Chapter 9

ANIMÉ. A resin of a pale brown yellow colour, transparent and brittle. It exudes from the courbaril of Cayenne, a tree which grows also in various parts of South America. It occurs in pieces of various sizes, and it often contains so many insects belonging to living species, as to have merited its name, as being animated. It contains about a fifth of one per cent. of a volatile oil, which gives it an agreeable odour. Alcohol does not dissolve the genuine animé, as I have ascertained by careful experiments; nor does caoutchoucine; but a mixture of the two, in equal parts, softens it into a tremulous jelly, though it will not produce a liquid solution. When reduced to this state, the insects can be easily picked out, without injury to their most delicate parts.The specific gravity of the different specimens of animé which I tried, varied from 1·054 to 1·057. When exposed to heat, in a glass retort over a spirit flame, it softens, and, by careful management, it may be brought into liquid fusion, without discolouration. It then exhales a few white vapours, of an ambrosiacal odour, which being condensed in water, and the liquid being tested, is found to be succinic acid.Author.It is extensively used by the varnish makers, who fuse it at a pretty high heat, and in this state combine it with their oils, or other varnishes.

The specific gravity of the different specimens of animé which I tried, varied from 1·054 to 1·057. When exposed to heat, in a glass retort over a spirit flame, it softens, and, by careful management, it may be brought into liquid fusion, without discolouration. It then exhales a few white vapours, of an ambrosiacal odour, which being condensed in water, and the liquid being tested, is found to be succinic acid.Author.

It is extensively used by the varnish makers, who fuse it at a pretty high heat, and in this state combine it with their oils, or other varnishes.

ANKER. A liquid measure of Amsterdam, which contains 32 gallons English.

ANNEALING or NEALING. (Le recuit, Fr.;das anlassen, Germ.) A process by which glass is rendered less frangible; and metals, which have become brittle, either in consequence of fusion, or long-continued hammering, are again rendered malleable. When a glass vessel is allowed to cool immediately after being made, it will often sustain the shock of a pistol-bullet, or any other blunt body falling into it from a considerable height; while a small splinter of flint, or an angular fragment of quartz, dropped gently into it, makes it sometimes immediately, sometimes after a few minutes, fly to pieces with great violence. This extreme fragility is prevented by annealing, or placing the vessels in an oven, where they take several hours or even some days to cool. Similar phenomena are exhibited in a higher degree by glass-tears, or Prince Rupert’s drops. They are procured by letting drops of melted glass fall into cold water. Their form resembles that of a pear, rounded at one extremity, and tapering to a very slender tail at the other. If a part of the tail be broken off, the whole drop flies to pieces with a loud explosion; and yet the tail of a drop may be cut away by a glass-cutter’s wheel, or the thick endmay be struck smartly with a hammer, without the fear of sustaining any injury. When heated to redness, and permitted to cool gradually in the open air, they lose these peculiarities, and do not differ sensibly from common glass.The properties of unannealed glass depend on a peculiar structure, extending uniformly through its whole substance; and the bursting of a glass drop by breaking off the tail, or of an unannealed glass vessel, by dropping a piece of flint into it, arises from a crack being thus begun, which afterwards extends its ramifications in different directions throughout the glass.When metals have been extended to a certain degree under the hammer, they become brittle, and incapable of being further extended without cracking. In this case the workman restores their malleability by annealing, or heating them red-hot. The rationale of this process seems to be, that the hammering and extension of the metal destroy the kind of arrangement which the particles of the metal had previous to the hammering; and that the annealing, by softening the metal, enables it to recover its original structure.Of late years a mode has been discovered of rendering cast iron malleable, without subjecting it to the action of puddling. The process is somewhat similar to that employed in annealing glass. The metal is kept for several hours at a temperature a little below its fusing point, and then allowed to cool slowly. In this manner vessels are made of cast iron which can sustain considerable violence, without being broken. SeeSteel,softening of.

The properties of unannealed glass depend on a peculiar structure, extending uniformly through its whole substance; and the bursting of a glass drop by breaking off the tail, or of an unannealed glass vessel, by dropping a piece of flint into it, arises from a crack being thus begun, which afterwards extends its ramifications in different directions throughout the glass.

When metals have been extended to a certain degree under the hammer, they become brittle, and incapable of being further extended without cracking. In this case the workman restores their malleability by annealing, or heating them red-hot. The rationale of this process seems to be, that the hammering and extension of the metal destroy the kind of arrangement which the particles of the metal had previous to the hammering; and that the annealing, by softening the metal, enables it to recover its original structure.

Of late years a mode has been discovered of rendering cast iron malleable, without subjecting it to the action of puddling. The process is somewhat similar to that employed in annealing glass. The metal is kept for several hours at a temperature a little below its fusing point, and then allowed to cool slowly. In this manner vessels are made of cast iron which can sustain considerable violence, without being broken. SeeSteel,softening of.

ANNOTTO. (Rocou, orroucou, Fr.;orleans, Germ.) A somewhat dry and hard paste, brown without, and red within. It is usually imported in cakes of two or three pounds weight, wrapped up in leaves of large reeds, packed in casks, from America, where it is prepared from the seeds of a certain tree, thebixa orellana, of Linnæus.The pods of the tree being gathered, their seeds are taken out and bruised; they are then transferred to a vat, which is called the steeper, where they are mixed with as much water as covers them. Here the substance is left for several weeks, or even months; it is now squeezed through sieves placed above the steeper, that the water containing the colouring matter in suspension may return, into the vat. The residuum is preserved under the leaves of the anana (pine-apple) tree, till it becomes hot by fermentation. It is again subjected to the same operation, and this treatment is continued till no more colour remains.The substance thus extracted is passed through sieves, in order to separate the remainder of the seeds, and the colour is allowed to subside. The precipitate is boiled in coppers till it be reduced to a consistent paste; it is then suffered to cool, and dried in the shade.Instead of this long and painful labour, which occasions diseases by the putrefaction induced, and which affords a spoiled product, Leblond proposes simply to wash the seeds of annotto till they be entirely deprived of their colour, which lies wholly on their surface; to precipitate the colour by means of vinegar or lemon juice, and to boil it up in the ordinary manner, or to drain it in bags, as is practised with indigo.The experiments which Vauquelin made on the seeds of annotto imported by Leblond, confirmed the efficacy of the process which he proposed; and the dyers ascertained that the annotto obtained in this manner was worth at least four times more than that of commerce; that, moreover, it was more easily employed; that it required less solvent; that it gave less trouble in the copper, and furnished a purer colour.Annotto dissolves better and more readily in alcohol than in water, when it is introduced into the yellow varnishes for communicating an orange tint.The decoction of annotto in water has a strong peculiar odour, and a disagreeable taste. Its colour is yellowish-red, and it remains a little turbid. An alkaline solution renders its orange-yellow clearer and more agreeable, while a small quantity of a whitish substance is separated from it, which remains suspended in the liquid. If annotto be boiled in water along with an alkali, it dissolves much better than when alone, and the liquid has an orange hue.The acids form with this liquor an orange-coloured precipitate, soluble in alkalies, which communicate to it a deep orange colour. The supernatant liquor retains only a pale yellow hue.When annotto is used as a dye, it is always mixed with alkali, which facilitates its solution, and gives it a colour inclining less to red. The annotto is cut in pieces, and boiled for some instants in a copper with its own weight of crude pearl ashes, provided the shade wanted do not require less alkali. The cloths may be thereafter dyed in this bath, either by these ingredients alone, or by adding others to modify the colour; but annotto is seldom used for woollen, because the colours which it gives are too fugitive, and may be obtained by more permanent dyes. Hellot employed it to dye a stuff, prepared with alum and tartar; but the colour acquired had little permanence. It is almost solely used for silks.For silks intended to become aurora and orange, it is sufficient to scour them at the rate of 20 per cent. of soap. When they have been well cleansed, they are immersed in a bath prepared with water, to which is added a quantity of alkaline solution of annotto, more or less considerable according to the shade that may be wanted. This bath should have a mean temperature, between that of tepid and boiling water.When the silk has become uniform, one of the hanks is taken out, washed, and wrung, to see if the colour be sufficiently full; if it be not so, more solution of annotto is added, and the silk is turned again round the sticks: the solution keeps without alteration.When the desired shade is obtained, nothing remains but to wash the silk, and give it two beetlings at the river, in order to free it from the redundant annotto, which would injure the lustre of the colour.When raw silks are to be dyed, those naturally white are chosen, and dyed in the annotto bath, which should not be more than tepid, or even cold, in order that the alkali may not attack the gum of the silk, and deprive it of the elasticity which it is desirable for it to preserve.What has been now said regards the silks to which the aurora shades are to be given; but to make an orange hue, which contains more red than the aurora, it is requisite, after dyeing with annotto, to redden the silks with vinegar, alum, or lemon juice. The acid, by saturating the alkali employed for dissolving the annotto, destroys the shade of yellow that the alkali had given, and restores it to its natural colour, which inclines a good deal to red.For the deep shades, the practice at Paris, as Macquer informs us, is to pass the silks through alum; and if the colour be not red enough, they are passed through a faint bath of brazil wood. At Lyons, the dyers who use carthamus, sometimes employ old baths of this ingredient for dipping the deep oranges.When the orange hues have been reddened by alum, they must be washed at the river; but it is not necessary to beetle them, unless the colour turns out too red.Shades may be obtained also by a single operation, which retain a reddish tint, employing for the annotto bath a less proportion of alkali than has been pointed out.Guhliche recommends to avoid heat in the preparation of annotto. He directs it to be placed in a glass vessel, or in a glazed earthen one; to cover it with a solution of pure alkali; to leave the mixture at rest for 24 hours; to decant the liquor, filter it, and add water repeatedly to the residuum, leaving the mixture each time at rest for two or three days, till the water is no longer coloured; to mix all these liquors, and preserve the whole for use in a well-stopped vessel.He macerates the silk for 12 hours in a solution of alum, at the rate of an eighth of this salt for one part of silk, or in a water rendered acidulous by the aceto-citric acid above described; and he wrings it well on its coming out of this bath.Silk thus prepared is put into the annotto bath quite cold. It is kept in agitation there till it has taken the shade sought for; or the liquor may be maintained at a heat far below ebullition. On being taken out of the bath, the silk is to be washed and dried in the shade.For lighter hues, a liquor less charged with colour is taken; and a little of the acid liquid which has served for the mordant may be added, or the dyed silk may be passed through the acidulous water.We have seen the following preparation employed for cotton velvet:—one part of quicklime, one of potash, two of soda.Of these a ley is formed, in which one part of annotto is dissolved; and the mixture is boiled for an hour and a half. This bath affords the liveliest and most brilliant auroras. The buff (chamois) fugitive dye is also obtained with this solution. For this purpose only a little is wanted; but we must never forget, that the colours arising from annotto are all fugitive.Dr. John found in the pulp surrounding the unfermented fresh seeds, which are about the size of little peas, 28 parts of colouring resinous matter, 26·5 of vegetable gluten, 20 of ligneous fibre, 20 of colouring extractive matter, 4 formed of matters analogous to vegetable gluten and extractive, and a trace of spicy and acid matters.The Gloucestershire cheese is coloured with annotto, in the proportion of one cwt. to an ounce of the dye.When used in calico-printing, it is usually mixed with potash or ammonia and starch.It is an appropriate substance for tingeing varnishes, oils, spirits, &c.The import duty upon annotto is 1s.per cwt. for flag, and 4s.for other sorts. In 1834, 252,981 lbs. were imported; and in 1835, 163,421 lbs. The revenue from this drug in these two years, was 180l.and 98l.respectively.

The pods of the tree being gathered, their seeds are taken out and bruised; they are then transferred to a vat, which is called the steeper, where they are mixed with as much water as covers them. Here the substance is left for several weeks, or even months; it is now squeezed through sieves placed above the steeper, that the water containing the colouring matter in suspension may return, into the vat. The residuum is preserved under the leaves of the anana (pine-apple) tree, till it becomes hot by fermentation. It is again subjected to the same operation, and this treatment is continued till no more colour remains.

The substance thus extracted is passed through sieves, in order to separate the remainder of the seeds, and the colour is allowed to subside. The precipitate is boiled in coppers till it be reduced to a consistent paste; it is then suffered to cool, and dried in the shade.

Instead of this long and painful labour, which occasions diseases by the putrefaction induced, and which affords a spoiled product, Leblond proposes simply to wash the seeds of annotto till they be entirely deprived of their colour, which lies wholly on their surface; to precipitate the colour by means of vinegar or lemon juice, and to boil it up in the ordinary manner, or to drain it in bags, as is practised with indigo.

The experiments which Vauquelin made on the seeds of annotto imported by Leblond, confirmed the efficacy of the process which he proposed; and the dyers ascertained that the annotto obtained in this manner was worth at least four times more than that of commerce; that, moreover, it was more easily employed; that it required less solvent; that it gave less trouble in the copper, and furnished a purer colour.

Annotto dissolves better and more readily in alcohol than in water, when it is introduced into the yellow varnishes for communicating an orange tint.

The decoction of annotto in water has a strong peculiar odour, and a disagreeable taste. Its colour is yellowish-red, and it remains a little turbid. An alkaline solution renders its orange-yellow clearer and more agreeable, while a small quantity of a whitish substance is separated from it, which remains suspended in the liquid. If annotto be boiled in water along with an alkali, it dissolves much better than when alone, and the liquid has an orange hue.

The acids form with this liquor an orange-coloured precipitate, soluble in alkalies, which communicate to it a deep orange colour. The supernatant liquor retains only a pale yellow hue.

When annotto is used as a dye, it is always mixed with alkali, which facilitates its solution, and gives it a colour inclining less to red. The annotto is cut in pieces, and boiled for some instants in a copper with its own weight of crude pearl ashes, provided the shade wanted do not require less alkali. The cloths may be thereafter dyed in this bath, either by these ingredients alone, or by adding others to modify the colour; but annotto is seldom used for woollen, because the colours which it gives are too fugitive, and may be obtained by more permanent dyes. Hellot employed it to dye a stuff, prepared with alum and tartar; but the colour acquired had little permanence. It is almost solely used for silks.

For silks intended to become aurora and orange, it is sufficient to scour them at the rate of 20 per cent. of soap. When they have been well cleansed, they are immersed in a bath prepared with water, to which is added a quantity of alkaline solution of annotto, more or less considerable according to the shade that may be wanted. This bath should have a mean temperature, between that of tepid and boiling water.

When the silk has become uniform, one of the hanks is taken out, washed, and wrung, to see if the colour be sufficiently full; if it be not so, more solution of annotto is added, and the silk is turned again round the sticks: the solution keeps without alteration.

When the desired shade is obtained, nothing remains but to wash the silk, and give it two beetlings at the river, in order to free it from the redundant annotto, which would injure the lustre of the colour.

When raw silks are to be dyed, those naturally white are chosen, and dyed in the annotto bath, which should not be more than tepid, or even cold, in order that the alkali may not attack the gum of the silk, and deprive it of the elasticity which it is desirable for it to preserve.

What has been now said regards the silks to which the aurora shades are to be given; but to make an orange hue, which contains more red than the aurora, it is requisite, after dyeing with annotto, to redden the silks with vinegar, alum, or lemon juice. The acid, by saturating the alkali employed for dissolving the annotto, destroys the shade of yellow that the alkali had given, and restores it to its natural colour, which inclines a good deal to red.

For the deep shades, the practice at Paris, as Macquer informs us, is to pass the silks through alum; and if the colour be not red enough, they are passed through a faint bath of brazil wood. At Lyons, the dyers who use carthamus, sometimes employ old baths of this ingredient for dipping the deep oranges.

When the orange hues have been reddened by alum, they must be washed at the river; but it is not necessary to beetle them, unless the colour turns out too red.

Shades may be obtained also by a single operation, which retain a reddish tint, employing for the annotto bath a less proportion of alkali than has been pointed out.

Guhliche recommends to avoid heat in the preparation of annotto. He directs it to be placed in a glass vessel, or in a glazed earthen one; to cover it with a solution of pure alkali; to leave the mixture at rest for 24 hours; to decant the liquor, filter it, and add water repeatedly to the residuum, leaving the mixture each time at rest for two or three days, till the water is no longer coloured; to mix all these liquors, and preserve the whole for use in a well-stopped vessel.

He macerates the silk for 12 hours in a solution of alum, at the rate of an eighth of this salt for one part of silk, or in a water rendered acidulous by the aceto-citric acid above described; and he wrings it well on its coming out of this bath.

Silk thus prepared is put into the annotto bath quite cold. It is kept in agitation there till it has taken the shade sought for; or the liquor may be maintained at a heat far below ebullition. On being taken out of the bath, the silk is to be washed and dried in the shade.

For lighter hues, a liquor less charged with colour is taken; and a little of the acid liquid which has served for the mordant may be added, or the dyed silk may be passed through the acidulous water.

We have seen the following preparation employed for cotton velvet:—one part of quicklime, one of potash, two of soda.

Of these a ley is formed, in which one part of annotto is dissolved; and the mixture is boiled for an hour and a half. This bath affords the liveliest and most brilliant auroras. The buff (chamois) fugitive dye is also obtained with this solution. For this purpose only a little is wanted; but we must never forget, that the colours arising from annotto are all fugitive.

Dr. John found in the pulp surrounding the unfermented fresh seeds, which are about the size of little peas, 28 parts of colouring resinous matter, 26·5 of vegetable gluten, 20 of ligneous fibre, 20 of colouring extractive matter, 4 formed of matters analogous to vegetable gluten and extractive, and a trace of spicy and acid matters.

The Gloucestershire cheese is coloured with annotto, in the proportion of one cwt. to an ounce of the dye.

When used in calico-printing, it is usually mixed with potash or ammonia and starch.

It is an appropriate substance for tingeing varnishes, oils, spirits, &c.

The import duty upon annotto is 1s.per cwt. for flag, and 4s.for other sorts. In 1834, 252,981 lbs. were imported; and in 1835, 163,421 lbs. The revenue from this drug in these two years, was 180l.and 98l.respectively.

ANTHRACITE, from ανθραξ, coal, is a species of coal found in the transition rock formation, and is often called stone coal. It has a grayish black, or iron black colour, an imperfectly metallic lustre, conchoidal fracture, and a specific gravity of from 1·4 to 1·6, being, therefore, much denser than the coal of the proper coal measures. It consistswholly of carbon, with a small and variable proportion of iron, silica, and alumina. It is difficult to kindle in separate masses, and burns when in heaps or grates without smell or smoke, leaving sometimes an earthy residuum. It has been little explored or worked in the old world; but is extensively used in the United States of America, and has become of late years a most valuable mineral to that country, where it is burned in peculiar grates, adapted to its difficult combustion. In Pennsylvania the anthracite coal formation has been traced through a tract many miles in width, and extending across the two entire counties of Luzerne and Schuylkill. At Maunch Chunk, upon the Lehigh, 800 men were employed so far back as 1825, in digging this coal. In that year 750,000 bushels were dispatched for Philadelphia. It is worked there with little cost or labour, being situated on hills from 300 to 600 feet above the level of the neighbouring rivers and canals, and existing in nearly horizontal beds, of from 15 to 40 feet in thickness, covered by only a few feet of gravelly loam. At Portsmouth, in Rhode Island, an extensive stratum of this coal has been worked, with some interruptions, for 20 years; and more recently a mine of anthracite has been opened at Worcester, in Massachusetts, at the head of the Blackstone canal. It has been of late employed in South Wales, for smelting iron, and in a cupola blast furnace, by Mr. Crane.

ANTIGUGGLER. A small syphon of metal, which is inserted into the mouths of casks, or large bottles, called carboys, to admit air over the liquor contained in them, and thus to facilitate their being emptied without agitation or a guggling noise.

ANTIMONY. (Antimoine, Fr.;Spiessglanz, orSpiessglass, Ger.) The only ore of this metal found in sufficient abundance to be smelted, is the sulphuret, formerly called crude antimony. It occurs generally in masses, consisting of needles closely aggregated, of a metallic lustre, a lead-gray colour, inclining to steel-gray, which is unchanged in the streak. The needles are extremely brittle, and melt even in the flame of a candle, with the exhalation of a sulphureous smell. The powder of this sulphuret is very black, and was employed by women in ancient times to stain their eyebrows and eyelids. This ore consists in 100 parts of 72·86 metal, and 27·14 sulphur. Specific gravity from 4·13 to 4·6.The veins of sulphuret of antimony occur associated with gangues of quartz, sulphate of barytes, and carbonate of lime; those of Allémont occur in the numerous fissures of a mica schist, evidently primitive.In treating the ore to obtain the metal, the first object is to separate the gangue, which was formerly done by filling crucibles with the mixed materials, placing them on the hearth of an oven, and exposing them to a moderate heat. As the sulphuret easily melts, it ran out through a hole in the bottom of the crucible into a pot placed beneath, and out of the reach of the fire. But the great loss from breakage of the crucibles, has caused another method to be adopted. In this the broken ore, being sorted, is laid on the bottom of a concave reverberatory hearth, where it is reduced.FurnaceFigs.18.19.represent a wind or flame furnace, for the reduction of antimony. The hearth is formed of sand and clay solidly beat together, and slopes from all sides towards the middle, where it is connected with the orificea, which is closed with dense coal-ashes;bis the air channel up through the bridge;c, the door for introducing the prepared ore, and running off the slags;d, the bridge;e, the grate;f, the fire or fuel-door;g, the chimney. With 2 or 3 cwt. of ore, the smelting process is completed in from 8 to 10 hours. The metal thus obtained is not pure enough, but must be fused under coal dust, in portions of 20 or 30 pounds, in crucibles, placed upon a reverberatory hearth.To obtain antimony free from iron, it should be fused with some antimonic oxide in a crucible, whereby the iron is oxidized and separated. The presence of arsenic in antimony is detected by the garlic smell, emitted by such an alloy when heated at the blow-pipe; or, better, by igniting it with nitre in a crucible; in which case, insoluble antimonite and antimoniate of potash will be formed along with soluble arseniate. Water digested upon the mixture, filtered, and then tested with nitrate of silver, will afford the brown-red precipitate characteristic of arsenic acid.According to Berthier, the following materials afford, in smelting, an excellent product of antimony: 100 parts of sulphuret; 60 of hammerschlag (protoxide of iron from the shingling or rolling mills); 45 to 50 of carbonate of soda; and 10 of charcoal powder. From 65 to 70 parts of metallic antimony or regulus should be obtained. Glauber salts may be used instead of soda. For another mode of smelting antimony, at Malbosc, in the department of Ardèche, in France, seeLiquation.In the works where antimonial ores are smelted, by means of tartar (argol), the alkalinescoriæ, which cover the metallic ingots, are not rejected as useless, for they hold a certain quantity of antimonial oxide in combination; a property of the potash flux, which is propitious to the purity of the metal. These scoriæ, consisting of sulphuret of potassium and antimonite of potash, being treated with water, undergo a reciprocal decomposition; the elements of the water act on those of the sulphuret, and the resulting alkaline hydro-sulphuret re-acts on the antimonial solution, so as to form a species ofkermes mineral, which precipitates. This is dried, and sold at a low price as a veterinary medicine, under the name ofkermes, by the dry way.Metallic antimony, as obtained by the preceding process, is the antimony of commerce, but is not absolutely pure; containing frequently minute portions of iron, lead, and even arsenic; the detection and separation of which belong to the sciences of chemistry and pharmacy. Antimony is a brittle metal, of a silvery white colour, with a tinge of blue, a lamellar texture, and crystalline fracture. When heated at the blowpipe, it melts with great readiness, and diffuses white vapours, possessing somewhat of a garlic smell. If thrown in this melted state on a sheet of flat paper, the globule sparkles, and bursts into a multitude of small spheroids, which retain their incandescence for a long time, and run about on the paper, leaving traces of the white oxide produced during the combustion. When this oxide is fused with borax, or other vitrifying matter, it imparts a yellow colour to it. Metallic antimony, treated with hot nitric acid and in a concentrated state, is converted into a powder, called antimonious acid, which is altogether insoluble in the ordinary acid menstrua; a property by which the chemist can separate that metal from lead, iron, copper, bismuth, and silver. According to Bergman, the specific gravity of antimony is 6·86; but Haidinger makes the Swedish native metal only 6·646. The alchemists had conceived the most brilliant hopes of this metal; the facility with which it is alloyed with gold, since its fumes alone render this most ductile metal immediately brittle, led them to assign to it a royal lineage, and to distinguish it by the title ofregulus, or the little king.Its chief employment now is in medicine, and in making the alloys called type metal, stereotype metal, music plates, and Britannia-metal; the first consisting of 6 of lead and 2 of antimony; the second of 6 of lead and 1 of antimony; the third of lead, tin, and antimony; and the fourth also of lead, tin, and antimony, with occasionally a little copper and bismuth.—For Glass of antimony, seePastes.

The veins of sulphuret of antimony occur associated with gangues of quartz, sulphate of barytes, and carbonate of lime; those of Allémont occur in the numerous fissures of a mica schist, evidently primitive.

In treating the ore to obtain the metal, the first object is to separate the gangue, which was formerly done by filling crucibles with the mixed materials, placing them on the hearth of an oven, and exposing them to a moderate heat. As the sulphuret easily melts, it ran out through a hole in the bottom of the crucible into a pot placed beneath, and out of the reach of the fire. But the great loss from breakage of the crucibles, has caused another method to be adopted. In this the broken ore, being sorted, is laid on the bottom of a concave reverberatory hearth, where it is reduced.

Furnace

Figs.18.19.represent a wind or flame furnace, for the reduction of antimony. The hearth is formed of sand and clay solidly beat together, and slopes from all sides towards the middle, where it is connected with the orificea, which is closed with dense coal-ashes;bis the air channel up through the bridge;c, the door for introducing the prepared ore, and running off the slags;d, the bridge;e, the grate;f, the fire or fuel-door;g, the chimney. With 2 or 3 cwt. of ore, the smelting process is completed in from 8 to 10 hours. The metal thus obtained is not pure enough, but must be fused under coal dust, in portions of 20 or 30 pounds, in crucibles, placed upon a reverberatory hearth.

To obtain antimony free from iron, it should be fused with some antimonic oxide in a crucible, whereby the iron is oxidized and separated. The presence of arsenic in antimony is detected by the garlic smell, emitted by such an alloy when heated at the blow-pipe; or, better, by igniting it with nitre in a crucible; in which case, insoluble antimonite and antimoniate of potash will be formed along with soluble arseniate. Water digested upon the mixture, filtered, and then tested with nitrate of silver, will afford the brown-red precipitate characteristic of arsenic acid.

According to Berthier, the following materials afford, in smelting, an excellent product of antimony: 100 parts of sulphuret; 60 of hammerschlag (protoxide of iron from the shingling or rolling mills); 45 to 50 of carbonate of soda; and 10 of charcoal powder. From 65 to 70 parts of metallic antimony or regulus should be obtained. Glauber salts may be used instead of soda. For another mode of smelting antimony, at Malbosc, in the department of Ardèche, in France, seeLiquation.

In the works where antimonial ores are smelted, by means of tartar (argol), the alkalinescoriæ, which cover the metallic ingots, are not rejected as useless, for they hold a certain quantity of antimonial oxide in combination; a property of the potash flux, which is propitious to the purity of the metal. These scoriæ, consisting of sulphuret of potassium and antimonite of potash, being treated with water, undergo a reciprocal decomposition; the elements of the water act on those of the sulphuret, and the resulting alkaline hydro-sulphuret re-acts on the antimonial solution, so as to form a species ofkermes mineral, which precipitates. This is dried, and sold at a low price as a veterinary medicine, under the name ofkermes, by the dry way.

Metallic antimony, as obtained by the preceding process, is the antimony of commerce, but is not absolutely pure; containing frequently minute portions of iron, lead, and even arsenic; the detection and separation of which belong to the sciences of chemistry and pharmacy. Antimony is a brittle metal, of a silvery white colour, with a tinge of blue, a lamellar texture, and crystalline fracture. When heated at the blowpipe, it melts with great readiness, and diffuses white vapours, possessing somewhat of a garlic smell. If thrown in this melted state on a sheet of flat paper, the globule sparkles, and bursts into a multitude of small spheroids, which retain their incandescence for a long time, and run about on the paper, leaving traces of the white oxide produced during the combustion. When this oxide is fused with borax, or other vitrifying matter, it imparts a yellow colour to it. Metallic antimony, treated with hot nitric acid and in a concentrated state, is converted into a powder, called antimonious acid, which is altogether insoluble in the ordinary acid menstrua; a property by which the chemist can separate that metal from lead, iron, copper, bismuth, and silver. According to Bergman, the specific gravity of antimony is 6·86; but Haidinger makes the Swedish native metal only 6·646. The alchemists had conceived the most brilliant hopes of this metal; the facility with which it is alloyed with gold, since its fumes alone render this most ductile metal immediately brittle, led them to assign to it a royal lineage, and to distinguish it by the title ofregulus, or the little king.

Its chief employment now is in medicine, and in making the alloys called type metal, stereotype metal, music plates, and Britannia-metal; the first consisting of 6 of lead and 2 of antimony; the second of 6 of lead and 1 of antimony; the third of lead, tin, and antimony; and the fourth also of lead, tin, and antimony, with occasionally a little copper and bismuth.—For Glass of antimony, seePastes.

ANTISEPTICS. Substances which counteract the spontaneous decomposition of animal and vegetable substances. These are chiefly culinary salt, nitre, spices, and sugar, which operate partly by inducing a change in the animal or vegetable fibres, and partly by rendering the aqueous constituent unsusceptible of decomposition. SeeProvisions, curing of.

ANVIL. A mass of iron, having a smooth and nearly flat top surface of steel; upon which blacksmiths, and various other artificers, forge metals with the hammer. The common anvil is usually made of seven pieces: 1, the core, or body; 2, 3, 4, 5, the four corner pieces which serve to enlarge its base; 6, the projecting end, which has a square hole for the reception of the tail or shank of a chisel on which iron bars may be cut through; and 7, the beak, or horizontal cone round which rods or slips of metal may be turned into a circular form, as in making rings. These 6 pieces are welded separately to the first, or core, and then hammered into an uniform body. In manufacturing large anvils two hearths are needed, in order to bring each of the two pieces to be welded, to a proper heat by itself; and several men are employed in working them together briskly in the welding state, by heavy swing hammers. The steel facing is applied by welding in the same manner. The anvil is then hardened by heating it to a cherry red, and plunging it into cold water; a running stream being preferable to a pool or cistern. The facing should not be too thick a plate, for, when such, it is apt to crack in the hardening. The face of the anvil is now smoothed upon a grindstone, and finally polished with emery and crocus, for all delicate purposes of art.The blacksmith, in general, sets his anvil loosely upon a wooden block, and in preference on the root of an oak. But the cutlers and file-makers fasten their anvils to a large block of stone; which is an advantage, for the more firmly and solidly this tool is connected to the earth, the more efficacious will be the blows of the hammer on any object placed upon it.

The blacksmith, in general, sets his anvil loosely upon a wooden block, and in preference on the root of an oak. But the cutlers and file-makers fasten their anvils to a large block of stone; which is an advantage, for the more firmly and solidly this tool is connected to the earth, the more efficacious will be the blows of the hammer on any object placed upon it.

AQUAFORTIS. Nitric acid, somewhat dilute, was so named by the alchemists on account of its strong solvent and corrosive operation upon many mineral, vegetable, and animal substances. SeeNitric Acid.

AQUA REGIA. The name given by the alchemists to that mixture of nitric and muriatic acids which was best fitted to dissolve gold, styled by them the king of the metals. It is now callednitro-muriatic acid.

AQUA VITÆ. The name very absurdly given to alcohol, when used as an intoxicating beverage. It has been theaqua mortisto myriads of the human race; and will, probably, ere long destroy all the native tribes of North America and Australia.

ARCHIL. A violet red paste used in dyeing, of which the substance calledcudbearin Scotland (fromCuthbert, its first preparer in that form), is a modification. Two kinds of archil are distinguished in commerce, thearchilplant of the Canaries, and that of Auvergne. The first is most esteemed: it is prepared from thelichen rocellus, which grows on rocks adjoining the sea in the Canary and Cape de Verde Islands, in Sardinia, Minorca, &c., as well as on the rocks of Sweden. The second species is prepared from thelichen parellus, which grows on the basaltic rocks of Auvergne.There are several other species of lichen which might be employed in producing an analogous dye, were they prepared, like the preceding, into the substance calledarchil. Hellot gives the following method for discovering if they possess this property. A little of the plant is to be put into a glass vessel; it is to be moistened with ammonia and lime-water in equal parts; a little muriate of ammonia (sal ammoniac) is added; and the small vessel is corked. If the plant be of a nature to afford a red dye, after three or four days, the small portion of liquid, which will run off on inclining the vessel, now opened, will be tinged of a crimson red, and the plant itself will have assumed this colour. If the liquor or the plant does not take this colour, nothing need be hoped for; and it is useless to attempt its preparation on the great scale. Lewis says, however, that he has tested in this way a great many mosses, and that most of them afforded him a yellow or reddish brown colour; but that he obtained from only a small number a liquor of a deep red, which communicated to cloth merely a yellowish-red colour.Prepared archil gives out its colour very readily to water, ammonia, and alcohol. Its solution in alcohol is used for filling spirit-of-wine thermometers; and when these thermometers are well freed from air, the liquor loses its colour in some years, as Abbé Nollet observed. The contact of air restores the colour, which is destroyed anew, in vacuo, in process of time. The watery infusion loses its colour, by the privation of air, in a few days; a singular phenomenon, which merits new researches.The infusion of archil is of a crimson bordering on violet. As it contains ammonia, which has already modified its natural colour, the fixed alkalies can produce little change on it, only deepening the colour a little, and making it more violet. Alum forms in it a precipitate of a brown red; and the supernatant liquid retains a yellowish-red colour. The solution of tin affords a reddish precipitate, which falls down slowly; the supernatant liquid retains a feeble red colour. The other metallic salts produce precipitates which offer nothing remarkable.The watery solution of archil applied to cold marble, penetrates it, communicating a beautiful violet colour, or a blue bordering on purple, which resists the air much longer than the archil colours applied to other substances. Dufay says, that he has seen marble tinged with this colour preserve it without alteration at the end of two years.To dye with archil, the quantity of this substance deemed necessary, according to the quantity of wool or stuff to be dyed, and according to the shade to which they are to be brought, is to be diffused in a bath of water as soon as it begins to grow warm. The bath is then heated till it be ready to boil, and the wool or stuff is passed through it without any other preparation, except keeping that longest in, which is to have the deepest shade. A fine gridelin, bordering upon violet, is thereby obtained; but this colour has no permanence. Hence archil is rarely employed with any other view than to modify, heighten, and give lustre to the other colours. Hellot says, that having employed archil on wool boiled with tartar and alum, the colour resisted the air no more than what had received no preparation. But he obtained from herb archil (l’orseille d’herbe) a much more durable colour, by putting in the bath some solution of tin. The archil thereby loses its natural colour, and assumes one approaching more or less to scarlet, according to the quantity of solution of tin employed. This process must be executed in nearly the same manner as that of scarlet, except that the dyeing may be performed in a single bath.Archil is frequently had recourse to for varying the different shades and giving them lustre; hence it is used for violets, lilacs, mallows, and rosemary flowers. To obtain a deeper tone, as for the deepsoupes au vin, sometimes a little alkali or milk of lime is mixed with it. The suites of this browning may also afford agates, rosemary flowers, and other delicate colours, which cannot be obtained so beautiful by other processes. Alum cannot be substituted for this purpose; it not only does not give this lustre, but it degrades the deep colours.The herb-archil is preferable to the archil of Auvergne, from the greater bloom which it communicates to the colours, and from the larger quantity of colouring matter. It has, besides, the advantage of bearing ebullition. The latter, moreover, does not answer with alum, which destroys the colour; but the herb archil has the inconvenience of dyeing in an irregular manner, unless attention be given to pass the cloth through hot water as soon as it comes out of the dye.Archil alone is not used for dyeing silk, unless for lilacs; but silk is frequently passed through a bath of archil, either before dyeing it in other baths or after it has been dyed, in order to modify different colours, or to give them lustre. Examples of thiswill be given in treating of the compound colours. It is sufficient here to point out how white silks are passed through the archil bath. The same process is performed with a bath more or less charged with this colour, for silks already dyed.Archil, in a quantity proportioned to the colour desired, is to be boiled in a copper. The clear liquid is to be run off quite hot from the archil bath, leaving the sediment at the bottom, into a tub of proper size, in which the silks, newly scoured with soap, are to be turned round on the skein-sticks with much exactness, till they have attained the wished-for shade. After this they must receive one beetling at the river.Archil is in general a very useful ingredient in dyeing; but as it is rich in colour, and communicates an alluring bloom, dyers are often tempted to abuse it, and to exceed the proportions that can add to the beauty without at the same time injuring in a dangerous manner the permanence of the colours. Nevertheless, the colour obtained when solution of tin is employed, is less fugitive than without this addition: it is red, approaching to scarlet. Tin appears to be the only ingredient which can increase its durability. The solution of tin may be employed, not only in the dyeing bath, but for the preparation of the silk. In this case, by mixing the archil with other colouring substances, dyes may be obtained which have lustre with sufficient durability.We have spoken of the colour of the archil as if it were natural to it; but it is, really, due to an alkaline combination. The acids make it pass to red, either by saturating the alkali, or by substituting themselves for the alkali.The lichen which produces archil is subjected to another preparation, to make turnsole (litmus). This article is made in Holland. The lichen comes from the Canary Islands, and also from Sweden. It is reduced to a fine powder by means of a mill, and a certain proportion of potash is mixed with it. The mixture is watered with urine, and allowed to suffer a species of fermentation. When this has arrived at a certain degree, carbonate of lime in powder is added, to give consistence and weight to the paste, which is afterwards reduced into small parallelopipeds that are carefully dried.The latest researches on the lichens, as objects of manufacture, are those of Westring of Stockholm. He examined 150 species, among which he found several which might be rendered useful. He recommends that the colouring matter should be extracted in the places where they grow, which would save a vast expense in curing, package, carriage, and waste. He styles the colouring substance itself cutbear, persio, or turnsole; and distributes the lichens as follows:—1st. Those which left to themselves, exposed to moderate heat and moisture, may be fixed without a mordant upon wool or silk; such are the L.cinereus,æmatonta,ventosus,corallinus,westringii,saxatilis,conspassus,barbatus,plicatus,vulpinus, &c.2. Those which develop a colouring matter fixable likewise without mordant, but which require boiling and a complicated preparation; such are the lichenssubcarneus,dillenii,farinaceus,jubatus,furfuraceus,pulmonareus,cornigatus,cocciferus,digitatus,ancialis,aduncus, &c. Saltpetre or sea-salt are requisite to improve the lustre and fastness of the dye given by this group to silk.3. Those which require a peculiar process to develop their colour; such as those which become purple through the agency of stale urine or ammonia. Westring employed the following mode of testing:—He put three or four drachms of the dried and powdered lichen into a flask; moistened it with three or four measures of cold spring water; put the stuff to be dyed into the mixture, and left the flask in a cool place. Sometimes he added a little salt, saltpetre, quicklime, or sulphate of copper. If no colour appeared, he then moistened the lichen with water containing one twentieth of sal ammoniac, and one tenth of quicklime, and set the mixture aside in a cool place from eight to fourteen days. There appeared in most cases a reddish or violet coloured tint. Thus thelichen cinereusdyed silk a deep carmelite, and wool a light carmelite; thel. physodesgave a yellowish-gray; thepustulatus, a rose red;sanguinarius, gray;tartareus, found on the rocks of Norway, Scotland, and England, dyes a crimson-red. In Jutland, cutbear is made from it, by grinding the dry lichen, sifting it, then setting it to ferment in a close vessel with ammonia. The lichen must be of the third year’s growth to yield an abundant dye; and that which grows near the sea is the best. It loses half its weight by drying. A single person may gather from twenty to thirty pounds a day in situations where it abounds. No less than 2,239,685 pounds were manufactured at Christiansand, Flekkefiort, and Fakrsund, in Norway, in the course of the six years prior to 1812. Since more solid dyes of the same shade have been invented, the archil has gone much into disuse. Federigo, of Florence, who revived its use at the beginning of the fourteenth century, made such an immense fortune by its preparation, that his family became one of the grandees of that city, under the name of Oricellarii, or Rucellarii. For more than a century Italy possessed the exclusive art of making archil, obtaining the lichens from the islands of the Mediterranean. According to an official report of 1831, Teneriffe furnished annually 500 quintals (cwts.) of lichen;the Canary Isles, 400; Fuerta Santura, 300; Lancerot, 300; Gomera, 300; isle of Ferro, 800. This business belonged to the crown, and brought it a revenue of 1500 piastres. The farmers paid from 15 to 20 reals for the right to gather each quintal. At that time the quintal fetched in the London market 4l.sterling.Archil is perhaps too much used in some cloth factories of England, to the discredit of our dyes. It is said, that by its aid one third of the indigo may be saved in the blue vat; but the colour is so much the more perishable. The fine soft tint induced upon much of the black cloth by means of archil is also deceptive. One half-pound of cutbear will dye one pound of woollen cloth. A crimson red is obtained by adding to the decoction of archil a little salt of tin (muriate), and passing the cloth through the bath, after it has been prepared by a mordant of tin and tartar. It must be afterwards passed through hot water.

There are several other species of lichen which might be employed in producing an analogous dye, were they prepared, like the preceding, into the substance calledarchil. Hellot gives the following method for discovering if they possess this property. A little of the plant is to be put into a glass vessel; it is to be moistened with ammonia and lime-water in equal parts; a little muriate of ammonia (sal ammoniac) is added; and the small vessel is corked. If the plant be of a nature to afford a red dye, after three or four days, the small portion of liquid, which will run off on inclining the vessel, now opened, will be tinged of a crimson red, and the plant itself will have assumed this colour. If the liquor or the plant does not take this colour, nothing need be hoped for; and it is useless to attempt its preparation on the great scale. Lewis says, however, that he has tested in this way a great many mosses, and that most of them afforded him a yellow or reddish brown colour; but that he obtained from only a small number a liquor of a deep red, which communicated to cloth merely a yellowish-red colour.

Prepared archil gives out its colour very readily to water, ammonia, and alcohol. Its solution in alcohol is used for filling spirit-of-wine thermometers; and when these thermometers are well freed from air, the liquor loses its colour in some years, as Abbé Nollet observed. The contact of air restores the colour, which is destroyed anew, in vacuo, in process of time. The watery infusion loses its colour, by the privation of air, in a few days; a singular phenomenon, which merits new researches.

The infusion of archil is of a crimson bordering on violet. As it contains ammonia, which has already modified its natural colour, the fixed alkalies can produce little change on it, only deepening the colour a little, and making it more violet. Alum forms in it a precipitate of a brown red; and the supernatant liquid retains a yellowish-red colour. The solution of tin affords a reddish precipitate, which falls down slowly; the supernatant liquid retains a feeble red colour. The other metallic salts produce precipitates which offer nothing remarkable.

The watery solution of archil applied to cold marble, penetrates it, communicating a beautiful violet colour, or a blue bordering on purple, which resists the air much longer than the archil colours applied to other substances. Dufay says, that he has seen marble tinged with this colour preserve it without alteration at the end of two years.

To dye with archil, the quantity of this substance deemed necessary, according to the quantity of wool or stuff to be dyed, and according to the shade to which they are to be brought, is to be diffused in a bath of water as soon as it begins to grow warm. The bath is then heated till it be ready to boil, and the wool or stuff is passed through it without any other preparation, except keeping that longest in, which is to have the deepest shade. A fine gridelin, bordering upon violet, is thereby obtained; but this colour has no permanence. Hence archil is rarely employed with any other view than to modify, heighten, and give lustre to the other colours. Hellot says, that having employed archil on wool boiled with tartar and alum, the colour resisted the air no more than what had received no preparation. But he obtained from herb archil (l’orseille d’herbe) a much more durable colour, by putting in the bath some solution of tin. The archil thereby loses its natural colour, and assumes one approaching more or less to scarlet, according to the quantity of solution of tin employed. This process must be executed in nearly the same manner as that of scarlet, except that the dyeing may be performed in a single bath.

Archil is frequently had recourse to for varying the different shades and giving them lustre; hence it is used for violets, lilacs, mallows, and rosemary flowers. To obtain a deeper tone, as for the deepsoupes au vin, sometimes a little alkali or milk of lime is mixed with it. The suites of this browning may also afford agates, rosemary flowers, and other delicate colours, which cannot be obtained so beautiful by other processes. Alum cannot be substituted for this purpose; it not only does not give this lustre, but it degrades the deep colours.

The herb-archil is preferable to the archil of Auvergne, from the greater bloom which it communicates to the colours, and from the larger quantity of colouring matter. It has, besides, the advantage of bearing ebullition. The latter, moreover, does not answer with alum, which destroys the colour; but the herb archil has the inconvenience of dyeing in an irregular manner, unless attention be given to pass the cloth through hot water as soon as it comes out of the dye.

Archil alone is not used for dyeing silk, unless for lilacs; but silk is frequently passed through a bath of archil, either before dyeing it in other baths or after it has been dyed, in order to modify different colours, or to give them lustre. Examples of thiswill be given in treating of the compound colours. It is sufficient here to point out how white silks are passed through the archil bath. The same process is performed with a bath more or less charged with this colour, for silks already dyed.

Archil, in a quantity proportioned to the colour desired, is to be boiled in a copper. The clear liquid is to be run off quite hot from the archil bath, leaving the sediment at the bottom, into a tub of proper size, in which the silks, newly scoured with soap, are to be turned round on the skein-sticks with much exactness, till they have attained the wished-for shade. After this they must receive one beetling at the river.

Archil is in general a very useful ingredient in dyeing; but as it is rich in colour, and communicates an alluring bloom, dyers are often tempted to abuse it, and to exceed the proportions that can add to the beauty without at the same time injuring in a dangerous manner the permanence of the colours. Nevertheless, the colour obtained when solution of tin is employed, is less fugitive than without this addition: it is red, approaching to scarlet. Tin appears to be the only ingredient which can increase its durability. The solution of tin may be employed, not only in the dyeing bath, but for the preparation of the silk. In this case, by mixing the archil with other colouring substances, dyes may be obtained which have lustre with sufficient durability.

We have spoken of the colour of the archil as if it were natural to it; but it is, really, due to an alkaline combination. The acids make it pass to red, either by saturating the alkali, or by substituting themselves for the alkali.

The lichen which produces archil is subjected to another preparation, to make turnsole (litmus). This article is made in Holland. The lichen comes from the Canary Islands, and also from Sweden. It is reduced to a fine powder by means of a mill, and a certain proportion of potash is mixed with it. The mixture is watered with urine, and allowed to suffer a species of fermentation. When this has arrived at a certain degree, carbonate of lime in powder is added, to give consistence and weight to the paste, which is afterwards reduced into small parallelopipeds that are carefully dried.

The latest researches on the lichens, as objects of manufacture, are those of Westring of Stockholm. He examined 150 species, among which he found several which might be rendered useful. He recommends that the colouring matter should be extracted in the places where they grow, which would save a vast expense in curing, package, carriage, and waste. He styles the colouring substance itself cutbear, persio, or turnsole; and distributes the lichens as follows:—1st. Those which left to themselves, exposed to moderate heat and moisture, may be fixed without a mordant upon wool or silk; such are the L.cinereus,æmatonta,ventosus,corallinus,westringii,saxatilis,conspassus,barbatus,plicatus,vulpinus, &c.

2. Those which develop a colouring matter fixable likewise without mordant, but which require boiling and a complicated preparation; such are the lichenssubcarneus,dillenii,farinaceus,jubatus,furfuraceus,pulmonareus,cornigatus,cocciferus,digitatus,ancialis,aduncus, &c. Saltpetre or sea-salt are requisite to improve the lustre and fastness of the dye given by this group to silk.

3. Those which require a peculiar process to develop their colour; such as those which become purple through the agency of stale urine or ammonia. Westring employed the following mode of testing:—He put three or four drachms of the dried and powdered lichen into a flask; moistened it with three or four measures of cold spring water; put the stuff to be dyed into the mixture, and left the flask in a cool place. Sometimes he added a little salt, saltpetre, quicklime, or sulphate of copper. If no colour appeared, he then moistened the lichen with water containing one twentieth of sal ammoniac, and one tenth of quicklime, and set the mixture aside in a cool place from eight to fourteen days. There appeared in most cases a reddish or violet coloured tint. Thus thelichen cinereusdyed silk a deep carmelite, and wool a light carmelite; thel. physodesgave a yellowish-gray; thepustulatus, a rose red;sanguinarius, gray;tartareus, found on the rocks of Norway, Scotland, and England, dyes a crimson-red. In Jutland, cutbear is made from it, by grinding the dry lichen, sifting it, then setting it to ferment in a close vessel with ammonia. The lichen must be of the third year’s growth to yield an abundant dye; and that which grows near the sea is the best. It loses half its weight by drying. A single person may gather from twenty to thirty pounds a day in situations where it abounds. No less than 2,239,685 pounds were manufactured at Christiansand, Flekkefiort, and Fakrsund, in Norway, in the course of the six years prior to 1812. Since more solid dyes of the same shade have been invented, the archil has gone much into disuse. Federigo, of Florence, who revived its use at the beginning of the fourteenth century, made such an immense fortune by its preparation, that his family became one of the grandees of that city, under the name of Oricellarii, or Rucellarii. For more than a century Italy possessed the exclusive art of making archil, obtaining the lichens from the islands of the Mediterranean. According to an official report of 1831, Teneriffe furnished annually 500 quintals (cwts.) of lichen;the Canary Isles, 400; Fuerta Santura, 300; Lancerot, 300; Gomera, 300; isle of Ferro, 800. This business belonged to the crown, and brought it a revenue of 1500 piastres. The farmers paid from 15 to 20 reals for the right to gather each quintal. At that time the quintal fetched in the London market 4l.sterling.

Archil is perhaps too much used in some cloth factories of England, to the discredit of our dyes. It is said, that by its aid one third of the indigo may be saved in the blue vat; but the colour is so much the more perishable. The fine soft tint induced upon much of the black cloth by means of archil is also deceptive. One half-pound of cutbear will dye one pound of woollen cloth. A crimson red is obtained by adding to the decoction of archil a little salt of tin (muriate), and passing the cloth through the bath, after it has been prepared by a mordant of tin and tartar. It must be afterwards passed through hot water.

ARDENT SPIRIT. Alcohol of moderate strength.

AREOMETER OF BAUMÉ. This scale is much used by the French authors.Specific Gravity Numbers corresponding with Baumé’s Areometric Degrees.Liquids denser than Water.Less dense than Water.De-grees.Spe-cificgravi-ty.De-grees.Spe-cificgravi-ty.De-grees.Spe-cificgravi-ty.De-grees.Spe-cificgravi-ty.De-grees.Spe-cificgravi-ty.01·0000261·2063521·5200101·0000360·848811·0066271·2160531·5353110·9932370·843921·0133281·2258541·5510120·9865380·839131·0201291·2358551·5671130·9799390·831341·0270301·2459561·5833140·9733400·829551·0340311·2562571·6000150·9669410·824961·0411321·2667581·6170160·9605420·820271·0483331·2773591·6344170·9542430·815681·0556341·2881601·6522180·9480440·811191·0630351·2992611·6705190·9420450·8066101·0704361·3103621·6889200·9359460·8022111·0780371·3217631·7079210·9300470·7978121·0857381·3333641·7273220·9241480·7935131·0935391·3451651·7471230·9183490·7892141·1014401·3571661·7674240·9125500·7849151·1095411·3694671·7882250·9068510·7807161·1176421·3818681·8095260·9012520·7766171·1259431·3945691·8313270·8957530·7725181·1343441·4074701·8537280·8902540·7684191·1428451·4206711·8765290·8848550·7643201·1515461·4339721·9000300·8795560·7604211·1603471·4476731·9241310·8742570·7656221·1692481·4615741·9487320·8690580·7526231·1783491·4758751·9740330·8639590·7487241·1875501·4902762·0000340·8588600·7449251·1968511·4951350·8538610·7411

AREOMETER OF BAUMÉ. This scale is much used by the French authors.

Specific Gravity Numbers corresponding with Baumé’s Areometric Degrees.

ARGILLACEOUS EARTH. The earth of clay, called in chemistry alumina, because it is obtained in greatest purity from alum.

ARGOL. Crudetartar; which see.

ARMS. Weapons of war. SeeFire-Armsfor an account of this manufacture.

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