The above illustration depicts on of the workshops at the John L. Whiting & Son factory on High Street in Boston, quite likely, shortly after its opening c. 1885.

"Each department has a skilled, active superintendent working along side ..." the other employees. Coincidentally, beginning about 1884 Henry Wessling was employed by the Whiting's as a foreman. He may have been working in the Whiting's business since 1872.

Before the reliance on machinery in the production of brushes, the brush making process, as carried out by a small brush making business, might be described as follows.

They manufactured "almost exclusively, the most expensive grades of Brushes, such as Paint, Whitewash, and Varnish, the expense of manufacturing being mainly in the material used -- imported bristles -- as the cost of labor was comparatively small."

The best quality bristles came from a strip running across the backs of wild hogs. Bristle hairs are stiff and coarse with a V-shaped split end, called a 'flagged tip'. Bristles have a natural curve, and great care is necessary in setting them so that the tips of the bristles curve in towards the center of the brush rather than straggling out in random directions. Brushes formed with the flags turning into (or interlocked with) the ferrule offer the most spring, shape retention and control. Furthermore, the most desirable qualities of uniform resiliency and durability can be obtained only when the tips of the bristles are left untrimmed, the natural ends of the bristles being used to make the tip of the brush. For this reason the hairs must be sorted into batches of uniform size before they are used in quality brushes. in the cheaper brushes the bristles are often set at random and then trimmed to make an even tip. Bristle brushes are best suited for oils.

"They used imported bristles shipped to this country which are taken from the domestic hogs of Prussia, Austria and France, and the wild hogs of Russia; the longer and stiffer sorts were raised in Siberia. The length and stiffness of the bristle were the great desiderata, increasing their value for every quarter of an inch above a certain size; hence, American bristles were of inferior quality, as the western swine were fatted for their pork and slaughtered in the palmy days of youth when their hair was short and curly. Western bristles were used chiefly in the manufacture of show, stove, and other coarse, cheap brushes, and for such purposes answer about as well as imported stock.

"The brushes of that firm were made entirely by hand labor, and though the process of the manufacture was very simple, perhaps for that reason alone no machinery had ever been invented which has proved either time or labor saving.

"The bristles, when first received, were thoroughly washed with the aid of soap, soda, potash, and a strong infusion of muscle, then spread thinly on wooden racks and taken to the bleach-room, where they were subjected for several hours to the fumes of burning brimstone. After a 'good bleach' they were tied up and straightened in small bundles and placed in the dry-house, where they remain until all moisture and dampness were removed, when they must be promptly taken out, as the least additional heat injures the fibre and elasticity of the bristle.

"Next in order comes the process of 'combing' or 'dressing' which consisted in mixing bristles of various lengths together so that the brush when made will be tapering from the belt to the flag-end, otherwise, the bristles being all of one length, the brush would not work better than a piece of rubber, or stub of wood. The dressing is accomplished by spreading out on a long smooth bench a layer of bristles of equal length, placing upon that another layer shorter than that, another layer upon that, and so on, until the 'row' is from 6 to 10 inches high, when the workman 'cuts' or detaches a double handful from one end of the row, and by constantly combing out the handful through an upright steel comb affixed to the bench, after reversing the ends and separating the parts, the bristles become thoroughly and uniformly intermixed, and are ready to be made into brushes.

"Paint and Varnish Brushes were made, after carefully weighing the bristles required for each brush, by grasping the bunch, or 'knot', in the hand, turning the flag-end inward to the center, slipping a wire ferrule over the mass, bringing it down flush with the butts of the bristles, when a tapering wooden handle is forced into the center to bind the bristles compactly within the ferrule."

Whiting's methods devoted more time to sorting the cleaned bristles by color, length, as well as by elasticity through a process called 'dragging'. Then the final stage of mixing would begin by using several different kinds of bristles depending on which type of brush was to be produced. "Some 'draggings' and some 'taperings', but none no longer than the desired size."

Whiting also introduced the use of a machine to comb and dress the bristles which greatly streamlined the brush making process. Because of the tapered shape of the bristles it was important to have all of the bristles aligned int he same direction and his machinery was able to do that efficiently with the direct result of being able to reduce a great deal of the hand work.

He also invented machinery for making the brush handles for his patented brushes. these handles enabled the bristles to be held together much better and thereby his brushes were stronger than those of his competitors. More importantly, the handles were designed in such a way that Whiting was able to use shorter bristles in his brushes and thereby save money on the cost of the bristles.

His machinery for securing the bristles to the ferrules did such a good job that Whiting would guarantee his brushes, when used in the manner for which they were designed, against the loss of bristles.

In later brush making methods the bristles were set into a rubber or resinous compound in order to secure the bristles before they were attached to the handles.

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