took his hat and hastily left the apartment. Now,' said Kean, when they had quitted the house, I will take you to an honest fellow who was kind to me in my days of misfortune.' They entered a third-rate house, and having ordered some wine, desired to see the landlord. He came, but it was not the host of Kean's recollection; he was dead. There was, however, a sort of half-waiter, half-pot-boy, who had lived at the house when Kean frequented it, and who was a great favourite of his master. Kean, with a tear in his eye, enquired about the family of the deceased landlord, and on leaving the house, asked the waiter what o'clock it was. I will see, Sir,' said the waiter, running to the stairs, at the head of which stood a clock. Have you no watch?' said Kean. No, Sir.-Take that and buy one, and whenever you look at it, think of your late master. The noble-hearted actor put five pounds in the hands of the waiter, who remained mute with astonishment.

THE MANUFACTURE OF KNIVES. To describe the process of making a knife of any description would be as useless and unentertaining as it would be tedious, if not unintelligible. It may suffice to mention generally, that table knives,-the blades forged, hardened, and ground, as previously described,-are hafted with materials of every description, from stamped gold or silver down to common dyed wood, or the very cheapest cast-iron. When the handles consist of sides, nailed upon a flat piece of iron, continued from the blade, as is the case in the large class of common articles hafted with that useful substance white bone, they are called scale tangs. This method is, above all others, the best for use, as the knife rarely separates from the handle. Another common method of hafting table knives is by the insertion of that portion of the blade which has been properly drawn out, quite through the handle up against the shoulder, and riveting it at the opposite end, this is called through-tang, and admits the attainment of great firmness. But the most common course, and especially in the finer sorts, is to fasten the blade into the handle by means of melted resin mixed with fine ashes from the grate. In this manner all blades are fastened where there is no appearance of pins or rivets, and including the whole series of ivory handled knives.

A few years since an ingenious manufacturer of the name of Brownhill added an improvement which is now universal in the fabrication of what are called balance knives: it is effected by perforating the haft considerably deeper than is required for the reception of the tang of the blade, and inserting therein a small piece of lead, the blade at the same time being made with a projecting shoulder near the handle. By this simple contrivance the knife, when laid upon the table, rests upon the handle and the shoulder, the blade never touching the cloth, as in common knives.

The consumption of ivory in this branch of the cutlery business is immense, including, as well the finest transparent teeth as the ordinary sorts; and it must be admitted that the beauty, durability, and comparative cheapness of the material, when so used, may well recommend it to those respectable tables where silver is not always used. Handles made of animals' horns or hoofs, dyed black, and pressed in figured dies, are largely used; so are also what are called self-tips, a variety of the horn in its natural state this latter material, when buffed to the high polish of which it is susceptible, looks very well, but it is liable to injury from being dipped into hot water, which, as in the article of pressed horn, causes the grain to rise, and completely mars its beauty.

Besides the knives commonly used at table, there are others manufactured to a large extent as branches of the general trade, especially shoemakers' knives and bread knives; these have generally common turned light wood handles, more attention being paid to the temper of the blade than to the beauty of the haft. Of these, as well as of table knives in general, an amazing export trade is carried on from England to the East and West Indies, and especially to America. Large quantities of plantation knives, of the commonest description, are manufactured on the Continent, under the appellation of Dutch knives. In the years 1812, 1813, 1814, until the peace opened the trade with Holland, thousands of casks, full of these "Malay knives," with lignum-vitæ handles, and cast-iron blades, were made at Sheffield, where the workmen called them tormentors, from an idea that they were intended for dirks and scalping knives.

In the fabrication of pen and pocket knives, a still greater variety of substances are used for the haudles, and a much

wider scope afforded for the exercise of ingenuity, than in the manufacture of table-knives. The varieties of shape are even more numerous than the materials with which the handles are covered; and hence the trade abounds with phrases and terms which have not yet found their way into any technological dictionary. The materials used for making the handles, besides comprising all that are adapted for table knives in general, include also not only some rare and curious kinds of wood, but more espe cially stag-horn, tortoise-sheel, and mother of pearl. The stag scales consist, as is well-known, of the exterior of the antler in its natural state: this substance has ever been highly prized, and, therefore, it is no wonder that modern ingenuity has found out a method of imitating its fine colour and curiously corrugated surface on an inferior material. The tortoise-shell, when buffed to a high polish, its dark and transparent colours properly mingled, and placed over a foil of orsidue to give a yellow lustre to the lighter part, is a rich and curious mounting. Pearl scales either with or without carving and engraving, are much in request for their beauty, though more liable to suffer from accidents than any other material.

The knife is produced in accordance with any one of the almost innumerable varieties of form known in the trade, by filing both the sides to the exact shape of a hardened steel-plate, which is likewise perforated in the proper places as a guide for the piercer. The blade, spring, and scales, being severally bored, the whole is pinned together, loosely at first, till all the parts being exactly fitted, the knife is found to work properlywith bits of wire, rivetted with a hammer on the little anvil on the work bench. The sides, if of horn, ivory, or shell, are then filed smooth and scraped, after which they are submitted to the buff, which is a trundle of wood covered with thick soft leather, and made to revolve rapidly by means of a wheel and pulley. The dressing laid upon this buff is first a coating of fine Trent sand, mixed with oil; this is succeeded by a coat of pulverised rotten stone, after which the finer scales are polished by the hand with rotten stone dust and oil.

The piece-knives, or sportsman's knives, as those complex articles containing saws, lancets, phlemes, gun-screws, punches, large and small blades, &c. used to be called, and which were manufactured rather for curiosity than use, being generally too heavy for the pocket, have been latterly superceded, as tests of superior workmanship, by what are denominated lobster knives, invented by Mr. Crawshaw. The chief peculiarity of principle in the fabrication of these latter articles, consists in slitting a small piece of steel with a saw at both ends, and placing it inside along the middle of the knife, instead of making it form the back as is usually done, and by this contrivance obtaining springs for the working of four blades instead of one. The tang, or that part of the blade which works upon the spring, is likewise rounded at the corners, instead of being left square, as in the old knives; by this alteration the knife is made to open and shut much more easily and smoothly than by the common method. It is chiefly these principles, so admirable in the construction of a light, elegant, and useful knife with four or eight blades, that have been applied in the production of those absurd and useless masses of fine materials and superior workmanship, called "knives with hundreds of blades." One of the most superb specimens of this complicated cutlery ever produced, is undoubtedly the knife exhibited under a glass cover in the splendid show-room of Messrs. Rodgers, the well-known king's cutlers in Sheffield.

A good penknife is an article of such indispensible utility with almost every gentleman and lady, not to say that it is more or less so with almost every individual in civilized society, it is no wonder that uncommon pains should have been taken, and various methods adopted, for the attainment of perfection in its manufacture. Something, of course, depends upon the size and form of a handle: if this be too large, the knife will be clumsy and unmanageable; while, on the other hand, if it be too small, the user will want that proper command of the blade which is essential in the dexterous and successful cutting of a quill. In general, a handle rather fuller in the hand than those of most of the fancy knives, will be found preferable for use to one of those slender shapes that are so elegantly got up, rather for the purpose of nibbing a pen occasionally, than for service and durability at the desk or the writing-table.

The blade, however, as every one knows, is of main impor

How far the steel pens are susceptible of that degree of excellence and cheapness combined, which will be necessary to supersede the use of quills, remains to be seen.

tance; and therefore very great perfection has, in many instances, been attained in all the processes connected with the making of it. The very best cast steel ought always and alone to be used in the manufacture of the blades of fine penknives; and the forging, hardening and tempering, grinding and whetting are operations that require, severally, that nicety of management, which is in general rather sought and secured by long practice of good workmen, than performed according to any specific theory. The outline of the blade is chiefly a matter of fancy; only if it be too broad it will not effect that graceful curve from the shoulder to the point of a pen, which a fine quill-cutter seeks to produce; and if it be too narrow, its operation on a fine proud quill will be jagged and indirect, remote from that freedom of slicing and preciseness of formation so indicative of a good blade and a good hand.

To obtain a blade, which shall unite with the greatest keenness of edge the utmost freedom of operation in the using, is a desideratum; for though an ordinary shape, when the material is first-rate and the workmanship perfect, may in general perform satisfactorily enough, yet it is manifest that, strictly speaking, the line traversed by a perfectly flat-sided blade in the making of a pen is not in accordance with the mechanical direction of the edge. This will be obvious, by inspecting for a Fig. 1. moment the sketch, fig. 1. in which the sides of a pen are indicated by the segment of a circle from A to B, while the direction of a straight-edged blade is shown to be from C to D. To meet this obvious peculiarity, blades have been ground convex on the under, and concave on the upc per side, by this means acquiring a line of direction from E to F, or parallel with the section required. The advantages which this mode of grinding theoretically presents, are found to be practically set aside by the accessary course of whetting,—and this, in the first instance, much more by repeated courses. This will be apparent, when it is recollected that the application of the edge on the concave or mark side upon the stone must be at the best in a right line with the back, i. e. from G to H, fig. 2., while Fig. 2. the line of whetting on the convex or pile side will be from I to K, the angle of the cutting Hpart being in reality of the degree of obtuseness indicated by the crossing of the dotted lines. In the common description of blade, which exhibits simply a section, in the form of a wedge, more or less acute, Fig. 3. as in fig. 3., L L M M; the process of O whetting, differing, however, as it does in different hands, is generally to elevate Nthe back a little from the stone, thereby forming a slight angle with the surface, as N N O O.

G

1

F

M

L

To obtain this angle as acute as may be compatable with extreme and durable keenness, the blade has been ground slightly concave on both sides, the back at the same time being considerably thinner than usual; so that in whetting, the back of the blade, instead of being elevated from the stone, as in figs. 2, 3. is placed upon the stone at the same time with the edge, thus furnishing an infallible criterion for whetting even in the most inexperienced hands. The acuteness of the cutting angle of this Fig 4. last-mentioned blade is shown by the @lines PP QQ in the magnified section, fig. 4. This blade having in fact pa razor edge, is found to cut with the tinost sweetness and ease, especially when the curvature of the nib is inconsiderable; and to use the words of the inventor,"even by inexperienced hands, may be easily governed. No cutting but what is intended can take place; and the pen is formed with the greatest nicety and utmost facility."-Cabinet Cyclopædia.

P

UTILITY OF WIRE-GAUZE.

THE finer descriptions of woven wire are mostly used in large quantities for flour-dressing machines, paper-inill washers, and other like purposes; the coarser sorts for fences, pheasantries, riddles, lanterns, &c. A transparent wire-gauze, handsomely painted in figure-work, has lately been introduced into the manufacture of window blinds; and the appearance of which, when tastefully got up, is very satisfactory.

It is now generally known that wire-gauze, notwithstanding

the perforation of its texture, possesses, to a very considerable extent, the property of intercepting the effects of flame, as any person may easily prove, by holding a piece of this fabric be tween his face and the blaze of a large lamp. The knowledge of this extraordinary property suggested to chevalier Aldini, a Milanese, the possibility of making out of woven wire a dress or armour, which should be so far fire-proof as to allow a person protected by it to expose himself in situations otherwise inaccessible. Several striking and satisfactory experiments as to the trifling effect of intense flame upon individuals, so habited, were made in Paris and London, and the application of the material for this purpose in the case of accidental fires has been largely recommended. The gold Isis medal of the Society of Arts was presented to chevalier Aldini for this wire-gauze armour. The most philosophical and triumphant application of wire-gauze in the preservation of life has, however, been achieved by our countryman, Sir Humphry Davy, in the invention of the miner's safety lamp. It is true the main principle of this invaluable article depends, for its investigation, rather upon a profound knowledge of the theory of combustion than upon any understanding of the wire-worker's art; but the latter is so essentially conducive, mechanically at least, to the production of the phenomena of the discovery, that no apology can be necessary for emriching this page with the name of one of the most illustrious promoters of philosophical science which this age has produced.

The various descriptions of wire-work in which the open spaces are of fanciful forms, require to be carefully implicated by the hand; and the perfection of the fabric which is thereby produced depends greatly upon the dexterity of the artist.

VALUE OF INGENUITY AND INDUSTRY.

BOTH the main and the hair springs of watches are made of steel first drawn into wire. In the former description of spring, the workman gives to the material its wonderful elasticity, by hammering it out upon an anvil; it is then ground, hardened, coiled, and tempered by bluing as we see it. The manufac ture of the latter article has frequently been selected as an illustration of the extent to which the value of a material of small intrinsic worth may be raised by the application of industry and ingenuity. "A pound of crude iron costs one halfpenny; it is converted into steel; that steel is made into watchsprings, every one of which is sold for half-a-guinea and weighs only the tenth of a grain: after deducting for waste, there are in the pound weight 7000 grains; it, therefore, affords steel for 70,000 watch-springs, the value of which, at half-aguinea each, is 35,000 guineas!"

OUR FIRST VOLUME.

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