COMB (A.S. comb), an instrument to sepa rate and adjust the hair, too well known to need description. We have no certain authority that either the Greek or the Etruscan women applied this useful article regularly to their hair in the operations of the toilet, although it was used by the Greek women, at least, to arrange their hair. The combs used by the Greeks were of boxwood, and had teeth on both sides, while those used by the Egyptians had teeth only on one side. The Romans also had combs of box wood, and at a later time probably of ivory and other materials. In the work of Guasco Della Ornatrici there are several representatives of ancient Roman combs. One of them is a long one of box, of which the handle is over laid with ivory, and appears to have been orna mented with a small meander in gold. It has two rows of fine teeth, delicately wrought and well proportioned. Modern combs are gen erally made of tortoise shell, ivory, horn, wood, bone, metal, india rubber and celluloid. Ma
chinery has been perfected for their production. In making combs the material is first cut to the form which the comb is to have, and the teeth are then made all at once by means of circular saws mounted on the same axle and placed at a suitable distance from one another. Large combs in horn or shell, with wide teeth, are sometimes made with a punch, which cuts in the piece the teeth of two combs by the same operation. The teeth are afterward finished with the file. Combs made of vulcanized India rubber, which are now so common, are made by pressing the caoutchouc while soft into molds, and then bringing them to the desired degree of hardness by the process of vulcanization. Canova and other modern sculptors have made great use of the comb, placed in the heads of their women, to which they add much grace and elegance.