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THE COMMERCE IN HORNS.

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cattle annually. The horns of the tame buffalo are much smaller than those of the wild animal.

From 800 to 900 tons of horns are received from the United States, and large imports from South America, and Australia. About one fifth of the supply of ox and buffalo horns is used up for comb making, and some for knife and cutlass handles, while a small portion is made into shoe lifts, scoops, cattle drenches, drinking cups, &c. The solid tips and the hoofs of cattle,

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which are composed of the same material as horn, are pressed into buttons.*

About 400 tons of horns are received annually in England from the River Plate; 1000 horns are usually reckoned as a measurement ton in shipping, but they are frequently freighted by weight; it will take nearly 2000 to weigh a ton. Those from Spain of a light yellowish colour serve to imitate tortoise-shell; the imitation is effected by solutions of gold, silver, and lead.

Mr. Hadfield in his "Travels in Brazil," tells us that at Rosario and Santa Fé on the Parana, streets and roads are repaired with

* Cases 168 and 169 are devoted to ox-horn and buffalo-horn applications.

138 MANUFACTURING APPLICATIONS OF HORN.

heads and horns of cows and horses. In the Pampas the skull of a horse or cow serves for a stool, a chair, or a pillow, as the case may be. In a certain district in the suburbs of Lassa, the capital of Thibet, the houses are built entirely with the horns of cattle and sheep. These odd edifices are of extreme solidity, and present a rather agreeable appearance to the eye; the horns of the cattle being smooth and white, and those of the sheep black and rough. These strange materials admit of a wonderful diversity of combinations, and form on the walls an infinite variety of designs. The interstices between the horns are filled with mortar. Great pyramids of horns and bones have been formed on some of the prairies of North America by the hunters.

At one of the branches of the Upper Missouri there is such a pyramid, 18 feet high by 15 feet in diameter, made of elk horns, every hunter who passes making a practice of contributing his quota to the stock by way of good luck.

MANUFACTURING APPLICATIONS OF HORN.-While many of the former uses of horns for glazing purposes, for drinking cups, for horn-books, and for the bugle of the bold forester, have passed away, other and more elegant and varied applications have been found for this plastic and durable substance. Extensive as is the present use of horns, we believe that many further manufacturing purposes may be found for them, and that they will become even still more important in a commercial point of view.

They receive a great variety of applications at the present day, owing to their toughness and elasticity, as well as their remarkable property of softening under heat, of welding, and of being moulded into various forms under pressure.

To apply horns to manufactures they are treated as follows:They are first thrown into water, and slight putrefaction commences, by which ammonia is produced, when the horn begins to soften. To carry this action further, the horns are transferred into a slight acid bath composed of nitric and acetic acids, with a small quantity of various salts. When the horns are sufficiently

COMB MANUFACTURE.

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softened, which requires about two weeks, they are cleaned and split into two parts by means of a circular saw, and these are introduced between heated plates, and the whole subjected to an intense pressure of several tons to the square inch. The plates may be moulds, and thus the horn can be compressed into any required shape. A great improvement has of late years been effected in this branch of manufacture, which consists in dyeing the horn various colours. To accomplish this, the horn is first dipped in a bath containing a weak solution of salts of lead or mercury, and when the horns have been thus impregnated with metallic salts, a solution of hydro-sulphate of ammonia is rubbed on them, when a black or brown dye is produced.

Another method consists in mordanting the horn with a salt of iron, and dipping it in a solution of logwood. Very beautiful white fancy articles have been produced from horn, by dipping it first into a salt of lead, and then into hydrochloric acid, when white chloride of lead is fixed in the interstices of the horn, which then simply requires polishing.

COMB MANUFACTURE.—The most important use to which horn is put is for the manufacture of combs, and the annual value of horn combs made in this country is estimated at 400,000l.

The comb manufacture is pre-eminently conducive to national wealth, because therein the value of the raw product is greatly multiplied. The skilled labour placed on tortoise-shell increases it in value about 40 per cent., while horn (the generally used product) so favoured, advances 200 per cent. This latter, rough, unattractive substance, is split and heated, bent and planed, triturated and polished, pressed and carved and fretted, till at length it is sent forth into polite society, reduced to the most fairy-like proportions, elegant in its surroundings, having a highly polished exterior, a beautiful set of teeth, a graceful bend, and an elastic spring. Case 169 shows comb manufacture.

It is the laminatory character of horn that prevents the

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HORN COMB MANUFACTURE.

economical use of mechanical aid to any large extent. The difficulties thence arising and hitherto insurmountable are an erratic and diversely running grain, the raising up of the fibres after every use of the file, saw, plane, or other cutting instrument, and therefore the necessity for constant removal of debris and dust from the product-face, and of continual polishing and gauging. This latter care is needed, because the original start has to be made with a thickness of horn much stouter than is needed for the perfect comb, to allow for the waste of manufacture. An additional difficulty is the requirement of heat in all the processes, and that continually. These and other causes have ever prevented the use of what may be termed perfect mechanical appliances in this trade industry, in order to elegant, complete, and rapid production.

Let us first enter the press house. All around on our right and our left lie heaps of horns, with the tips cut off, or divided lengthwise; while the ammoniacal smell of burnt horn affects the eyes, palate, and nostrils. On one side of this shed, or outhouse, is an ordinary furnace, a sort of Tubal-Cain improvisation; and close by, in front, is a huge hammer, or kind of movable anvil, working between upright iron guides, the hammer or anvil raisable by a pulley. The process goes on thus. The workman in front of the furnace takes one of the tipless horns, (after it has been rendered pliable by heat) and with a common strong ripping knife splits open the horn lengthwise in the direction of the varying grain-in other words, he merely divides the horn by the grain throughout. For to cut across the grain would be objectionable. The split-up horns are then again warmed (in hot water and by fire), are opened out pretty flat, laid between cold iron plates, and pressed quite level by aid of the before-mentioned hammer, a few iron wedges, and an oblong iron-bound space, sunk in the furnace floor, in which plates and horn are placed. The above plan is adopted in the case of "non-stained" goods. When the goods are to be stained afterwards (in imitation of

HORN COMB MANUFACTURE.

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tortoiseshell, it may be), the heated, ripped-up, and opened out horn is placed between hot steel plates, and more highly pressed, so as to reduce the horn-plates in thickness and to destroy the grain of the material. Then by the aid of other processes the horn will take the staining requisite in the subsequent operations.

The machine room may be called the laboratory of the comb works. Blazing fires, revolving lathes, choking dust, and horny abominations and smells of all kinds, greet you on entrance. Here the horn may be seen in all shapes and progress of development, receiving its direction, contour, polish, &c. The cutting apparatus works like a simple copying machine. Place the horn plate on the bench beneath, put over the plate a cutter of the shape, size, and outline of any comb you may subsequently require, strike down the press, and the piece is stamped out imme

PARTED COMBS.

diately. Many pieces may, of course, be struck out by one die, and at one operation, the comb-plate being as economically used as possible. More pressing and straightening succeed, then grinding, ready for the "teeth." The mode of operation here depends on the kind of product you are manipulating. For a lady's back or side-comb, the "parting-engine" is put in requisition. This is a clever little contrivance, that cuts the teeth as it draws the horn-plate through the machine, working by a top handle also, like a copying machine. Each forward or backward motion of the handle brings down a tooth-cutter, and by means of a cogged wheel shifts on the bed on which the plate lies one

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