Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/86

 80 LACE-BARK TREE drawn out. There are special machines called warp machines, of great variety, for making the sorts of lace known as' warp lace ; and there are others called point net for making this quality. A Jacquard apparatus is attached to some of the machines for working in the thick thread of gimp for the ornamental fig- ures. Where the thread passes from one figure to another, it is clipped off by children, who use the scissors for this purpose with great dexterity. The patterns at many of the fac- tories are worked in by hand. The govern- ment school of design established at Notting- ham has served to educate many skilful de- signers, who prepare the patterns upon wood or stone as for engraving or printing, those parts intended to leave a mark being in relief. The block, being moistened with some colored pigment, is repeatedly impressed upon the net, until the pattern is transferred 'to the whole surface designed for it ; and the figure is then worked with the needle, the web being ex- tended horizontally in a frame. Before being embroidered the net is carefully examined, and the defective parts are skilfully repaired by a class of workwomen called lace menders. It is also singed by drawing it rapidly over the flame of gas lights. Bleaching and dyeing are final processes, preceding those belonging to calendering: "The labor of washing lace is almost an art ; and only the most skilful are engaged in it. After washing, lace is spread out to dry on a cushioned table, and pins of a peculiar sort are run through each hole to pre- vent it from shrinking. When very fine, or the pattern intricate, an entire day will be spent upon one yard of lace." By means of the application of machinery to lace making, the price of the fabric has been wonderfully reduced ; so that a rack of lace, equal to 240 meshes in the length, which in the early part of the present century cost to manufacture 3s. 6(Z., now costs not more than one penny ; and a 24-rack piece, 5 quarters broad, formerly worth 17, is now sold for 7*. Full informa- tion on this subject is given in the "History of Lace," by Mrs. Bury Palliser (London, 1865 ; 2d ed., 1869). See also the "History of Ma- chine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufacture," by W. Felkin (London, 1867). LACE-BARK TREE (lagetta lintearia), a tree 25 to 30 ft. high, which is found in the island of Jamaica in the most inaccessible rocky places. It belongs to the family thymelacew, which includes the daphnes, our leatherwood or wicopy (dircd), and other plants noted for the great tenacity and sometimes poisonous quality of their inner bark. In lagetta (from the in- sular name lagetto) the inner bark consists of numerous layers, composed of fibres which in- terlace in all directions, so that when it is stretched transversely a layer of it has much the appearance of lace. Persons who visit Jamaica nearly always bring away a piece of this vegetable lace as one of the curious prod- ucts of theasland ; and it is said to be still in use there for articles of apparel. In the days of slavery in the island the lace-bark furnished thongs for the taskmaster's whips. LACEDJEMOX. See LACONIA, and SPARTA. LACEPEDE, Bernard Germain Etienne de La Ville, count de, a French naturalist, born in Agen, Dec. 26, 1756, died at his country seat near St. Denis, Oct. 6, 1825. He early evinced a taste for natural philosophy and musical composi- tion, and going to Paris when 20 years old, was welcomed by Buffon and by the composer Gluck. He gave to music the time not de- voted to natural philosophy, composed several operas, and in 1785 published his Poetique de la musique (2 vols. 8vo), in which Gluck's prin- ciples are expounded. He had previously written an Essai sur V electricite naturelle et artiftcielle (2 vols. 8vo, 1781), and Physique generale et particuliere (2 vols. 12mo, 1782-'4), which, although not well received by men of science, had such merits of style that Buffon engaged him as an assistant in continuing his "Natural History," and appointed him keeper and assistant demonstrator at the museum. His Histoire des quadrupedes ompares et des serpents (2 vols. 4to, 1788-'9) and Histoire naturelle des reptiles (4to, 1789) have been fre- quently reprinted as sequels to Buffon's work. He favored the revolution, received several offices of trust, and was elected in 1791 to the legislative assembly, over which he presided toward the end of the same year. On the massacres of September, he so energetically expostulated with Danton that his friends re- moved him from Paris, and persuaded him to resign his office at the museum. He did not return till after the 9th Thermidor. Being regarded as the legitimate heir of Buffon, he took his seat among the original members of the institute on its foundation, and was ap- pointed to the newly created professorship of herpetology in the jardin des plantes. His Histoire naturelle des poissons (6 vols. 4to and 11 vols. 12mo, 1798-1803) and Histoire des cetaces (4to and 2 vols. 12mo, 1804) display great descriptive talent. On the organization of the consular government, he was made a member of the senate, in 1801 president of that body, in 1803 grand chancellor of the le- gion of honor, and soon afterward minister of state. As president of the senate he pre- sented in 1809 the report upon the divorce of Napoleon and Josephine. He submitted to the Bourbons on their first return, joined Na- poleon during the hundred days, and, though coldly treated on the second restoration, reen- tered the chamber of peers in 1819. He died of smallpox. Besides the works mentioned, he was the author of several papers printed in the Memoires of the institute, and, jointly with George Ouvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, of La menagerie du mweum national d'histoire naturelle (1801), a descriptive history of the animals in the jardin des plantes. He devoted the last months of his life to correcting the notes of the Histoire generale, physique et