it, with the result that the wood is removed by a combined action which involves both the severing of the fibres and paring. Many forms of simple wood-turning lathe exist, and the machine, when operated by a skillful mechanic, is capable of a wide range of work. By using various automatic attachments, however, the output of the lathe can be greatly increased, especially where a number of similar pieces are to be constructed. In the simplest of these processes the cutting tool follows a pattern, which regulates the depth of cut and consequently the radius of the turned object. Then there is also the Blanchard lathe, with its many modifications, where the blank and a pattern are revolved and rotary cutters carve out of the former an exact facsimile.
There are also tenoning machines to make tenon joints, and gaining machines, which cut grooves across the surface of timber, while to make mortises to receive the tenons there are machines, some of which have rotary cutters and others reciprocating chisels. Of boring machines there are numerous designs, arranged specifically for a given class of work.
Abrasive machines include sandpapering machines, where an endless belt, on which sand or emery has been fixed, is in contact with the work, and drum machines, where the work is a large flat surface.
With such tools as those outlined many varieties of work can be performed, and where a large number of pieces of a particular class of work are desired, a special machine is constructed which turns them out more or less automatically. It is in this direction that the greatest improvements in wood-working machines are being made. Their efficiency, as well as their capability for rapid work, is also being constantly augmented. See Building; Boring Machinery; Saw; Sawmill.
WOOD′WORTH, Samuel (1785-1842). An American journalist and poet, born at Scituate, Mass. After an apprenticeship in a printing office, he edited and printed a paper at New Haven, Conn., in 1807, and in 1809 removed to New York, where he conducted The War (1813-14), a weekly paper, during the War of 1812. He aided George P. Morris in 1823 in founding the New York Mirror. During his life he published a good deal of verse, as well as operettas and a curious romance of the War of 1812, Champions of Freedom (1816). His complete poetical works were edited (2 vols., 1861) by his son, with a Memoir by George P. Morris. He is remembered almost wholly for his song “The Old Oaken Bucket” (1817).
WOODY NIGHTSHADE. See Bittersweet.
WOOL (AS. wull, wul, Goth. wulla, OHG. wolla, Ger. Wolle, wool; connected with Lat. villus, vellus, OChurch Slav. vlŭna, Lith. vìlna, Skt. ūrnā, wool, from var, to cover). The soft hairy covering of sheep and several allied animals, next to cotton the most extensively used of all fibres. Its history dates back to the earliest times of which we have any record, and as civilization has progressed its uses and applications have steadily increased.
Wool Production and Consumption. The chief wool-producing countries of the world are: Argentina, Uruguay, and other South American countries; Australia and New Zealand; the United States; Russia, Great Britain and Ireland, France, Spain; South Africa; and India. The world's clip for 1900 was estimated by the National Association of Wool Manufacturers at 2,685,000,000 pounds. The consumption of wool in the United States has always been relatively large. Prior to the beginning of the factory era it did not average more than three pounds per capita of population annually, and in the middle of the last century it amounted to four pounds, but as wealth increased and the uses of wool enlarged, the consumption increased to about eight pounds per capita in 1900. In that year the wool clip of the United States was estimated at 290,000,000 pounds, the product of 40,000,000 sheep. About two-thirds of the wool then used by American mills was supplied by domestic flocks. The imported wools largely used for blankets and carpets are mostly of lower quality. The principal wool-producing States are Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, California, Utah, Michigan, and Arizona.
Sheep-raising has preceded civilization in nearly all parts of the world. Before agriculture was practiced to any extent, it was almost universal. With the progress of civilization, the use of wool for making cloth led to the improvement of the fleece by selection and breeding. The Romans greatly increased the fineness of the fleece, and after the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula Roman sheep were introduced into Spain, where they so greatly improved the native flocks that even during Roman supremacy Spanish wool led in the world's markets, a prestige held for many centuries. Through judicious crossing of the fine-wooled Merino with high-grade long-wooled breeds, the highest type of wool fibre has been developed, combining suppleness, fineness, and other desirable qualities with lustre and length of staple. It is suitable for combing as well as carding.
Wool may be considered a product of cultivation, or domestication, as no wild animals are known which resemble the wool-bearing sheep; and few natural products have been more modified and diversified by man to meet his various needs. This is very strikingly shown by a comparison of the coarse heavy covering of the argali or musmon (the supposed progenitors of the sheep), with the fine wool of the Merino or the long, lustrous fleece of the Leicester. These animals were covered with coarse hair or fur. among which close to the skin was a softer hair or wool. Under the influence of good care and feed, and protection from the inclemencies of the weather, the longer coarse hair largely disappeared, and only the softer, shorter hair or wool remained, a phenomenon said to be observed when the argali is brought under domestication.
Characteristics and Properties of Wool. Wool is a living appendage of the skin, produced by increased epidermal cells. The difference between wool and hair is one of degree rather than of kind, because all wool-bearing animals have the tendency when neglected to produce hair rather than wool, and because numerous intermediate structural stages exist between the two extremes. While wool is commonly characterized by its fine, soft, curly nature, the true distinction between it and hair lies in its covering of pointed scales or plates, attached to the
