Note 79 — Chapter XVII
Reading edition
A Beetle is a portion of a trunk of a tree, large or small as occasion demanded, sometimes more than one man could lift, vide Shakspeare (2 Hen. IV. act i. sc. 2), "Fillip me with a three-man beetle," i.e., one with three handles. All exogenous fibres have to be crushed, in order to release the fibre from the wooden core, and this, which is now done by machinery, was then done by beetles, or wooden hammers.