Fibre brushes are of many sorts and the materials are drawn from all parts of the world. The °rice root" fibre comes from Mexico, and so does the °Mexican grass," of which other cheap brushes are made. Another material much used is a wood fibre boiled in oil, coming from the west coast of Africa. Tampico fibre comes from the Philippines. The fibre brushes are mostly of the compound type. The wood blocks in which the tufts of fibre are set come from the wooded sections of Pennsylvania and Maine. The first operation is boring the holes in the blocks. The bunches of fibre of the proper size to fill the holes are i dipped at one end into pitch, pressed into the holes and given a little twist. The operatives are mostly girls, and each will set about 2,000 tufts a day. There are 41 holes in a scrubbing brush and 125 in a fine floor brush. Another method of setting the fibres (used also in mak ing bristle brushes) is to catch a loop of wire coming down through the hole in the block at the middle of a tuft, and then to draw the wire up tight into the block, without using pitch. The brush is clipped into perfect shape almost instantly in a machine having many adjustable knives. Backs are glued on or molded on with composition and generally finished with var nish. Many brushes are made on the Wood bury machine, but the great bulk of the work is still done by hand. The Woodbury machine makes what is called a "trepanned" brush; the holes are not bored through the block, but only so deep that they may meet other holes bored from the sides and ends. These holes are after
ward plugged and the back is finished on the original block.
In making the common household broom, the material used is broom corn, a variety of sorghum grown extensively in the Mississippi Valley and particularly in Kansas and Okla . homa. The broom corn is graded, the rougher portions, called "underworking," being tied (with wire) first around the foot of the handle; the medium quality, called "self-working," next, and then the outer layer of the best quality, called "hurl.* The broom thus formed is con ical. It is given its usual flattened shape by squeezing it in a vise and, while thus held sewing it through and through with twine. A special broom for heavy use has a metal band placed around it while in the vise, and is sewn with wire through the band, the handle being brought down low enough to be circled with this wire stitching. A recent introduction is the "knock-down broom," which is made on a short stick with a socket for the handle, the Idea being to renew the broom, when worn out, without the cost of a new handle which prac tically never wears out.
According to the census of 1909, there were in that year in the United States 1,282 estab lishments making brushes and brooms, employ ing 12,153 hands and a capital of $18,982,000 The value of the output was $29,125,596, of which $11,547,326 represented the value added by manufacture. In the year ending 30 June 1915, the United States imported feather dust ers and hair pencils to the value of $1,644,189.