Difference between revisions of "Fuller"

<p> kobes , from kabas "to tread." The fuller's chief work was cleansing and whitening garments for festive and religious occasions. The white garment typifies Christ's spotless righteousness, put on the saints. &nbsp;Revelation 3:4-5; &nbsp;Revelation 3:18; &nbsp;Revelation 6:11; &nbsp;Revelation 7:9; &nbsp;Revelation 7:14; &nbsp;Ecclesiastes 9:8, "let thy garments be always white"; the present, even if gloomy, should never rob saints of the festive joyousness of spirit which faith bestows, in consciousness of peace with God now, and in the prospect of glory for ever. Fulling or cleansing cloth was effected by stamping on the garments with the feet or bats in tubs of water containing some alkaline dissolved. </p> <p> The alkaline substances mentioned are "soap" and "nitre" (&nbsp;Proverbs 25:20; &nbsp;Jeremiah 2:22), a potash which mixed with oil was used as soap. &nbsp;Malachi 3:2, "fullers' soap." &nbsp;Job 9:30, "if I make my hands never so clean," translated, "if I cleanse my hands with lye." Carbonate of potash is obtained impure from burning plants, especially the kali (from whence, with the Arabic al , the article, comes the word "alkali ") of Egypt and Arabia. "Nitre" is not used in our sense, namely, saltpeter, but native carbonate of soda. Natron is found abundant in the soda lakes of Egypt (Pliny, 31:10), in the valley Bahr-bela-ma (the waterless sea), 50 miles E. of Cairo, during the nine months of the year that the lakes are dry. </p> <p> The [[Mishna]] mentions also urine and chalk used in fullers' cleansing. This may have suggested the indelicate filthy sneer of [[Rabshakeh]] to Hezekiah's messengers in "the highway of the fullers' field" (&nbsp;2 Kings 18:27). The trade was relegated to the outside of Jerusalem, to avoid the offensive smells. (See [[Enrogel]] .) Chalk, or earth of some kind, was used to whiten garments. Christ's garments at the transfiguration became "shining" white "as no fuller on earth could whiten them" (&nbsp;Mark 9:3). Christ's mission, including both the first and second advents, is compared to "fuller's soap" in respect to the judicial process now secretly going on, hereafter to be publicly consummated at the second advent, whereby the unclean are separated from the clean. </p>

<p> '''Fuller.''' The trade of the fullers, so far as it is mentioned in Scripture, appears to have consisted chiefly in ''Cleansing [[Garments]] And Whitening Them.'' The process of fulling or cleansing clothes consisted in treading or stamping on the garments with the feet or with bats in tubs of water, in which some alkaline substance answering the purpose of soap had been dissolved. The substances used for this purpose which are mentioned in [[Scripture]] are natron [Native carbonate of soda, or mineral alkali.], &nbsp;Proverbs 25:20; &nbsp;Jeremiah 2:22, and soap. &nbsp;Malachi 3:2 </p> <p> Other substances also are mentioned as being employed in cleansing, which, together with the alkali, seem to identify the [[Jewish]] with the Roman process, as urine and chalk. The process of whitening garments was performed by rubbing into them chalk or earth of some kind. '''Creta cimolia''' (cimolite) was probably the earth most frequently used. </p> <p> The trade of the fullers, as causing offensive smells, and also as requiring space for drying clothes, appears to have been carried on at [[Jerusalem]] outside the city. </p>

<p> '''(1):''' ''' (''' v. t.) One whose occupation is to full cloth. </p> <p> '''(2):''' ''' (''' a.) A die; a half-round set hammer, used for forming grooves and spreading iron; - called also a creaser. </p> <p> '''(3):''' ''' (''' v. t.) To form a groove or channel in, by a fuller or set hammer; as, to fuller a bayonet. </p>

<p> A cleanser of cloth. His process is unknown. Christ's robes at the transfiguration were white "so as no fuller on earth can white them," &nbsp;Mark 9:3 . We read also of fullers' soap, &nbsp;Malachi 3:2 , and of the fullers' fountain. See EN-ROGEL. </p>

<p> FULL'ER, n. One whose occupation is to full cloth. </p>

<p> (כֹּבֵס, ''Kobes','' from כָּבִס, to tread [comp. Gesenius, ''Monum. Phoen.'' page 181]; γναφεύς ). The art of the fuller is beyond doubt of great antiquity and seems to have reached at an early period a comparativa degree of perfection. Very scanty materials, however, exist for tracing its progress, or for ascertaining exactly, in aney particular age or country (see Pliny, 2:57), what substances were employed in the art, and what methods were resorted to for the purpose of making them effectual. At the transfiguration our Samioum's robes are said to have been white, " so as no fuller on earth could white them" (&nbsp;Mark 9:3). [[Elsewhere]] we read of "fullers soap" (&nbsp;Malachi 3:2), and of "the fullers field" (&nbsp;2 Kings 18:17). Of the processes followed ile the art of cleaning cloth and the various kinds of stuff among the [[Jews]] we have no direct knowledge. In an early part of the operation they seem to have trod the cloths with their feet (Geseneius, Thes. page 1261), as the [[Hebrew]] Ain-Rogel, or En-rogel, literally Foot- fountain, has been rendered, on Rabbinical autbority, "Fullers fountain," on the ground that the fullers trod the cloths there with their feet (comp. Host, Marokko, page 116). They were also rubbed with the knuckles, as in modern washing (Synes. Ep. 44; compare Euseb. Hist. &nbsp;Ecclesiastes 2:1-2). A subsequent operation was probably that of rubbing the cloth on an inclined plane, is a mode which is figured is the [[Egyptian]] paintings (Wilkinson, 2:106, abridgm.), and still preserved in the East. It seems from the above notices that the trade of the fullers, as causing offensive smells and also as requiring space for drying clothes, was carried on at Jerusalem outside the city (comp. Martial, 6:93; Plaut. Asin. 5:2, 57). A fullers town (officina fullonis) is mentioned in the Talmudical writers (Midrash, Kohel. 91:2) by the name of, בֵּית הִמַּשְׁרָה, " house, of maceration." So far as it is mentioned in Scripture, fulling appears to have consisted chiefly in cleansing garments and whitening them (compare EAlian, ''Var. Hist.'' 5:5). The use of white garments; and also the feeling respecting their use for festal and religious purposes, may be gathered from various passages: &nbsp;Ecclesiastes 9:8; &nbsp;Daniel 7:9; &nbsp;Isaiah 64:6; &nbsp;Zechariah 3:3; &nbsp;Zechariah 3:5; &nbsp;2 Samuel 6:14; &nbsp;1 Chronicles 15:27; &nbsp;Mark 9:3; &nbsp;Revelation 4:4; &nbsp;Revelation 6:11; &nbsp;Revelation 7:9; compare Mishna, Taanith, 4:8; see also Statius, Silv. 1:2, 237; Ovid, Fast. 1:79; Claudian, De Laud. Stil. 3:289. This branch of the trade was perhaps exercised by other persons than those who carded the wool and smoothed the cloth when woven (Mishna, [[Baba]] Kama, 1, 10:10). In applying the marks used to distinguish cloths sent to be cleansed, fullers were desired to be careful to avoid the mixtures forbidden by the law (&nbsp;Leviticus 19:19; &nbsp;Deuteronomy 22:11; Mishna, ''Massek. Kilaim,'' 9:10). Colored cloth was likewise fulled (Mishna, Shabb. 19:1). See Schottgen, Triturae et fulloniae antiquitates (2d edition, Lips. 1763). (See [[Handicraft]]). </p>

<p> At the transfiguration our Savior's robes are said to have been white, 'so as no fuller on earth could white them' . Elsewhere we read of 'fullers' soap' , and of 'the fullers' field' . Of the processes followed in the art of cleaning cloth and the various kinds of stuff among the Jews we have no direct knowledge. In an early part of the operation they seem to have trod the cloths with their feet, as the Hebrew [[Ain]] Rogel, or En-rogel, literally Foot-fountain, has been rendered, on Rabbinical authority, 'Fullers' fountain,' on the ground that the fullers trod the cloths there with their feet. A subsequent operation was probably that of rubbing the cloth on an inclined plane, in a mode which is figured in the Egyptian paintings, and still preserved in the East. </p>