American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Sunday schools -- United States -- Periodicals
The material for spoons is coin silver obtained from the Government
mints in ingots, or from trade for old silver, or from the use of
current coin. This is melted over a charcoal fire in plumbago crucibles
to a certain heat, known to the adept by the appearance of the surface
of the molten metal; it is poured into castiron moulds, forming bars of
about seventy ounces each.
These bars are heated over a forge fire of charcoal and worked on the
anvil by hammer and sledge, precisely as iron or steel is worked, or
are rolled into plates or ribbons. Occasional annealings are necessary
to prevent cracking.
The ribbon for the ordinary teaspoon is four and a half inches long
by three eighths of an inch wide. When rolled, a blank of two and a
quarter inches is lengthened to four and a half inches, to thin it down
to spoon thickness. Before rolling or hammering, silver is very nearly
as soft as lead; but with these mechanical processes it can be made
hard and rigid. Good springs can be made of silver hammered or rolled.
To form the bowl of the teaspoon, the bar, of three eighths of an inch
wide and less than three thirty-seconds of an inch thick, is hammered
flat on an anvil with a crowning face until the workman has spread it
into an oval, which is much thinner in the middle than at the edges, as
the edges are to receive the bulk of the wear. The handles are formed
also by the hammer.
The curvature of the bowl is produced by repeated "coaxing" blows by
a steel punch and a die of cast composition of lead and tin. No file
dressing is employed on the faces of the spoon; only the edges are
file-dressed to form. From the anvil and the die the spoons come to
hand-smoothing with Scotch gray stones and polishing by stiff brushes,
generally revolving brushes charged with "grits" and oil. Burnishing is
the finish of spoons as of all bright silver goods.
A LITTLE STUDY IN ANATOMY.
HOW many bones in the human face?
Fourteen, when they're all in place.
How many bones in the human head?
Eight, my child, as I've often said.
How many bones in the human ear?
Four in each, and they help to hear.
How many bones in the human spine?
Twenty-four, like a climbing vine.
How many bones in the human chest?
Twenty-four ribs, and two of the rest.
How many bones the shoulders bind?
Two in each--one before, one behind.
How many bones in the human arm?
In each arm one; two in each forearm.
How many bones in the human wrist?
Eight in each, if none are missed.
How many bones in the palm of the hand?
Five in each, with many a band.
How many bones in the fingers ten?
Twenty-eight, and by joints they bend.
How many bones in the human hip?
One in each; like a dish they dip.
How many bones in the human thigh?
One in each, and deep they lie.
How many bones in the human knees?
One in each, the kneepan, please.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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