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BAST INDIAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 94 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BAST See also:

INDIAN &See also:ZANZIBAR See also:ball is then fixed in See also:half See also:cylinder re- versed, and the operation repeated for the other hemisphere. It is now See also:left five years to See also:season and then turned dead true. The rounder and straighter the tusk selected for ball-making the better. Evidently, if the tusk is See also:oval and the ball the See also:size of the least See also:diameter, its sides which come nearer to the bark or rind will be coarser and of a different See also:density from those portions further removed from this See also:outer skin. The matching of billiard-balls is important, for extreme accuracy in See also:weight is essential. It is usual to bleach them, as the purchaser—or at any See also:rate the distributing intermediary—likes to have them of a dead See also:white. But this is a See also:mistake, for See also:bleaching with chemicals takes out the gelatine to some extent, alters the quality and affects the density; it also makesthem more liable to crack, and they are not nearly so See also:nice-looking, Billiard-balls should be bought in summer See also:time when the temperature is most equable, and gently used till the See also:winter season. On an See also:average three balls of See also:fine quality are got out of a tooth. The stock of more than one See also:great manufacturer surpasses at times 30,000 in number. But although ball See also:teeth See also:rose in 1905 to £167 a cwt., the See also:price of billiard-balls was the same in 1905 as it was in 1885. Roughly speaking, there are about twelve different qualities and prices of billiard-balls, and eight of See also:pyramid-and See also:pool-balls, the latter ranging from half a See also:guinea to two guineas each. The See also:ivory for piano-keys is delivered to the See also:trade in the shape of what are known as heads and tails, the former for the parts which come under the fingers, the latter for that See also:running up between the See also:black keys.

The two are joined afterwards on the See also:

keyboard with extreme accuracy. Piano-keys are bleached, but organists for some See also:reason or other prefer unbleached keys. The soft variety is mostly used for high-class See also:work and preferably of the See also:Egyptian type. The great centres of the ivory See also:industry for the See also:ordinary See also:objects of See also:common domestic use are in See also:England, for See also:cutlery handles See also:Sheffield, for billiard-balls and piano-keys See also:London. For See also:Lathe See also:Wood Chuck See also:Metal See also:Ring ' Nan. No.o. No.} cutlery a large See also:firm such as See also:Rodgers & Sons uses an average of some twenty tons of ivory annually, mostly of the hard variety. But for billiard-balls and piano-keys See also:America is now a large producer, and a considerable quantity is made in See also:France and See also:Germany. See also:Brush backs are almost wholly in See also:English hands. See also:Dieppe has See also:long been famous for the numberless little ornaments and useful articles such as statuettes, crucifixes, little See also:book-covers, See also:paper-cutters, combs, serviette-rings and articles de See also:Paris generally. And St See also:Claude in the See also:Jura, and See also:Geislingen in Wurtemberg, and See also:Erbach in See also:Hesse, Germany, are amongst the most important centres of the industry. See also:India and See also:China See also:supply the multitude of toys, See also:models, See also:chess and draughtsmen, puzzles, workbox fittings and other curiosities.

See also:

Vegetable Ivory, &c.—Some allusion may be made to vegetable ivory and artificial substitutes. The See also:plants yielding the vegetable ivory of See also:commerce represent two or more See also:species of an anomalous genus of palms, and are known to botanists asPhytelephas. They are natives of tropical See also:South America, occurring chiefly on the See also:banks of the See also:river Magdalena, See also:Colombia, always found in See also:damp localities, not only, however, on the See also:lower See also:coast region as in See also:Darien, but also at a considerable See also:elevation above the See also:sea. They are mostly found in See also:separate groves, not mixed with other trees or shrubs. The plant is severally known as the " tagua " by the See also:Indians on the banks of the Magdalena, as the " ants " on the coast of Darien, and as the " pullipunta " and " homero "in See also:Peru. It is stemless or See also:short-stemmed, and crowned with from twelve to twenty very long pinnatifid leaves. The plants are dioecious, the See also:males forming higher, more erect and robust trunks than the See also:females. The male inflorescence is in the See also:form of a See also:simple fleshy cylindrical spadix covered with See also:flowers; the See also:female flowers are also in a single spadix, which, however, is shorter than in the male. The See also:fruit consists of a conglomerated See also:head composed of six or seven drupes, each containing from six to nine seeds, and the whole being enclosed in a walled woody covering forming altogether a globular head as large as that of a See also:man. A single plant sometimes bears at the same time from six to eight of these large heads of fruit, each weighing from 20 to 25 lb. In its very See also:young See also:state the See also:seed contains a clear insipid fluid, which travellers take See also:advantage of to allay thirst. As it gets older this fluid becomes milky and of a sweet See also:taste, and it gradually continues to See also:change both in taste and consistence until it becomes so hard as to make it valuable as a substitute for See also:animal ivory.

In their young and fresh state the fruits are eaten with avidity by bears, hogs and other animals. The seeds, or nuts as they are usually called when fully ripe and hard, are used by the See also:

American Indians for making small ornamental articles and toys. They are imported into See also:Britain in considerable quantities, frequently under the name of " CBrozo " nuts, a name by which the fruits of some species of Attalea (another See also:palm with hard ivory-like seeds) are known in Central America—their uses being chiefly for small articles of turnery. Of vegetable ivory Great Britain imported in 1904 1200 tons, of which about 400 tons were re-exported, principally to Germany. It is mainly and largely used for coat buttons.

End of Article: BAST INDIAN

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