We will now describe the working parts of the press. The main spindle is driven by a strap, at the rate of one turn of the machine per second; each turn producing an embossed medallion stamp. From the main spindle, motion is communicated first to the fly and screw, which of course rise and fall alternately, and secondly, to the bolt of the press, at the lower end of which the die is attached. In the third place, motion is communicated to a very strong steel punch or drift, which, at the moment when the blow is given, is interposed between the end of the descending screw and the head of the bolt, thus transmitting the force from the screw to the bolt. When the impression is completed, this punch is withdrawn, and the bolt ascends, in order that the die may receive its supply of ink. Fourthly, motion is given to the inking apparatus, which consists of a ductor, an inverted inking-table, and a sliding frame, carrying the four composition rollers. The machine, when in motion, can be stopped by means of an apparatus so costructed that when pressed down, the principal can, upon arriving at a certain point of its revolution, is at once arrested. It is necessary to stop the machine in one particular position, so as to allow the dies and the inking apparatus to be readily got at. The different members of the machine are show in Figs. 844 and 845, the views of the same parts being indicated by the same letters in both engravings AA is the main spindle, and s the driving-strap: e and c' are two cranks, one at each end of the mai spindle, which, by means of the two straps d and d', passing over the pulleys e and e', and attached to the drumf, which is fixed upon the screw g, turn the screw, together with its fly g', backwards and forwards alternately, producing thereby its alternate rise and fall. These two cranks, however, are not made fast upon the main spindle, but are operated upon, each at its proper time, by two other cranks h and h', fixed to the main spindle. This provision of loose and fast cranks is rendered necessary by the rebound of the screw and fly from the blow, which outruns the cranks, and would break the straps but for this precaution. Upon the main spindle is a cam i, which moves the lever & backwards and forwards, and, through the horizonta! bar 1, the punch m is also moved backwards and for wards, and thus interposed between the screw g, as it descends, and the bolt b, at the moment when the blow is given: n is a second cam upon the main spindle AA, which, by alternately raising and depressing the levers oo, raises and depresses the bolt 6, to the lower end of which the die is attached: r and r' are toothed wheels, for driving the inking apparatus; has a crank-pin, which, by means of the link z, sways backwards and forwards the arm t, and through that the arm t", fixed upon the same spindle. This last arm, through the link u, draws backwards and forwards the inking-frame v, with its four composition rollers, which ink the die | binds against the main driving-wheel, and a strong by running under it when the bolt is in its raised tooth, catching a projection on that wheel, and position, as shown in the figure. w is the inverted bringing the machine to a dead stop always in the ink-distributing table: it is circular, and is acted same position, i.e. nearly in the position shown in upon by a slack band, which turns it round feebly Fig. 844. whenever the inking-rollers lose contact with it. a is the doctor, furnished with a roller which is constantly turned round by a band: y is a slacking pulley fixed to the army', on which arm is also a break which Similar machines have lately been constructed for the use of the Prussian and Neapolitan governments, and for the East India Company. These presses are also used in the manufacture of embossed wafers. of felt, in Mosaic work, which represents just what they please. This is done so neatly, that a man might suppose the figures were painted instead of being a kind of inlaid work. Look as close as you will the joining cannot be seen." Tents, which are so much used in hot countries among Nomadic tribes or on military excursions, have for ages kept the skill of the eastern embroiderer in practice. The covering of tents among the Arabs is usually black goat's-hair, so compactly woven as to be impervious to rain. In addition to this, there is usually an inner tent of white woollen stuff, on which flowers are embroidered. Curious hangings are also hung over the entrances. A tent of a late king of Persia, which is said to have cost 2,000,000/., and to have been a load for forty camels, Fig. 845. END ELEVATION OF EMBOSSING-PRESS. EMBROIDERY is an ancient art, as we find from the mention made of it both by sacred and profane writers. From a very early period, people knew how to embroider stuffs and vary their colours, either by means of the needle, working into a plain ground threads of different colours, gold, or precious stones, or by introducing such threads into the tissue of the stuff while preparing the warp. The directions for making the Tabernacle and its embroidered curtain show the knowledge of this art communicated to the Hebrews. (Exod. xxvi. 1-31; xxxix. 2, 3, 5, 8, &c.) The Medes and Babylonians of ancient times were celebrated for the beauty of the draperies of their apartments. The hangings which decorated their palaces were wrought by the needle, which in eastern nations is still employed in embroidered works."was embroidered with burnished gold, studded with Chardin says of the Persians,-"Their tailors certainly excel ours in their sewing. They make carpets, cushions, veils for doors, and other pieces of furniture precious stones and diamonds, interspersed with rubies and emeralds set with rows of pearls; and there was painted thereon a specimen of every created thing, birds, and trees, and towns, cities, seas, and | gold thread, and represent very minute objects c continents, beasts and reptiles." This art was also generally known among other Asiatic nations. Homer speaks of embroidery as the occupation of Helen and of Andromache; he mentions also the golden cincture of Calypso, and that of Circe. At that period, (unless the poet's imagination has rendered his description too partial,) embroidery approached painting in the truthfulness of its imitations: in Ovid's fable of Minerva and Arachne, the art is praised as giving the touches of light with a degree of fidelity beyond that of painting, but which they were enabled successfully to accomplish in wool. Many modern authors are, indeed, disposed to seek the origin of painting among the Greeks in the talent of the Ionian women in tapestry-work. We find even, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, an interesting dissertation on Painting, in which the author, describing the numerous varieties of that art, makes mention among them of tapestry worked with the needle or at the loom, and of designs executed on white silk and cotton cloth, by employing various dyes which penetrate the stuff. At the present day the most patient and laborious embroiderers are said to be the Chinese; their regularity and neatness are very great, and the extreme care with which they work preserves their shades bright and shining. The Indians also excel in this kind of work. 66 They embroider with cotton on muslin, but they employ on gauze, rushes, skins of insects, nails and claws of animals, walnuts and dry fruits, and, above all, the feathers of birds. They mingle their colours without harmony as without taste; it is only a species of wild mosaic, which announces no plan and represents no object. The women of the wandering tribes of Persia weave those rich carpets, which are called Turkey carpets from the place of their immediate importation. But this country was formerly celebrated for magnificent embroideries, and also for tapestries, composed of silk and wool, embellished with gold. This rather beautiful art, though not entirely lost, is nearly so, for want of encouragement. But of all Eastern nations the Moguls were the most celebrated for their splendid embroideries; walls, couches, and even floors, were covered with silk or cotton fabrics, richly worked with gold, and often, as in ancient times, with gems inwrought." The poet Cowper has immortalized Mrs. Montague's feather hangings. Various articles of dress have of late years been covered or ornamented with feathers, such as muffs, tippets, &c. In Canada, the women embroider with their own hair and that of animals, copying the ramifications of moss agates and of plants; they also insinuate into their works skins of serpents and morsels of fur, patiently smoothed. The Negresses of Senegal embroider various skins of animals with flowers and figures of all colours. The Turks and Georgians embroider the lightest gauze or crape; they use a very delicate (1) The Art of Needle-Work from the Earliest Ages, by Eliza beth Stone. Edited by the Right Honourable the Countess of Wilton. Third edition. London: 1841. morocco without varying the form or fraying t gold. They have a habit of ornamenting their en broidery with pieces of money of different nations and travellers often find in their old garments vak able and interesting coins. In Saxony, embroidery is practised on muslin : untwisted thread, and is very beautiful. That s Venice and Milan is celebrated, but costly. France has also a reputation for embroidery; but the Getmans, especially those of Vienna, are said to be m successful in the art. In England, as Mrs. St remarks, the practice of ornamental needlework a f of embroidery have gradually declined from the days of Elizabeth. The literary and scholastic pursu which in her day had suspended the use of the net Le did not, indeed, continue the fashion of later tir >; still the needle was not resumed, nor perhaps Lis embroidery and tapestry ever, from the days of Eliza beth, been so much practised as it is now." Embroidery at the present day is not merely a female occupation, but a considerable branch of industry, which occupies thousands of young persons and children, and makes large demands not only on ti manual dexterity, but on the intelligence of those we practise it; for the work of the embroiderer requires that he should understand the nature of the materials with which he deals, their several aptitudes to take certain dyes, and to bear certain processes. It requires also a knowledge of drawing, and of the proper arrangement of colours, with inventive power to produce novelties, and methods of executing them in a tasteful and economical manner. The practice of tapestry-weaving with a shuttle was originally done in a standing posture; the threads of wool being stretched perpendicularly, and not, as they are now, wound upon a beam. The warp was confited by a piece of wood, to which heavy weights were attached. The Egyptians were the first, according to Pliny, who changed the old and inconvenient method. and introduced the custom of sitting to the work, as is now done by the workmen in the royal manufacture of the Gobelins, of Beauvais, Aubusson, &c. Te same author informs us that when embroidered mate rials were old and worn, the ancients were accustomed to transfer the worked parts to a new ground, and thus to give them a prolonged existence. Thus the embroidery was cut out, following the contours of the original design, and then applied, laid on, and sewed upon a plain ground of a different colour. This was a common practice in trimming the robes of Roman matrons, and is what is meant by Ovid and Horace when they speak of such robes being embroidered or bordered with a fringe of purple, &c. The sort of trimming among the Romans, frequently expressed the dignity, sex, and age of the wearer. The practice of embroidery varies with the nature of the materials worked with. In embroidering stuffs the work is performed in a stretching-frame. Musla is starched, and then spread out upon a pattern. while working the flowers, it is necessary to count the threads of the muslin both in the warp and in the weft. This makes the work tedious, but it is richer | raised, and rounded by means of cotton or parchment in points, and susceptible of greater variety, than beneath. 2. Low embroidery, where the gold and when done at the stretching-frame. Cloths too much silver lie low upon the sketch, and are stitched with milled are not well adapted to this kind of ornament. silk of the same colour. 3. Guimped embroidery, which is performed either in gold or silver. A sketch is first made upon the cloth, then put on cut vellum, and afterwards sewed on the gold and silver with silk thread; and on this kind of embroidery are often added gold and silver cord, tinsel, and spangles. 4. Embroidery on both sides of the stuff. 5. Plain embroidery, which is flat and even, without cords, spangles, or other ornaments. In the practice of embroidery, the French divide the art into various classes. The first class is called white embroidery, because it is executed on all kinds of white materials, with white cotton, flat, milled or twisted; with braid, edging, &c. This species of embroidery also comprehends-festoon embroidery, or that which consists of embroidering and cutting out the edge of the material to a certain pattern traced on paper or on the stuff itself. Festoon embroidery is also employed in the body of the work without cutting out. Chain-stitch embroidery, or that which traces the veins and general shape of the pattern in chain-stitch, and fills up the middle afterwards in a similar manner. Needle-work embroidery, or simple horizontal stitches, each embracing as much of the material behind as before the thread, and applicable only to thin and soft materials, as muslin, cambric, &c. Lace embroidery on tulle, blonde, gauze, &c., manufactured by the aid of the Jacquard loom. Proceeding from these works in a white material to the embroidery in colours, there are again many kinds. In one of these the figures are raised and rounded, by cotton or velvet, which is placed underneath to sustain them; in another, edging or lace is laid upon the design, and sewn on with thread of the same colour in various stitches; in another, the whole pattern is cut out in velvet or silk, and carefully sewn upon the material with thread or silk. Embroidery en guipure is a rich mixture of several kinds of embroidery, and may be executed in gold, silver, feathers, pearls, precious stones, &c. Embroidery in flat tints is when the threads and other coloured materials are simply put in juxtaposition; shaded embroidery is when the embroiderer seeks to follow nature closely, or to represent in its more delicate shadings the object, natural or artificial, which is to be imitated. Other names of embroidery are derived from the implements employed, as crochet, loom, or tambour embroidery. Under the name of embroidery are also comprehended the numerous kinds of work which consist in forming flowers upon all kinds of tissues, with ribbons or with coloured gauze. The elements of tapestry-work are five; namely, the design which the embroiderer is to imitate; the dyed threads of wool or silk, variously and properly sorted; the canvas, more or less regular, of which the interlacing threads guide the stitch; the frame on which the canvas is conveniently stretched; the needle, with a large head and a blunt point, which serves to pass the coloured thread freely through the squares or meshes of the canvas. A correct drawing of the object to be reproduced upon the canvas must be constantly under the eye of the embroiderer. Some of these designs are engraved, printed, and coloured upon paper representing canvas, so that the forms and colours exactly fill the corresponding squares to those on which the stitches are to be set. Others are traced upon the canvas itself in outline, or without coloured shadows: in this last case, the embroiderer works according to her taste, and according to the nature of the objects, in arranging the coloured threads, and in putting in the lights and shadows. Tapestry itself, bought ready-made, very often serves for a model, which is imitated on the corresponding part of the canvas, by counting successively with a pin the stitches in such and such a shade of the model, and the squares of the canvas which must receive them; but this, of course, takes more time than working from a design traced on the canvas. There is also an invention for taking patterns from lithographic drawings, which serves the purpose of embroiderers, especially of such as would imitate the famous Gobelins tapestry. A sheet of thin papercanvas, or paper on which the meshes of canvas are accurately represented, is applied to a lithographic drawing, and secured to it with soft wax. The design is then copied through the transparent paper-canvas, of which the number of squares, previously reckoned so as to determine the dimensions of the design, shall determine the number of stitches, and the colours which must be employed. The number of stitches in embroidery is strictly only two; the first embracing the material equally in height and width, and on both sides; the second executed either with a crochet or a common needle, and forming a continuous chain. Embroidery on canvas is distinguished from works in velvet, and from the different stitches for marking linen, and for making fancy articles with beads, &c. Embroidery on canvas is often called tapestry-work. The stitches, combined and arranged in various manners, represent the desired figures, and take different names according to the countries where these combinations were first invented. Thus, there is Berlin-stitch, French, Hungarian, English-lath frames, which are sold at a cheaper rate, and stitch, Gobelins-stitch, and many others. admit of more easy adjustment. But in the lathframe the material is ofter little, and thus is infer Embroidery, as practised in England, comprehends: 1. Embroidery on the stamp, where the figures are Several kinds of embroidering frame are in use, but one of the most easy to manage is made with a system of iron hooks fixed upon the cross pieces of the frame, and serving to stretch the canvas on the two opposite sides. This sort of frame is now but little used, on account of the price of its construction. The working embroiderers prefer the screw or the Tuch or too which the stuff can be stretched little or much, according to the wish of the worker. Most of the frames in use have the disadvantage of obliging the embroiderer to sew the two sides of the canvas upon the galloon nailed upon the two rollers, then to roll up the canvas, and fix it to the sides by means of packthread, which is liable to distend it too much, and tear it. Improved frames have been introduced, in which the canvas is secured by blunt points attached to the sides, and covered with a wooden bar, cut half-round, and having along its length a slit or groove of a width corresponding with the points. The sides of the frame are secured and the canvas properly stretched the cloth, the needles will be passed through in an opposite direction, and be clipped and drawn througa by the first frame. During these motions of the two frames backwards and forwards, the frame in which the cloth is suspended is moved by an attendant in a regulated order, by means of a lever attached to a pantograph; so that, as the attendant goes regularly over the points of a pattern, drawn on a large scale a the side, the cloth is slightly shifted at each mot: 1 and the pattern is repeated thereon, on a small scan by the passage of the needles. This machine may be described under four heads 1. The structure of the frame. 2. The arrangemen of the web. 3. The arrangement of the carriages. 4. The construction of the pincers. A front view of this machine is shown in a separate steel engraving. 1. The frame is composed of cast-iron, and is massive. The length of the machine depends upon the number of pincers to be worked. The machine at the French Exposition had 130 needles, and conse quently 260 pincers arranged in two rows, an upper and a lower row; its length was 2 metres, or about 8 feet 4 inches. The breadth of the frame must not be less than about 40 inches. It is usually the same in all machines, and determines the length of thread to be put into the needles. 2. The piece to be embroidered is strained perpendicularly upon a rectangular frame, of which the vertical sides F F are shown in the steel engraving, and the horizontal sides F'F'. The piece to be embroidered is wound by means of screws. One of these improved frames upon two rollers GG, whose is shown in Fig. 846. EMBROIDERING MACHINE. As most mechanical processes which have hitherto been performed by hand, can be much better accomplished by a machine, so the refined art of the embroiderer has yielded to the skill of the engineer. In the French Industrial Exposition of 1834, M. Heilmann of Mulhousen exhibited an embroidering machine which enables a female to embroider a design with 80 or 140 needles as accurately, and nearly as expeditiously, as she formerly could with one. The principle of this ingenious machine is as follows:-the piece of cloth to be embroidered is suspended in a vertical position. The needles with which the ornamental work is performed are not like ordinary needles, with an eye at one end and a point at the other, but are furnished with a point at each end, and the eye in the middle, as shown at v', Fig. 849; these needles are held by pincers in a frame, and the piece of cloth which is to be embroidered being suspended in a vertical position, the carriage containing the needles is wheeled up to it; all the needles pierce it, and on passing through a certain distance, are seized on the other side by the pincers of a second frame. On drawing this frame away from the fabric, it is evident that the needles must be completely drawn through, together with the threads inserted in them; and on sending the second frame up to ends, mounted with iron studs, Fig. 847. |