PROBABLY there is no article of table or of other household use in the production of which so little of machine working is employed. Almost all the work on solid silver spoons is hand work; the exceptions are the rolling of the ingot into plates, and the production of spoons with ornamentation in relief, which is produced by recessed patterns on the rolls.
The material for spoons is coin silver obtained from the Government mints in ingots, or from trade for old silver, or from the use of current coin. This is melted over a charcoal fire in plumbago crucibles to a certain heat, known to the adept by the appearance of the surface of the molten metal; it is poured into castiron moulds, forming bars of about seventy ounces each.
These bars are heated over a forge fire of charcoal and worked on the anvil by hammer and sledge, precisely as iron or steel is worked, or are rolled into plates or ribbons. Occasional annealings are necessary to prevent cracking.
The ribbon for the ordinary teaspoon is four and a half inches long by three eighths of an inch wide. When rolled, a blank of two and a quarter inches is lengthened to four and a half inches, to thin it down to spoon thickness. Before rolling or hammering, silver is very nearly as soft as lead; but with these mechanical processes it can be made hard and rigid. Good springs can be made of silver hammered or rolled.
To form the bowl of the teaspoon, the bar, of three eighths of an inch wide and less than three thirty-seconds of an inch thick, is hammered flat on an anvil with a crowning face until the workman has spread it into an oval, which is much thinner in the middle than at the edges, as the edges are to receive the bulk of the wear. The handles are formed also by the hammer.
The curvature of the bowl is produced by repeated "coaxing" blows by a steel punch and a die of cast composition of lead and tin. No file dressing is employed on the faces of the spoon; only the edges are file-dressed to form. From the anvil and the die the spoons come to hand-smoothing with Scotch gray stones and polishing by stiff brushes, generally revolving brushes charged with "grits" and oil. Burnishing is the finish of spoons as of all bright silver goods.
A LITTLE STUDY IN ANATOMY.
HOW many bones in the human face?
Fourteen, when they're all in place.
How many bones in the human head?
Eight, my child, as I've often said.
How many bones in the human ear?
Four in each, and they help to hear.
How many bones in the human spine?
Twenty-four, like a climbing vine.
How many bones in the human chest?
Twenty-four ribs, and two of the rest.
How many bones the shoulders bind?
Two in each—one before, one behind.
How many bones in the human arm?
In each arm one; two in each forearm.
How many bones in the human wrist?
Eight in each, if none are missed.
How many bones in the palm of the hand?
Five in each, with many a band.
How many bones in the fingers ten?
Twenty-eight, and by joints they bend.
How many bones in the human hip?
One in each; like a dish they dip.
How many bones in the human thigh?
One in each, and deep they lie.
How many bones in the human knees?
One in each, the kneepan, please.
How many bones in the leg from the knee?
Two in each, we can plainly see.
How many bones in the ankle strong?
Seven in each, but none are long.
How many bones in the ball of the foot?
Five in each, as the palms are put.
How many bones in the toes, half a score?
Twenty-eight, and there are no more.
And now altogether these many bones wait,
And they count, in a body, two hundred and eight.
And then we have in the human mouth,
Of upper and under, thirty-two teeth.
And now and then have a bone, I should think,
That forms on a joint or to fill up a chink—
A Sesamoid bone or a Wormian, we call.
And now we may rest, for we've told them all.
—Christian at Work.