Chapter II: Application of Light-Gas (30)

In England the stones are calcined in shaft-kilns, or sometimes in mound-kilns, then ground, sifted, and packed in casks. The colour of the powder is dark-brown-red. When made into a thick paste with water, it absorbs little of it, evolves hardly any heat, and soon indurates. It is mixed with sharp sand in various proportions, immediately before using it; and is employed in all marine and river embankments, for securing the seams of stone or brick floors or arches from the percolation of moisture, and also for facing walls to protect them from damp.

The cement of Pouilly is prepared from a Jurassic (secondary) limestone, which contains 39 per cent. of silica, with alumina, magnesia, and iron oxide. Vicat forms a factitious Roman cement by making bricks with a pasty mixture of 4 parts of chalk, and 1 part of dry clay, drying, burning, and grinding them. River sand must be added to this powder; and even with this addition, its efficacy is somewhat doubtful; though it has, for want of a better substitute, been much employed at Paris.

The cement of Dihl consists of porcelain or salt-glaze potsherds ground fine, and mixed with boiled linseed oil.

Hamelin’s mastic or lithic paint to cover the façades of brick buildings, &c., is composed of 50 measures of siliceous sand, 50 of lime-marl, and 9 of litharge or red-lead ground up with linseed oil.

MOSAIC GOLD. For the composition of this peculiar alloy of copper and zinc, called also _Or-molu_, Messrs. Parker and Hamilton obtained a patent in November, 1825. Equal quantities of copper and zinc are to be “melted at the lowest temperature that copper will fuse,” which being stirred together so as to produce a perfect admixture of the metals, a further quantity of zinc is added in small portions, until the alloy in the melting pot becomes of the colour required. If the temperature of the copper be too high, a portion of the zinc will fly off in vapour, and the result will be merely spelter or hard solder; but if the operation be carried on at as low a heat as possible, the alloy will assume first a brassy yellow colour; then, by the introduction of small portions of zinc, it will take a purple or violet hue, and will ultimately become perfectly white; which is the appearance of the proper compound in its fused state. This alloy may be poured into ingots; but as it is difficult to preserve its character when re-melted, it should be cast directly into the figured moulds. The patentees claim the exclusive right of compounding a metal consisting of from 52 to 55 parts of zinc out of 100.

_Mosaic gold_, the _aurum musivum_ of the old chemists, is a sulphuret of tin.

MOSAIC. (_Mosaïque_, Fr.; _Mosaisch_, Germ.) There are several kinds of mosaic, but all of them consist in imbedding fragments of different coloured substances, usually glass or stones, in a cement, so as to produce the effect of a picture. The beautiful chapel of Saint Lawrence in Florence, which contains the tombs of the Medici, has been greatly admired by artists, on account of the vast multitude of precious marbles, jaspers, agates, avanturines, malachites, &c., applied in mosaic upon its walls. The detailed discussion of this subject belongs to a treatise upon the fine arts.

MOTHER OF PEARL (_Nacre de Perles_, Fr.; _Perlen mutter_, Germ.); is the hard, silvery, brilliant internal layer of several kinds of shells, particularly oysters, which is often variegated with changing purple and azure colours. The large oysters of the Indian seas alone secrete this coat of sufficient thickness to render their shells available to the purposes of manufactures. The genus of shell fish called _pentadinæ_ furnishes the finest pearls, as well as mother of pearl; it is found in greatest perfection round the coasts of Ceylon, near Ormus in the Persian Gulf, at Cape Comorin, and among some of the Australian seas. The brilliant hues of mother of pearl, do not depend upon the nature of the substance, but upon its structure. The microscopic wrinkles or furrows which run across the surface of every slice, act upon the reflected light in such a way as to produce the chromatic effect; for Sir David Brewster has shown, that if we take, with very fine black wax, or with the fusible alloy of D’Arcet, an impression of mother of pearl, it will possess the iridescent appearance. Mother of pearl is very delicate to work, but it may be fashioned by saws, files, and drills, with the aid sometimes of a corrosive acid, such as the dilute sulphuric or muriatic; and it is polished by colcothar of vitriol.

MOTHER-WATER, is the name of the liquid which remains after all the salts that will regularly crystallize have been extracted, by evaporation and cooling, from any saline solution.

MOUNTAIN SOAP (_Savon de montagne_, Fr.; _Bergseife_, Germ.); is a tender mineral, soft to the touch, which assumes a greasy lustre when rubbed, and falls to pieces in water. It consists of silica 44, alumina 26·5, water 20·5, oxide of iron 8, lime 0·5. It occurs in beds, alternating with different sorts of clay, in the Isle of Skye, at Billin in Bohemia, &c. It has been often, but improperly, confounded with steatite.

MUCIC ACID (_Acid mucique_, Fr.; _Schleimsaüre_, Germ.); is the same as the saclactic acid of Scheele, and may be obtained by digesting one part of gum arabic, sugar of milk, or pectic acid, with twice or thrice their weight of nitric acid. It forms white granular crystals, and has not been applied to any use in the arts.

MUCILAGE, is a solution in water of gummy matter of any kind.

MUFFLE, is the earthenware case or box, in the assay furnaces, for receiving the cupels, and protecting them from being disturbed by the fuel. See ASSAY and FURNACE.

MUNDIC, is the name of copper pyrites among English miners.

MUNJEET, is a kind of madder grown in several parts of India.

MURIATIC or HYDROCHLORIC ACID; anciently _marine acid_, and _spirit of salt_. (_Acide hydrochlorique_, and _Chlorhydrique_, Fr.; _Salzsaüre_, Germ.) This acid is now extracted from sea-salt, by the action of sulphuric acid and a moderate heat; but it was originally obtained from the salt by exposing a mixture of it and of common clay to ignition in an earthen retort. The acid gas which exhales, is rapidly condensed by water. 100 cubic inches of water are capable of absorbing no less than 48,000 cubic inches of the acid gas, whereby the liquid acquires a specific gravity of 1·2109; and a volume of 142 cubic inches. This vast condensation is accompanied with a great production of heat, whence it becomes necessary to apply artificial refrigeration, especially if so strong an acid as the above is to be prepared. In general, the muriatic acid of commerce has a specific gravity varying from 1·15 to 1·20; and contains, for the most part, considerably less than 40 parts by weight of acid gas in the hundred. The above stronger acid contains 42·68 per cent. by weight; for since a cubic inch of water, which weighs 252·5 grains, has absorbed 480 cubic inches = 188 grains of gas; and 252·5 + 188 = 440·5; then 440·5 : 188 ∷ 100 : 42·68. In general a very good approximation may be found to the percentage of real muriatic acid, in any liquid sample, by multiplying the decimal figures of the specific gravity by 200. Thus for example, at 1·162 we shall have by this rule 0·162 × 200 = 32·4, for the quantity of gas in 100 parts of the liquid. Muriatic acid gas consists of chlorine and hydrogen combined, without condensation, in equal volumes. Its specific gravity is 1·247, air = 1·000.

By sealing up muriate of ammonia and sulphuric acid, apart, in a strong glass tube recurved, and then causing them to act on each other, Sir H. Davy procured liquid muriatic acid. He justly observes, that the generation of elastic substances in close vessels, either with or without heat, offers much more powerful means of approximating their molecules than those dependent on the application of cold, whether natural or artificial; for as gases diminish only 1/480 in volume for every degree of Fahrenheit’s scale, beginning at ordinary temperatures, a very slight condensation only can be produced by the most powerful freezing mixtures, not half as much as would result from the application of a strong flame to one part of a glass tube, the other part being of ordinary temperature: and when attempts are made to condense gases into liquids by sudden mechanical compression, the heat instantly generated presents a formidable obstacle to the success of the experiment; whereas in the compression resulting from their slow generation in close vessels, if the process be conducted with common precautions, there is no source of difficulty or danger; and it may be easily assisted by artificial cold, in cases where gases approach near to that point of compression and temperature at which they become vapours.--_Phil. Trans._ 1823.

The muriatic acid of commerce has usually a yellowish tinge, but when chemically pure it is colourless. It fumes strongly in the air, emitting a corrosive vapour of a peculiar smell. The characteristic test of muriatic acid in the most dilute state, is nitrate of silver, which causes a curdy precipitate of chloride of silver.

The preparation of this acid upon the great scale is frequently effected in this country by acting upon sea-salt in hemispherical iron pots, or in cast-iron cylinders, with concentrated sulphuric acid; taking 6 parts of the salt to 5 of the acid. The mouth of the pot may be covered with a slab of siliceous freestone, perforated with two holes of about two inches diameter each, into the one of which the acid is poured by a funnel in successive portions, and into the other, a bent glass, or stone-ware tube, is fixed, for conducting the disengaged muriatic gas into a series of large globes of bottle glass, one-third filled with water, and laid on a sloping sand-bed. A week is commonly employed for working off each pot; no heat being applied to it till the second day.

The decomposition of sea-salt by sulphuric acid, was at one time carried on by some French manufacturers in large leaden pans, 10 feet long, 5 feet broad, and a foot deep, covered with sheets of lead, and luted. The disengaged acid gas was made to circulate in a conduit of glazed bricks, nearly 650 yards long, where it was condensed by a sheet of water exceedingly thin, which flowed slowly in the opposite direction of the gas down a slope of 1 in 200. At the end of this canal nearest the apparatus, the muriatic acid was as strong as possible, and pretty pure; but towards the other end, the water was hardly acidulous. The condensing part of this apparatus was therefore tolerably complete; but as the decomposition of the salt could not be finished in the leaden pans, the acid mixture had to be drawn out of them, in order to be completely decomposed in a reverberatory furnace; in this way nearly 50 per cent. of the muriatic acid was lost. And besides, the great quantity of gas given off during the emptying of the lead-chambers was apt to suffocate the workmen, or seriously injured their lungs, causing severe hemoptysis. The employment of muriatic acid is so inconsiderable, and the loss of it incurred in the preceding process is of so little consequence, that subsequently, both in France and in England, sulphate of soda, for the soda manufacture, has been procured with the dissipation of the muriatic acid in the air. In the method more lately resorted to, the gaseous products are discharged into extensive vaults, where currents of water condense them and carry them off into the river. The surrounding vegetation is thereby saved in some measure from being burned up, an accident which was previously sure to happen when fogs precipitated the floating gases upon the ground. At Newcastle, Liverpool, and Marseilles, where the consumption of muriatic acid bears no proportion to the manufacture of soda, this process is now practised upon a vast scale.

The apparatus for condensing muriatic acid gas has been modified and changed, of late years, in many different ways.

_The Bastringue apparatus._ At the end of a reverberatory furnace, (see COPPER, SMELTING OF, and SODA, MANUFACTURE OF,) a rectangular lead trough or pan, about 1 foot deep, of a width equal to that of the interior of the furnace, that is about 5 feet wide, and 6-1/2 feet long, is encased in masonry, having its upper edges covered with cast-iron plates or fire tiles, and placed upon a level with the passage of the flame, as it escapes from the reverberatory. The arch which covers that pan forms a continuation of the roof of the reverberatory, and is of the same height. The flame which proceeds from the furnace containing the mixture of salt and sulphuric acid is made to escape between the vault and the surface of the iron plates or fire tiles, through a passage only 4 inches in height. When the burned air and vapours reach the extremity of the pan, they are reflected downwards, and made to return beneath the bottom of the pan, in a flue, which is afterwards divided so as to lead the smoke into two lateral flues, which terminate in the chimney. The pan is thus surrounded as it were with the heat and flame discharged from the reverberatory furnace. See EVAPORATION. A door is opened near the end of the pan, for introducing the charge of sea-salt, amounting to 12 bags of 2 cwt. each, or 24 cwt. This door is then luted on as tightly as possible, and for every 100 parts of salt, 110 of sulphuric acid are poured in, of specific gravity 1·594, containing 57 per cent. of dry acid. This acid is introduced through a funnel inserted in the roof of the furnace. Decomposition ensues, muriatic acid gas mingled with steam is disengaged, and is conducted through 4 stone-ware tubes into the refrigerators, where it is finally condensed. These refrigerators consist of large stone-ware carboys, called _dame-jeans_ in France, to the number of 7 or 8 for each pipe, and arranged so that the neck of the one communicates with the body of the other; thus the gas must traverse the whole series, and gets in a good measure condensed by the water in them, before reaching the last.

When the operation is finished, the door opposite the pan is opened, and the residuum in it, is discharged, in the form of a fluid magma, upon a square bed of bricks, exterior to the furnace. This paste speedily concretes on cooling, and is then broken into fragments and carried to the soda manufactory. The immense quantity of gas exhaled in discharging the pan, renders this part of the operation very painful to the workmen; and wasteful in reference to the production of muriatic acid. The difficulty of luting securely the cast-iron plates or fire tiles which cover the pan, the impossibility of completing the decomposition of the salt, since the residuum must be run off in a liquid state, finally, the damage sustained by the melting and corrosion of the lead, &c., are among the causes why no more than 80 or 90 parts of muriatic acid at 1·170 are collected, equivalent to 25 per cent. of real acid for every 100 of salt employed, instead of much more than double that quantity, which it may be made to yield by a well conducted chemical process.

The _cylinder apparatus_ is now much esteemed by many manufacturers. _Fig._ 747. represents, in transverse section, a bench of iron cylinder retorts, as built up in a proper furnace for producing muriatic acid; and _fig._ 748. a longitudinal section of one retort with one of its carboys of condensation. _a_ is the grate; _b_, a fireplace, in which two iron cylinders, _c c_, are set alongside of each other. They are 5-1/2 feet long, 20 inches in diameter, about 1/4 of an inch thick, and take 1·6 cwts. of salt for a charge; _d_ is the ash-pit; _e_, _e_, are cast-iron lids, for closing both ends of the cylinders; _f_ is a tube in the posterior lid, for pouring in the sulphuric acid; _g_ is another tube, in the anterior lid, for the insertion of the bent pipe of hard glazed stone-ware _h_; _i_ is a three-necked stone-ware carboy; _k_ is a tube of safety; _l_, a tube of communication with the second carboy; _m m_, _m m_, are the flues leading to the chimney _n_.

After the salt has been introduced, and the fire kindled, 83-1/4 per cent. of its weight of sulphuric acid, of spec. grav. 1·80, should be slowly poured into the cylinder through a lead funnel, with a syphon-formed pipe. The three-necked carboys may be either placed in a series for each retort, like a range of Woulfe’s bottles, or all the carboys of the front range may be placed in communication with one another, while the last carboy at one end is joined to the first of the second range; and thus in succession. They must be half filled with cold water; and when convenient, those of the front row at least, should be plunged in an oblong trough of running water. The acid which condenses in the carboys of that row is apt to be somewhat contaminated with sulphuric acid, muriate of iron, or even sulphate of soda; but that in the second and third will be found to be pure. In this way 100 parts of sea-salt will yield 130 parts of muriatic acid, of spec. grav. 1·19; while the sulphate of soda in the retort will afford from 208 to 210 of that salt in crystals.

It is proper to heat all the parts of the cylinders equably, to insure the simultaneous decomposition of the salt, and to protect it from the acid; for the hotter the iron, and the stronger the acid, the less erosion ensues.

Some manufacturers, with the view of saving fuel by the construction of their furnaces oppose to the flame as many obstacles as they can, and make it perform numerous circulations round the cylinders; but this system is bad, and does not even effect the desired economy, because the passages, being narrow, impair the draught, and become speedily choked up with the soot, which would be burned profitably in a freer space; the decomposition also, being unequally performed, is less perfect, and the cylinders are more injured. It is better to make the flame envelope at once the body of the cylinder; after which it may circulate beneath the vault, in order to give out a portion of its caloric before it escapes at the chimney.

The fire should be briskly kindled, but lowered as soon as the distillation commences; and then continued moderate till the evolution of gas diminishes, when it must be heated somewhat strongly to finish the decomposition. The iron door is now removed, to extract the sulphate of soda, and to recommence another operation. This sulphate ought to be white and uniform, exhibiting in its fracture no undecomposed sea-salt.

Liquid muriatic acid has a very sour corrosive taste, a pungent suffocating smell, and acts very powerfully upon a vast number of mineral, vegetable, and animal substances. It is much employed for making many metallic solutions; and in combination with nitric acid, it forms the aqua regia of the alchemists, so called from its property of dissolving gold.

Table of Muriatic Acid, by Dr. Ure.

+-------+--------+---------+--------+
| Acid |Specific|Chlorine.|Muriatic|
|of 120 |gravity.| | Gas. |
|in 100.| | | |
+-------+--------+---------+--------+
| 100 | 1·2000 | 39·675 | 40·777 |
| 99 | 1·1982 | 39·278 | 40·369 |
| 98 | 1·1964 | 38·882 | 39·961 |
| 97 | 1·1946 | 38·485 | 39·554 |
| 96 | 1·1928 | 38·089 | 39·146 |
| 95 | 1·1910 | 37·692 | 38·738 |
| 94 | 1·1893 | 37·296 | 38·330 |
| 93 | 1·1875 | 36·900 | 37·923 |
| 92 | 1·1857 | 36·503 | 37·516 |
| 91 | 1·1846 | 36·107 | 37·108 |
| 90 | 1·1822 | 35·707 | 36·700 |
| 89 | 1·1802 | 35·310 | 36·292 |
| 88 | 1·1782 | 34·913 | 35·884 |
| 87 | 1·1762 | 34·517 | 35·476 |
| 86 | 1·1741 | 34·121 | 35·068 |
| 85 | 1·1721 | 33·724 | 34·660 |
| 84 | 1·1701 | 33·328 | 34·252 |
| 83 | 1·1681 | 32·931 | 33·845 |
| 82 | 1·1661 | 32·535 | 33·437 |
| 81 | 1·1641 | 32·136 | 33·029 |
| 80 | 1·1620 | 31·746 | 32·621 |
| 79 | 1·1599 | 31·343 | 32·213 |
| 78 | 1·1578 | 30·946 | 31·805 |
| 77 | 1·1557 | 30·550 | 31·398 |
| 76 | 1·1536 | 30·153 | 30·990 |
| 75 | 1·1515 | 29·757 | 30·582 |
| 74 | 1·1494 | 29·361 | 30·174 |
| 73 | 1·1473 | 28·964 | 29·767 |
| 72 | 1·1452 | 28·567 | 29·359 |
| 71 | 1·1431 | 28·171 | 28·951 |
| 70 | 1·1410 | 27·772 | 28·544 |
| 69 | 1·1389 | 27·376 | 28·136 |
| 68 | 1·1369 | 26·979 | 27·728 |
| 67 | 1·1349 | 26·583 | 27·321 |
| 66 | 1·1328 | 26·186 | 26·913 |
| 65 | 1·1308 | 25·789 | 26·505 |
| 64 | 1·1287 | 25·392 | 26·098 |
| 63 | 1·1267 | 24·996 | 25·690 |
| 62 | 1·1247 | 24·599 | 25·282 |
| 61 | 1·1226 | 24·202 | 24·874 |
| 60 | 1·1206 | 23·805 | 24·466 |
| 59 | 1·1185 | 23·408 | 24·058 |
| 58 | 1·1164 | 23·012 | 23·050 |
| 57 | 1·1143 | 22·615 | 23·242 |
| 56 | 1·1123 | 22·218 | 22·834 |
| 55 | 1·1102 | 21·822 | 22·426 |
| 54 | 1·1082 | 21·425 | 22·019 |
| 53 | 1·1061 | 21·028 | 21·611 |
| 52 | 1·1041 | 20·632 | 21·203 |
| 51 | 1·1020 | 20·235 | 20·796 |
| 50 | 1·1000 | 19·837 | 20·388 |
| 49 | 1·0980 | 19·440 | 19·980 |
| 48 | 1·0960 | 19·044 | 19·572 |
| 47 | 1·0939 | 18·647 | 19·165 |
| 46 | 1·0919 | 18·250 | 18·757 |
| 45 | 1·0899 | 17·854 | 18·349 |
| 44 | 1·0879 | 17·457 | 17·941 |
| 43 | 1·0859 | 17·060 | 17·534 |
| 42 | 1·0838 | 16·664 | 17·126 |
| 41 | 1·0818 | 16·267 | 16·718 |
| 40 | 1·0798 | 15·870 | 16·310 |
| 39 | 1·0778 | 15·474 | 15·902 |
| 38 | 1·0758 | 15·077 | 15·494 |
| 37 | 1·0738 | 14·680 | 15·087 |
| 36 | 1·0718 | 14·284 | 14·679 |
| 35 | 1·0697 | 13·887 | 14·271 |
| 34 | 1·0677 | 13·490 | 13·863 |
| 33 | 1·0657 | 13·094 | 13·456 |
| 32 | 1·0637 | 12·697 | 13·049 |
| 31 | 1·0617 | 12·300 | 12·641 |
| 30 | 1·0597 | 11·903 | 12·233 |
| 29 | 1·0577 | 11·506 | 11·825 |
| 28 | 1·0557 | 11·109 | 11·418 |
| 27 | 1·0537 | 10·712 | 11·010 |
| 26 | 1·0517 | 10·316 | 10·602 |
| 25 | 1·0497 | 9·919 | 10·194 |
| 24 | 1·0477 | 9·522 | 9·786 |
| 23 | 1·0457 | 9·126 | 9·379 |
| 22 | 1·0437 | 8·729 | 8·971 |
| 21 | 1·0417 | 8·332 | 8·563 |
| 20 | 1·0397 | 7·935 | 8·155 |
| 19 | 1·0377 | 7·538 | 7·747 |
| 18 | 1·0357 | 7·141 | 7·340 |
| 17 | 1·0337 | 6·745 | 6·932 |
| 16 | 1·0318 | 6·348 | 6·524 |
| 15 | 1·0298 | 5·951 | 6·116 |
| 14 | 1·0279 | 5·554 | 5·709 |
| 13 | 1·0259 | 5·158 | 5·301 |
| 12 | 1·0239 | 4·762 | 4·893 |
| 11 | 1·0220 | 4·365 | 4·486 |
| 10 | 1·0200 | 3·968 | 4·078 |
| 9 | 1·0180 | 3·571 | 3·670 |
| 8 | 1·0160 | 3·174 | 3·262 |
| 7 | 1·0140 | 2·778 | 2·854 |
| 6 | 1·0120 | 2·381 | 2·447 |
| 5 | 1·0100 | 1·984 | 2·039 |
| 4 | 1·0080 | 1·588 | 1·631 |
| 3 | 1·0060 | 1·191 | 1·224 |
| 2 | 1·0040 | 0·795 | 0·816 |
| 1 | 1·0020 | 0·397 | 0·408 |
+-------+--------+---------+--------+

MURIATES were, till the great chemical era of Sir H. Davy’s researches upon chlorine, considered to be compounds of an undecompounded acid, the muriatic, with the different bases; but he proved them to be in reality compounds of chlorine with the metals. They are all, however, still known in commerce by their former appellation. The only muriates much used in the manufactures are, _Muriate of ammonia_, or SAL AMMONIAC; _muriated peroxide of mercury_, MERCURY, _bichloride of_; _muriate of soda_, or _chloride of sodium_, see SALT; _muriate of tin_, see CALICO-PRINTING and TIN.

MUSK (_Musc_, Fr.; _Moschus_, Germ.), is a peculiar aromatic substance, found in a sac between the navel and the parts of generation of a small male quadruped of the deer kind, called by Linnæus, Moschus moschiferus, which inhabits Tonquin and Thibet. The colour of musk is blackish-brown; it is lumpy or granular, somewhat like dried blood, with which substance, indeed, it is often adulterated. The intensity of its smell is almost the only criterion of its genuineness. When thoroughly dried it becomes nearly scentless; but it recovers its odour when slightly moistened with water of ammonia. The Tonquin musk is most esteemed. It comes to us in small bags covered with a reddish-brown hair; the bag of the Thibet musk is covered with a silver-gray hair. All the analyses of musk hitherto made, teach little or nothing concerning its active or essential constituent. It is used in medicines, and is an ingredient in a great many perfumes.

MUSLIN, is a fine cotton fabric, used for ladies’ robes; which is worn either white, dyed, or printed.

MUST, is the sweet juice of the grape.

MUSTARD (_Moutarde_, Fr.; _Senf_, Germ.); is a plant which yields the well-known seed used as a condiment to food. M. Lenormand gives the following prescription for preparing mustard for the table.

With 2 pounds of very fine flour of mustard, mix half an ounce of each of the following fresh plants; parsley, chervil, celery, and tarragon, along with a clove of garlic, and twelve salt anchovies, all well minced. The whole is to be triturated with the flour of mustard till the mixture becomes uniform. A little grape-must or sugar is to be added, to give the requisite sweetness; then one ounce of salt, with sufficient water to form a thinnish paste by rubbing in a mortar. With this paste the mustard pots being nearly filled, a redhot poker is to be thrust down into the contents of each, which removes (it is said) some of the acrimony of the mustard, and evaporates a little water, so as to make room for pouring a little vinegar upon the surface of the paste. Such table mustard not only keeps perfectly well, but improves with age.

The mode of preparing table mustard patented by M. Soyés, consisted in steeping mustard seed in twice its bulk of weak wood vinegar for eight days, then grinding the whole into paste in a mill, putting it into pots, and thrusting a redhot poker into each of them.

MUTAGE, is a process used in the south of France to arrest the progress of fermentation in the must of the grape. It consists either in diffusing sulphurous acid, from burning sulphur matches in the cask containing the must, or in adding a little sulphite (not sulphate) of lime to it. The last is the best process. See FERMENTATION.

MYRICINE, is a vegetable principle which constitutes from 20 to 30 per cent. of the weight of bees-wax, being the residuum from the solvent action of alcohol upon that substance. It is a grayish-white solid, which may be vaporized almost without alteration.

MYRRH, is a gum-resin, which occurs in tears of different sizes; they are reddish-brown, semi-transparent, brittle, of a shining fracture, appear as if greasy under the pestle, they have a very acrid and bitter taste, and a strong, not disagreeable, smell. Myrrh flows from the incisions of a tree not well known, which grows in Arabia and Abyssinia, supposed to be a species of _amyris_ or _mimosa_. It consists of resin and gum in proportions stated by Pelletier at 31 of the former and 66 of the latter; but by Braconnot, at 23 and 77. It is used only in medicine.

N.

NACARAT, is a term derived from the Spanish word _nacar_, which signifies mother of pearl; and is applied to a pale red colour, with an orange cast. See CALICO-PRINTING. The _nacarat_ of Portugal or _Bezetta_ is a crape or fine linen fabric, dyed fugitively of the above tint, which ladies rub upon their countenances to give them a roseate hue. The Turks of Constantinople manufacture the brightest red crapes of this kind. See ROUGE.

NAILS, MANUFACTURE OF. (_Clou_, Fr.; _Nagel_, Germ.)

The forging of nails was till of late years a handicraft operation, and therefore belonged to a book of trades, rather than to a dictionary of arts. But several combinations of machinery have been recently employed, under the protection of patents, for making these useful implements, with little or no aid of the human hand; and these deserve to be noticed, on account both of their ingenuity and importance.

As nails are objects of prodigious consumption in building their block-houses, the citizens of the United States very early turned their mechanical genius to good account in the construction of various machines for making them. So long since as the year 1810, it appears, from the report of the secretary of their treasury, that they possessed a machine which performed the cutting and heading at one operation, with such rapidity that it could turn out upwards of 100 nails per minute. “Twenty years ago,” says the secretary of the state of Massachusetts, in that report, “some men, then unknown, and then in obscurity, began by cutting slices out of old hoops, and, by a common vice griping these pieces, headed them with several strokes of the hammer. By progressive improvements, slitting-mills were built, and the shears and the heading tools were perfected; yet much labour and expense were requisite to make nails. In a little time Jacob Perkins, Jonathan Ellis, and a few others, put into execution the thought of cutting and of heading nails by water power; but, being more intent upon their machinery than upon their pecuniary affairs, they were unable to prosecute the business. At different times other men have spent fortunes in improvements, and it may be said with truth that more than one million of dollars has been expended; but at length these joint efforts are crowned with complete success, and we are now able to manufacture, at about one-third of the expense that wrought nails can be manufactured for, nails which are superior to them for at least three-fourths of the purposes to which nails are applied, and for most of those purposes they are full as good. The machines made use of by Odiorne, those invented by Jonathan Ellis, and a few others, present very fine specimens of American genius.

“To northern carpenters, it is well known that in almost all instances it is unnecessary to bore a hole before driving a cut nail; all that is requisite is, to place the cutting edge of the nail across the grain of the wood; it is also true, that cut nails will hold better in the wood. These qualities are, in some rough building works, worth twenty _per cent._ of the value of the article, which is equal to the whole expense of manufacturing. For sheathing and drawing, cut nails are full as good as wrought nails; only in one respect are the best wrought nails a little superior to cut nails, and that is where it is necessary they should be clenched. The manufacture of cut nails was born in our country, and has advanced, within its bosom, through all the various stages of infancy to manhood; and no doubt we shall soon be able, by receiving proper encouragement, to render them superior to wrought nails in every particular.

“The principal business of rolling and slitting-mills, is rolling nail plates; they also serve to make nail rods, hoops, tires, sheet iron, and sheet copper. In this State we have not less than twelve.

“These mills could roll and slit 7000 tons of iron a year; they now, it is presumed, roll and slit each year about 3500 tons, 2400 tons of which, probably, are cut up into nails and brads, of such a quality that they are good substitutes for hammered nails, and, in fact, have the preference with most people, for the following reasons; viz., on account of the sharp corner and true taper with which cut nails are formed; they may be driven into harder wood without bending or breaking, or hazard of splitting the wood, by which the labour of boring is saved, the nail one way being of the same breadth or thickness from head to point.”

Since the year 1820, the following patents have been obtained in England for making nails; many of them of American origin:--

_Alexander Law_, September, 1821, for nails and bolts for ships’ fastenings, made in a twisted form, by hand labour.

_Glascott and Mitchell_, December, 1823, for ship nails with rounded heads, by hand labour.

_Wilks and Ecroyd_, November, 1825, for an engine for cutting wedge-form pieces from plates.

_Ledsom and Jones_, December 11, 1827, for machinery for cutting brads and sprigs from plates; it does not form heads.

The first nail apparatus to which I shall particularly advert, is due to Dr. Church; it was patented in his absence by his correspondent, Mr. Thomas Tyndall, of Birmingham, in December, 1827. It consists of two parts; the first is a mode of forming nails, and the shafts of screws, by pinching or pressing ignited rods of iron between indented rollers; the second produces the threads on the shafts of the screws previously pressed. The metallic rods, by being passed between a pair of rollers, are rudely shaped, and then cut asunder between a pair of shears; after which they are pointed and headed, or otherwise brought to their finished forms, by the agency of dies placed in a revolving cylinder. The several parts of the mechanism are worked by toothed wheels, cams, and levers. The second part of Dr. Church’s invention consists of a mechanism for cutting the threads of screws to any degree of obliquity or form.[35]

[35] For further details, see Newton’s Journal, 2nd series, vol. iii.
p. 184.

Mr. L. W. Wright’s (American) apparatus should have been mentioned before the preceding, as the patent for it was sealed in March of the same year; though an amended patent was obtained in September, 1828. Its object was to form metal screws for wood. I have seen the machinery, but consider it much too complex to be described in the present work.

Mr. Edward Hancorne, of Skinner street, London, nail manufacturer, obtained a patent in October, 1828 for a nail-making machine, of which a brief description may give my readers a conception of this kind of manufacture. Its principles are similar to those of Dr. Church’s more elaborate apparatus.

The rods or bars having been prepared in the usual way, either by rolling or hammering, or by cutting from sheets or plates of iron, called slitting, are then to be made redhot, and in that state passed through the following machine, whereby they are at once cut into suitable lengths, pressed into wedge forms for pointing at the one end, and stamped at the other end to produce the head. A longitudinal view of the machine is shown in _fig._ 749. A strong iron frame-work, of which one side is shown at _a a_, supports the whole of the mechanism. _b_ is a table capable of sliding to and fro horizontally. Upon this table are the clamps, which lay hold of the sides of the rod as it advances; as also the shears which cut the rod into nail lengths.

These clamps or holders consist of a fixed piece and a movable piece; the latter being brought into action by a lever. The rod or bar of iron shown at _c_, having been made redhot, is introduced into the machine by sliding it forward upon the table _b_, when the table is in its most advanced position; rotatory motion is then given to the crank shaft _d_, by means of a band passing round the rigger pulley _e_, which causes the table _b_ to be drawn back by the crank rod _f_: and as the table recedes, the horizontal lever is acted upon, which closes the clamps. By these means the clamps take fast hold of the sides of the heated rod, and draw it forward, when the movable chap of the shears, also acted upon by a lever, slides laterally, and cuts off the end of the rod held by the clamps: the piece thus separated is destined to form one nail.

Suppose that the nail placed at _g_, having been thus brought into the machine and cut off, is held between clamps, which press it sideways (these clamps are not visible in this view); in this state it is ready to be headed and pointed.

The _header_ is a steel die _h_, which is to be pressed up against the end of the nail by a cam _i_, upon the crank-shaft; which cam, at this period of the operation, acts against the end of a rod _k_, forming a continuation of the die _h_, and forces up the die, thus compressing the metal into the shape of a nail-head.

The _pointing_ is performed by two rolling snail pieces or spirals _l_, _l_. These pieces are somewhat broader than the breadth of the nail; they turn upon axles in the side frames. As the table _b_ advances, the racks _m_, on the edge of this table, take into the toothed segments _n_, _n_, upon the axles of the spirals, and cause them to turn round.

These spirals pinch the nail at first close under its head with very little force; but as they turn round, the longer radius of the spiral comes into operation upon the nail, so as to press its substance very strongly, and squeeze it into a wedge form. Thus the nail is completed, and is immediately discharged from the clamps or holders. The carriage is then again by the rotation of the crank-shaft, which brings another portion of the rod _c_ forward, cuts it off, and then forms it into a nail.

_Richard Prosser_, July, 1831, for making tacks for ornamental furniture, by soldering or wedging the spike into the head. This also is the invention of Dr. Church.

_Dr. William Church_, February, 1832, for improvements in machinery for making nails. These consist, first, in apparatus for forming rods, bars, or plates of iron, or other metals; secondly, in apparatus for converting the rods, &c., into nails; thirdly, in improvements upon Prosser’s patent. The machinery consists in laminating rollers, and compressing dies.

The method of forming the rods from which the nails are to be made, is very advantageous. It consists in passing the bar or plate iron through pressing rollers, which have indentations upon the peripheries of one or both of them, so as to form the bar or plate into the required shape for the rods, which may be afterwards separated into rods of any desired breadth, by common slitting rollers.

The principal object of rolling the rods into these wedge forms, is to measure out a quantity of metal duly proportioned to the required thickness or strength of the nail in its several parts; which quantity corresponds to the indentations of the rollers.

_Thomas John Fuller_, February 27, 1834, for an improved apparatus for making square-pointed, and also flat-pointed nails. He claims as his invention, the application of vertical and horizontal hammers (mounted in his machine) combined for the purpose of tapering and forming the points of the nails; which, being made to act alternately, resemble hand work, and are therefore not so apt to injure the fibrous texture of the iron, he imagines, as the rolling machinery is. He finishes the points by rollers.

_Miles Berry_, February 19, 1834, for machinery for forming metal into bolts, rivets, nails and other articles; being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad. He employs in his machine holding chaps, heading dies, toggle joints, cams, &c., mechanisms apparently skilfully contrived, but too complex for admission under the article _nail_ in this volume.

_William Southwood Stocker_, July, 1836. This is a machine apparently of American parentage, as it has the same set of features as the old American mechanisms of Perkins and Dyer, at the Britannia Nailworks, Birmingham, and all the other American machines since described, for pressing metal into the forms of nails, pins, screw-shafts, rivets, &c.; for example, it possesses pressers or hammers for squeezing the rods of metal, and forming the shanks, which are all worked by a rotatory action; cutters for separating the appropriate lengths, and dies for forming the heads by compression, also actuated by revolving cams or cranks.

Mr. Stocker intends, in fact, to effect the same sorts of operations by automatic mechanisms as are usually performed by the hands of a nail-maker with his hammer and anvil; viz., the shaping of a nail from a heated rod of iron, cutting it off at the proper length, and then compressing the end of the metal into the form of the head. His machine may be said to consist of two parts, connected in the same frame; the one for shaping the shank of the nail, the other for cutting it off and heading it. The frame consists of a strong table to bear the machinery. Two pairs of hammers, formed as levers, the one pair made to approach each other by horizontal movements, the other pair by vertical movements, are the implements by which a portion at the end of a redhot rod of iron is beaten or pressed into the wedge-like shape of the shaft of a nail. This having been done, and the rod being still hot, is withdrawn from the beaters, and placed in the other part of the machine, consisting of a pair of jaws like those of a vice, which pinch the shank of the nail and hold it fast. A cutter upon the side of a wheel now comes round, and, by acting as the moving chap of a pair of shears, cuts the nail off from the rod. The nail shank being still firmly held in the jaws of the vice, with a portion of its end projecting outwardly, the heading die is slidden laterally until it comes opposite to the end of the nail; the dye is then projected forward with great force, for the purpose of what is termed upsetting the metal at the projecting end of the nail, and thereby blocking out the head.

A main shaft, driven by a band and rigger as usual, brings, as it revolves, a cam into operation upon a lever which carries a double inclined plane or wedge in its front or acting part. This wedge being by the rotatory cam projected forwards between the tails of one of the pairs of hammers, causes the faces of these hammers to approach each other, and to beat or press the redhot iron introduced between them, so as to flatten it upon two opposite sides. The rotatory cam passing round, the wedge lever is relieved, when springs instantly throw back the hammers; another cam and wedge-lever now brings the second pair of hammers to act upon the other two sides of the nail in a similar way. This is repeated several times, until the end of the redhot iron rod, gradually advanced by the hands of the workman, has assumed the desired form, that is, has received the bevel and point of the intended nail.

The rod is then withdrawn from between the hammers, and in its heated state is introduced between the jaws of the holders, for cutting off and finishing the nail. A bevel pinion upon the end of the main shaft, takes into and drives a wheel upon a transverse shaft, which carries a cam that works the lever of the holding jaws. The end of the rod being so held in the jaws or vice, a cutter at the side of a wheel upon the transverse shaft separates, as it revolves, the nail from the end of the rod, leaving the nail firmly held by the jaws. By means of a cam, the heading die is now slidden laterally opposite to the end of the nail in the holding jaws, and by another cam, upon the main shaft, the die is forced forward, which compresses the end of the nail, and spreads out the nail into the form of a head. As the main shaft continues to revolve, the cams pass away, and allow the spring to throw the jaws of the vice open, when the nails fall out; but to guard against the chance of a nail sticking in the jaws, a picker is provided, which pushes the nail out as soon as it is finished.

In order to produce round shafts, as for screw blanks, bolts, or rivets, the faces of the hammers, and the dies for heading, must be made with suitable concavities.

In 1835, 5,180, and in 1836, 5,580 tons of iron nails were exported from the United Kingdom.

NANKIN, is a peculiarly coloured cotton cloth, originally manufactured in the above named antient capital of China, from a native cotton of a brown yellow hue. Nankin cloth has been long imitated in perfection by our own manufacturers; and is now exported in considerable quantities from England to Canton. The following is the process for dyeing calico a nankin colour.

1. Take 300 pounds of cotton yarn in hanks, being the quantity which four workmen can dye in a day. The yarn for the warp may be about No. 27’s, and that for the weft 23’s or 24’s.

2. For _aluming_ that quantity, take 10 pounds of saturated alum, free from iron (see MORDANT); divide this into two portions; dissolve the first by itself in hot water, so as to form a solution, of spec. grav. 1° Baumé. The second portion is to be reserved for the galling bath.

3. _Galling_, is given with about 80 pounds of oak bark finely ground. This bark may serve for two quantities, if it be applied a little longer the second time.

4. Take 30 pounds of fresh slaked quicklime, and form with it a large bath of lime-water.

5. _Nitro-muriate of tin._ For the last bath, 10 or 12 pounds of solution of tin are used, which is prepared as follows:

Take 10 pounds of strong nitric acid, and dilute with pure water till its specific gravity be 26° B. Dissolve in it 4633 grains (10-1/2 oz. avoird.) of sal ammoniac, and 3 oz. of nitre. Into this solvent, contained in a bottle set in cold water, introduce successively, in very small portions, 28 ounces of grain-tin granulated. This solution, when made, must be kept in a well stoppered bottle.

Three coppers are required, one round, about five feet in diameter, and 32 inches deep, for scouring the cotton; 2. two rectangular coppers tinned inside, each 5 feet long and 20 inches deep. Two boxes or cisterns of white wood are to be provided, the one for the lime-water bath, and the other for the solution of tin, each about 7 feet long, 32 inches wide, and 14 inches deep; they are set upon a platform 28 inches high. In the middle between these two chests, a plank is fixed, mounted with twenty-two pegs for wringing the hanks upon, as they are taken out of the bath.

6. _Aluming._ After the cotton yarn has been scoured with water, in the round copper, by being boiled in successive portions of 100 pounds, it must be winced in one of the square tinned coppers, containing two pounds of alum dissolved in 96 gallons of water, at a temperature of 165° F. It is to be then drained over the copper, exposed for some time upon the grass, rinsed in clear water, and wrung.

7. The _galling_. Having filled four-fifths of the second square copper with water, 40 pounds of ground oak bark are to be introduced, tied up in a bag of open canvas, and boiled for two hours. The bag being withdrawn, the cotton yarn is to be winced through the boiling tan bath for a quarter of an hour. While the yarn is set to drain above the bath, 28 ounces of alum are to be dissolved in it, and the yarn being once more winced through it for a quarter of an hour, is then taken out, drained, wrung, and exposed to the air. It has now acquired a deep but rather dull yellowish colour, and is ready without washing for the next process. Bablah may be substituted for oak bark with advantage.

8. The _liming_. Into the cistern filled with fresh made lime-water, the hanks of cotton yarn suspended upon a series of wooden rods, are to be dipped freely three times in rapid succession; then each hank is to be separately moved by hand through the lime bath, till the desired carmelite shade appear. A weak soda lye may be used instead of lime water.

9. The _brightening_, is given by passing the above hanks, after squeezing, rinsing, and airing them, through a dilute bath of solution of tin. The colour thus produced is said to resemble perfectly the nankin of China.

Another kind of nankeen colour is given by oxide of iron, precipitated upon the fibre of the cloth, from a solution of the sulphate, by a solution of soda. See CALICO-PRINTING.

NAPLES YELLOW (_Jaune minéral_, Fr.; _Neapelgelb_, Germ.); is a fine yellow pigment, called _giallolino_, in Italy, where it has been long prepared by a secret process; for few of the recipes which have been published produce a good colour. It is employed not only in oil painting, but also for porcelain and enamel. It has a fresh, brilliant, rich hue, but is apt to be very unequal in different samples.

The following prescription has been confidently recommended. Twelve parts of metallic antimony are to be calcined in a reverberatory furnace, along with eight parts of red lead, and four parts of oxide of zinc. These mixed oxides being well rubbed together, are to be fused; and the fused mass is to be triturated and elutriated into a fine powder. Chromate of lead has in a great measure superseded Naples yellow.

NAPHTHA, or ROCK-OIL (_Huile pétrole_, Fr.; _Steinöl_, Germ.); the Seneca oil of North America, is an ethereous or volatile oil, which is generated within the crust of the earth, and issues in many different localities. The colourless kind, called naphtha, occurs at Baku, near the Caspian Sea, where the vapours which it exhales are kindled, and the flame is applied to domestic and other economical purposes. Wells are also dug in that neighbourhood, in which the naphtha is collected. Similar petroleum wells exist in the territory of the Birmans, at Yananghoung, upon the river Erawaddy, 80 hours’ journey north-east of Pegu, where no less than 520 such springs issue from a pale blue clay, soaked with oil, which rests upon roofing slate. Under the slate is coal containing much pyrites. Each spring yields annually 173 casks of 950 pounds each. Petroleum is also found at Amiano in the duchy of Parma, at Saint Zibio in the grand duchy of Modena, at Neufchatel in Switzerland, at Clermont in France, upon some points of the banks of the Iser, at Gabian, a village near Bezières, at Tegernsee in Bavaria, at Val di Noto in Sicily, in Zante, Gallicia, Wallachia, Trinidad, Barbadoes, the United States, Rangoon, near Ava, &c. What is found in the market comes mostly from Trinidad. The city of Parma is lighted with naphtha.