GLOVES. Gloves are made of various materials, such as silk, wool, linen, cotton, fur, and various kinds of leather. The latter material is the most abundantly used, and the mode of making it up is the most characteristic of this branch of manufacture. We need scarcely inform the reader that the term " kid " is a mere technicality, as the quantity annually consumed of leather bearing this name is largely in excess of what could be supplied from the skins of all the young goats that arc annually slaughtered. It is chiefly made from lamb's skin. A few of the finest gloves are made from real kid skins, obtained from those countries where goats' milk and flesh are articles of food. Dogskin, buckskin, and doeskin gloves are made chiefly from sheepskin; some of the thickest kinds of leather gloves are made from calf-skin. The leather in all cases undergoes a much lighter dressing than when used for boots and shoes.
Worcester is the chief seat of the English leather glove-manufactory; gloves are also made at Ludlow, Leominster, and Yeovil, besides Woodstock, where a peculiar and superior doeskin glove is made bearing the name of the town. Limerick and the neigh borhood has long beeu celebrated for gloves.
The French, however, still excel us in this branch of manufacture. Up to 1825 the importation of French gloves was prohibited, and the competition consequent upon the removal of this prohibition had the usual effect of producing a rapid improvement in the English manufacture. Very cheap and good gloves are made at Naples; and they are much in request on the ,continent.
After the leather has been properly prepared, it is cut into pieces of the required size, then folded over somewhat unequally, as the back should be larger than the front. Three cuts are then made through the doubled piece to produce the four fingers; an oblong hole is cut at the bending of the fold for the insertion of the thumb-piece: the cutting of this of the exact shape and-size requires considerable skill. The first and fourth fingers are completed by gussets or strips sewed only on their inner sides, while the second and third fingers require gussets on each side to complete them. Besides these, small pieces of a diamond shape are sewed in at the base of the fingers towards the palm of the hand. The stitching together of these nieces requires much care, as the junction must be made as closely as possible to the edge of each piece, and yet with sufficient hold to keep the stitches from cutting through the material. A kind of vise or clamp, with minute teeth to regulate the stitches, is sometimes used for this purpose; and sewing-machines are applied as far as practicable, especially for the ornamental or embroidery 'stitching on the backs. The putting in of the thumb-piece requires special skill and management. Badly made gloves commonly give way at this part. The
cupericrity of.the French and the best English gloves depends chiefly upon the adap tation of their shape to the structure of the hand by giving additional size where the flexure of the hand requires it. The best woolen, thread, and silk gloves are made as above by cutting and sewing together, but commoner gloves are made to a great extent by knitting and weavingiu like manner to stockings.
Glove-dyeing.—The dye is lightly washed over the stretched glove, a second and third coat being given after the first is dry. When this is thoroughly dried, the superfluous color is rubbed off, and the surface smoothed by rubbing with a polished stick or piece of ivory. The surface is then sponged over with the white of egg.
Glove-cleaning.--Oil of turpentine or camphine was the inp.terial_ chiefly used for cleaning kid gloves, but of late this has been to a great extent superseded by benzoic: (q.v.) or benzine, which is abundantly obtained in sufficient purity for this purpose by the careful rectification of coal-naphtha. The chief advantages of this latter material are, that it is more volatile, and its odor less persistent than that of ordinary turpentine, or even of the best rectified camphine which has been much exposed to the atmosphere. The mode of using either of these is to stretch the gloves over a wooden hand of suit able size, and then sponge them with the fluid, removing the first. or dirty portion with a second wash of clean fluid. By collecting the washings separately, and allowing them to stand till the dirt settles, the same turpentine or benzole may be used Over and over again.
An inodorous composition may be made by dissolving one part of soap-shavings in two parts of rain or distilled water, using heat tc aid the solution. This is improved by adding to it a small quantity of liquor ammonia and any ordinary perfume. It should be applied to the glove stretched on the stock by rubbing with a piece of flannel always in one direction.
Doeskin and wash-leather gloves, when not very ° dirty,. may be cleaned dry by rub bino. them when stretched on a stock with a mixture of finely powdered fuller's-earth and alum, then sweeping If this powder with a brush, and dusting with dry bran and If the gloves arc very dirty, they should be washed with the soap solution, then rubbed with pipe-clay mixed with yellow ocher or amber (according to the shade required), made into a paste with ale or beer, then carefully dried and dusted to remove the superfluous powder.
Glove Powder, for cleaning gloves, is made by carefully drying Castile soap, and then pounding it in a mortar; or of pipe-clay covered with yellow ocher or Irish slate, or it may be made of a mixture of pipe-clay and powdered soap.