Identifier: middlekingdomsu02will (find matches)
Title: The Middle Kingdom; a survey of the geography, government, literature, social life, arts, and history of the Chinese Empire and its inhabitants
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Williams, S. Wells (Samuel Wells), 1812-1884
Subjects:
Publisher: New York Scribner
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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was singularly compact. His fire was held in aniron basin not unlike a coal-scuttle in shape, in the back cornerof which the mouthpiece of the bellows entered. The anvilwas a small square mass of iron, not very unlike our own, placedon a block, and a partition basket close by held the charcoaland tools, with the old iron and other rubbish he carried. Thewater to temper his iron was in an earthen pot, which just atthis time was most usefully employed in boiling his dinnerover the forge fire After he had done the job he took off his 58 THE MIDDLE KINGDOM. dinner, threw the water on the fire, picked out the coals and putthem back into the basket, threw away the ashes, set the anvilastride of the bellows, and laying the fire-pan on the basket,slung the bellows on one end of his pole and the basket on theother, and walked off. The mode of mending holes in cast-iron pans here noticed is a peculiar operation. The smith firstfiles the lips of the hole clean, and after heating the dish firmly
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Itinerant Dish-mender places it on a tile covered with wet felt. He then pours theliquid iron, fused in a crucible by the assistance of a flux, uponthe hole, and immediately patters it down with a dossil of feltuntil it covers the edges of the pan above and below, and iethen, while cooling, hammered until firmly fixed in its place. Another ingenious and effectual method of mending porcelainand all manner of crockery ware is performed by itinerantworkmen, who travel about with their workshop on their 1 Chinese Repository, Vol. X., p. 473. WOOD AND IVORY CARVING. 59 shoulders, as seen in the cut. By means of minute copperclamps, even the most delicate article of China-ware may be re-paired and made to answer the purpose of a new piece; sinceno cement is used in this style of mending, it has the additionaladvantage of standing immersion in water. The great number of craftsmen who ply their vocations inthe street, as well as the more numerous class of hucksterswho supply food as they go f

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