BRUSH and BROOM (brush, broebe, brosse, bush, brushwood, possibly akin to AS. byrst, 011UL burst, Ger. Borst, bristle; and see Buooxt). A brush is an instrument fur sweeping or rubbing surfaces, either to remove dirt or to apply some material, as paint or blacking.• It is composed of a bunch or bunches of fibrin's and flexible material attached to a handle or hack. A broom is simply a long-handled brush. These familiar instruments are of very ancient origin. for they arc mentioned in the writings of Homer. They are used for a great variety of purposes, and are made from an indefinite number of ma terials. Among the commoner materials used in their manufacture are bristles, feathers, whale bone, and rubber, the hair of the camel. Russian squirrel, badger, bear, and goat, rattan, split cane, broom-corn, and coir. The last-named ma terial, which is simply the husk of the cocoanut palm, is largely superseding hog's bristles for the coarser kinds of brushes.
Brushes are said to be simple when they con sist of a single tuft, and compound when they consist of a series of tufts. The (-rudest form of all is the ordinary paint-brush. in which the handle is forked at the end and a bunch of bristles is inserted between the two prongs, which are then bound together with twine and secured with a coating of glue. Artists' paint brushes are made from camel's or Russian squirrel's hair; the roots'are forced into a quill which has been soaked previously, and which on drying holds them fast.
In making the cheaper grades of compound brushes, such as floor and scrub brushes, dusters and blaeking-brushes, the tufts of bristles, eoir, or whatever the material used, arc simply stuck into holes bored in a piece of wood. These holes may be bored at an angle, so that the tufts will project outward. The root-ends are dipped in melted pitch, bound with thread, and then dipped again and inserted with a twisting mo tion. In the finer grades of brushes the tufts are tied in the middle with wire or thread, which is drawn up through the hole piercing the wood, and are secured by interweaving at the hack. A veneer is then glued or cemented on the back to cover the wires. The best brushes are trepanned—that is, the holes are driven longitudinally or transversely through the back, and other holes sunk to meet them on the face of the brush. The tufts arc then tied in the middle with strong threads, which are drawn through the holes piercing the brush, after which the holes running transversely or longi tudinally through the brush are plugged. Brushes a re made by machinery, and many dif ferent. devices for their construction have been invented. In the Woodbury process—an Ameri can invention and one of the earliest in brush manufacture — the back of the brush is tre panned, and as the holes do not go clear through the wood, an extra back is not required. This
machine consists of a metal comb of uniform thickness, filled with bristles which are held in the middle, so that one half of the bristles appear above the surface of the comb and the other half beneath. The comb thus charged moves in guideways, and discharges bris tles from each division successively into a chan nel in which they are brought into a horizontal Besides the commoner types of brushes and brooms already described, there is an endless variety constructed in special shapes and used for special purposes.
The accompanying table gives the foreign trade of the United States in brushes and brush materials: position, and a proper quantity taken up to form a tuft. This tuft is moved along an in clined cylinder, when a plunger doubles the bristles into a loop, which is seized by wire, and in an instant securely fastened.
Brooms for sweeping floors, and whisk brooms for brushing clothes, are produced in large quantities in the United States, where they are made from broom-corn, a staple agricultural product of the Middle West. Broom-corn grow ing and broom-making are both carried on in a small way by hundreds of farmers and manu facturers, and the bulk of the work is still done by hand, or with the aid of simple machinery. Large manufacturers, however, employ steam sewing-machines. The broom-corn or brush is received at the shop in bales. It is first run through sizing-machines, to separate the fibres into groups according to length. In the large shops the broom is tied into bundles and bleached or dried to give it the desired color. The broom handles are eentially simply turned sticks, which are sandpapered, varnished, painted, or otherwise finished to suit the trade. Whisk brooms, however, often have fancy handles of bone, celluloid, or even such costly materials as silver and ivory. In making the brown the fibres are placed around the end of the stick or handle and secured by wire in a simple winding machine. The broom at this point is conical. The next step is to flatten it to shape in a vise, and secure it in that form by sewing it with twine. This may he done by hand or by power; in either case the broom is held in a vise while being sewed. To remove the portion of seed left on the broom by the harvester, it is run through a scraping-maehine, between rolls or cylinders containing pegs or wires. The brooms are then trimmed ; tin, plush, or velvet guards are placed over the wiring; labels are affixed, and the com pleted brooms bunched in dozens. In the eheap er grades of brooms the sticks are plain and the guards are omitted. Besides brooms, many other varieties of brushes are made from the broom corn.
Revolving brooms, for sweeping streets, began to be used as early as 1835. The modern carpet sweeper (q.v.) is a form of revolving broom.