THE CORK-CUTTER.

The Cork-Cutter cuts the bark which is stripped from the cork-tree, into a variety of small round cylindrical pieces, for the purpose
of stopping casks, bottles, phials, &c.

The Cork-tree is a species of oak, and this, as well as the uses to which its bark is put, was known to the Greeks and Romans : by the former of whom, it was called phellos ; and by the latter, suber. By the Romans, we learn from Pliny, it was even employed to stop vessels of every kind ; but its application to this use seems not to have been veiy common, till the invention of glass bottles, of which professor Beckmann finds no mention before the fifteenth century.

The Cork-tree grows thirty or forty feet high, having a thick, rough, and fungous bark : its leaves are green above, and white underneath; its fruit is an acorn, which is produced in great abundance. The bark is taken off, by making an incision from the top to the bottom, and likewise one at each extremity round the tree, and perpendicular to the first. The old bark being thus detached, the tree still lives, not being in the smallest degree injured ; and in six or seven years, a succeeding bark is again fit for use.

The Cork-tree is found in great abundance in France, Spain, and Italy : from these counntries we receive the bark.

The bark, wheu stripped from the tree, is piled up in a pit or pond, and loaded with heavy stones to flatten it ; it is then taken to be dried, when it is fit for sale.

Corks are divided into bungs, for stopping casks, &c. wine-corks for bottles, and phia-corks for stopping phials, &c.

The Cork-Cutters' business requires but little ingenuity ; the knives used in the operation have a peculiar construction, and they must be exceedingly sharp. The knife is almost the only instrument wanted in the trade. The principal demand for corks, is for the purpose of stopping bottles; these are cut by men and women, who receive a certain price per gross for their labour. Cork-Cutters sell, also corks by the gross. It is one of the blackest, and dirtiest of trades, and not very profitable either for the master or the journeyman.

Cork is, likewise, used by young people in learning the art of swimming.

The cork waistcoat is composed of four pieces of cork ; two for the breast, and two f or the back, each nearly as long as the waistcoat without flaps. The cork is covered and adapted to fit the body. It is open before, and may be fastened either with strings or buckles and straps. The waistcoat weighs about twelve ounces, and may be made at the expence of a few shillings. This article of dress would be very useful to all persons wfio travel much by water, or who are in the habit of bathing in the open sea. Cork is, also, used for the inner soles of shoes.

A eork spencer has lately been invented, to save persons from drowning in cases of shipwreck. It consists of a belt, containing refuse, pieces of cork, inclosed in any kind of covering, and fastened round the body with tapes.

In Spain, cork is burnt to make that light kind of black, called Spanish-black, which is very much used by painters. The Egyptians
make their coffins of cork : and these, when lined with a certain resinous composition, preserves the dead a great length of time In
Spain, they even line the walls of their houses with cork, which not only renders the apartments warm, but corrects the moisture of the air.

Cork, when burnt and reduced to powder, is often taken internally as an astringent ; and it has been said that cups made of cork are useful for hectic persons to drink their common beverage from.

Fossil-cork, is the name given to a kind of stone, which is the lightest of all stones ; it is a species of amianthus, consisting of flexible
fibres loosely interwoven, and resembling the Vegetable cork ; it is fusible in the fire and forms black glass.