Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/70

FEATHERS when so prepared they, in common with soft feathers and downs, undergo a careful process of drying and cleaning, without which they would acquire an offensive smell, readily attract damp, and become a refuge for vermin. The dry ing is generally done in highly heated apartments or stoves, and subsequently the feathers are smartly beaten with a stick, and shaken in a sieve to separate all dust and small debris. Bed feathers come to the British market most largely from Germany ; in Russia geese are kept almost exclusively on account of their feathers and quills ; and from that country as well as France large quantities of goose and other upholstery feathers are obtained. The fine down of the eider duck obtained from high latitudes, as already mentioned, is principally consumed in bed quilts and for down-quilted articles of ladies attire. Quills for Writing. The earliest period at which the use of quill feathers for writing purposes is recorded is the 6th century ; and from that time till the introduction of steel pens in the early part of the present century they formed the principal writing implements of civilized com munities. It has always been from the goose that quills have been chiefly obtained, although the swan, crow, eagle, owl, hawk, and turkey all have more or less been laid under contribution. Swan quills, indeed, are better and more costly than are those from the goose, and for fine lines crow quills have been much employed. It is only the five outer wing feathers of the goose that are useful for writing, and of these the second and third are the best, while left-wing quills are also generally more esteemed than those of the right wing, from the fact that they curve outward and aw T ay from the writer using them. Quills obtained in spring, by plucking or otherwise, from living birds are by far the best, those taken from dead geese, more especially if fattened, being comparatively worthless. To take away the natural greasiness, to remove the superficial and in ternal pellicles of skin, and to give the necessary quali ties of hardness and elasticity, quills require to undergo some processes of preparation. The essential operation consists in heating the quills, generally in a fine sand-bath, to from 130 to 180 Fahr. according to circumstances, and scraping them under pressure while still soft from heat, whereby the outer skin is removed and the inner shrivelled up. If the heating has been properly effected, the quills are found on cooling to have become hard, elastic, and some what brittle. While the quills are soft and hot, lozenge- shaped patterns, ornamental designs, and names are easily and permanently impressed on them by pressure with suit able instruments or designs in metal stamps. Ornamental feathers. Feathers do not appear to have been much used, in Europe at least, for ornamental pur poses till the close of the 13th century. They are found in the conical caps worn in England during the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. ; but not till the period of Henry V. did they take their place as a part of military costume. Towards the close of the 15th century the fashion of wearing feathers in both civil and military life was carried to an almost ludicrous excess. In the time of Henry VIII. they first appeared in the bonnets of ladies ; and during Elizabeth s reign feathers began to occupy an important place as head-dress ornaments of women. From that time down to the present, feathers of endless variety have continued to be leading articles of ornamentation in female head-attire; but, except for military plumes, they have long ceased to be worn in ordinary male costume. At the present day it is scarcely too much to say that all feathers of all birds are, in one way or other, turned to ac count by ladies for the purpose of personal ornament. Ostrich feathers, however, hold, as they have always held, a pre-eminent position among ornamental feathers ; and the ostrich is the only bird which may be said to be reared exclusively for the sake of its feathers. Ostrich farming is now recognized as one of the established industries of South Africa. On these farms the birds are hatched by artificial incubation from eggs which are valued at 5 each. The birds are estimated to be worth about 30 apiece, a fine full-grown male being valued as high as 75. The birds begin to yield feathers when about a year old, and continue to an advanced age to produce two crops of plumes annually of a present yearly average value of 15. The feathers are generally plucked from the living animal a process which does not appear to cause any great in convenience. In the male bird, the long feathers of the rump and wings are white, and the short feathers of the body are jet black ; while the rump and wing feathers of the female are white tinged with a dusky grey, the general body colour being the latter hue. The feathers of the male are consequently much more valuable than those of the female, and they are separately classified in com merce. The art of the plumassier embraces the cleaning, bleaching, dying, curling, and making up of ostrich and other plumes and feathers. White feathers are simply washed in bundles in hot soapy water, run through pure warm water, exposed to sulphurous fumes for bleaching, thereafter blued with indigo solution, rinsed in pure cold water, and hung up to dry. When dry the shafts are pared or scraped down to give the feathers greater flexibility, and the barbs are curled by drawing them singly over the face of a blunt knife or by the cautious application of a heated iron. Dull-coloured feathers are usually dyed black with logwood and sulphate or acetate of iron. Feathers which are dyed light colours are first bleached by exposure in the open air, and the dyes employed are the same as those for other animal substances. Much ingenuity is displayed in the making up of plumes, with the general result of producing the appearance of full, rich, and long feathers from inferior varieties and from scraps and fragments of ostrich feathers ; and so dexterously can factitious plumes be prepared that only an experienced person is able to detect the fabrication. To enumerate all the feathers used for ornamental pur poses would be practically to give a complete list of all known and obtainable birds; but there are a few in addition to those of the ostrich which form steady articles of com mercial demand. Among these are the feathers of the South American ostrich, Rhea americana, the marabout feathers of India obtained from Leptoptilos argala and L. javanica, the feathers of the various species of birds of paradise, and of numerous species of humming-birds. Swan-down and the skins of various penguins and grebes and of the alba- tross are used, like fur, for muffs and collarettes. The Chinese excel in the preparation of artificial flowers and other ornaments from bright natural-coloured or dyed feathers; and the French also skilfully work fragments of feathers into bouquets of artificial flowers, imitation butterflies, &c. Miscellaneous Applications of Feathers. Quills of various sizes are extensively employed as holders for the sable and camel hair brushes used by artists, &c. Feather brushes and dusters are made from the wing-feathers of the domes tic fowl and other birds; those of a superior quality, under the name of vulture dusters, being really made of American ostrich feathers. A minor application of feathers is found in the dressing of artificial fly-hooks for I fishing. As steel pens came into general use it became an object of considerable importance to find applications for the supplanted goose-quills ; and in this quest no one was more deeply interested than M. Bardin, of Joinville le Pont j near Paris, whose establishment sent out about 20,000,000 quills annually the product of 2,000,000 geese. M. Bardiu competed with the steel-pen makers by cutting several pens of the shape of metallic pens from each quill,