EVOLUTION OF THE UMBRELLA.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XIII, 27 March 1897, Page 392

EVOLUTION OF THE UMBRELLA.

Forty years or so ago nmbrellas were made with stretches or bows of whalebone. These bows were rather bulky in themselves, and they were apt to get a little permanent bend from long use, so that they bulged when the umbrella was rolled up, making the big, baggy umbrella, familiar to middle aged and older people, and occasionally still seen though on the stage oftener than in real life. With the introduction of petroleum oil into general use as an illuminating oil and the consequent very general abandonment of the use of whale oil came the decline of the whaling industry. Fewer and fewer vessels went after whales, because there was less and less demand for the oil. Of course, the supply of whalebone decreased with the supply of oil, but the price did not, nor yet the demand. There are still some uses for which whaleboneisconsidered most desirable, and with constant demand and decreasing supply, the price of whalebone steadily advanced, as it has continued to do. Whalebone soon became too costly to permit of its further use for umbrella spreaders, and substitutes for it were sought for this use, as there were for other uses in which whalebone had been employed. S’eel was the substitute generally used in umbrella stretchers. At first a slender, round, tempered steel rod. With these slenderer bows the umbrella could be more snugly rolled and the old baggy umbrella began to disappear and the modern tight roller to take its place. Then came the umbrella bows of light steel rolled in \ shape, and then in the quest for a still tighter roller umbrella Handles were made of metal. The first tubing handles were made of brase. Steel would have been cheaper, but there bad been discovered no satisfactory method of brazing steel tubes such as are used as umbrella bandies. There is such a method now, however, and umbrella bandies of steel tubing are now made in great num hers. And nowadays many spreaders are made <f steel roller channel-shaped. In cross section this spreader is shaped something like a capital letter E without a t< ngue, and the ribs of the umbrella—the steel rods that run from the sliding ferrule, or runner, as it is called, on the handle of the umbrella is spread are so attached and adjusted to the spreaders that they shut into the channels when the umbrella is closed.