Whalebone, as brought from Greenland, is commonly divided into portable junks or pieces, comprising ten or twelve blades in each; but it is occasionally subdivided into separate blades, the gum and the hairy fringes having been removed by the sailors during the voyage. The price of whalebone fluctuates from 50l. to 150l. per ton. The blade is cut into parallel prismatic slips, as follows:—It is clamped horizontally, with its edge up and down, in the large wooden vice of a carpenter’s bench, and is then planed by the following tool: [fig. 1165.] A, B, are its two handles; C, D, is an iron plate, with a guide-notch E; F, is a semicircular knife, screwed firmly at each end to the ends of the iron plate C, D, having its cutting edge adjusted in a plane, so much lower than the bottom of the notch E, as the thickness of the whalebone slip is intended to be; for different thicknesses, the knife may be set by the screws at different levels, but always in a plane parallel to the lower guide surface of the plate C, D. The workman, taking hold of the handles A, B, applies the notch of the tool at the end of the whalebone blade furthest from him, and with his two hands pulls it steadily along, so as to shave off a slice in the direction of the fibres; being careful to cut none of them across. These prismatic slips are then dried, and planed level upon their other two surfaces. The fibrous matter detached in this operation, is used, instead of hair, for stuffing mattresses.
From its flexibility, strength, elasticity, and lightness, whalebone is employed for many purposes: for ribs to umbrellas or parasols; for stiffening stays; for the framework of hats, &c. When heated by steam, or a sand-bath, it softens, and may be bent or moulded, like horn, into various shapes, which it retains, if cooled under compression. In this way, snuff-boxes, and knobs of walking-sticks, may be made from the thicker parts of the blade. The surface is polished at first with ground pumice-stone, felt, and water; and finished with dry quicklime, spontaneously slaked, and sifted.
WHEAT. (Triticum vulgare, Linn.; Froment, Fr.; Waizen, Germ.) See [Bread], [Gluten], and [Starch].
WHEEL CARRIAGES. Though this manufacture belongs most properly to a treatise upon mechanical engineering, I shall endeavour to describe the parts of a carriage, so as to enable gentlemen to judge of its make and relative merits. The external form may vary with every freak of fashion; but the general structure of a vehicle, as to lightness, elegance, and strength, may be judged of from the following figure and description.
[Fig. 1166.] shows the body of a chariot, hung upon an iron carriage, with iron wheels, axletrees, and boxes; the latter, by a simple contrivance, is close at the out-head, by which means the oil cannot escape; and the fastening of the wheel being at the in-head, as will be explained afterwards, gives great security, and prevents the possibility of the wheel being taken off by any other carriage running against it.