Chapter 150

WINE, FAMILY, may be made by the following recipe:—Take black, red, white currants, ripe cherries (black hearts are the best), and raspberries, of each an equal quantity. To 4 pounds of the mixed fruit, well bruised, put 1 gallon of clear soft water; steep three days and nights, in open vessels, frequently stirring up the magma; then strain through a hair sieve; press the residuary pulp to dryness, and add its juice to the former. In each gallon of the mixed liquors dissolve 3 pounds of good yellow muscovado sugar; let the solution stand other three days and nights, frequently skimming and stirring it up; then tun it into casks, which should remain full, and purging at the bung-hole, about two weeks. Lastly, to every 9 gallons, put 1 quart of good Cognac brandy (but not the drugged imitations made in London with grain whiskey), and bung down. If it does not soon become fine, a steeping of isinglass may be stirred into the liquid, in the proportion of about half an ounce to 9 gallons. I have found that the addition of an ounce of cream of tartar to each gallon of the fermentable liquor, improves the quality of the wine, and makes it resemble more nearly the produce of the grape.

WINE, FAMILY, may be made by the following recipe:—Take black, red, white currants, ripe cherries (black hearts are the best), and raspberries, of each an equal quantity. To 4 pounds of the mixed fruit, well bruised, put 1 gallon of clear soft water; steep three days and nights, in open vessels, frequently stirring up the magma; then strain through a hair sieve; press the residuary pulp to dryness, and add its juice to the former. In each gallon of the mixed liquors dissolve 3 pounds of good yellow muscovado sugar; let the solution stand other three days and nights, frequently skimming and stirring it up; then tun it into casks, which should remain full, and purging at the bung-hole, about two weeks. Lastly, to every 9 gallons, put 1 quart of good Cognac brandy (but not the drugged imitations made in London with grain whiskey), and bung down. If it does not soon become fine, a steeping of isinglass may be stirred into the liquid, in the proportion of about half an ounce to 9 gallons. I have found that the addition of an ounce of cream of tartar to each gallon of the fermentable liquor, improves the quality of the wine, and makes it resemble more nearly the produce of the grape.

WINE-STONE, is the deposit of crude tartar, called argal, which settles on the sides and bottoms of wine casks.

WINE-STONE, is the deposit of crude tartar, called argal, which settles on the sides and bottoms of wine casks.

WIRE-DRAWING. (Tréfilerie, Fr.;Draht-ziehen,Drahtzug, Germ.) When an oblong lump of metal is forced through a series of progressively diminishing apertures in a steel plate, so as to assume in its cross section the form and dimensions of the last hole, and to be augmented in length at the expense of its thickness, it is said to be wire-drawn. The piece of steel called thedraw-plateis pierced with a regular gradation of holes, from the largest to the smallest; and the machine for overcoming the lateral adhesion of the metallic particles to one another, is called thedraw-bench. The pincers which lay hold of the extremity of the wire, to pull it through the successive holes, are adapted to bite it firmly, by having the inside of the jaws, cut like a file. For drawing thick rods of gilt silver down into stout wire, the hydraulic press has been had recourse to with advantage.Wire drawing benchFig.1202.represents a convenient form of the draw-bench, where the power is applied by a toothed wheel, pinion, and rack-work, moved by the hands of one or two men working at a winch; the motion being so regulated by a fly-wheel, that it does not proceed in fits and starts, and cause inequalities in the wire. The metal requires to be annealed, now and then, between successive drawings, otherwise it would become too hard and brittle for further extension. The reel upon which it is wound is sometimes mounted in a cistern of sour small beer, for the purpose of clearing off, or loosening at least, any crust of oxide formed in the annealing, before the wire enters the draw-plate.When, for very accurate purposes of science or the arts, a considerable length of uniform wire is to be drawn, a plate with one or more jewelled holes, that is, filled with one or more perforated rubies, sapphires, or chrysolites, can alone be trusted to, because the holes even in the best steel become rapidly wider by the abrasion. Through a hole in a ruby 0·0033 of an inch in diameter, a silver wire 170 miles long has been drawn, which possessed at the end, the very same section as at the beginning; a result determined by weighing portions of equal length, as also by measuring it with a micrometer. The hole in an ordinary draw-plate of soft steel becomes so wide, by drawing 14,000 fathoms of brass wire, that it requires to be narrowed before the original sized wire can be again obtained.Wire, by being diminished one-half, one-third, one-fourth, &c., in diameter, is augmented in length respectively, four, nine, sixteen times, &c. The speed with which itmay be prudently drawn out, depends upon the ductility and tenacity of the metal; but may be always increased the more the wire becomes attenuated, because its particles progressively assume more and more of the filamentous form, and accommodate themselves more readily to the extending force. Iron and brass wires, of 0·3 inch in diameter, bear drawing at the rate of from 12 to 15 inches per second; but when of 0·025 (1⁄40) of an inch, at the rate of from 40 to 45 inches in the same time. Finer silver and copper wire may be extended from 60 to 70 inches per second.By enclosing a wire of platinum within one of silver ten times thicker, and drawing down the compound wire till it be1⁄300of an inch, a wire of platinum of1⁄3000of an inch, will exist in its centre, which may be obtained apart, by dissolving the silver away in nitric acid. This pretty experiment was first made by Dr. Wollaston.The French draw-plates are so much esteemed, that one of the best of them used to be sold in this country, during the late war, for its weight in silver. The holes are formed with a steel punch; being made large on that side where the wire enters, and diminishing with a regular taper to the other side. In the act of drawing, they must be well supplied with grease for the larger kinds of wire, and with wax for the smaller.

WIRE-DRAWING. (Tréfilerie, Fr.;Draht-ziehen,Drahtzug, Germ.) When an oblong lump of metal is forced through a series of progressively diminishing apertures in a steel plate, so as to assume in its cross section the form and dimensions of the last hole, and to be augmented in length at the expense of its thickness, it is said to be wire-drawn. The piece of steel called thedraw-plateis pierced with a regular gradation of holes, from the largest to the smallest; and the machine for overcoming the lateral adhesion of the metallic particles to one another, is called thedraw-bench. The pincers which lay hold of the extremity of the wire, to pull it through the successive holes, are adapted to bite it firmly, by having the inside of the jaws, cut like a file. For drawing thick rods of gilt silver down into stout wire, the hydraulic press has been had recourse to with advantage.

Wire drawing bench

Fig.1202.represents a convenient form of the draw-bench, where the power is applied by a toothed wheel, pinion, and rack-work, moved by the hands of one or two men working at a winch; the motion being so regulated by a fly-wheel, that it does not proceed in fits and starts, and cause inequalities in the wire. The metal requires to be annealed, now and then, between successive drawings, otherwise it would become too hard and brittle for further extension. The reel upon which it is wound is sometimes mounted in a cistern of sour small beer, for the purpose of clearing off, or loosening at least, any crust of oxide formed in the annealing, before the wire enters the draw-plate.

When, for very accurate purposes of science or the arts, a considerable length of uniform wire is to be drawn, a plate with one or more jewelled holes, that is, filled with one or more perforated rubies, sapphires, or chrysolites, can alone be trusted to, because the holes even in the best steel become rapidly wider by the abrasion. Through a hole in a ruby 0·0033 of an inch in diameter, a silver wire 170 miles long has been drawn, which possessed at the end, the very same section as at the beginning; a result determined by weighing portions of equal length, as also by measuring it with a micrometer. The hole in an ordinary draw-plate of soft steel becomes so wide, by drawing 14,000 fathoms of brass wire, that it requires to be narrowed before the original sized wire can be again obtained.

Wire, by being diminished one-half, one-third, one-fourth, &c., in diameter, is augmented in length respectively, four, nine, sixteen times, &c. The speed with which itmay be prudently drawn out, depends upon the ductility and tenacity of the metal; but may be always increased the more the wire becomes attenuated, because its particles progressively assume more and more of the filamentous form, and accommodate themselves more readily to the extending force. Iron and brass wires, of 0·3 inch in diameter, bear drawing at the rate of from 12 to 15 inches per second; but when of 0·025 (1⁄40) of an inch, at the rate of from 40 to 45 inches in the same time. Finer silver and copper wire may be extended from 60 to 70 inches per second.

By enclosing a wire of platinum within one of silver ten times thicker, and drawing down the compound wire till it be1⁄300of an inch, a wire of platinum of1⁄3000of an inch, will exist in its centre, which may be obtained apart, by dissolving the silver away in nitric acid. This pretty experiment was first made by Dr. Wollaston.

The French draw-plates are so much esteemed, that one of the best of them used to be sold in this country, during the late war, for its weight in silver. The holes are formed with a steel punch; being made large on that side where the wire enters, and diminishing with a regular taper to the other side. In the act of drawing, they must be well supplied with grease for the larger kinds of wire, and with wax for the smaller.

WOAD (Vouëde,Pastel, Fr.;Waid, Germ;Isatis tinctoria, Linn.); theglastumof the antient Gauls and Germans; is an herbaceous plant which was formerly much cultivated, as affording a permanent blue dye, but it has been in modern times well nigh superseded byindigo. Pliny says, “A certain plant which resemblesplantago, calledglastum, is employed by the women and girls in Great Britain for dyeing their bodies all over, when they assist at certain religious ceremonies; they have then the colour of Ethiopians.”—Hist. Nat.cap. xxii. § 2.When the arts, which had perished with the Roman empire, were revived, in the middle ages, woad began to be generally used for dyeing blue, and became an object of most extensive cultivation in many countries of Europe. The environs of Toulouse and Mirepoix, in Upper Languedoc, produced annually 40,000,000 pounds of the prepared woad, or pastel, of which 200,000 bales were consumed at Bordeaux. Beruni, a rich manufacturer of this drug, became surety for the payment of the ransom of his king, Francis I., then the prisoner of Charles V. in Spain.The leaves of woad are fermented in heaps, to destroy certain vegetable principles injurious to the beauty of the dye, as also to elaborate the indigoferous matter present, before they are brought into the market; but they should be carefully watched during this process. Whenever the leaves have arrived at maturity, a point judged of very differently in different countries, they are stripped off the plant, a cropping which is repeated as often as they shoot, being three or four times in Germany, and eight or ten times in Italy. The leaves are dried as quickly as possible, but not so much as to become black; and they are ground before they get quite dry. The resulting paste is laid upon a sloping pavement, with gutters for conducting the juice which exudes into a tank; the heap being tramped from time to time, to promote the discharge of the juice. The woad ferments, swells, and cracks in many places, which fissures must be closed; the whole being occasionally watered. The fermentation is continued for twenty or thirty days, in cold weather; and if the leaves have been gathered dry, as in Italy, for four months. When the fermented heap has become moderately dry, it is ground again, and put up in cakes of from one to three pounds; which are then fully dried, and packed up in bundles for the market. Many dyers subject the pastel to a second fermentation.1,600 square toises (fathoms) of land afford in two cuttings at least 19,000 pounds of leaves, of which weight four-fifths are lost in the fermentation, leaving 3,880 pounds of pastel, in loaves or cakes. When good, it has rather a yellow, or greenish-yellow, than a blue colour; it is light, and slightly humid; it gives to paper a pale-green trace; and improves by age, in consequence of an obscure fermentation; for if kept four years, it dyes twice as much as after two years. According to Hellot, 4 pounds of Guatimala indigo produce the same effect as 210 pounds of the pastel of Albi. At Quins, in Piedmont, the dyers estimate that 6 pounds of indigo are equivalent to 300 of pastel; but Chaptal thinks the indigo underrated.Pastel will dye blue of itself, but it is commonly employed as a fermentative addition to the proper blue vat, as described underIndigo.Fresh woad, analyzed by Chevreul, afforded, in 100 parts, 65·4 of juice. After being steeped in water, the remaining mass yielded, on expression, 29·65 of liquid; being in whole, 95·05 parts, leaving 4·95 of ligneous fibre. The juice, by filtration, gave 1·95 of green fecula. 100 parts of fresh woad, when dried, are reduced to 13·76 parts. Alcohol, boiled upon dry woad, deposits, after cooling, indigo in microscopic needles; but these cannot be separated from the vegetable albumine, which retains a greenish-gray colour.

WOAD (Vouëde,Pastel, Fr.;Waid, Germ;Isatis tinctoria, Linn.); theglastumof the antient Gauls and Germans; is an herbaceous plant which was formerly much cultivated, as affording a permanent blue dye, but it has been in modern times well nigh superseded byindigo. Pliny says, “A certain plant which resemblesplantago, calledglastum, is employed by the women and girls in Great Britain for dyeing their bodies all over, when they assist at certain religious ceremonies; they have then the colour of Ethiopians.”—Hist. Nat.cap. xxii. § 2.

When the arts, which had perished with the Roman empire, were revived, in the middle ages, woad began to be generally used for dyeing blue, and became an object of most extensive cultivation in many countries of Europe. The environs of Toulouse and Mirepoix, in Upper Languedoc, produced annually 40,000,000 pounds of the prepared woad, or pastel, of which 200,000 bales were consumed at Bordeaux. Beruni, a rich manufacturer of this drug, became surety for the payment of the ransom of his king, Francis I., then the prisoner of Charles V. in Spain.

The leaves of woad are fermented in heaps, to destroy certain vegetable principles injurious to the beauty of the dye, as also to elaborate the indigoferous matter present, before they are brought into the market; but they should be carefully watched during this process. Whenever the leaves have arrived at maturity, a point judged of very differently in different countries, they are stripped off the plant, a cropping which is repeated as often as they shoot, being three or four times in Germany, and eight or ten times in Italy. The leaves are dried as quickly as possible, but not so much as to become black; and they are ground before they get quite dry. The resulting paste is laid upon a sloping pavement, with gutters for conducting the juice which exudes into a tank; the heap being tramped from time to time, to promote the discharge of the juice. The woad ferments, swells, and cracks in many places, which fissures must be closed; the whole being occasionally watered. The fermentation is continued for twenty or thirty days, in cold weather; and if the leaves have been gathered dry, as in Italy, for four months. When the fermented heap has become moderately dry, it is ground again, and put up in cakes of from one to three pounds; which are then fully dried, and packed up in bundles for the market. Many dyers subject the pastel to a second fermentation.

1,600 square toises (fathoms) of land afford in two cuttings at least 19,000 pounds of leaves, of which weight four-fifths are lost in the fermentation, leaving 3,880 pounds of pastel, in loaves or cakes. When good, it has rather a yellow, or greenish-yellow, than a blue colour; it is light, and slightly humid; it gives to paper a pale-green trace; and improves by age, in consequence of an obscure fermentation; for if kept four years, it dyes twice as much as after two years. According to Hellot, 4 pounds of Guatimala indigo produce the same effect as 210 pounds of the pastel of Albi. At Quins, in Piedmont, the dyers estimate that 6 pounds of indigo are equivalent to 300 of pastel; but Chaptal thinks the indigo underrated.

Pastel will dye blue of itself, but it is commonly employed as a fermentative addition to the proper blue vat, as described underIndigo.

Fresh woad, analyzed by Chevreul, afforded, in 100 parts, 65·4 of juice. After being steeped in water, the remaining mass yielded, on expression, 29·65 of liquid; being in whole, 95·05 parts, leaving 4·95 of ligneous fibre. The juice, by filtration, gave 1·95 of green fecula. 100 parts of fresh woad, when dried, are reduced to 13·76 parts. Alcohol, boiled upon dry woad, deposits, after cooling, indigo in microscopic needles; but these cannot be separated from the vegetable albumine, which retains a greenish-gray colour.

WOLFRAM, is the native tungstate of iron and manganese, a mineral which occurs in primitive formations, along with the ores of tin, antimony, and lead, in the Bohemian Erzgebirge, in Cornwall, Switzerland, North America, &c. It is used by chemists for obtaining tungstic acid and tungsten.

WOLFRAM, is the native tungstate of iron and manganese, a mineral which occurs in primitive formations, along with the ores of tin, antimony, and lead, in the Bohemian Erzgebirge, in Cornwall, Switzerland, North America, &c. It is used by chemists for obtaining tungstic acid and tungsten.

WOOD (Bois, Fr.;Holz, Germ.); is the hard but porous tissue between the pith and the bark of trees and shrubs, through which the chief part of the juices are conducted from the root towards the branches and leaves, during the life of the vegetable. The ligneous fibre is the substance which remains, after the plant has been subjected to the solvent action of ether, alcohol, water, dilute acids, and caustic alkaline lyes. It is considered by chemists that dry timber consists, on an average, of 96 parts of fibrous, and 4 of soluble matter, in 100; but that these proportions vary somewhat with the seasons, the soil, and the plant. All kinds of wood sink in water, when placed in a basin of it under the exhausted receiver of an air-pump; showing their specific gravity to be greater than 1·000. That of fir and maple is stated, by chemical authors, to be 1·46; and that of oak and beech, at 1·53; but I believe them to have all the same spec. grav. as the fibre of flax; namely, 1·50, as determined by me some years ago.[71][71]“From the small difference found by experiment between the specific gravity of flax (1·50), and of cotton (1·47), I am inclined to think that the density of both may be considered to be equal.” or 1·50.—Philosophy of Manufactures, 2d edition, pp. 97, 98, 99.Wood becomes snow-white, when exposed to the action of chlorine; digested with sulphuric acid, it is transformed first into gum, and, by ebullition with water, afterwards into grape-sugar; with concentrated nitric acid, it grows yellow, loses its coherence, falls into a pulverulent mass, but eventually dissolves, and is converted into oxalic acid; with strong caustic alkaline lyes, in a hot state, it swells up excessively, dissolves into a homogeneous liquid, and changes into a blackish-brown mass, containing oxalic and acetic acids.The composition of wood has been examined by Gay Lussac and Thenard, and Dr. Prout. The first two chemists found it to consist, in 100 parts, of—Oak.Beech.Carbon52·5351·45Hydrogen5·695·82Oxygen41·7842·73According to Dr. Prout, the oxygen and hydrogen are in the exact proportions to form water. Willow contains 50, and box 49·8 per cent. of carbon; each containing, therefore, very nearly 44·444 of oxygen, and 5·555 of hydrogen. In the analyses of Gay Lussac and Thenard, there is a great excess of hydrogen above what the oxygen requires to form water. Authenrieth stated, some years ago, that he found that fine sawdust, mixed with a sufficient quantity of wheat flour, made a coherent dough with water, which formed an excellent food for pigs; apparently showing that the digestive organs of this animal could operate the same sort of change upon wood as sulphuric acid does.Tableof theDistillationofOne PoundofWood, dried, at 86° Fahr.Name of the wood.Weightofwood acid.One ounceof the acidsaturatesof carbonateof potash.Weightof thecombustibleoil.Weightof thecharcoal.Ounces.Grains.Ounces.Ounces.White birch74411⁄433⁄4Red beech74411⁄233⁄4Prick wood (spindle tree)71⁄24013⁄431⁄2Large leaved linden63⁄441233⁄4Red or scarlet oak74011⁄241⁄4White beech61⁄24013⁄433⁄4Common ash71⁄23411⁄231⁄2Horse chestnut71⁄23111⁄231⁄2Italian poplar71⁄43011⁄233⁄4Silver poplar71⁄43011⁄433⁄4White willow71⁄42811⁄231⁄2Root of the sassafras laurel63⁄42913⁄441⁄4Wild service tree72813⁄431⁄2Basket willow82711⁄231⁄2Dogberry tree727231⁄2Buckthorn71⁄22611⁄231⁄2Logwood73⁄42611⁄24Alder71⁄42211⁄231⁄2Juniper71⁄42313⁄431⁄2White fir (deal)61⁄22321⁄431⁄2Common pine wood63⁄42213⁄431⁄2Savine tree72013⁄433⁄4Red deal (pine)61⁄21821⁄433⁄4Guiac wood61621⁄241⁄4

WOOD (Bois, Fr.;Holz, Germ.); is the hard but porous tissue between the pith and the bark of trees and shrubs, through which the chief part of the juices are conducted from the root towards the branches and leaves, during the life of the vegetable. The ligneous fibre is the substance which remains, after the plant has been subjected to the solvent action of ether, alcohol, water, dilute acids, and caustic alkaline lyes. It is considered by chemists that dry timber consists, on an average, of 96 parts of fibrous, and 4 of soluble matter, in 100; but that these proportions vary somewhat with the seasons, the soil, and the plant. All kinds of wood sink in water, when placed in a basin of it under the exhausted receiver of an air-pump; showing their specific gravity to be greater than 1·000. That of fir and maple is stated, by chemical authors, to be 1·46; and that of oak and beech, at 1·53; but I believe them to have all the same spec. grav. as the fibre of flax; namely, 1·50, as determined by me some years ago.[71]

[71]“From the small difference found by experiment between the specific gravity of flax (1·50), and of cotton (1·47), I am inclined to think that the density of both may be considered to be equal.” or 1·50.—Philosophy of Manufactures, 2d edition, pp. 97, 98, 99.

[71]“From the small difference found by experiment between the specific gravity of flax (1·50), and of cotton (1·47), I am inclined to think that the density of both may be considered to be equal.” or 1·50.—Philosophy of Manufactures, 2d edition, pp. 97, 98, 99.

Wood becomes snow-white, when exposed to the action of chlorine; digested with sulphuric acid, it is transformed first into gum, and, by ebullition with water, afterwards into grape-sugar; with concentrated nitric acid, it grows yellow, loses its coherence, falls into a pulverulent mass, but eventually dissolves, and is converted into oxalic acid; with strong caustic alkaline lyes, in a hot state, it swells up excessively, dissolves into a homogeneous liquid, and changes into a blackish-brown mass, containing oxalic and acetic acids.

The composition of wood has been examined by Gay Lussac and Thenard, and Dr. Prout. The first two chemists found it to consist, in 100 parts, of—

According to Dr. Prout, the oxygen and hydrogen are in the exact proportions to form water. Willow contains 50, and box 49·8 per cent. of carbon; each containing, therefore, very nearly 44·444 of oxygen, and 5·555 of hydrogen. In the analyses of Gay Lussac and Thenard, there is a great excess of hydrogen above what the oxygen requires to form water. Authenrieth stated, some years ago, that he found that fine sawdust, mixed with a sufficient quantity of wheat flour, made a coherent dough with water, which formed an excellent food for pigs; apparently showing that the digestive organs of this animal could operate the same sort of change upon wood as sulphuric acid does.

Tableof theDistillationofOne PoundofWood, dried, at 86° Fahr.

WOOF, is the same asWeft.

WOOF, is the same asWeft.


Back to IndexNext