Scientific American Supplement, No. 497, July 11, 1885

V >> Various >> Scientific American Supplement, No. 497, July 11, 1885

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11. _Amelanchier canadensis_. L. (shade tree or service tree of
America).--A shrub or small tree found throughout Canada, Newfoundland,
and Virginia. Of this wood, Porcher says, in his "Resources of the
Southern Fields and Forests": "Upon examining with a sharp instrument
the specimens of various southern woods deposited in the museum of the
Elliott Society, ... I was struck with the singular weight, density, and
fineness of this wood. I think I can confidently recommend it as one of
the best to be experimented upon by the wood engraver."

12. _Cratoegus oxyacantha_, L. (hawthorn).--A well-known shrub or small
tree in forests and hedges in this country. The wood is very dense and
close grained. Of this wood, Mr. Scott reports that it is by far the
best wood after box that he has had the opportunity of testing.

_Natural Order Myrtaceae_.

13. _Eugenia procera_, Poir.--A tree 20 to 30 feet high, native of
Jamaica, Antigua, Martinique, and Santa Cruz. A badly seasoned sample
of this wood was submitted to Mr. R.H. Keene, who reported that "it is
suited for bold, solid newspaper work."

_Natural Order Cornaceae_.

14. _Cornus florida_, L. (North American dogwood).--A deciduous tree,
about 30 feet high, common in the woods in various parts of North
America. The wood is hard, heavy, and very fine grained. It is used in
America for making the handles of light tools, as mallets, plane stocks,
harrow teeth, cogwheels, etc. It has also been used in America for
engraving.

In a letter from Prof. Sargent, Director of the Arnold Arboretum,
Brookline, Massachusetts, quoted in the Kew Report for 1882, p. 35, he
says: "I have been now, for a long time, examining our native woods
in the hope of finding something to take the place of boxwood for
engraving, but so far I am sorry to say with no very brilliant success.
The best work here is entirely done from boxwood, and some _Cornus
florida_ is used for less expensive engraving. This wood answers fairly
well for coarse work, but it is a difficult wood to manage, splitting,
or rather 'checking,' very badly in drying." This, however, he states in
a later letter, "can be overcome by sawing the logs through the center
as soon as cut. It can be obtained in large quantities." Mr. R.H. Keene,
the engraver before referred to, reports that the wood is very rough,
and suitable for bold work.

_Natural Order Ericaceae_.

15. _Rhododendron maximum_, L. (mountain laurel of North America).--Of
this wood it is stated in Porcher's "Resources of the Southern Fields
and Forests," p. 419, that upon the authority of a well-known engraver
at Nashville, Tennessee, the wood is equaled only by the best boxwood.
This species of _Rhododendron_ "abounds on every mountain from Mason and
Dixon's line to North Georgia that has a rocky branch." Specimens of
this wood submitted to Mr. Scott were so badly selected and seasoned
that it was almost impossible to give it a trial. In consideration of
its hardness and apparent good qualities, further experiments should be
made with it.

16. _Rhododendron californicum_.--Likewise a North American species, the
wood of which is similar to the last named. Specimens were sent to Kew
by Professor Sargent for report in 1882, but were so badly seasoned that
no satisfactory opinion could be obtained regarding it.

17. _Kalmia latifolia_, L. (calico bush or ivy bush of North
America).--The wood is hard and dense, and is much used in America for
mechanical purposes. It has been recommended as a substitute for boxwood
for engraving, and trials should, therefore, be made with it.

_Natural Order Epacrideae_.

18. _Monotoca elliptica_, R. Br.--A tall shrub or tree 20 or 30 feet
high, native of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania.
The wood has been experimented upon in this country, and though to all
appearances it is an excellent wood, yet Mr. Worthington Smith reported
upon it as having a bad surface, and readily breaking away so that the
cuts require much retouching after engraving.

_Natural Order Ebenaceae_.

19. _Diospyros texana_.--A North American tree, of the wood of which
Professor Sargent speaks favorably. "It is, however," he says, "in
Texas, at least, rather small, scarcely six inches in diameter, and not
very common. In northern Mexico it is said to grow much larger, and
could probably be obtained with some trouble in sufficient quantities
to become an article of commerce." Of this wood Mr. Scott says: "It is
sufficiently good as regards the grain, but the specimen sent for
trial was much too small for practical purposes." Mr. R.H. Keene, the
engraver, says it "is nearly equal to the best box."

20. _Diospyros virginiana_, L. (the persimmon of America).--A good-sized
tree, widely diffused, and common in some districts. The wood is of a
very dark color, hard, and of a fairly close grain. It has been used in
America for engraving, but so far as I am aware has not been tried
in this country. It has, however, been lately introduced for making
shuttles.

21. _Dyospyros ebenum_, Koenig (ebony).--A wood so well known as to
need no description. It has been tried for engraving by Mr. Worthington
Smith, who considers it nearly as good as box.

_Natural Order Apocyneae_.

22. _Hunteria zeylanica_, Gard.--A small tree, common in the warmer
parts of Ceylon. This is a very hard and compact wood, and is used for
engraving purposes in Ceylon, where it is said, by residents, to come
nearer to box than any other wood known. On this wood Mr. Worthington
Smith gave a very favorable opinion, but it is doubtful whether it would
ever be brought from Ceylon in sufficient quantities to meet a demand.

_Natural Order Bignoniaceae_.

23. _Tecoma pentaphylla_, Dl.--A moderate-sized tree, native of the West
Indies and Brazil. The wood is compact, very fine, and even grained, and
much resembles box in general appearance. Blocks for engraving have been
prepared from it by Mr. R.J. Scott, who reported upon it as follows: "It
is the only likely successor to box that I have yet seen, but it is not
embraced as a deliverer should be, but its time may not be far off."

_Natural Order Corylaceae_.

24. _Carpinus betulus_, L. (hornbeam).--A tree from 20 to 70 feet high,
with a trunk sometimes 10 feet in girth, indigenous in the southern
counties of England. The wood is very tough, heavy, and close grained.
It is largely used in France for handles for agricultural and mining
implements, and of late years has been much used in this country for
lasts. The wood of large growth is apt to became shaky, and it is
consequently not used as a building wood. It is said to have been used
as a substitute for box in engraving, but with what success does not
appear.

25. _Ostrya virginica_, Willd (ironwood, or American hornbeam).--A
moderate-sized tree, widely spread over North America. The wood is
light-colored, and extremely hard and heavy; hence the name of ironwood.
It is used in America by turners, as well as for mill cogs, etc., and
has been suggested as a substitute for boxwood for engraving, though no
actual trials, so far as I am aware, have been made with it.

Besides the foregoing list of woods, there are others that have been
occasionally used for posters and the coarser kinds of engraving, such,
for instance, as lime, sycamore, yew, beech, and even pine; and in
America, _Vaccinium arboreum_ and _Azalea nudiflora_. Of these, however,
but little is known as to their value.

It will be noticed that in those woods that have passed through the
engraver's hands, some which promised best, so far as their texture
or grain is concerned, have been tried upon very imperfect or badly
seasoned samples.

The subject is one of so much importance, as was pointed out at the
commencement of this paper, that a thoroughly organized series of
experiments should be undertaken upon carefully seasoned and properly
prepared woods, not only of those mentioned in the preceding list, but
also of any others that may suggest themselves, as being suitable, It
must, moreover, always be borne in mind that the questions of price,
and the considerations of supply and demand, must, to a great extent,
regulate the adaptation of any particular wood.

With regard to those woods referred to as being tried by Mr. Worthington
Smith, he remarks in his report that any of them would be useful for
some classes of work, if they could be imported, prepared, and sold for
a farthing, or less than a halfpenny, per square inch.

Specimens of all the woods here enumerated are contained in the Kew
Museum.

* * * * *

COMPOSITE PORTRAITS.

Not long since we gave a figure from a drawing by Mr. Grallieni, which,
looked at from a distance, seemed to be a death's head, but which, when
examined more closely, was seen to represent two children caressing
a dog. Since then we have had occasion to publish some landscapes of
Kircher and his imitators, which, looked at sideways, exhibited human
profiles. This sort of amusement has exercised the skill of artists of
all times, and engravings, and even paintings, of double aspect are very
numerous. Chance has recently put into our hands a very curious work of
this kind, which is due to a skillful artist named Gaillot. It is an
album of quite ancient lithographs, which was published at Berlin by
Senefelder. The author, under the title of "Arts and Trades," has drawn
some very amusing faces that are formed through the tools and objects
used in the profession represented. We reproduce a few specimens of
these essentially original compositions of Gaillot. The green grocer is
formed of a melon for the head, of an artichoke and its stem for the
forehead and nose, of a pannier for the bust, etc. The hunter is made up
of a gun, of a powder horn, and of a hunting horn, etc.; and so on for
the other professions. This is an amusing exercise in drawing that we
have thought worthy of reproducing. Any one who is skillful with his
pencil might exercise himself in imagining other compositions of the
same kind.--_La Nature_.

[Illustration: COMPOSITE PORTRAITS.--OCCUPATIONS. 1. Green-grocer. 2.
Hunter. 3. Artist. 4. Cobbler. 5. Chemist 6. Cooper.]

* * * * *

HAND-CRAFT AND REDE-CRAFT.--A PLEA FOR THE FIRST NAMED.

[Footnote: Read before the Worcester Free Industrial Institute, June 25,
1885.]

By DANIEL C. GILMAN, President of the Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore.

I cannot think of a theme more fit for this hour and place than
handy-craft. I begin by saying "handy-craft," for that is the form of
the word now in vogue, that which we are wonted to see in print and hear
in speech; but I like rather the old form, "hand-craft," which was used
by our sires so long ago as the Anglo-Saxon days. Both words mean the
same thing, the power of the hand to seize, hold, shape, match, carve,
paint, dig, bake, make, or weave. Neither form is in fashion, as we know
very well, for people choose nowadays such Latin words as "technical
ability," "manual labor," "industrial pursuits," "dexterity,"
"professional artisanship," "manufacture," "decorative art," and
"technological occupations," not one of which is half as good as the
plain, old, strong term "hand-craft."

An aid to hand-craft is rede-craft--the power to read, to reason, and to
think; or, as it is said in the book of Common Prayer, "to read, mark,
learn, and inwardly digest." By rede craft we find out what other men
have done; we get our book learning, we are made heirs to thoughts that
breathe and words that burn, we enter into the life, the acts, the arts,
the loves, the lore of the wise, the witty, the cunning, and the worthy
of all ages and all places; we learn, as says the peasant poet of
Scotland,

"The song whose thunderous chime
Eternal echoes render--
The mournful Tuscan's haunted rhyme,
And Milton's starry splendor!"

I do not pit rede-craft against hand-craft. Quite otherwise, I call them
not foes (as some would), but friends. They are brothers, partners,
consorts, who can work together, as right hand and left hand, as science
and art, as theory and practice. Rede-craft may call for books and
hand-craft for tools, but it is by the help of both books and tools that
mankind moves on. Indeed, we shall not err wide of the mark if we say
that a book is a tool, for it is the instrument which we make use of in
certain cases when we wish to find out what other men have thought and
done. Perhaps you will not be as ready to admit that a tool is a book.
But take for example the plow. Compare the form in use to-day on a
first-rate farm with that which is pictured on ancient stones long hid
in Egypt--ages old. See how the idea of the plow has grown, and bear in
mind that its graceful curves, it fitness for a special soil, or for
a special crop, its labor-saving shape, came not by chance, but by
thought. Indeed, a plow is made up from the thoughts and toils of
generations of plowmen. Look at a Collins ax; it is also the record
of man's thought. Lay it side by side with the hatchet of Uncas or
Miantonomoh, or with an ax of the age of bronze, and think how many
minds have worked on the head and on the helve, how much skill has been
spent in getting the metal, in making it hard, in shaping the edge, in
fixing the weight, in forming the handle. From simple tools, turn to
complex; to the printing press, the sewing machine, the locomotive,
the telegraph, the ocean steamer; all are full of ideas. All are the
offspring of hand-craft and rede craft, of skill and thought, of
practice put on record, of science and art.

Now, the welfare of each one of us, the welfare of our land, the welfare
of our race, rests on this union. You may almost take the measure of a
man's brain, if you can find out what he sees with his eyes and what he
does with hands; you may judge of a country, or of a city, if you know
what it makes.

I do not know that we need ask which is best, hand-craft or rede-craft.
Certainly "the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee." At
times, hand-craft becomes rede-craft, for when the eye is blind the hand
takes its place, and the finger learns to read, running over the printed
page to find out what is written, as quickly as the eye.

In these days, there are too many who look down on hand-craft. They
think only of the tasks of a drudge or a char-boy. They do not know the
pleasure there is in working, and especially in making. They have never
learned to guide the fingers by the brain. They like to hear, or see, or
own, or eat, what others have made, but they do not like to put their
own hands to work. If you doubt what I say, put a notice in the paper
asking for a clerk, and you will have a, hundred answers for every one
that will come when you ask for a workman. So it comes to pass that
young men grow up whose hands have not been trained to any kind of
skill; they wish, therefore, to be buyers and sellers, traders, dealers,
and so the market is overstocked with clerks, book-keepers, salesmen,
and small shop-keepers, while it is understocked in all the higher walks
of hand-craft. Some men can only get on by force of arms, lifting,
pounding, heaving, or by power of sitting at counter or a desk and
"clerking it."

Machinery works against hand-craft. In many branches of labor, the hand
now has but little to do, and that little is always the same, so that
labor becomes tiresome and the workman dull. Machines can be made to cut
statuary, to weave beautiful tapestry, to fashion needles, to grind
out music, to make long calculations; alas! the machine has also
been brought into politics. Of course, a land cannot thrive without
machinery; it is that mechanical giant, the steam engine, which carries
the corn, the cotton, and the sugar from our rich valleys to the hungry
of other lands, and brings back to us the product of their looms.
Nevertheless, he who lives by the machine alone lives but half a life;
while he who uses his hand to contrive and to adorn drives dullness from
his path. A true artist and a true artisan are one. Hand-craft, the
power to shape, to curve, to beautify, to create, gives pleasure and
dignity to labor.

In other times and in other lands, hand-craft has had more honor than it
has had with us. Let me give some examples. Not long ago, I went to one
of the shrines of education, the Sorbonne in Paris. Two paintings adorn
the chapel walls, not of saints or martyrs, nor of apostles or
prophets, perhaps I should say of both saints and prophets, _Labor_ and
_Humilitas_, Industry and Modesty.

The touch of Phidias was his own, and so inimitable that a few months
ago, an American, scanning, with his practiced eye, the galleries of the
Louvre, recognized a fragment of the work of Phidias, long separated
from the Parthenon frieze which Lord Elgin sent to London. The
sculptor's touch could not be mistaken. It was as truly his own as his
signature, his autograph. Ruskin, in a lecture on the relation of Art to
Morals, calls attention to a note which Durer made on some drawings sent
him by Raphael: "These figures Raphael drew and sent to Albert Durer
in Nurnberg, to show him his hand, '_sein hand zu weisen_."' Ruskin
compares this phrase with other contests of hand-craft, Apelles and
Protogenes showing their skill by drawing a line; Giotto in striking a
circle.

In the household of the Kings of Prussia, there is a custom, if not
a law, that every boy shall learn a trade. I believe this is a fact,
though I have no certain proof of it. The Emperor Wilhelm is said to be
a glazier, the Crown Prince a compositor, and on the Emperor's birthday
not long ago his majesty received an engraving by Prince Henry and a,
book bound by Prince Waldemar, two younger sons of the Crown Prince. Let
me refer to sacred writ; the prophet Isaiah, telling of the golden days
which are to come, when the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in
the land, nor the voice of crying, when the child shall die an hundred
years old, and men shall eat of the fruit of the vineyards they have
planted, adds this striking promise, as the culm of all hope, that the
elect of the Lord shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

Now, in view of what has been said, my first point is this: We who have
to deal with the young, we all who love our fellow-men, we all who
desire that our times, our city, our country, should be thrifty, happy,
and content, must each in his place and way give high honor to labor.
We, especially, who are teachers and parents, should see to it that the
young get "hand-craft" while they are getting "rede-craft." How can this
be done?

Mothers begin right in the nursery, teaching little fingers to play
before the tongue can lisp a sentence. Alas! this natural training has
often been stopped at school. Hitherto, until quite lately, in schools
both low and high, rede-craft has had the place of honor, hand-craft has
had no chance. But a change is coming. In the highest of all schools,
universities, for example, work rooms, labor places, "laboratories," are
now thought to be as useful as book rooms, reading rooms, libraries.

What mean those buildings which you have seen spring up within a few
years past in all the college greens of New England? They are libraries
and laboratories. They show that rede-craft and hand-craft are alike
held in honor, and that a liberal education means skill in getting and
skill in using knowledge; that knowledge comes from searching books and
searching nature; that the brain and the hand are in close league. So
too, in the lowest school, as far as possible from the university, the
kindergarten has won its place and the blocks, and straws, and bands,
the chalk, the clay, the scissors, are in use to make young fingers
deft. Between the highest and the lowest schools there is a like call
for hand-craft. Seeing this need, the authorities in our public schools
have begun to project special schools for such training, and are looking
for guidance far and near. At this intermediate stage, for boy and girls
who are between the age of the kindergarten and the age of the college
or the shop, for youth between eight and sixteen, there is much to be
done; people are hardly aware how much is needed to secure fit training
for the rising generation.

It seems sometimes as if one of the most needed forms of hand-craft
would become a lost art, even good handwriting. We cannot give much
credit to schools if they send out many who are skilled in algebra, or
in Latin, but who cannot write a page of English so that it can be read
without effort.

Drawing is another kind of hand-craft, quite too much neglected. I think
it should be laid down as a law of the road to knowledge, that everybody
must learn to draw as well as to write. The pencil maybe mastered just
as readily as the pen. It is a simpler tool. The child draws before
he writes, and savages begin their language with pictures; but, we
wiseacres of this age of books let our young folks drop their slate
pencils and their Fabers, and practice with their Gillotts and their
Esterbrooks. Let us say, in every school and in every house, the child
must not only learn to read and write, he must learn to draw. We cannot
afford to let our young folks grow up without this power. A new French
book is just now much talked about, with this droll title, "The Life
of a Wise Man, by an Ignoramus." It is the story of the great Pasteur,
whose discoveries in respect to life have made him world renowned. I
turned to the book, eager to find out the key to such success, and
I found the old story--"the child was father of the man." This
philosopher, whose eye is so skilled in observing nature, and whose hand
is so apt in experiments, is the boy grown up whose pictures were so
good that the villagers thought him at thirteen an artist of rank.

Girls should learn the first lesson of hand-craft with the needle; boys
may (and they will always prize the knowledge), but girls must. It is
wise that our schools are going back to old fashioned ways, and saying
that girls must be taught to sew.

Boys should practice their hands upon the knife. John Bull used to laugh
at Brother Jonathan for whittling, and Mr. Punch always drew the Yankee
with a blade in his fingers; but they found out long ago in Great
Britain that whittling in this land led to something, a Boston notion,
a wooden clock, a yacht America, a labor-saving machine, a cargo of
wooden-ware, a shop full of knick-knacks, an age of inventions. Boys
need not be kept back to the hand-craft of the knife. For in-doors there
are the type case and printing press, the paint box, the tool box, the
lathe; and for out doors, the trowel, the spade, the grafting knife. It
matters not how many of the minor arts the youth acquires. The more the
merrier. Let each one gain the most he can in all such ways; for arts
like these bring no harm in their train; quite otherwise, they lure good
fortune to their company.

Play, as well as work, may bring out hand-craft. The gun, the bat, the
rein, the rod, the oar, all manly sports, are good training for the
hand. Walking insures fresh air, but it does not train the body or mind
like games and sports which are played out of doors. A man of great fame
as an explorer and as a student of nature (he who discovered, in the
West, bones of horses with two, three, and four toes, and who found the
remains of birds with teeth) once told me that his success was largely
due to the sports of his youth. His boyish love of fishing gave him his
manly skill in exploration.

I speak as if hand-craft was to be learned by sport. So it may. It may
also be learned by labor. Day by day for weeks I have been watching from
my study window a stately inn rise from the cellar just across the road.
A bricklayer has been there employed whose touch is like the stroke of
an artist. He handled each brick as if it were porcelain, balanced it
carefully in his hand, measured with his eye just the amount of mortar
which it needed, and dropped the block into its bed, without staining
its edge, without varying from the plumb line, by a stroke of hand-craft
as true as the sculptor's. Toil gave him skill.

The second point I make is this: If you really value hand-craft,
buy that which shows hand-craft, encourage those who are engaged in
hand-craft, help on with your voice and with your pocket, those who
bring taste and skill and art into the works of their hand. If your
means are so small that you only buy what you need for your daily wants,
you cannot have much choice, you must buy that which is cheapest; but
hardly any one within the sound of my voice is so restricted as that;
almost if not quite every one buys something every year for his
pleasure, a curtain, a rug, a wall paper, a chair, or a table not
certainly needed, a vase, a clock, a, mantel ornament, a piece of
jewelry, a portrait, an etching, a picture. Now whenever you make such a
purchase, to please your taste, to make your parlor or your chamber more
attractive, choose that which shows good handiwork. Such a choice will
last. You will not tire of it as you will of that which has but a
commonplace form or pattern.

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