On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures/Additions
ADDITIONS.
9.) The establishments for slaughtering horses at Montfaucon, near Paris, supply another illustration of the profitable conversion of substances apparently of little value.
1. The hair is first cut off from the mane and tail. It amounts usually to about a quarter of a pound, which, at 5d. per lb. is worth 114d.
2. The skin is then taken off, and sold fresh to the tanners of the neighbourhood. It usually weighs about 60lb., and produces from 9s. to 12s.
3. The blood may be used either as manure, or by sugar refiners, or as food for animals. Pigeons, poultry, and especially turkeys, soon fatten upon it; but a few days before they are killed they should be fed with grain, in order to remove the disagreeable taste communicated to the flesh by the previous food. In order to use the blood for manure, it is previously dried, The cwt. costs at Paris about 9s., and its package and transport to America, where it is chiefly used, cost nearly as much more. A horse produces about 20lb. of dried blood, worth about 1s. 9d.
4. The shoes are removed from the dead horses, and sold, either to be used again, or as old iron. The nails also are collected, and sold. The average produce of the shoes and shoe-nails of a horse is about 212d.
5. The hoofs are sold partly to turners and comb-makers, partly to manufacturers of sal ammonia and Prussian blue, who pay for them about 1s. 5d.
6. The fat is very carefully collected and melted down. In lamps it gives more heat than oil, and is therefore demanded by enamellers and glass toy makers. It is also used for greasing harness, shoe leather, &c.; for soap and for making gas: it is worth about 6d. per lb. A horse on an average yields 8lb. of fat, worth about 4s.; but well fed horses sometimes produce nearly 60lb.
7. The best pieces of the flesh are eaten by the workmen; the rest is employed as food for cats, dogs, pigs, and poultry. It is likewise used as manure, and in the manufacture of Prussian blue. A horse has from 300 to 400lb. of flesh, which sells for from 1l. 8s. to 1l. 17s.
8. The tendons are separated from the muscles: the smaller are sold fresh, to the glue makers in the neighbourhood; the larger are dried, and sent off in greater quantities for the same purpose. A horse yields about 1lb. of dried tendons, worth about 3d.
9. The bones are sold to cutlers, fan makers, and manufacturers of sal ammoniac and ivory black. A horse yields about 90lbs., which sell for 2s.
10. The smaller intestines are wrought into coarse strings for lathes; the larger are sold as manure.
11. Even the maggots, which are produced in great numbers in the refuse, are not lost. Small pieces of the horse flesh are piled up, about half a foot high; and being covered slightly with straw to protect them from the sun, soon allure the flies, which deposit their eggs in them. In a few days the putrid flesh is converted into a living mass of maggots. These are sold by measure; some are used for bait in fishing, but the greater part as food for fowls, and especially for pheasants. One horse yields maggots which sell for about 1s. 5d.
12. The rats which frequent these establishments are innumerable, and they have been turned to profit by the proprietors. The fresh carcass of a horse is placed at night in a room, which has a number of openings near the floor. The rats are attracted into it, and the openings then closed. 16,000 rats were killed in one room in four weeks, without any perceptible diminution of their number. The furriers purchase the rat skins at about 3s. the hundred.
The amount of the various items is thus:—
1. Hair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
0 0 114 | |
2. Skin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
0 9 0 | |
3. Blood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
0 1 9 | |
4. Shoes and nails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
0 0 212 | |
5. Hoofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
0 1 5 | |
6. Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
0 4 0 | |
7. Flesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
1 8 0 | |
8. Tendons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
0 0 3 | |
9. Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
0 2 0 | |
10. Intestines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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11. Maggots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
0 1 5 | |
12. Rat skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
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The dead horse, therefore, which can be purchased at from 8s. 6d. to 12s., produces from 2l. 9s. to 4l. 14s.
(94.) M. Genoux, a French printer, has invented a substance resembling pasteboard, which, by pressure upon moveable types, takes an impression from them, which may be used as a mould for stereotype plates.
(113.) More recently a great variety of architectural ornaments, rosettes, arabesques, &c. have been cast with an alloy of zinc and tin. The foundry of Mr. Geiss, at Berlin, supplies such ornaments in great perfection, and many new buildings in that capital are already ornamented with them.
(132.) The alloy which is used for this purpose melts at the boiling point of water, or even below it.
Various degrees of fusibility are requisite for different purposes. The most usual proportions are:—
| Bismuth. | Lead. | Tin. | Melting pt. Fahr. | |
| For stamping ornaments | 3 | 2 | 1 | 201 |
| For cameos, &c.... | 8 | 5 | 3 | 190 |
If the metal is required to be sonorous, 5 oz. tin, 8 oz. bismuth, 8 oz. zinc, 8 oz. brass, and 8 of nitre, are taken. This alloy melts at about the heat of boiling water.
(158.) The caterpillar is said to be either the Tinea Punctata or Tinea Padilla. One insect can work 14 inch of cloth, and the inventor of the art, Mr. De Hebenstreit, in order to give more strength to the cloth, sometimes compels the caterpillars to work several times over the same piece.
(213.) The much admired cast-iron ornaments made at Berlin afford another example of the increased value of the raw material, arising from the labour expended upon it. At the establishment of M. Devaranne, a distinguished manufacturer of cast-iron at Berlin, 10,000 of some of the smaller pieces with which the larger ornaments are composed, are required to weigh one pound.
| Articles. | No. to cwt. | Price of each. |
| s. d. | ||
| 1. Diadems, 712 high by 514 broad | 1100 | 17 4 |
| 2. Bracelets, 7 in. long by 2 in. broad, 72 pieces | 2090 | 9 1 |
| 3. Collars, 18 in. long, 1s. 6d. from 37 to 40 single pieces | 2310 | 6 5 |
| 4. Girdle buckles, 312 in. high, 214 broad | 2640 | 2 8 |
| 5. Sevigné needles, 212 high by 112 broad, 11 pieces | 9020 | 4 7 |
| 6. Sevigné earrings, 3 in. long, 78 broad, 24 pieces, pairs | 10,450 | 5 5 |
| 7. Shirt buttons | 88,440 | 0 6 |
The grey cast-iron used in this manufacture costs about 6s. 5d. per cwt.; therefore the labour bestowed on the material increases its value about 1100 times in the coarser, and nearly 10,000 times in the finer articles. The prices in this table are the retail prices in 1833. In 1827 they were about double, and in 1821 about triple those given above.
The causes of the perfection in this manufacture appears to depend partly on the skill of the moulders, partly on the excellence of the sand, but chiefly it seems to arise from the quality of the iron, which is melted at as low a temperature as possible. Now if this iron when fluid has, like water, a point of maximum density little above its point of solidifying, then if it is poured into a mould at this temperature, it will expand in cooling, and fill up the most minute traces in the sand; but if it is put in high above that point, the part in contact with the sand will have become solid before the temperature of the central parts has sunk to that at which it begins to expand, and thus the expansion will probably all take place in the direction of the jet by which the metal entered.
It is much to be regretted that this beautiful manufacture seems to be declining; a circumstance which is attributed mainly to the insufficiency of the protection afforded to new designs. These are originally produced at great expense to the manufacturers, and when once sold to the public are immediately copied by other manufacturers, who, not having contributed to that expense, can easily undersell the original introducers of them. The copies are frequently inferior to the original, and the successive copies becoming gradually deteriorated, have introduced a bad article amongst the smaller manufactures, which greatly injures the foreign trade.
(451.) The length of all the roads in the Prussian monarchy amounts at present (1833) to 6766 English miles. The length of all the navigable rivers, excepting those parts joining the sea, is about 2,800 English miles.