Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/328

314 N E E N E E into an oil bath, then re-heated in the muffle till they assume a straw colour, and gradually cooled. Following the tempering comes the process of scouring and fining or polishing, for which purpose the needles are put up in bundles of several thousands mixed with soft soap, oil, and emery powder, and tied tightly round with a canvas cover. A number of such bundles are laid in the bed of a machine in which by rollers or other devices they are kept rolling backward and forward, so that each individual needle rubs against its neighbours. After sufficient time the bundles are withdrawn, the needles cleaned by wash ing, dried, and again bundled up as before, but with a mixture containing putty powder in place of emery. The rolling process is continued till the needles acquire a sufficiently polished surface. The needles are now un packed, washed in an alkaline solution, and dried in sawdust. From that they are conveyed to trays, where they are brought parallel to each other by a sharp jerking motion. It is next necessary to bring all the heads in one direction, which is dexterously done by a "header," who with a cloth finger-stool on the fourth finger presses a lot of needles against that cloth. Points presented adhere, and thus at each operation a number of needles re main sticking in the finger-stool. While this arrangement is going on, faulty and imperfect needles are picked out. The heads being all now laid in one direction, attention is given to the smoothing and rounding of the eye-holes, a work essential for the prevention of the fraying and break ing of the thread in sewing. The heads are blued by heating, an operation most neatly and perfectly performed by bringing each head in succession in contact with a gas flame by means of a revolving wheel, against the periphery of which the needles are retained by an elastic band. The needles so blued are strung on a roughened steel wire, over which is spread a fine paste of oil and emery. These wires are suspended between uprights on a frame platform, to which a jerking motion is communicated ; thereby an oscillating motion is communicated to the suspended needles, and the gentle friction thus set up between the needle eye and the roughened wire and emery slowly but effectually secures the desired effect. Now it only remains to free the head from the blue colour on a small grind stone, and give a final polish to the needle on a rapidly revolving buff wheel aided by putty powder. It has of late become a common practice to gild the heads of needles. The variety of needles manufactured for sewing by hand and machine, for packing, for upholstery and leather work, as well as for surgical purposes, is very great, and demands many modifications of processes and appliances, (j. PA.) NEER, VAN DEE. Aernout and Eglon van der Neer, father and son, were painters whose lives almost filled the whole of the 17th century. I. AERNOUT VAN DER NEER, commonly called Aart or Artus, was the contemporary of Albert Cuyp and Hobbema, and so far like the latter that he lived and died in compara tive obscurity. Houbraken, who knew something of Eglon, was without information as regards his father. He merely noted that Aernout had been steward to a Dutch nobleman, and an amateur painter, before he settled at Amsterdam and acquired skill with his brush. According to common chronology Aernout was born in 1619 and died in 1691 ; but neither of these statements is supported by any proofs. The earliest pictures in which Aernout coupled his monogram of A. V. and D. N. interlaced with a date are a winter landscape in the collection of Lord Overstone and a sunset in the museum of Gotha. Both pieces were finished, if we grant the genuineness of the inscriptions, in ^1643, the year of Eglon s birth at Amsterdam. In 1652 Aornout, still faithful to his old haunts, witnessed the fire which consumed the old town-hall of Amsterdam. He made this accident a subject for two or three pictures in the galleries of Berlin and Copenhagen, probably on commission from merchants of the city of his choice. But, though Amsterdam appears to have been constantly Van der Neer s domicile, he was not so sedentary in his habits as to neglect the rest of Holland. His pictures tell that he was well acquainted with the canals and woods about Haarlem and Leyden, and proofs are at hand to show that he was familiar with the reaches of the Maes and Rhine. Dort, the home of Albert Cuyp, is sometimes found in his pictures, and substantial evidence exists that there were relations of friendship and neighbourhood between the two men. At some period of their lives they laid their hands to the same canvases, on each of which they left their joint mark. On some it was the signature of the name, on others the more indelible signature of style. The partnership may not have been of long duration. It was unequal, and illustrated in a few landscapes only, but these, as well as contemporary works of Cuyp alone, reflect sufficient light on Van der Neer s career. There are land scapes in the collections of the dukes of Bedford and West minster, as well as in that of Colonel Neeld, in which Cuyp has represented either the frozen Maes with fishermen packing herrings, or the moon reflecting its light on the river s placid waters. These are models after which Van der Neer appears to have worked. His specialties were moonlights and sunsets on canals and estuaries, or winter landscapes with skaters and ball players. The same feeling and similar subjects are found in Cuyp and Van der Neer, before and after their partnership. But Cuyp was the leading genius. Van der Neer got assistance from him ; Cuyp expected none from Van der Neer. He carefully enlivened his friend s pictures, when asked to do so, with figures and cattle. It is in pictures jointly produced by both that we discover Van der Neer s presence at Dort. We are near Dort in that landscape sunset of the Louvre, in which Cuyp evidently painted the foreground and cows. In the National Gallery Cuyp signs his name on the pail of a milkmaid, whose figure and red skirt he has painted with light effectiveness near the edge of Van der Neer s landscape. We recognize the partners in a sunset which was exhibited at Manchester when owned by Mr Francis Edwards. Again, a couple of fishermen with a dog, and a sportsman creeping up to surprise some ducks, are Cuyp s in a capital Van der Neer at the Staedel in Frankfort. Van der Neer has been known to paint a smithy, with figures alternately lighted by the sun and the blacksmith s fire (Oppenheim collection at Cologne), but habitually his subjects were the rivers and water-courses of his native country either at sunset or after dark. Sometimes the moon sheds its light on tall trees and gables and wind mills. His peculiar skill is shown in realizing trans parence which allows objects even distant to appear in the darkness with varieties of warm brown and steel greys. He cleverly manages reflexions in water, and balances the light on one side of a canal with dark masses of shadow on the other. His greatest subtlety is displayed in combining the lurid glare of fires with the cooler serenity of moonlight. Burger says he inspired Van der Poel with such a love of midnight fires that this unfortunate artist was induced to burn incalculable numbers of cities and hamlets. Another of his fancies is to paint frozen water, and his daylight icescapes with golfers, sleighers, and fishermen are as numerous as his moonlights. But he always avoids the impression of frostiness, which is one of his great gifts. His pictures are not scarce. They are less valuable in the market than those of Cuyp or Hobbema ; but, possessing a charm peculiarly their own, they are much sought after by collectors. According to the latest documentary evidence discovered in Holland,