Knight's cyclopædia of the industry of all nations, 1851 / [edited by George Dodd].

Date:
[1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Knight's cyclopædia of the industry of all nations, 1851 / [edited by George Dodd]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    940/1000
    and mechanioal toys are chiefly from France, where they are hetter made than in any other country. Box-toys, as they are colled, that is, numerous little turned or cai-ved toys sold in hoxes, are chiefly from Germany—such as Noah's arks, troops of soldiers, tea-sets, farm yards, boxes of slcittles, (fee. Niimherg, Frank- fort, and the Black Forest, are the principal places in Germany where these toys are made. Women and children make them in the country disti-icts, and take them for sale to the exporting merchants. Low as such labour may he considered to be remunerated in England, the earnings are very much lower in Germany; and it is on this account that such articles can pay the expence of transport from country to country. The Swiss toys are mostly in white wood, and comprise such articles as carved figures and Swiss cottages; they also include the jointed figures used by artists. The conjuring tricks, dissecting puz- zles, skeleton maps, &c., are mostly English. Among the English toy maimers the variety is considerable. There are the toy tm-ner, the green wood toy maker, the white wood toy maker, the fancy toy maker, the numerous ramifications of doll makers, the tin toy maker, the lead toy malcer, the pewter toy maker, the basket toy maker, the firework maker, the kite maker, the drum and tam- bourine maker, and others which it would not be easy to range under any particular class. Far more women and children than men are employed in these trades. A little has been said on one of these toy- departments in a former article. [Doll MANTJFACTtJEE.] TEACEEY, is a tenn used to denote that species of pattern-work which is formed or traced in the head of a gothic window by the mullions being made to diverge into arches, cm-ves, and flowing lines, enriched with foli- ations. The term is also appUed to ornamental design of the same character, whether for doors, panelling, or ceilings ; the only dif- ference being that in windows the pattern or traceiy is perforated, and in other cases closed, that is, is a mere pattern oai-ved on the surface of a solid part. In particular in- stances, where the tracery on parapets, battle- ments, turrets, spires, &c., is pierced, it is then named Open-tvork. TEACTION, in Mechanics, is the act of di-awing a body along a plane, usually by the power of men, animals, or steam; as when a vessel is towed on the surface of water or a carriage moved upon a road. The power exerted in order to produce the effect is called the force of traction. Numerous experiments have been made for the purpose of asoertaining the value of a force so exerted. When men are employed to draw laden boats on canals, it is found that if the work be continued for several days successively, of eight hours each, the force of traction is equivalent to a weight of 31^ lbs., moved at the rate of two feet per second, or 1^ mUe per horn* (it being understood that such weight is imagined to be raised vertically by means of a rope passing over a pulley, and drawn in a horizontal direction). The force of traction exerted when, without moving from his place, a man pulls horizontally against a weight so suspended, is estimated at 701bs. Mr. Tredgold considers that a horse exerts a force of traction expressed by 125 lbs. raised at the rate of 3§- feet per second, or 2J miles per hour. A man or a horse can however double his power of traction for a few minutes without being injured by the exertion; and when the carriage is in motion, so that the friction on the ground is alone to be overcome, a horse can draw, during a short time, on a level road, a weight exceed- ing 1500 lbs. Experiments have shown that when the angle of tractiojt, as it is called, that is, the angle which the plane of the traces makes with the road on which a caniage is moving, is 15 or 16 degrees, a horse pulls with good efiect; and the height of the points at which the traces are attached to a horse's collar being about 4 feet 6 inches from the ground, it follows that, in order to obtain this inch- nation, the lower extremities of the traces or shafts should be 2 feet 3 inches from the ground. In general however, in two-wheeled carriages, the height of these extremities is about 3 feet. As an example of the force of traction exerted by steam, it may be stated that on a level line of railway, an engine with an 11-inch cyhnder, and having an effective pressure of 50 lbs. per square inch in the boiler, drew 50 tons at the rate of 30 miles per houi', working 10 hours daUy; and that the same engine, with an equal pressure in the boiler, drew 160 tons at the rate of 15i miles per hour. TRANSIT INSTEUMENT, is an astro- nomical telescope, made to move in the plane of the meridian, so that the moment of any star passing a vertical wire in the middle of the field of view (and which covers a part of the meridian) may be ascertained. Usually there are several auxiliai-y wires at equal dis- tances on each side of the middle wire, and the mean of the times at which the several wires are passed, is more accurately the time of Tnoridian passage than tliat derived from