apparently provides a key to much of the authorship, I have not had the opportunity to consult it with respect to the following.]From Household Words, November 13, 1852:
UMBRELLAS.
Would M. Garnerin have astonished the denizens of St. Pancras, by alighting among them in a parachute liberated from a balloon, half a century ago?-—would he have had many imitators, successful and unsuccessful, at all sorta of Eagles and Rosemary Branches and Hippodromes?-—and, lastly, would Madame Poitevin, the only real, genuine Europa of modern times, have dropped down from the clouds on an evening visit to Clapham Commons?-—would all these events have occurred if umbrellas had never been invented? What should induce the aeronaut to think of such an expedient, unless he had seen how nicely and suddenly the cloth of an umbrella expands into its curved form by the sliding action of the stretchers? When M. Blauchard lowered his little dog in a parachute over Liege, in 1785, he had studied an umbrella well beforehand. Our umbrellas usually have eight ribs or meridians on their spherical surface, and, of course, eight gores of cotton, or silk, or alpaca, to connect and cover them; but M. Garnerin's umbrella-parachute had no less than thirty-two gores, and expanded to twenty-three feet in diameter--surety a sufficient shield against two showers of rain rolled into one, or two suns burning at once with double July power.But it is with umbrellas proper, and not umbrella-parachutes, that we are here dealing. And, in touching upon umbrellas, we must perforce include parasols; for they are so nearly related by family ties, that, although in European countries the parasol is generally the lady sister of the umbrella, yet in the East they are one and indivisible. Or rather, the umbrella, in its character as a rain-guard, is very little known in the East, for no one with his wits about him thinks of stirring abroad in the rainy season.
Great is the honour of holding an umbrella, or rather parasol, over an Oriental potentate. Among the sculptures at Persepolis is a bas-relief of a king or chief, over whose head an umbrella is held by an attendant. At Takht-i-Bostau, another spot in Persia, is a bas-relief representing a chief witnessing a boar hunt, with an attendant umbrella-bearer. Dr. Layard has met with umbrellas among his bas-reliefs at Nineveh, which seem to have been very smart productions. "It" (the Nineveh sun-shade) "resembled in shape very closely those now in common use, but it is always seen open in the sculptures. It was edged with tassels, and was usually adorned at the top by a flower, or some other ornament. On the later bas-reliefs a long piece of embroidered linen or silk, falling from one side like a curtain, appears to screen the king completely from the sun. The parasol was reserved exclusively for the monarch, and is never represented as borne over any other person." The Sangsters of Nineveh, therefore, six-aud-twenty centuries ago, must have had rather a limited circle of customers. In ancient Egypt, as in ancient Assyria, these sun-shields appear to have been used; for Sir J. G. Wilkinson has copied from one of the Theban pictures a delineation of an Ethiopian princess travelling in a car, to which is attached an umbrella or sun-shade, bearing a strong resemblance to the chaise umbrella which Mr. and Mrs. Smith take out with them on their Sunday's ride to Epping Forest.
The parasol is still an appendage of ceremonials in the East. Among the numerous titles of the King of Ava is that of "lord of the twenty-four umbrellas." In Siarn, the chief officers of state use umbrellas nearly resembling those of Europe; but the king— Loubere tells us—has an umbrella three or four tiers in height; and the umbrellas which he presents to ambassadors and his favourites indicate the degree of his favour by the kind of hangings or trimmings. Among the Mahratta tribes in India, the chattrapali or "lord of the umbrella," is an officer of very high rank; and Sir John Malcolm is of opinion that the Persian, title of satrap is derived from the same word. Besides the favoured holder of the umbrella over the sacred head of the Chinese emperor, the officers of state in China have each his umbrella-holder; and in Chinese drawings it is very customary to see ladies attended by servants similarly provided with umbrellas. Ali Bey, in describing the entrance of the Emperor of Morocco into Fez, says, that by the side of the monarch rode an officer holding an umbrella over the Emperor's head. Niebuhr tells us that, when in the south of Arabia, he saw the Imaum of Sana going to mosque in great state, with, on umbrella over him.
In Europe we find the distinction between the umbrella and the parasol more marked. The French have their parapluie and their parasol; the Italians have their ombrillo and their parasole; the Germans their regenschirm and their sonnenschirm--all "rainguards" or "sun-guards." It is probable that Italywas the first European country to adopt these conveniences, originally as a sun-shade only, but afterwards as a rain-shade likewise. Horsemen sometimes carried with them umbrellas made of leather, hooped in the inside, ao as to expand to a pretty large size. Robinson Crusoe's umbrella was, as we all know, made of skins, with the hair ontowards; and Defoe probably derived his idea of it from the sun-shades used at that time in South America.
The umbrella as a sun-shade was certainly known and used in England more than two centuries ago, for it is mentioned in that capacity by Ben Jonson and by Beaumont and Fletcher; but its use as a wet weather companion commenced much later. Gay, writing his "Trivia," about 1712, speaks thus:—-
"Good housewives all the winter's rape despise,But, alas! for Gay's theory, the "walking maid" has become more afraid of the sun's beams; not only does the well-to-do lady carry a parasol, but the damsel of low degree now looks out among "Tremendous Sacrifices," for parasols at thirteen-pence halfpenny each. And the oily shed of which Gay speaks seems to denote a kind of sou'wester material, less dainty than the neat gingham or the soft silk.
Defended by the riding hood's disguise;
Or underneath th' umbrella's oily shed,
Safe through the wet in clinking pattens tread.
Let Persian dames th' umbrella's ribs display
To guard their beauties from the snnny ray;
Or sweating slaves support their shady load,
When Eastern monarchs show their state abroad;
Britain in winter only knows its aid,
To guard from chilling showers the walking maid."
Jonas Hanway, celebrated for much more important things, has the celebrity of being the first man to use an umbrella, in England. With respect to Scotland, Creech tells us that "in 1763 there was no such thing known or once used as an
umbrella; but an eminent surgeon of Edinburgh, who had occasion to walk a good deal in the course of his business, used one about the year 1780; and in 1783 umbrellas, were much used." Glasgow seems also, from the "Statistical Account" of that city, to have become possessed of its first umbrella about the same time, much to the astonishment of the citizens. All vary well, this, for the abundant rains in the touns of Scotland; but it is difficult to admire a full-dressed kilted Highlander walking under an umbrella, a sight which Queen Victoria has more than once witnessed. Before umbrellas were used by pedestrians in England, it became customary to provide one in the halls of genteel mansions, to hold over persons when entering or leaving their carriages. In those days umbrellas were weighed by the pound, and not by the ounce, as at present.
The making of umbrellas and parasols is a very curious art, as we learn abundantly from that same Exhibition Jury which has told the world more about walking-sticks than the world ever knew before. It appears that in forty years there have been no fewer than eighty patents taken out in France alone for improvements in umbrella making. An umbrella consists, as a slight examination will show, of a large number of distinct parts, and there has been room for uutiring ingenuity in devising means of fastening these several pieces together; so that those which are to be fixed may be firm in their fixedness, and those which are to move may move smoothly and quietly. And there has been no want of change in the materials employed—-cane, for whalebone; iron, for wood; and alpaca for silk or gingham.
The putting together of nmbrella and parasol frames with cane and whalebone ribs is, it seems, chiefly done by small masters in London, who employ lads to assist them; the covering with woven material is the work of women and girls at their own humble homes; while the fixing of the handles and ferules is often done at the warehouses. There are thus no umbrella factories, properly so called; the system resembles that of the Clerkenswell watch trade, in which the component elements of a watch travel about from one small master to another, before being finally put together. The metal work, however—-the Birmingham portion—-especially since the increased use of iron in the frames, is conducted much more on the factory system; the number of persons so employed is very large, and the manufacture is an important element in Birmingham industry.
The amount of work which the putter-together performs for three farthings is scarcely credible, were it not stated as authority beyond all dispute. The workman receives stick, ribs, stretchers, and runners from the warehouse; he provides iron wire and sheet brass; his workshop is supplied at his own charge with lathes, eaves, rostf-utters, drills, paring-knives, a vice, pliers, and other tools; and he and his lads—_two to four in number—_set to work. First, the stick goes through its prescribed ordeal; it is usually of beech, and was formerly stained; it is now singed to any desired tint. There is a portable fire-place with a hole in the chimney. The stick is thrust into that hole, and is passed rapidly over the top of a flame; being dexterously twisted about the while. It comes out of a dark or light colour according to the time of its exposure to, or its distance from, the flame. The workers taper one end for receiving the ferule; they out two grooves for receiving the two springs which respectively keep the umbrella closed and open; they insert the springs in these grooves, they adjust a stopper of wire to prevent the slides from going too far, and they fix a cross wire with a staple at each end of it. Thus much for the stick; and now for the ribs. The workman and his staff of boys roughly taper the slip of whalebone which is to form a rib; they shape it, and smooth it, and varnish its tip; they drill a hole in it, to facilitate the fastening to the cover; they shape and smooth the head, lap sheet brass round it, and drill a hole through it for the bit of wire which is afterwards to form a hinge ; they similarly drill and shield it at the middle point where the stretcher is to be fastened, and they attach it to the stretcher by means of a little axis of wire. When all the eight ribs have been doctored in this way, they are separately weighed or weighted:; that is, they arc tested in respuct to strength and flexibility, in order that the eight for any one umbrella may be selected as nearly equal as possible; a necessary condition for the symmetrical set of the umbrella when open. Thus far done, the busy workers proceed to thread the ribs ; they insert a bit of wire in a drilled hole in each stretcher; they fasten the stretcher to a notch in the slides by means of this wire, and they fasten the ribs to their meeting point by other pieces of wire.
Now what, in the name of all that is cheap, does the reader imagine to be the rate of wages paid for this labour and these bits of iron wire and sheet brass? In the first place, look at the movements, the separate operations. The stick pasaes through the hand nineteen times during its fashioning and adjustment; each rib passes through the hand thirteen times in preparing, once in weighing, and four times in threading; and thus, for an umbrella, of eight ribs, there have been one hundred and sixty-three successive operations, performed by the workman and his three or four boys. For this he receives from a halfpenny to three farthings in the case of parasols, and from three farthings to one penny in the case of umbrellas, if the manufacture be of the commonest kind, and the ribs made of cane; but a whalebone-rribbed umbrella brings him about twopence half-penny. In respect to the number of operations, we may say that the Jury reporter makes it one hundred and thirty-five; but as his sum total does not quite agree with his items, we have taken the liberty to introduce a little arithmetic of our own. A workman and four boys can, notwithstanding this complexity of movements and operations, put together nearly six hundred common umbrellas in a week; but out of the six hundred pence which he may receive for this labour, his iron wire and sheet brass will have cost him eight shillings. When the next shower of rain impels us to open 'an umbrella, let us look at its skeleton, and ponder on the amount of labour rendered for a penny or twopence.
The womens' and girls' work, in covering the umbrellas and parasols, is paid for at the rate of from a penny to fourpence each, according to the quality and the amount of labour.
The iron or (so called) steel frames now made at Birmingham, are produced in enormous quantities. The stick, ribs, stretchers, and ferule, are all made of iron, and can be supplied complete so low as sevenpence each. The small compass into which an iron-frame umbrella will pack, is a great source of the favour in which it is held. France excels us in the costly and beautiful umbrellas and parasols; but we outvie all the world in the humbler kinds. Several of our large City houses are said to sell from two hundred and fifty to five hundred dozens of umbrellas and parasols weekly. The wholesale prices have now reached such a low degree of cheapness that a child's gingham parasol may be had for fourpence, a woman's for tenpence-halfpenny, a small silk parasol for the same, and a gingham umbrella for sevenpence. That the manufacture of these goods must be very large in England, is shown by the fact that the whalebone fins imported, and used principally for umbrella-ribs, amount to eight or nine thousand hundredweights annually.
The pursuit of lightness has been one of the aims of modern umbrella makers, insomuch that we are becoming lighter and lighter every generation. The umbrella of 1645 is recorded to have been a weighty affair of three pounds and a half, from which we have travelled downwards to about half a pound. One inventor has ingeniously shown how to make the ribs of hollow steel tubing, combining much strength with extraordinary lightness; and another has a contrivance for opening the umbrella by merely touching a spring near the handle; a third shows you how to draw out the stick, and use it as a walking-stick; while another enables you to fold up your umbrella and stow it away ia your great-coat pocket. The Alpaca is a favourite just now; it is covered with cloth made from the undyed wool of the South American sheep; it fades neither in the sunshine nor with the touch of salt-water, and it is strong and durable. No less than twenty-five thousand pounds' worth of Alpaca cloth was used in England for covering umbrellas in 1851. In Paris there are something like seventeen hundred persons employed in making umbrellas and parasols, producing three hundred thousand pounds' worth in a year--no trifling item int the productive industry of a great city.
If we mistake not, the newspapers described, a few years ago, a most gorgeous umbrella made in London for an Oriental potentate, with a hollow stick containing all sorts of golden and be-jewelled knick-knacks, and an external adornment of most costly character. Yet is the sevenpenny gingham umbrella a more important commercial article, after all.
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