An immense, almost an endless, variety of figures may be worked in the lathe by carefully regulating the tools. Beautiful flowers in ivory, equal to the Chinese carving, are formed by the experienced turner, with small wheels and other instruments: medallions, even, are executed in the lathe, with machinery so constructed that the tool follows on the wood the exact lines of the head that is being copied.
Gold and silver ornaments, such as watches, snuff-boxes, and other trinkets, are worked with what is called a rose engine; plates with patterns indented upon them are fastened upon the mandrel: the screw regulates the tool, which produces an exact counterpart of the pattern.
Many of the copper cylinders used in printing calicoes afford curious specimens of engraving in the lathe. It is impossible to imagine any thing more beautiful than the effect produced, and a whole web of linen is printed by them in a very few minutes. The methods employed in this kind of turning by the various artists who practice it are but little known; and, indeed, to look at the patterns produced, it would be supposed that the graver must have been used to form them. A general idea of the nature of the work is all we are enabled to give. The pattern intended for the cylinder must be cut upon a small steel wheel, which revolves upon an axis. This wheel is then to be held against the copper cylinder, which, quickly revolving in the lathe, carries it round, and receives from it the impression of its pattern. The wheel operates like a punch, but the roughness it makes on the edge of the work is easily polished down.
Having now finished the directions for concentric and elliptic turning, we will, before beginning the ornamental parts of this interesting art, beg to impress upon the minds of our readers that they must never be discouraged by failure in their first attempts, even though they may be subjected to many disappointments; for, as the Bard of Avon expresses it:—
“Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it promises; and oft it hits
Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits.”
ECCENTRIC TURNING.
Plate 5.