Buttons, Hooks and Eyes, and Clasp.
Having now treated of brushes and combs as articles belonging to the toilet, we will proceed to those which belong to the dress rather than the person. It is a curious fact that, as far as is known, buttons and hooks belong only to advanced civilisation. The simplest garment is, of course, a cloth of some material wrapped round the waist, and, as we see in the wonderful Egyptian paintings which have survived their painters some three thousand years, the simple fold can retain its grasp round the loins, even through the exertions of a long day’s work.
I was always at a loss, when looking at these drawings, to understand how a single fold could retain so simple a garment in its place, but when I made my first visit to the Hammam Turkish Bath in Jermyn Street the mystery was at once solved. The “check,” as it is there called, is long enough to pass about once and a half round the waist of an ordinary man. One end of it is placed on the left side, so as to bring the lower edge on a level with the knee. It is held by the left hand until the right hand passes it round the waist. It is then turned over in a broad single fold, and will remain in position for hours, the left leg having free scope between the two ends, and yet not being needlessly exposed.
Next to the simple fold comes the tie, which is in use all over the world. The chief object of a good Tie is that it should retain its hold as long as needed, be loosened with a touch in necessity, and, as a matter of consequence, should never “jam.”
Still, even the best of ties are liable to objection. I once heard an argument on the subject of ties and buckles with regard to shoes. The speakers were both Derbyshire men, and their phraseology was somewhat obscure. However, both stuck to his own principles, one saying that “when a shee-uew is boo-oo-oockled, it’s boo-oo-ookled;” and the other asserting, in equally strong terms, that “when it’s tee-ee-eed, it’s tee-ee-eed.”
The buckle was here asserting its supremacy in civilisation over the tie, and was palpably right. Any one, so rose the argument, can tie two strings together, but the structure of the buckle is too complicated to be understood, much less invented, by any uncivilised being.
Next come, in natural order, the Button and the Clasp, each being identical in principle. In the case of the former the “eye” is placed over the button, while in the latter the clasp or hook is passed through the eye. Several examples of the Button and the Clasp are given on the right hand of the illustration, and are too familiar to need description.
As to the corresponding articles in Nature, they are very numerous. We will take, for example, the Saddle-back or Crow Oyster of our own shores. It is a most remarkable being. It deposits upon the object to which it adheres a sort of button of shelly matter, and the lower valve, which is nearly flat, has in it an aperture which is placed over the knob, just as a button-hole goes over the button. As this arrangement is confined to the lower valve, and cannot be seen unless the upper valve be removed, the lower valve only is shown in the illustration, as it appears when fastened to the side of a large limpet.
Of the Hooks and Eyes in Nature I have only taken two examples, though there are many others.
We all know the Bees, Wasps, Hornets, and other similar insects, and that they possess four wings. I may here mention that no insect which does not possess four transparent wings is capable of stinging.
When the insect is at rest the four wings may be easily distinguished, but when it is in flight they coalesce, so that practically the insect has two wings instead of four. This object is attained in the following way:—
The lower edge of the first pair of wings is turned over in a rather stiff fold. The upper edge of the second pair of wings has a row of small, but strong and elastic hooks. When the insect is about to fly, the hooks are hitched into the fold, and so the wings are fastened together. These hooks are shown in the illustration, and the reader will easily see how effective they must be in their operation. An almost exactly similar structure is found in the feathers of birds, and it is by means of these tiny hooks that wings are enabled to present a continuous, light, and elastic surface in the air.
USEFUL ARTS.
CHAPTER IV.
THE STOPPER, OR CORK.—THE FILTER.
Vessels and their Covers.—Corks.—Mode of bottling Wine.—Conical Corks and Stoppers.—Self-fitting Candles.—Candle-fixers.—The Vent-peg.—The Blow-guns and their Missiles.—The Serpula and its Conical Stopper.—The Filter.—The Bosjesman procuring Water.—How to make a simple Filter.—The Earth as a Filter.—The Sea-mouse, or Aphrodite, and its filtering Apparatus.—The Duck’s Beak, and its beautiful Structure.—The Jaw of the Greenland Whale.—Fork-grinder’s Respirator.—How Insects breathe.—Spiracles, and their general Structure.—Spiracle of the Fly.—Experiment upon a Cockroach, and its Result.