Chapter II: Peculiar Antiseptic Processes (5)

“The rock salt mines and principal brine springs are in Cheshire; and the chief part of the Cheshire salt, both fossil and manufactured, is sent by the river Weaver to Liverpool, a very small proportion of it being conveyed elsewhere, by canal or land carriage. There are brine springs in Staffordshire, from which Hull is furnished with white salt; and in Worcestershire, from which Gloucester is supplied. If to the quantity shipped by the Weaver, 100,000 tons of white salt are added annually for internal consumption and exports, exclusive of Liverpool, the total manufacture will be approached very nearly; but as there is now no check from the excise, it is impossible to ascertain it exactly. Fossil salt is used in small quantities at some of the Cheshire manufactories, to strengthen the brine, but is principally exported; some to Ireland, but chiefly to Belgium and Holland.”[52] The average quantity of rock salt sent annually down the river Weaver, from the mines in Cheshire, between the years 1803 and 1834 inclusive, was 86,000 tons, of 2,600 lbs. each; the greatest being 125,658, in the year 1823, and the least 47,230, in the year 1813. The average quantity of white salt sent annually down the Weaver from the manufactories in Cheshire during the same period, was 221,351; the greatest being 383,669, in the year 1832, and the least being 120,486, in the year 1811.

[52] Tables of the Revenue, Population, Commerce, &c., for 1836, p.
122.

M. Clement-Desormes, engineer and chief _actionnaire_ of the great salt-works of Dieuze, in France, informs me that the internal consumption of that kingdom is rather more than 200,000 tons per annum, being at the rate of 6-1/2 kilogrammes for each individual of a population estimated at 32,000,000. As the retail price of salt in France is 10 sous per kilogramme (of 2-1/5 lbs. avoird.), while in this country it is not more than 2 sous (1 penny), its consumption per head will be much greater with us; and, taking into account the immense quantity of salted provisions that are used, it may be reckoned at 22 lbs.; whence our internal consumption will be 240,000 tons, instead of 100,000, as quoted above, from the tables published by the Board of Trade.

In 1836, 9,622,427 bushels, of 56 lbs. = 240,560 tons of salt, value 173,923_l._, were exported from the United Kingdom, of which 1,350,849 bushels went to Russia; 1,235,086 to Belgium; 314,132 to the Western coast of Africa; 1,293,560 to the British North American colonies; 2,870,808 to the United States of America; 53,299 to New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land, and other Australian settlements; 58,735 to the British West Indies; and 90,655 to Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Man.

SAND (Eng. and Germ.; _Sable_, Fr.); is the name given to any mineral substance in a hard granular or pulverulent form, whether strewed upon the surface of the ground, found in strata at a certain depth, forming the beds of rivers, or the shores of the sea. The siliceous sands seem to be either original crystalline formations, like the sand of Neuilly, in 6-sided prisms, terminated by two 6-sided pyramids, or the _débris_ of granitic, schistose, quartzose, or other primitive crystalline rocks, and are abundantly distributed over the globe; as in the immense plains known under the names of downs, deserts, _steppes_, _landes_, &c., which, in Africa, Asia, Europe, and America, are entirely covered with loose sterile sand. Valuable metallic ores, those of gold, platinum, tin, copper, iron, titanium, often occur in the form of sand, or mixed with that earthy substance. Pure siliceous sands are very valuable for the manufacture of glass, for making mortars, filters, ameliorating dense clay soils, and many other purposes. For moulder’s sand, see FOUNDING. Lynn and Ryegate furnish our purest siliceous sand.

SANDAL or RED SAUNDERS WOOD (_Santal_ Fr.; _Sandelholz_ Germ.); is the wood of the _Pterocarpus santalinus_, a tree which grows in Ceylon, and on the coast of Coromandel. The old wood is preferred by dyers. Its colouring matter is of a resinous nature; and is, therefore, quite soluble in alcohol, essential oils, and alkaline lyes; but sparingly in boiling water, and hardly if at all in cold water. The colouring matter which is obtained by evaporating the alcoholic infusion to dryness, has been called _santaline_; it is a red resin, which is fusible at 212° F. It may also be obtained by digesting the rasped sandal wood in water of ammonia, and afterwards saturating the ammonia with an acid. The _santaline_ falls, and the supernatant liquor, which is yellow by transmitted, appears blue by reflected light. Its spirituous solution affords a fine purple precipitate with the protochloride of tin, and a violet one with the salts of lead. Santaline is very soluble in acetic acid, and the solution forms permanent stains upon the skin.

Sandal wood is used in India, along with one-tenth of _sapan_ wood (the _Cæsalpinia sapan_ of Japan, Java, Siam, Celebes, and the Philippine isles), principally for dyeing silk and cotton. Trommsdorf dyed wool, cotton, and linen a carmine hue by dipping them alternately in alkaline solution of the sandal wood, and in an acidulous bath. Bancroft obtained a fast and brilliant reddish-yellow, by preparing wool with an alum and tartar bath, and then passing it through a boiling bath of sandal wood and sumac. Pelletier did not succeed in repeating this experiment. According to Togler, wool, silk, cotton, and linen, mordanted with salt of tin, and dipped in a cold alcoholic tincture of the wood, or the same tincture mixed with 8 parts of boiling water, become of a superb ponceau-red colour. With alum, they took a scarlet-red; with sulphate of iron, a deep violet, or brown-red. Unluckily these dyes do not stand exposure to light well.

SANDARACH, is a peculiar resinous substance, the product of the _Thuya articulata_, a small tree of the coniferous family, which grows in the northern parts of Africa, especially round Mount Atlas.

The resin comes to us in pale yellow, transparent, brittle, small tears, of a spherical or cylindrical shape. It has a faint aromatic smell, does not soften, but breaks between the teeth, fuses readily with heat, and has a specific gravity of from 1·05 to 1·09. It contains three different resins; one soluble in spirit of wine, somewhat resembling _pinic acid_ (see TURPENTINE); one not soluble in that menstruum; and a third, soluble only in alcohol of 90 per cent. It is used as pounce-powder for strewing over paper erasures, as incense, and in varnishes.

SAPAN WOOD, is a species of the _Cæsalpinia_ genus, to which Brasil wood belongs. It is so called by the French, because it comes to them from Japan, which they corruptly pronounce Sapan. As all the species of this tree are natives of either the East Indies or the New World, one would imagine that they could not have been used as dye-stuffs in Europe before the beginning of the 16th century. Yet the author of the article “Brasil,” in Rees’ Cyclopædia, and Mr. Southey, in his History of Brasil, say that _Brasil_ wood is mentioned nearly one hundred years before the discoveries of Columbus and Vasco de Gama, by Chaucer, who died in 1400; that it was known many ages before his time; and that it gave the name to the country, instead of the country giving the name to the wood, as I have stated, with Berthollet and other writers on dyeing. The _Cæsalpinia sappan_, being a native of the Coromandel coast, may _possibly_ have been transported along with other Malabar merchandise to the Mediterranean marts in the middle ages; but the importation of so lumbering an article in any considerable quantity by that channel, is so improbable, that I am disposed to believe that Brasil wood was not commonly used by the dyers of Europe before the discovery of the New World.

SARD; see LAPIDARY.

SATIN (Eng., Fr., and Germ.); is the name of a silk stuff, first imported from China, which is distinguished by its very smooth, polished, and glossy surface. It is woven upon a loom with at least five-leaved healds or heddles, and as many corresponding treddles. These are so mounted as to rise and fall four at a time, raising and depressing alternately four yarns of the warp, across the whole of which the weft is thrown by the shuttle, so as to produce a uniform smooth texture, instead of the chequered work resulting from intermediate decussations, as in common webs. See TEXTILE FABRICS. Satins are woven with the glossy or right side undermost, because the four-fifths of the warp, which are always left there during the action of the healds, serve to support the shuttle in its race. Were they woven in the reverse way, the scanty fifth part of the warp threads could either not support, or would be too much worn by the shuttle.

SATURATION, is the term at which any body has taken its full dose or chemical proportion of any other with which it can combine; as water with a salt, or an acid with an alkali in the neutro-saline state.

SCALIOLA, is merely ornamental plaster-work, produced by applying a pap made of finely-ground calcined gypsum, mixed with a weak solution of Flanders’ glue, upon any figure formed of laths nailed together, or occasionally upon brickwork, and bestudding its surface, while soft, with splinters (_scagliole_) of spar, marble, granite, bits of concrete, coloured gypsum, or veins of clay, in a semi-fluid state. The substances employed to colour the spots and patches, are the several ochres, boles, _terra di Sienna_, chrome yellow, &c. The surface of the column is turned smooth upon a lathe, polished with stones of different fineness, and finished with some plaster-pap, to give it lustre. Pillars and other flat surfaces are smoothed by a carpenter’s plane, with the chisel finely serrated, and afterwards polished with plaster by friction. The glue is the cause of the gloss, but makes the surface apt to be injured by moisture, or even damp air.

SCARLET DYE. (_Teinture en écarlate_, Fr.; _Scharlachfärberei_, Germ.) Scarlet is usually given at two successive operations. The boiler (see _figs._ 364, 365., article DYEING,) is made of block tin, but its bottom is formed occasionally of copper.

1. _The bouillon, or the colouring-bath._--For 100 pounds of cloth, put into the water, when it is little more than lukewarm, 6 pounds of argal, and stir it well. When the water becomes too hot for the hand, throw into it, with agitation, one pound of cochineal in fine powder. An instant afterwards, pour in 5 pounds of the clear mordant G, (see TIN MORDANTS,) stir the whole thoroughly as soon as the bath begins to boil, introduce the cloth, and wince it briskly for two or three rotations, and then more slowly. At the end of a two-hours’ boil, the cloth is to be taken out, allowed to become perfectly cool, and well washed at the river, or winced in a current of pure water. (See an automatic plan of washing described under the article RINSING MACHINE.)

2. _The rougie, or finishing dye._--The bouillon bath is emptied, and replaced with water for the _rougie_. When it is on the point of boiling, 5-1/2 pounds of cochineal in fine powder are to be thrown in, and mixed with care; when the crust, which forms upon the surface, opens of itself in several places, 14 pounds of solution of tin (as above) are to be added. Should the liquor be likely to boil over the edges of the kettle, it must be refreshed with a little cold water. When the bath has become uniform, the cloth is to be put in, taking care to wince it briskly for two or three turns; then to boil it bodily for an hour, thrusting it under the liquor with a rod whenever it rises to the surface. It is lastly taken out, aired, washed at the river, and dried.

As no person has done more for the improvement of the scarlet dyes than Poërner, I shall here give his processes in detail.

_Bouillon, or colouring._--For every pound of cloth or wool, take 14 drams of cream of tartar. When the bath is boiling, and the tartar all dissolved, pour in successively 14 drams of solution of tin, (_Mordant_ F, TIN,) and let the whole boil together during a few minutes. Now introduce the cloth, and boil it for 2 hours; then take it out, and let it drain and cool.

_Rougie, or dye._--For every pound of woollen stuff, take 2 drams of cream of tartar. When the bath begins to boil, add 1 ounce of cochineal reduced to fine powder, stir the mixture well with a rod of willow or any white wood, and let it boil for a few minutes. Then pour in, by successive portions, 1 ounce of solution of tin (_Mordant_ F), stirring continually with the rod. Lastly, dye as quickly as possible. The colour will be a beautiful scarlet.

_Second scarlet process of Poërner_, the _bouillon_ being the same as above given, and always estimated for 1 pound of cloth or wool. _Rougie._--Take one ounce of cochineal in fine powder, and two ounces of solution of tin without tartar.

_Third scarlet process of Poërner_; the _bouillon_ being as above. _Rougie_ for a pound of cloth.--Take two drams of cream of tartar, one ounce of cochineal, one ounce of solution of tin, and two ounces of sea salt: dye as in process 1. The salt helps the dye to penetrate into the cloth.

TABLES of the COMPOSITION of the BOUILLON and ROUGIE, by different Authors, for 100 pounds of Cloth or Wool.

_Composition of the Bouillon._

+------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
|Names of the| Starch. | Cream of |Cochineal.|Solution | Common |
| Authors. | | Tartar. | | of Tin. | Salt. |
+------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
| |_lb. oz._|_lb. oz._|_lb. dr._|_lb. oz._|_lb. oz._|
| | | | | | |
|Berthollet | 0 0 | 6 0 | 8 0 | 5 0 | 0 0 |
|Hellot | 0 0 | 12 8 | 18 6 | 12 8 | 0 0 |
|Scheffer | 9 6 | 9 6 | 12 4 | 9 6 | 0 0 |
|Poërner | 0 0 | 10 15 | 0 0 | 10 15 | 0 0 |
+------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+

_Composition of the Rougie_.

+------------+----------+----------+-----------+---------+---------+
|Names of the| Starch. | Cream of |Cochineal. |Solution | Common |
| Authors. | | Tartar. | | of Tin. | Salt. |
+------------+----------+----------+-----------+---------+---------+
| |_lb. oz._|_lb. oz._|_lb. oz._ |_lb. oz._|_lb. oz._|
|Berthollet | 0 0 | 0 0 | 5 8 | 14 0 | 0 0 |
|Hellot | 3 2 | 0 0 | 7 4 | 12 8 | 0 0 |
|Scheffer | 3 2 | 3 2 | 5 7-1/2| 4 11 | 0 0 |
| {| 0 0 | 1 8 | 6 4 | 6 4 | 0 0 |
|Poërner {| 0 0 | 0 0 | 6 4 | 12 8 | 0 0 |
| {| 0 0 | 1 8 | 6 4 | 6 4 | 12 8 |
+------------+----------+----------+-----------+---------+---------+

M. Lenormand states that he has made experiments of verification upon all the formulæ of the preceding tables, and declares his conviction that the finest tint may be obtained by taking the _bouillon_ of Scheffer, and the _rougie_ No. 4. of Poërner. The solution which produced the most brilliant red, is that made according to the process of mordant B (TIN). M. Robiquet has given the following prescription for making a _printing scarlet_, for well-whitened woollen cloth.

Boil a pound of pulverized cochineal in four pints of water down to two pints, and pass the decoction through a sieve. Repeat the boiling three times upon the residuum, mix the eight pints of decoction, thicken them properly with two pounds of starch, and boil into a paste. Let it cool down to 104° F., then add four ounces of the subjoined solution of tin, and two ounces of ordinary salt of tin (muriate). When a ponçeau red is wanted, two ounces of pounded curcuma (turmeric) should be added.

The solution of tin above prescribed, is made by taking--one ounce of nitric acid, of specific gravity 36° B. = 1·33; one ounce of sal ammoniac; four ounces of grain tin. The tin is to be divided into eight portions, and one of them is to be put into the acid mixture every quarter of an hour.

A solution of chlorate of potassa (chloride?) is said to beautify scarlet cloth in a remarkable manner.

Bancroft proposed to supplant the nitro-muriatic acid, by a mixture of sulphuric and muriatic acids, for dissolving tin; but I do not find that he succeeded in persuading scarlet-dyers to adopt his plans. In fact the proper base is, in my opinion, a mixture of the protoxide and peroxide of tin; and this cannot be obtained by acting upon the metal with the murio-sulphuric acid. He also prescribed the extensive use of the quercitron yellow to change the natural crimson of the cochineal into scarlet, thereby economizing the quantity of this expensive dye-stuff. See LAC DYE.

SCHEELE’S GREEN, is a pulverulent arsenite of copper, which may be prepared as follows:--Form, first, an arsenite of potassa, by adding gradually 11 ounces of arsenious acid to 2 pounds of carbonate of potassa, dissolved in 10 pounds of boiling water; next, dissolve 2 pounds of crystallized sulphate of copper in 30 pounds of water; filter each solution, then pour the first progressively into the second, as long as it produces a rich grass-green precipitate. This being thrown upon a filter-cloth, and edulcorated with warm water, will afford 1 pound 6 ounces of this beautiful pigment. It consists of, oxide of copper 28·51, and of arsenious acid 71·46. This green is applied by an analogous double decomposition to cloth. See CALICO-PRINTING.

SCHWEINFURTH GREEN, is a more beautiful and velvety pigment than the preceding, which was discovered in 1814, by MM. Rusz and Sattler, at Schweinfurth, and remained for many years a profitable secret in their hands. M. Liebig having made its composition known, in 1822, it has been since prepared in a great many colour-works. Braconnot published, about the same time, another process for manufacturing the same pigment. Its preparation is very simple; but its formation is accompanied with some interesting circumstances. On mixing equal parts of acetate of copper and arsenious acid, each in a boiling concentrated solution, a bulky olive-green precipitate is immediately produced; while much acetic acid is set free. The powder thus obtained, appears to be a compound of arsenious acid and oxide of copper, in a peculiar state; since when decomposed by sulphuric acid, no acetic odour is exhaled. Its colour is not changed by drying, by exposure to air, or by being heated in water. But, if it be boiled in the acidulous liquor from which it was precipitated, it soon changes its colour, as well as its state of aggregation, and forms a new deposit in the form of a dense granular beautiful green powder. As fine a colour is produced by ebullition during five or six minutes, as is obtained at the end of several hours by mixing the two boiling solutions, and allowing the whole to cool together. In the latter case, the precipitate, which is slight and flocky at first, becomes denser by degrees; it next betrays green spots, which progressively increase, till the mass grows altogether of a crystalline constitution, and of a still more beautiful tint than if formed by ebullition.

When cold water is added to the mixed solutions, immediately after the precipitate takes place, the development of the colour is retarded, with the effect of making it much finer. The best mode of procedure, is to add to the blended solutions, their own bulk of cold water, and to fill a globe up to the neck with the mixture in order to prevent the formation of any such pellicle on the surface, as might, by falling to the bottom, excite premature crystallization. Thus the reaction continues during two or three days with the happiest effect. The difference of tint produced by these variations, arises merely from the different sizes of the crystalline particles; for when the several powders are levigated upon a porphyry slab to the same degree, they have the same shade. Schweinfurth green, according to M. Ehrmann’s researches, in the 31st _Bulletin de la Société Industrielle de Mulhausen_, consists of, oxide of copper 31·666, arsenious acid 58·699, acetic acid 10·294. Kastner has given the following prescription for making this pigment:--For 8 parts of arsenious acid, take from 9 to 10 of verdigris; diffuse the latter through water at 120° F., and pass the pap through a sieve; then mix it with the arsenical solution, and set the mixture aside, till the reaction of the ingredients shall produce the wished-for shade of colour. If a yellowish tint be desired, more arsenic must be used. By digesting Scheele’s green in acetic acid, a variety of Schweinfurth green may be obtained.

Both of the above colours are rank poisons. The first was detected a few years ago, as the colouring-matter of some Parisian _bonbons_, by the _conseil de salubrité_; since which the confectioners were prohibited from using it, by the French government.

SCOURING, _or renovating articles of dress_. This art has been much more studied by Frenchmen, who wear the same coats for two or three years, than by Englishmen, who generally cast them off after so many months. The workmen who remove greasy stains from dress, are called, in France, _teinturiers-degraisseurs_, because they are often obliged to combine dyeing with scouring operations. The art of cleansing clothes being founded upon the knowledge of solvents, the practitioner of it should, as we shall presently illustrate by examples, be acquainted with the laws of chemical affinity.

Among the spots which alter the colours fixed upon stuffs, some are caused by a substance which may be described as _simple_, in common language; and others by a substance which results from the combination of two or more bodies, that may act separately or together upon the stuff, and which may therefore be called _compound_.

_Simple stains._--Oils and fats are the substances which form the greater part of simple stains. They give a deep shade to the ground of the cloth; they continue to spread for several days; they attract the dust, and retain it so strongly, that it is not removable by the brush; and they eventually render the stain lighter coloured upon a dark ground, and of a disagreeable gray tint upon a pale or light ground.

The general principle of cleansing all spots, consists in applying to them a substance which shall have a stronger affinity for the matter composing them, than this has for the cloth, and which shall render them soluble in some liquid menstruum, such as water, spirits, naphtha, oil of turpentine, &c. See BLEACHING.

Alkalis would seem to be proper in this point of view, as they are the most powerful solvents of grease; but they act too strongly upon silk and wool, as well as change too powerfully the colours of dyed stuffs, to be safely applicable in removing stains. The best substances for this purpose are--1. Soap. 2. Chalk, fuller’s earth, soap-stone or steatite (called in this country French chalk). These should be merely diffused through a little water into a thin paste, spread upon the stain, and allowed to dry. The spot requires now to be merely brushed. 3. Ox-gall and yolk of egg have the property of dissolving fatty bodies without affecting perceptibly the texture or colours of cloth, and may therefore be employed with advantage. The ox-gall should be purified, to prevent its greenish tint from degrading the brilliancy of dyed stuffs, or the purity of whites. Thus prepared (see GALL), it is the most precious of all substances known for removing these kinds of stains. 4. The volatile oil of turpentine will take out only recent stains; for which purpose it ought to be previously purified by distillation over quicklime. Wax, rosin, turpentine, pitch, and all resinous bodies in general, form stains of greater or less adhesion, which may be dissolved out by pure alcohol. The juices of fruits, and the coloured juices of all vegetables in general, deposit upon clothes marks in their peculiar hues. Stains of wine, mulberries, black currants, morellos, liquors, and weld, yield only to soaping with the hand, followed by fumigation with sulphurous acid; but the latter process is inadmissible with certain coloured stuffs. Iron mould or rust stains may be taken out almost instantaneously with a strong solution of oxalic acid. If the stain is recent, cream of tartar will remove it.

_Compound spots._--That mixture of rust of iron and grease called _cambouis_ by the French, is an example of this kind, and requires two distinct operations; first, the removal of the grease, and then of the rust, by the means above indicated.

Mud, especially that of cities, is a compound of vegetable remains, and of ferruginous matter in a state of black oxide. Washing with pure water, followed if necessary with soaping, will take away the vegetable juices; and then the iron may be removed with cream of tartar, which itself must, however, be well washed out. Ink stains, when recent, may be taken out by washing, first with pure water, next with soapy water, and lastly with lemon juice; but if old, they must be treated with oxalic acid. Stains occasioned by smoke, or by sauces browned in a frying-pan, may be supposed to consist of a mixture of pitch, black oxide of iron, empyreumatic oil, and some saline matters dissolved in pyrolignous acid. In this case several reagents must be employed to remove the stains. Water and soap dissolve perfectly well the vegetable matters, the salts, the pyrolignous acid, and even the empyreumatic oils in a great measure; the essence of turpentine will remove the rest of the oils and all the pitchy matter; then oxalic acid may be used to discharge the iron. Coffee stains require a washing with water, with a careful soaping, at the temperature of 120° F., followed by sulphuration. The two latter processes may be repeated twice or thrice. Chocolate stains may be removed by the same means, and more easily.

As to those stains which change the colour of the stuff, they must be corrected by appropriate chemical reagents or dyes. When black or brown cloth is reddened by an acid, the stain is best counteracted by the application of water of ammonia. If delicate silk colours are injured by soapy or alkaline matters, the stains must be treated with colourless vinegar of moderate force. An earthy compound for removing grease spots is made as follows:--Take fuller’s earth, free it from all gritty matter by elutriation with water; mix with half a pound of the earth so prepared, half a pound of soda, as much soap, and eight yolks of eggs well beat up with half a pound of purified ox-gall. The whole must be carefully triturated upon a porphyry slab; the soda with the soap in the same manner as colours are ground, mixing in gradually the eggs and the ox-gall previously beat together. Incorporate next the soft earth by slow degrees, till a uniform thick paste be formed, which should be made into balls or cakes of a convenient size, and laid out to dry. A little of this detergent being scraped off with a knife, made into a paste with water, and applied to the stain, will remove it. Purified ox-gall is to be diffused through its own bulk of water, applied to the spots, rubbed well into them with the hands till they disappear, after which the stuff is to be washed with soft water. It is the best substance for removing stains on woollen clothes.

The redistilled oil of turpentine may also be rubbed upon the dry clothes with a sponge or a tuft of cotton, till the spot disappear; but it must be immediately afterwards covered with some plastic clay reduced to powder. Without this precaution, a cloud would be formed round the stain, as large as the part moistened with the turpentine.

Oxalic acid may be applied in powder upon the spot previously moistened with water, well rubbed on, and then washed off with pure water.

Sulphurous acid is best generated at the moment of using it. If the clothes be much stained, they should be suspended in an ordinary fumigating chamber. For trifling stains, the sulphur may be burned under the wide end of a small card or paper funnel, whose upper orifice is applied near the cloth.

_Manipulations of the scourer._--These consist, first, in washing the clothes in clear soft water, or in soap-water. The cloth must be next stretched on a sloping board, and rubbed with the appropriate reagent as above described, either by a sponge or a small hard brush. The application of a redhot iron a little way above a moistened spot often volatilizes the greasy matter out of it. Stains of pitch, varnish, or oil paint, which have become dry, must first be softened with a little fresh butter or lard, and then treated with the powder of the scouring ball. When the gloss has been taken from silk, it may be restored by applying the filtered mucilage of gum tragacanth; stretching it upon a frame to dry. Ribbons are glossed with isinglass. Lemon juice is used to brighten scarlet spots, after they have been cleaned.

SEAL ENGRAVING. The art of _engraving gems_ is one of extreme nicety. The stone having received its desired form from the lapidary, the engraver fixes it by cement to the end of a wooden handle, and then draws the outline of his subject, with a brass needle or a diamond, upon its smooth surface.

_Fig._ 969. represents the whole of the seal engraver’s lathe. It consists of a table on which is fixed the mill, a small horizontal cylinder of steel, into one of whose extremities the tool is inserted, and which is made to revolve by the usual fly-wheel, driven by a treddle. The tools that may be fitted to the mill-cylinder, are the following: _fig._ 970. a hollow cylinder, for describing circles, and for boring; _fig._ 971. a knobbed tool, or rod terminated by a small ball; _fig._ 972. a stem terminated with a cutting disc, whose edge may be either rounded, square, or sharp; being in the last case called a saw.

Having fixed the tool best adapted to his style of work in the mill, the artist applies to its cutting point, or edge, some diamond-powder, mixed up with olive oil; and turning the wheel, he holds the stone against the tool, so as to produce the wished-for delineation and erosion. A similar apparatus is used for engraving on glass.

In order to give the highest degree of polish to the engraving, tools of boxwood, pewter, or copper, bedaubed with moistened tripoli or rotten-stone, and lastly, a brush, are fastened to the mill. These are worked like the above steel instruments. Modern engravings on precious stones, have not in general the same fine polish as the antient. The article GEMS, in Rees’ Cyclopædia, contains a variety of valuable information on this subject, equally interesting to the artist and the scholar.

SEALING-WAX. (_Cire à cacheter_, Fr.; _Siegellack_, Germ.) The Hindus from time immemorial have possessed the resin lac, and were long accustomed to use it for sealing manuscripts before it was known in Europe. It was first imported from the East into Venice, and then into Spain; in which country sealing-wax became the object of a considerable commerce, under the name of Spanish wax.

If shellac be compounded into sealing-wax, immediately after it has been separated by fusion from the palest qualities of stick or seed lac, it then forms a better and less brittle article, than when the shellac is fused a second time. Hence sealing-wax, rightly prepared in the East Indies, deserves a preference over what can be made in other countries, where the lac is not indigenous. Shellac can be restored in some degree, however, to a plastic and tenacious state by melting it with a very small portion of turpentine. The palest shellac is to be selected for bright-coloured sealing-wax, the dark kind being reserved for black.

The following prescription may be followed for making red sealing-wax:--Take 4 ounces of shellac, 1 ounce of Venice turpentine (some say 1-1/2 ounces), and 3 ounces of vermillion. Melt the lac in a copper pan suspended over a clear charcoal fire, then pour the turpentine slowly into it, and soon afterwards add the vermillion, stirring briskly all the time of the mixture with a rod in either hand. In forming the round sticks of sealing-wax, a certain portion of the mass should be weighed while it is ductile, divided into the desired number of pieces, and then rolled out upon a warm marble slab, by means of a smooth wooden block, like that used by apothecaries for rolling a mass of pills. The oval sticks of sealing-wax are cast in moulds, with the above compound in a state of fusion. The marks of the lines of junction of the mould-box may be afterwards removed by holding the sticks over a clear fire, or passing them over a blue gas-flame. Marbled sealing-wax is made by mixing two, three, or more coloured kinds of it, while they are in a semi-fluid state. From the viscidity of the several masses, their incorporation is left incomplete, so as to produce the appearance of marbling. Gold sealing-wax is made simply by stirring gold-coloured mica spangles into the melted resins. Wax may be scented by introducing a little essential oil, essence of musk, or other perfume. If 1 part of balsam of Peru be melted along with 99 parts of the sealing-wax composition, an agreeable fragrance will be exhaled in the act of sealing with it. Either lamp black or ivory black serves for the colouring-matter of black wax. Sealing-wax is often adulterated with rosin; in which case it runs into thin drops at the flame of a candle.

SEA WATER, is composed as follows, according to the author of the article _Salines_, in the _Dictionnaire Technologique_:--Chloride of sodium, 2·50; chloride of magnesium, 0·35; sulphate of magnesia, 0·58; carbonates of lime and magnesia, 0·02; sulphate of lime, 0·01; water, 96·54, in 100 parts. See SALT, SEA.

SEGGAR, or SAGGER, is the cylindric case, of fire-clay, in which fine stoneware is enclosed while being baked in the kiln.

SELENIUM, from Σεληνη, the moon, is a metalloid principle, discovered by Berzelius, in 1817. It occurs sparingly in combination with several metals, as lead, cobalt, copper, and quicksilver, in the Harz, at Tilkerode; with copper and silver (_Eukairite_) in Sweden, with tellurium and bismuth in Norway, with tellurium and gold in Siebenbürgen, in several copper and iron pyrites, and with sulphur in the volcanic products of the Lipari Islands. Selenium has been found likewise in a red sediment which forms upon the bottoms of the lead chambers in which oil of vitriol has been made from peculiar pyrites, or pyritous sulphur. The extraction of selenium from that deposit, is a very complex process.

Selenium, after being fused and slowly cooled, appears of a bluish-gray colour, with a glistening surface; but it is reddish brown, and of metallic lustre when quickly cooled, It is brittle, not very hard, and has little tendency to assume the crystalline state. Selenium is dark-red in powder, and transparent, with a ruby cast, in thin scales. Its specific gravity is 4·30. It softens at the temperature of 176° F., is of a pasty consistence at 212°, becomes liquid at a somewhat higher heat, forming in close vessels dark-yellow vapours, which condense into black drops; but in the air, the fumes have a cinnabar-red colour.

This singular substance, apparently intermediate in its constitution between sulphur and metals, has not hitherto been applied to any use in the arts.

SELTZER WATER. See SODA-WATER, and WATERS, MINERAL.

SEPIA, is a pigment prepared from a black juice secreted by certain glands of the cuttle-fish, which the animal ejects to darken the water when it is pursued. One part of it is capable of making 1000 parts of water nearly opaque. All the varieties of this mollusca secrete the same juice; but the _Sepia officinalis_, the _Sepia ioligo_, and the _Sepia tunicata_, are chiefly sought after for making the pigment. The first, which occurs abundantly in the Mediterranean, affords most colour; the sac containing it being extracted, the juice is to be dried as quickly as possible, because it runs rapidly into putrefaction. Though insoluble in water, it is extremely diffusible through it, and is very slowly deposited. Caustic alkalis dissolve the sepia, and turn it brown; but in proportion as the alkali becomes carbonated by exposure to air, the sepia falls to the bottom of the vessel. Chlorine blanches it slowly. It consists of carbon in an extremely divided state, along with albumine, gelatine, and phosphate of lime.

The dried native sepia is prepared for the painter, by first triturating it with a little caustic lye, then adding more lye, boiling the liquid for half an hour, filtering, next saturating the alkali with an acid, separating the precipitate, washing it with water, and finally drying it with a gentle heat. The pigment is of a brown colour, and a fine grain.

SEPTARIA, called antiently _ludus Helmontii_, (the _quoits_ of Van Helmont, from their form,) are lenticular concretions of clay ironstone, intersected by veins of calc-spar, which, when calcined, and ground to powder, form an excellent hydraulic cement. See MORTAR, HYDRAULIC.

SERPENTINE, is a mineral of the magnesian family, of a green colour; it is scratched by calcareous spar, is sectile, tough, and therefore easily cut into ornamental forms. It occurs in Unst and Fetlar, in Shetland; at Portsoy, in Banffshire; in Cornwall; and the Isle of Holyhead. The floors of bakers’ ovens are advantageously laid with slabs of serpentine.

SHAFT, in mining, signifies a perpendicular or slightly inclined pit.

SHAGREEN. (_Chagrin_, Fr. and Germ.) The true oriental shagreen is essentially different from all modifications of leather and parchment. It approaches the latter somewhat, indeed, in its nature, since it consists of a dried skin, not combined with any tanning or foreign matter whatever. Its distinguishing characteristic is having the grain or hair side covered over with small rough round specks or granulations.

It is prepared from the skins of horses, wild asses, and camels; of strips cut along the chine, from the neck towards the tail, apparently because this stronger and thicker portion of the skin is best adapted to the operations about to be described. These fillets are to be steeped in water till the epidermis becomes loose, and the hairs easily come away by the roots; after which they are to be stretched upon a board, and dressed with the currier’s fleshing-knife. They must be kept continually moist, and extended by cords attached to their edges, with the flesh side uppermost upon the board. Each strip now resembles a wet bladder, and is to be stretched in an open square wooden frame by means of strings tied to its edges, till it be as smooth and tense as a drum-head. For this purpose it must be moistened and extended from time to time in the frame.

The grain or hair side of the moist strip of skin must next be sprinkled over with a kind of seeds called _Allabuta_, which are to be forced into its surface either by tramping with the feet, or with a simple press, a piece of felt or other thick stuff being laid upon the seeds. These seeds belong probably to the _Chenapodium album_. They are lenticular, hard, of a shining black colour, farinaceous within, about the size of poppy seed, and are sometimes used to represent the eyes in wax figures.

The skin is exposed to dry in the shade, with the seeds indented into its surface; after which it is freed from them by shaking it, and beating upon its other side with a stick. The outside will be then horny, and pitted with small hollows corresponding to the shape and number of the seeds.

In order to make the next process intelligible, we must advert to another analogous and well-known operation. When we make impressions in fine-grained dry wood with steel punches or letters of any kind, then plane away the wood till we come to the level of the bottom of these impressions, afterwards steep the wood in water, the condensed or punched points will swell above the surface, and place the letters in relief. Snuff-boxes have been sometimes marked with prominent figures in this way. Now shagreen is treated in a similar manner.

The strip of skin is stretched in an inclined plane, with its upper edge attached to hooks, and its under one loaded with weights, in which position it is thinned off with a proper semi-lunar knife, but not so much as to touch the bottom of the seed-pits or depressions. By maceration in water, the skin is then made to swell, and the pits become prominent over the surface which had been shaved. The swelling is completed by steeping the strips in a warm solution of soda, after which they are cleansed by the action of salt brine, and then dyed.

In the East the following processes are pursued. Entirely white shagreen is obtained by imbuing the skin with a solution of alum, covering it with the dough made with Turkey wheat, and after a time washing this away with a solution of alum. The strips are now rubbed with grease or suet, to diminish their rigidity, then worked carefully in hot water, curried with a blunt knife, and afterwards dried. They are dyed red with decoction of cochineal or kermes, and green with fine copper filings and sal ammoniac, the solution of this salt being first applied, then the filings being strewed upon the skin, which must be rolled up and loaded with weights for some time; blue is given with indigo, quicklime, soda, and honey; and black, with galls and copperas.

SHALE, or SLATE-CLAY, is an important stratiform member of the coal-measures. See PITCOAL.

SHAMOY LEATHER. See LEATHER.

SHEATHING OF SHIPS. For this purpose many different metals and metallic alloys have been lately proposed. From a train of researches which I made for an eminent copper company, a few years ago, upon various specimens of sheathing which had been exposed upon ships during many voyages, it appeared that copper containing a minute but definite proportion of tin, was by far the most durable.

SHELLAC. See LAC, and SEALING-WAX.

SIENITE, is a granular aggregated compound rock, consisting of felspar and hornblende, sometimes mixed with a little quartz and mica. The hornblende is the characteristic ingredient, and serves to distinguish sienite from granite, with which it has been sometimes confounded; though the felspar, which is generally red, is the more abundant constituent. The Egyptian sienite, containing but little hornblende, with a good deal of quartz and mica, approaches most nearly to granite. It is equally metalliferous with porphyry; in the island of Cyprus, it is rich in copper; and in Hungary, it contains many valuable gold and silver mines.

Sienite forms a considerable part of the Criffle, a hill in Galloway. It takes its name from the city of Syene, in the Thebaid, near the cataracts of the Nile, where this rock abounds. It is an excellent building-stone, and was imported in large quantities from Egypt by the Romans, for the architectural and statuary decorations of their capital.

SILICA and SILICON. (_Silice_, _silicium_, Fr.; _Kieselerde_, _kiesel_, Germ.) Silica was till lately ranked among the earths proper; but since the researches of Davy and Berzelius, it has been transferred to the chemical class of acids. It constitutes the principal portion of most of the hard stones and minerals which compose the crust of the globe; occurring nearly pure in rock crystal, quartz, agate, calcedony, flint, &c. Silica or silicic acid may be obtained perfectly pure, and also in the finest state of comminution, by taking the precipitate formed by passing silicated fluoric gas through water, filtering, washing, and igniting it, to expel the last traces of the fluoride of silicon. The powder thus obtained is so light as to be blown away with the least breath of air. Silica may be more conveniently procured, however, by fusing ground flint with four times its weight of a mixture, in equal parts, of dry carbonate of potassa and carbonate of soda, in a platinum or silver crucible. The alkaline carbonates should be first fused, and the flint powder sprinkled into the liquid, as long as it dissolves with effervescence. The mass is to be then allowed to cool, dissolved in dilute muriatic acid; the solution is to be filtered, and evaporated to dryness; the dry crust is to be pulverized, digested for two hours with a little muriatic acid, to remove any iron and alumina that may be present, next washed with hot water, drained, dried, and ignited.

The above silicate of potassa and soda is the compound called soluble glass, which applied in solution to the surface of wood, calico, paper, &c., renders them unsusceptible of taking fire on the contact of an ignited body.

Silica, as thus prepared, is a white powder, rough to the touch, gritty between the teeth, absolutely insoluble in water, acids, and most liquids. Its specific gravity is 2·66. It cannot be fused by the most intense heat of our furnaces, but at the flame of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe it melts into a limpid colourless glass. By peculiar chemical methods, an aqueous solution of it may be made artificially, similar to what nature presents us with in many thermal springs, as in those of Reikum and of Geyser in Iceland, and of most mineral waters, in minute quantity. There is no acid except the fluoric which can directly dissolve dry or calcined silica. Silica is composed of 48·04 silicon, and 51·96 oxygen.

SILICATES, are compounds of silicic acid (silica), with the bases alumina, lime, magnesia, potassa, soda, &c. They constitute the greater number by far of the hard minerals which encrust the terrestrial globe. Thus cyanite is a subsilicate of alumina; felspar and leucite, are silicates of alumina and potassa; albite and analcime, are silicates of alumina and soda; stilbite, prehnite, mesolite, labradorite, tourmaline, mica, &c., are silicates of alumina and lime; chrysolite, steatite, serpentine, and meerschaum, are silicates of magnesia; augite and hornblende, are silicates of lime and magnesia, &c.

SILICON, called also silicium, may be obtained by burning potassium in silicated fluoric gas. The product of the combustion is a brown cinder, which, on being thrown into water, disengages hydrogen with violence, and lets fall a dark liver-brown powder, upon which water exercises no action. This matter is silicon mixed with a salt of difficult solution, which is composed of fluorine, potassium, and silicon. This salt may, however, be removed by a great deal of washing. The further details of this curious subject will be given in my forthcoming system of chemistry.

SILK MANUFACTURE. (_Fabrique de soie_, Fr.; _Seidenfabrik_, Germ.) This may be divided into two branches: 1. the production of raw silk; 2. its filature and preparation in the mill, for the purposes of the weaver and other textile artisans. The threads, as spun by the silkworm, and wound up in its cocoon, are all twins, in consequence of the twin orifice in the nose of the insect through which they are projected. These two threads are laid parallel to each other, and are glued more or less evenly together by a kind of glossy varnish, which also envelopes them, constituting nearly 25 per cent. of their weight. Each ultimate filament measures about 1/2000 of an inch in average fine silk, and the pair measures of course fully 1/1000 of an inch. In the raw silk, as imported from Italy, France, China, &c., several of these twin filaments are slightly twisted and agglutinated to form one thread, called a single.

The specific gravity of silk is 1·300, water being 1·000. It is by far the most tenacious or the strongest of all textile fibres, a thread of it of a certain diameter being nearly three times stronger than a thread of flax, and twice stronger than hemp. Some varieties of silk are perfectly white, but the general colour in the native state is a golden yellow.

The production of silk was unknown in Europe till the sixth century, when two monks, who brought some eggs of the silkworm from China or India to Constantinople, were encouraged to breed the insect, and cultivate its cocoons, by the Emperor Justinian. Several silk manufactures were in consequence established in Athens, Thebes, and Corinth, not only for rearing the worm upon mulberry-leaves, but for unwinding its cocoons, for twisting their filaments into stronger threads, and weaving these into robes. The Venetians having then and long afterwards intimate commercial relations with the Greek empire, supplied the whole of western Europe with silk goods, and derived great riches from the trade.

About 1130, Roger II., king of Sicily, set up a silk manufacture at Palermo, and another in Calabria, conducted by artisans whom he had seized and carried off as prisoners of war in his expedition to the Holy Land. From these countries, the silk industry soon spread throughout Italy. It seems to have been introduced into Spain at a very early period, by the Moors, particularly in Murcia, Cordova, and Granada. The last town, indeed, possessed a flourishing silk trade when it was taken by Ferdinand in the 15th century. The French having been supplied with workmen from Milan, commenced, in 1521, the silk manufacture; but it was not till 1564 that they began successfully to produce the silk itself, when Traucat, a working gardener at Nismes, formed the first nursery of white mulberry-trees, and with such success, that in a few years he was enabled to propagate them over many of the southern provinces of France. Prior to this time, some French noblemen, on their return from the conquest of Naples, had introduced a few silkworms with the mulberry into Dauphiny; but the business had not prospered in their hands. The mulberry plantations were greatly encouraged by Henry IV.; and since then they have been the source of most beneficial employment to the French people. James I. was most solicitous to introduce the breeding of silkworms into England, and in a speech from the throne he earnestly recommended his subjects to plant mulberry-trees; but he totally failed in the project. This country does not seem to be well adapted for this species of husbandry, on account of the great prevalence of blighting east winds during the months of April and May, when the worms require a plentiful supply of mulberry-leaves. The manufacture of silk goods, however, made great progress during that king’s peaceful and pompous reign. In 1629 it had become so considerable in London, that the silk-throwsters of the city and suburbs were formed into a public corporation. So early as 1661 they employed 40,000 persons. The revocation of the edict of Nantes, in 1685, contributed in a remarkable manner to the increase of the English silk trade, by the influx of a large colony of skilful French weavers, who settled in Spitalfields. The great silk-throwing mill mounted at Derby, in 1719, also served to promote the extension of this branch of manufacture; for soon afterwards, in the year 1730, the English silk goods bore a higher price in Italy than those made by the Italians, according to the testimony of Keysler.

Till the year 1826, however, our silk manufactures in general laboured under very grievous fiscal burdens. Foreign organzine, or twisted raw silk, paid an import duty of 14_s._ 7-1/2_d._ per pound; raw Bengal silk, 4_s._; and that from other places, 5_s._ 7-1/2_d._ Mr. Huskisson introduced a bill at that time, reducing the duty on organzine to 5_s._, and the duty on other raw silk to 3_d._ per pound. The total prohibition of the import of French manufactured silks, which gave rise to so much contraband trade, was also converted into a duty of 30 per cent. _ad valorem_. During the reign of the prohibitory system, when our silk weavers had no variety of patterns to imitate, and no adequate stimulus to excel, on account of the monopoly which they possessed in the home market, the inferiority of their productions was a subject of constant pride and congratulation among the Lyonnais; and accordingly the English could not stand their competition any where. At that time, the disadvantage on English silk goods, compared to French, was estimated in foreign markets at 40 per cent.; of late years it certainly does not exceed 20, notwithstanding the many peculiar facilities which France enjoys for this her favourite staple.