In straightening rifle barrels, the operator is guided as to the straightness as follows: A black line is drawn across a piece of glass elevated to the light, and the straightener looks through the bore at this line, which throws a dark line of shadow along the rifle bore.
"Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II"
Joshua Rose
I know it's so because I just sold one of the great-granddaughters some hair straightener and a box of flea powder and she thought of getting some talcum powder for the new baby, but decided to use flea powder instead."
"The Comings of Cousin Ann"
Emma Speed Sampson
It was most in these latter days that his fame went far abroad, The helper, the overcomer, the righteous sundering sword; The loveliest King of the King-folk, the man of sweetest speech, Whose ear is dull to no man that his helping shall beseech; The eye-bright seer of all things, that wasteth every wrong, The straightener of the crooked, the hammer of the strong: Lo, such was the Son of Sigmund in the days whereof I tell, The dread of the doom and the battle; and all children loved him well.
"The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs"
William Morris