.h.i.+ons for ladies' dresses are chiefly procured from France, and the dress-makers from that country are, therefore, often preferred by fas.h.i.+onable ladies. Sometimes, however, a dress-maker, having a name with a French termination, will answer the purpose.

5. Corset-making is frequently a separate branch of business; but corsets have become less necessary; inasmuch as small waists are less admired by the gentlemen than formerly. On this account, also, the ladies have discovered that tight lacing is somewhat uncomfortable, especially in hot weather, and in crowded a.s.semblies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BARBER.]

THE BARBER.

1. It is the business of the barber to cut and dress the hair, to make wigs and false curls, and to shave the beards of other men. In ancient times, he used also to trim the nails; and even at the present day, in Turkey, this is a part of his employment.

2. The period, when men began to shave their beards, is not certainly known. It appears that the practice was common among the Israelites in the time of Moses; as that legislator has left on record a prohibitory law concerning it. They probably borrowed the custom from the Egyptians. It is stated by Plutarch, that Alexander the Great ordered his men to be shaved, that their enemies might not lay hold of their beards in time of battle. Before this time, however, many of the Greeks shaved their beards.

3. The practice does not appear to have been introduced amongst the ancient Romans, until about the year 296 before the Christian era, when Paulus Ticinius Maenas brought to Rome a number of barbers from Sicily. Scipio Africa.n.u.s was the first man who shaved his beard every day.

4. At first, the barbers had no shops, but shaved their customers at the corners of the streets. After a while, they followed their vocation in shops, or shades; and, at this period, it was customary for females to officiate in the various branches of the art. These places, however, were frequented only by the poorer cla.s.s of the people, as opulent families generally kept slaves for the performance of these duties. The day on which a young Roman first cut off his beard, was celebrated by him and his friends as one of peculiar interest; and this much-desired indication of manhood was consecrated to some one of the G.o.ds, generally to Jupiter Capitolinus.

5. The return of barbarism, in the fifth and sixth centuries, banished this custom from the Western empire; nor was it again revived in Europe, until the seventeenth century. During the reigns of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. of France, both of whom ascended the throne in boyhood, the courtiers and fas.h.i.+onable people began to use the razor, that they might appear with smooth chins, and thus resemble, in this particular, the youthful monarchs. From France, the fas.h.i.+on, at length, spread all over Europe. At one time, in the reign of the English queen Elizabeth, the fellows of Lincoln's Inn were compelled by statute to shave their beards, at least, once in two weeks.

Omission was punished with fine, loss of commons, and finally with expulsion.

6. The custom of shaving was introduced into Russia by Peter the Great, who compelled his subjects to pay a tax for the privilege of retaining their beards. This singular impost was exceedingly unpopular, and excited greater complaints amongst the people than any other measure of that emperor. The decree was rigidly enforced, and every one who would not, or could not, pay the tax, was forcibly deprived of this favorite ornament, if he would not remove it voluntarily. Some of the people saved the sad tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of their chins; and, that they might never be entirely separated from these precious relics, ordered that they should be deposited with their bodies in their coffins.

7. Among the European nations that have been curious in whiskers, the Spaniards have been particularly distinguished; and the loss of honor among them used to be punished by depriving the individual of his whiskers.

8. The Portuguese were but little, if at all, behind the Spaniards in their estimate of these valuable ornaments. As an evidence of this, it is stated, that, in the reign of Catharine, Queen of Portugal, the brave John de Castro, having taken the castle of Diu in India, and being afterwards in want of money, applied to the inhabitants of Goa to loan him one thousand piastres, and, as security for that sum, sent them one of his whiskers, telling them that "All the gold in the world cannot equal the value of this natural ornament of my valor." The people, in admiration of his magnanimity, sent him the money, and, at the same time, returned his incomparable whisker.

9. In the reign of Louis XIII. of France, whiskers attained the highest degree of favor. They also continued in fas.h.i.+on during the early part of the succeeding reign. Louis XIV. and the great men of France, took a pride in wearing them. It was no uncommon thing, at that time, for the ladies to comb and dress the whiskers of their beaux; and the men of fas.h.i.+on were particular in providing whisker-wax, and every article necessary to this agreeable pastime.

10. The whiskers belonging to the image of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, which is preserved by his countrymen, are supposed to be capable of conferring upon those who might wear them, a portion of the wisdom and manly beauty of that ill.u.s.trious sage. Great care, however, is taken that none shall enjoy these great personal qualifications by such easy means; as decapitation is the penalty for plucking the whiskers from the position which they occupy.

11. When the practice of shaving off the beard was again revived in Europe, instrumental music was employed in the barber's shop, to amuse customers waiting their turn; but, at the present time, newspapers are furnished for this purpose. In taking off the beard, soft water, good soap, a brush, and a sharp razor, are the usual requisites. The razor should be placed nearly flat on the face, and be moved from point to heel. Barbers have usually some regular customers, many of whom have a box of soap and a brush appropriated to their individual use.

12. In ancient times, great attention was paid to dressing the hair.

The Hebrew women plaited, and afterwards confined it with gold and silver pins; they also adorned it with precious stones. The Greeks, both male and female, at every period of their ancient history, wore long hair, which they usually permitted to hang gracefully upon the shoulders, back, and sometimes upon the breast.

13. Adult males, among the Romans, usually wore their hair short, and dressed with great care, especially in later ages, when attention to this part of the person was carried to such excess, that ointments and perfumes were used even in the army. The hair was cut for the first time, when the boy had attained his seventh year, and the second time, when he was fourteen years old. His locks, at each cutting, were commonly dedicated to Apollo or Bacchus.

14. Both men and women, among the Greeks and Romans, sometimes permitted their hair to grow in honor of some divinity. The Jews, also, when under the vow of a Nazarite, were not permitted to trim their hair or beards. In grief and mourning, the Romans suffered their hair and beards to grow. The Greeks, on the contrary, when in grief, cut their hair and shaved their beards, as likewise did some of the barbarous nations of early time.

15. Artificial hair began to be fas.h.i.+onable, at an early period, and was used by the Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans. In the time of Ovid, blond hair was in great favour at Rome; and those ladies who did not choose to wear wigs, powdered their hair with a kind of gold dust.

They wore hanging curls all round the head, to which they were fastened with circular pins of silver. Every wealthy Roman lady of fas.h.i.+on kept at least one slave to frizzle and curl the hair.

16. The time, when wigs first came into use, cannot now be ascertained. It is certain, however, that they were worn by females a long time before they became fas.h.i.+onable among the men.

17. Wigs, perukes, or periwigs, were revived in the seventeenth century. In the reign of Louis XIII., or about the year 1629, they became fas.h.i.+onable at Paris; and, as that city was generally imitated by the rest of Europe in things of this nature, they soon became common. The wigs were very large, as may be seen by examining ancient portraits, and were covered with a profusion of hair-powder. At first, it was disreputable for young people to wear them, as the loss of the hair at an early age was attributed to a disease, which was, of itself, discreditable.

18. When wigs were first introduced into England, some of the clergy opposed them violently, considering their use more culpable than wearing long hair; since, as they alleged, it was more unnatural. Many preachers inveighed against wigs in their sermons, and cut their own hair shorter to manifest their abhorrence of the reigning mode.

19. The worldly-wise, however, observed that a periwig procured for the wearer a degree of respect and deference which otherwise might not have been accorded; and hence there was a strong tendency to the use of this appendage. The judges and physicians, especially, understood well this influence of the wig, and gave to it all the advantages of length and breadth. The fas.h.i.+on, at length, was adopted by the ecclesiastics themselves, not only in England, but in most of the European kingdoms, as well as in the British colonies of America.

20. The fas.h.i.+on, however, except in cases of baldness, wherein alone it is excusable, is now nearly banished from Europe and America. This desirable change was effected princ.i.p.ally by the example of republican America, and by the influence of the French Revolution. The law pa.s.sed in England in 1795, imposing a tax of a guinea a head per annum on those who wore hair-powder, contributed to the same result, as well as to diminish the use of that article.

21. The manufacture of wigs and false curls is an important branch of the business of the barber. The first process in forming a wig is to produce, in the hair about to be used for this purpose, a disposition to curl. This is done by winding it on a cylinder of wood or earth, and afterwards boiling it in water. It is then dried, and baked in an oven. Thus prepared, it is woven on a strong thread, and is subsequently sewn on a caul fitted to the head. False curls are made on the same principle.

22. Wigs and false curls were not made in ancient times precisely in the same manner; although their appearance, when finished, was probably similar. The hair was then attached directly to a piece of thin leather, by means of some adhesive substance, or composition.

23. Many barbers, especially those who have a reputation for making wigs and false curls in a fas.h.i.+onable style, keep for sale perfumery, as well as a variety of cosmetics.

24. From the eleventh to the eighteenth century, surgical operations were almost exclusively performed by the barbers and bath-keepers. As phlebotomy was one of the chief sources of profit to the barbers, they adopted a sign emblematical of this operation. It consisted of a pole, representing the staff which the individual held in his hand, while the blood was flowing from the arm. The white band wound spirally about the pole, represented the fillet of linen with which the arm was afterwards secured.

25. It is hardly necessary to remark, that the same sign is still employed by the barbers; although, with a few exceptions, they have ceased to perform the operation of which it was significant.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TANNER & CURRIER.]

THE TANNER, AND THE CURRIER.

THE TANNER.

1. The art of tanning consists in converting hides and skins into leather, by impregnating them with astringent matter.

2. It is impossible to determine the period at which the art of tanning was discovered. It was doubtless known to the ancients, and probably to the antediluvians, in some degree of perfection; since skins were applied as means of clothing the human body, before the arts of spinning and weaving were practised. It is likely, however, that they were applied to this purpose, for a considerable time, in their natural state; and that accident, at length, suggested the means of rendering them more applicable, by saturating them with certain mineral or vegetable substances.

3. Although the art of converting skins into leather was practised in remote ages, yet it was not until near the end of the eighteenth century, that the true principle of the process was understood. Before this time, it was supposed, that the astringent principle of the agents employed, was a resinous substance, which adhered mechanically to the fibres, and thus rendered them firm and insoluble. The correct explanation was first given by Deyeux, and afterwards more fully developed by M. Seguin. These chemists clearly proved, that the formation of leather was the result of a chemical union between a substance called tannin, and the gelatinous part of the skin.

4. The subject, however, was not thoroughly understood, and reduced to scientific principles, until the year 1803, when Sir Humphrey Davy gave it a careful investigation, in a series of chemical experiments.

These inquiries resulted in the conviction, that the method of tanning which had been in general use, may, with a few alterations, be considered preferable to that by which the process is carried on with more rapidity.

5. The skin which envelopes the bodies of animals, consists of three layers. That on the outside is a thin, white, elastic membrane, called the _cuticle_, or _scarf skin_; that on the inside is a strong membrane, denominated the _cutis_, or _true skin_; between these two is a very thin membrane, to which anatomists have given the name _rete mucosum_, and in which is situated the substance which gives color to the animal. The cutis is composed of fibres, which run in every direction, and, being by far the thickest layer, is the one that is converted into leather.

6. The skins of large animals, such as those of the ox and horse, are denominated hides; and those of smaller animals, as of the calf, goat, and sheep, are called skins. Of the former description, is made thick, of the latter, thin leather. The process of tanning different skins varies in many particulars, according to the nature of the leather, and the uses to which it is to be applied.

7. The general process of changing thick hides into sole-leather, is as follows: They are first soaked in water, to free them from dirt and blood; and then, if rigid, they are beaten and rubbed, or rolled under a large stone, to render them pliable. They are next soaked in lime-water, or hung up in a warm room, and smoked, until a slight putrescency takes place. The hair, cuticle, rete mucosum, on one side, and the fleshy parts on the other, are then sc.r.a.ped off, on a _beam_, with a circular knife.

8. Nothing now remains but the cutis, or true skin. Several hides, in this state of preparation, are put together into a vat, for the purpose of impregnating them with tannin. This substance is found in astringent vegetables, and is obtained, in a proper state for application, by infusion in water. In that condition, it is called _ooze_, which is first applied in a weak state.

9. After the ooze, of different degrees of strength, has been renewed several times, they are put between layers of bark, and suffered to remain several months, fresh bark, from time to time, being supplied.