Chapter II: Application of Light-Gas (42)

We shall now describe briefly the modern modes of working coals a-dipping of, and deeper than, the engine-pit bottom. One of these consists in laying a working pump barrel with a long wind-bore at the bottom of the downset mine, furnished with a smooth rod working through a collar at the top of the working barrel. At one side of this, near the top, a kneed pipe is attached, and from it pipes are carried to the point of delivery, either at the engine-pit bottom or day level, as represented in _fig._ 866. The spears are worked sometimes by rods connected with the machinery at the surface; in which case the spears, if very long, are either suspended from swing or pendulum rods, or move on friction rollers. But since the action of the spears, running with great velocity the total length of the engine stroke, very soon tears every thing to pieces, the motion of the spears underground has been reduced from 6 or 8 feet, the length of the engine stroke, to about 15 inches; and the due speed in the pump is effected by the centering of a beam, and the attachment of the spears to it, as represented in _fig._ 867., where _a_ is the working barrel, _b_ the beam centered at _c_, having an arc-head and martingale sinking-chain. The spears _d_ are fastened by a strong bolt, which passes through the beam; and there are several holes, by means of which the stroke in the pumps can be lengthened or shortened at convenience. The movement of the spears is regulated by a strong iron quadrant or wheel at the bottom.

In level-free coals, these pumps may be worked by a water-wheel, stationed near the bottom of the pit, impelled by water falling down the shaft, to be discharged by the level to the day (day-level).

But the preferable plan of working under-dip coal, is that recently adopted by the Newcastle engineers; and consists in running a mine a-dipping of the engine-pit, in such direction of the dip as is most convenient; and both coals and water are brought up the rise of the coal by means of high-pressure engines, working with a power of from 30 to 50 pounds on the square inch. These machines are quite under command, and, producing much power in little space, they are the most applicable for underground work. An excavation is made for them in the strata above the coal, and the air used for the furnace under the boiler, is the returned air of the mine ventilation. In the dip-mine a double tram-road is laid; so that while a number of loaded corves are ascending, an equal number of empty ones are going down. Although this improved method has been introduced only a few years back, under-dip workings have been already executed more than an English mile under-dip of the engine-pit bottom, by means of three of these high-pressure engines, placed at equal distances in the under-dip mine. It may hence be inferred, that this mode of working is susceptible of most extensive application; and in place of sinking pits of excessive depth upon the dip of the coal, at an almost ruinous expense, much of the under-dip coal will in future be worked by means of the actual engine-pits. In the Newcastle district, coals are now working in an engine-pit 115 fathoms deep under-dip of the engine-pit bottom, above 1600 yards, and fully 80 fathoms of perpendicular depth more than the bottom of the pit.

If an engine-pit be sunk to a given coal at a certain depth, all the other coals of the coal-field, both above and below the coal sunk to, can be drained and worked to the same depth, by driving a level cross-cut mine, both to the dip and rise, till all the coals are intersected, as represented in _fig._ 868., where A is the engine-pit bottom reaching to the coal _a_; and _b_, _c_, _d_, _e_, _f_, coals lying above the coal _a_; the coals which lie below it, _g_, _h_, _i_; _k_ is the forehead of the cross-cut mine, intersecting all the lower coals; and _l_, the other forehead of the mine, intersecting all the upper coals.

1. First stage of active creep.
2. Second do.
3. Third do.
4. Fourth do.
5. The metal ridge closed, and the creep beginning to settle.
6. The creep settled, the metal ridges being closely compressed, and
supporting the roof.]

In the “Report from the select committee of the House of Lords, appointed to take into consideration the state of the coal trade in the United Kingdom,” printed in June, 1829, under the head of Mr. Buddle’s evidence we have an excellent description of the nature and progress of creeps, which we have adverted to in the preceding account. The annexed _fig._ 869. exhibits the creep in all its progressive stages, from its commencement until it has completely closed all the workings, and crushed the pillars of coal. The section of the figures supposes us standing on the level of the different galleries which are opened in the seam. The black is the coal pillars between each gallery; when these are weakened too much, or, in other words, when their bases become too narrow for the pavement below, by the pressure of the incumbent stratification they sink down into the pavement, and the first appearance is a little curvature in the bottom of each gallery: that is the first symptom obvious to sight; but it may generally be heard before it is seen. The next stage is when the pavement begins to open with a crack longitudinally. The next stage is when that crack is completed, and it assumes the shape of a metal ridge. The next is when the metal ridge reaches the roof. The next stage is when the peak of the metal ridge becomes flattened by pressure, and forced into a horizontal direction, and becomes quite close; just at this moment the coal pillars begin to sustain part of the pressure. The next is when the coal pillars take part of the pressure. The last stage is when it is dead and settled; that is, when the metal or factitious ridge, formed by the sinking of the pillar into the pavement, bears, in common with the pillars of coal on each side, the full pressure, and the coal becomes crushed or cracked, and can be no longer worked, except by a very expensive and dangerous process. _Fig._ 869.

The quantity of coals, cinders, and culm shipped coastways, and exported from the several ports of the United Kingdom in the year 1837, was 8,204,301 tons; in 1836, the quantity was 7,389,272 tons, being an increase of 815,029 tons, or 11·03 per cent. in favour of 1837.

The following TABLE shows the separate proportions of this quantity supplied by England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland:--

+-----------------+---------+---------+--------------------------+
| | 1836. | 1837. | Increase. |
+-----------------+---------+---------+--------------------------+
| | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. |
|England and Wales|6,757,937|7,570,254|812,317 or 12·02 per cent.|
|Scotland | 624,308| 626,532| 2,204 0·36 |
|Ireland | 7,027| 7,515| 488 6·94 |
| +---------+---------+--------------------------+
| Total |7,389,272|8,204,301|815,029 or 11·03 per cent.|
+-----------------+---------+---------+--------------------------+

PITCOAL, COKING OF. See also CHARCOAL.

_Fig._ 870. represents a _schachtofen_, or pit-kiln, for coking coals in Germany. _a_ is the lining (_chemise_), made of fire-bricks; the enclosing walls are built of the same material; _b_, _b_, is a cast-iron ring covered with a cast-iron plate _c_. The floor of the kiln is massive. The coals are introduced, and the coke taken out, through a hole in the side _d_; during the process it is bricked up, and closed with an iron door. In the surrounding walls are 4 horizontal rows of flues _e_, _e_, _e_, _e_, which are usually iron pipes; the lowest row is upon a level with the floor of the kiln; and the others are each respectively one foot and a half higher than the preceding. Near the top of the shaft there is an iron pipe _f_, of from 8 to 10 inches in diameter, which allows the incoercible vapours generated in the coking to escape into the condenser, which consists either of wood or brick chambers. For kindling the coal, a layer of wood is first placed on the bottom of the kiln.

The coking of small coal is performed upon vaulted hearths, somewhat like bakers’ ovens, but with still flatter roofs. Of such kilns, several are placed alongside one another each being an ellipse deviating little from a circle, so that the mouth may project but a small space. The dimensions are such, that from 10 to 12 cubic feet of coal-culm may be spread in a layer 6 inches deep upon the sole of the furnace. The top of the flat arch of fire brick should be covered with a stratum of loam and sand.

_Figs._ 871. and 872. represent such a kiln as is mounted at Zabrze, in Upper Silesia, for coking small coal. _Fig._ 871. is the ground plan; _fig._ 872. the vertical section in the line of the long axis of _fig._ 871. _a_, is the sand-bed of the hearth, under the brick sole; _b_, is the roof of large fire-bricks; _c_, the covering of loam; _d_, the top surface of sand; _e_, the orifice in the front wall, for admission of the culm, and removal of the coke, over the sloping stone _f_. The flame and vapours pass off above this orifice, through the chimney marked _g_, or through the aperture _h_, into a lateral chimney. _i_, is a bar of iron laid across the front of the door as a fulcrum to work the iron rake upon. A layer of coals is first kindled upon the hearth, and when this is in brisk ignition, it is covered with the culm in successive sprinklings. When the coal is sufficiently coked, it is raked out, and quenched with water.

_Fig._ 873. represents a simple coking _meiler_ or _mound_, constructed in a circular form round a central chimney of loose bricks, towards which small horizontal flues are laid among the lumps of coals. The sides and top are covered with culm or slack, and the heap is kindled from certain openings towards the circumference. _Fig._ 874. represents an oblong _meiler_, sometimes made 100 or 150 feet in length, and from 10 to 12 in breadth. The section in the middle of the figure shows how the lumps are piled up; the wooden stakes are lifted out when the heap is finished, in order to introduce kindlings at various points; and the rest of the meiler is then covered with slack and clay, to protect it from the rains. A jet of smoke and flame is seen issuing from its left end.

An excellent range of furnaces for making a superior article of coke, for the service of the locomotive engines of the London and Birmingham Railway Company, has been recently erected at the Camden Town station; consisting of 18 ovens in two lines, the whole discharging their products of combustion into a horizontal flue, which terminates in a chimney-stalk, 115 feet high. _Fig._ 875. is a ground plan of the elliptical ovens, each being 12 feet by 11 internally, and having 3 feet thickness of walls. _a_, _a_, is the mouth, 3-1/2 feet wide outside, and about 2-3/4 feet within. _b_, _b_, are the entrances into the flue; they may be shut more or less completely by horizontal slabs of fire-brick, resting on iron frames, pushed in from behind, to modify the draught of air. The grooves of these damper-slabs admit a small stream of air to complete the combustion of the volatilized particles of soot. By this means the smoke is well consumed. The flue _c_, _c_, is 2-1/2 feet high, by 21 inches wide. The chimney _d_, at the level of the flue, is 11 feet in diameter inside, and 17 outside; being built from an elegant design of Robert Stephenson, Esq. (See CHIMNEY.) _d_, _d_, are the keys of the iron hoops, which bind the brickwork of the oven. _Fig._ 876. is a vertical section in the line A, B, of _fig._ 875. showing, at _b_, _b_, and _e_, _e_, the entrances of the different ovens into the horizontal flue; the direction of the draught being indicated by the arrows. _f_, _f_, is a bed of concrete, upon which the whole furnace-range is built, the level of the ground being in the middle of that bed. _g_, is a stauncheon on which the crane is mounted: (see _fig._ 877.) _h_ is a section of the chimney wall, with part of the interior to the left of the strong line. _Fig._ 877. is a front elevation of two of these elegant coke-ovens; in which the bracing hoops _i_, _i_, _i_, are shown; _k_, _k_, are the cast-iron doors, strengthened outside with diagonal ridges; each door being 5-1/2 feet high, by 4 feet wide, and lined internally with fire-bricks. They are raised and lowered by means of chains and counterweights, moved by the crane _l_.

Each alternate oven is charged, between 8 and 10 o’clock every morning, with 3-1/2 tons of good coals. A wisp of straw is thrown in on the top of the heap, which takes fire by the radiation from the dome (which is in a state of dull ignition from the preceding operation), and inflames the smoke then rising from the surface, by the re-action of the hot sides and bottom upon the body of the fuel. In this way the smoke is consumed at the very commencement of the process, when it would otherwise be most abundant. A neighbour of the above coking ovens, having lately indicted them as a nuisance, procured, _secundum artem_, a parcel of affidavits from sundry chemical and medical men. Two of the former, who had not entered the premises, but had espied the outside of the furnaces’ range at some distance, declared that “the coking process, as performed at the ovens, is a species of distillation of coal”! How rashly do unpractical theorists affirm what is utterly unfounded, and mislead an unscientific judge! That the said coking process is in no respect a species of distillation, but a complete combustion of the volatile principles of the coal, will be manifest from the following description of its actual progress. The mass of coals is first kindled at the surface, as above stated, where it is supplied with abundance of atmospheric oxygen; because the doors of the ovens in front, and the throat-vents behind, are then left open. The consequence is, that no more smoke is discharged from the top of the chimney, at this the most sooty period of the process, than is produced by an ordinary kitchen fire. In these circumstances, the coal gas, or other gas, supposed to be generated in the slightly heated mass beneath, cannot escape destruction in passing up through the bright open flame of the oven. As the coking of the coal advances most slowly and regularly from the top of the heap to the bottom, only one layer is affected at a time, and in succession downwards, while the surface is always covered with a stratum of redhot cinders, ready to consume every particle of carburetted or sulphuretted hydrogen gases which may escape from below. The greatest mass, when calcined in this downward order, cannot emit into the atmosphere any more of the above-mentioned gases than the smallest heap; and therefore the argument raised on account of the magnitude of the operations, is altogether fallacious.

The coke being perfectly freed from all fuliginous and volatile matters by a calcination of upwards of 40 hours, is cooled down to moderate ignition by sliding in the dampers, and sliding up the doors, which had been partially closed during the latter part of the process. It is now observed to form prismatic concretions, somewhat like a columnar mass of basalt. These are loosened by iron bars, lifted out upon shovels furnished with long iron shanks, which are poised upon swing chains with hooked ends, and the lumps are thrown upon the pavement, to be extinguished by sprinkling water upon them from the rose of a watering-can; or, they might be transferred into a large chest of sheet-iron set on wheels, and then covered up. Good coals thus treated, yield 80 per cent. of an excellent compact glistening coke; weighing about 14 cwt. per chaldron.

The loss of weight in coking in the ordinary ovens is usually reckoned at 25 per cent.; and coal, which thus loses one-fourth in weight, gains one-fourth in bulk.

Labourers who have been long employed at rightly-constructed coke ovens, seem to enjoy remarkably good health.

PITTACALL, is one of the 6 curious principles detected in wood-tar by Reichenbach. It is a dark-blue solid substance, somewhat like indigo, assumes a metallic fiery lustre on friction, and varies in tint from copper to golden. It is void of taste and smell, not volatile; carbonizes at a high heat without emitting an ammoniacal smell; is soluble or rather very diffusible in water; gives a green solution with a cast of crimson, in sulphuric acid, with a cast of red blue, in muriatic acid, and with a cast of aurora red, in acetic acid. It is insoluble in alkalis. It dyes a fast blue upon linen and cotton goods, with tin and aluminous mordants.

PLASTER; see MORTAR.

PLASTER OF PARIS; see GYPSUM.

PLATED MANUFACTURE. (_Fabrique de plaqué_, Fr.; _Silber plattirung_, Germ.) The silver in this case is not applied to ingots of pure copper, but to an alloy consisting of copper and brass, which possesses the requisite stiffness for the various articles.

The furnace used for melting that alloy, in blacklead crucibles, is a common air-furnace, like that for making brass.

The ingot-moulds are made of cast iron, in two pieces, fastened together; the cavity being of a rectangular shape, 3 inches broad, 1-1/2 thick, and 18 or 20 long. There is an elevated mouth-piece or gate, to give pressure to the liquid metal, and secure solidity to the ingot. The mould is heated, till the grease with which its cavity is besmeared, merely begins to smoke, but does not burn. The proper heat of the melted metal for casting, is when it assumes a bluish colour, and is quite liquid. Whenever the metal has solidified in the mould, the wedges that tighten its rings are driven out, lest the shrinkage of the ingot should cause the mould to crack. See BRASS.

The ingot is now dressed carefully with the file on one or two faces, according as it is to be single or double plated. The thickness of the silver plate is such as to constitute one fortieth of the thickness of the ingot; or when this is an inch and a quarter thick, the silver plate applied is one thirty-second of an inch, being by weight a pound troy of the former, to form 8 to 10 pennyweights of the latter. The silver, which is slightly less in size than the copper, is tied to it truly with iron wire, and a little of a saturated solution of borax is then insinuated at the edges. This salt melts at a low heat, and excludes the atmosphere, which might oxidize the copper, and obstruct the union of the metals. The ingot thus prepared is brought to the plating furnace.

The furnace has an iron door with a small hole to look through; it is fed with cokes, laid upon a grate at a level with the bottom of the door. The ingot is placed immediately upon the cokes, the door is shut, and the plater watches at the peep-hole the instant when the proper soldering temperature is attained. During the union of the silver and copper, the surface of the former is seen to be drawn into intimate contact with the latter, and this species of _riveting_ is the signal for removing the compound bar instantly from the furnace. Were it to remain a very little longer, the silver would become alloyed with the copper, and the plating be thus completely spoiled. The adhesion is, in fact, accomplished here by the formation of a film of true silver-solder at the surfaces of contact.

The ingot is next cleaned, and rolled to the proper thinness between cylinders as described under MINT; being in its progress of lamination frequently annealed on a small reverberatory hearth. After the last annealing, the sheets are immersed in hot dilute sulphuric acid, and scoured with fine Calais sand; they are then ready to be fashioned into various articles.

In plating copper wire, the silver is first formed into a tubular shape, with one edge projecting slightly over the other; through which a redhot copper cylinder being somewhat loosely run, the silver edges are closely pressed together with a steel burnisher, whereby they get firmly united. The tube thus completed, is cleaned inside, and put on the proper copper rod, which it exactly fits. The copper is left a little longer than its coating tube, and is grooved at the extremities of the latter, so that the silver edges, being worked into the copper groove, may exclude the air from the surface of the rod. The compound cylinder is now heated redhot, and rubbed briskly over with the steel burnisher in a longitudinal direction, whereby the two metals get firmly united, and form a solid rod, ready to be drawn into wire of any requisite fineness and form; as flat, half-round, fluted, or with mouldings, according to the figure of the hole in the draw-plate. Such wire is much used for making bread-baskets, toast-racks, snuffers, and articles combining elegance with lightness and economy. The wire must be annealed from time to time during the drawing, and finally cleaned, like the plates, with dilute acid.

Formerly the different shaped vessels of plated metal were all fashioned by the hammer; but every one of simple form is now made in dies struck with a drop-hammer or stamp. Some manufacturers employ 8 or 10 drop machines.

_Fig._ 878. and 879. are two views of the stamp. A is a large stone, the more massy the better; _b_, the anvil on which the die _e_ is secured by four screws, as shown in the ground plan, _fig._ 880. In _fig._ 878., _a a_ are two upright square prisms, set diagonally with the angles opposed to each other; between which the hammer or drop _d_ slides truly, by means of nicely fitted angular grooves or recesses in its sides. The hammer is raised by pulling the rope _f_, which passes over the pulley _c_, and is let fall from different heights, according to the impulse required. Vessels which are less in diameter at the top and bottom than in the middle, must either be raised by the stamp in two pieces, or raised with a hand hammer. The die is usually made of _cast_ steel. When it is placed upon the anvil, and the plated metal is cut into pieces of proper size, the top of the die is then surrounded with a lute made of oil and clay, for an inch or two above its surface; and the cavity is filled with melted lead. The under face of the stamp-hammer has a plate of iron called the _licker-up_ fitted into it, about the area of the die. Whenever the lead has become solid, the hammer is raised to a certain height, and dropped down upon it; and as the under face of the licker-up is made rough like a rasp, it firmly adheres to the lead, so as to lift it afterwards with the hammer. The plated metal is now placed over the die, and the hammer mounted with its lead is let fall repeatedly upon it, till the impression on the metal is complete. If the vessel to be struck, be of any considerable depth, two or three dies may be used, of progressive sizes in succession. But it occasionally happens that when the vessel has a long conical neck, recourse must be had to an auxiliary operation, called _punching_. See the embossing punches, _fig._ 881. These are made of cast steel, with their hollows turned out in the lathe. The pieces _a_, _b_ are of lead. The punching is performed by a series of these tools, of different sizes, beginning with the largest, and ending with the least. By this means a hollow cone, 3 or 4 inches deep, and an inch diameter, may be raised out of a flat plate. These punches are struck with a hand hammer also, for small articles, of too great delicacy for the drop. Indeed it frequently happens that one part of an article is executed by the stamp, and another by the hand.

Cylindrical and conical vessels are mostly formed by bending and soldering. The bending is performed on blocks of wood, with wooden mallets; but the machine so much used by the tin-smiths, to form their tubes and cylindric vessels (see the end section, _figs._ 882. and 883.), might be employed with advantage. This consists of 3 iron rollers fixed in an iron frame. A, B, C, are the three cylinders, and _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, the riband or sheet of metal passed through them to receive the cylindrical or conical curvature. The upper roller A can be raised or lowered at pleasure, in order to modify the diameter of the tube; and when one end of the roller is higher than the other, the conical curvature is given. The edges of the plated cylinders or cones are soldered with an alloy composed of silver and brass. An alloy of silver and copper is somewhat more fusible; but that of brass and silver answers best for plated metal, the brass being in very small proportion, lest the colour of the plate be affected. Calcined borax mixed with sandiver (the salt skimmed from the pots of crown glass) is used along with the alloy, in the act of soldering. The seam of the plated metal being smeared with that saline mixture made into a pap with water, and the bits of laminated solder, cut small with scissors, laid on, the seam is exposed to the flame of an oil blowpipe, or to that of charcoal urged by bellows in a little forge-hearth, till the solder melts and flows evenly along the junction. The use of the sandiver seems to be, to prevent the iron wire that binds the plated metal tube from being soldered to it.

Mouldings are sometimes formed upon the edges of vessels, which are not merely ornamental, but give strength and stiffness. These are fashioned by an instrument called a _swage_, represented in _figs._ 884. and 885. The part A lifts up by a joint, and the metal to be _swaged_ is placed between the dies, as shown in the figures; the tail _b_ being held in the jaws of a vice, while the shear-shaped hammer rests upon it. By striking on the head A, while the metal plate is shifted successively forwards, the beading is formed. In _fig._ 884. the tooth _a_ is a guide to regulate the distance between the bead and the edge. A similar effect is produced of late years in a neater and more expeditious manner by the rollers, _figs._ 886. 887. _Fig._ 888. is a section to show the form of the bead. The two wheels _a_, _a_, _fig._ 886., are placed upon axes, two of which are furnished with toothed pinions in their middle; the lower one being turned by the handle, gives motion to the upper. The groove in the upper wheel corresponds with the bead in the lower, so that the slip of metal passed through between them assumes the same figure.

The greatest improvement made in this branch of manufacture, is the introduction of silver edges, beads and mouldings, instead of the plated ones, which from their prominence had their silver surface speedily worn off, and thus assumed a brassy look. The silver destined to form the ornamental edgings is laminated exceedingly thin; a square inch sometimes weighing no more than 10 or 12 grains. This is too fragile to bear the action of the opposite steel dies of the swage above described. It is necessary, therefore, that the sunk part of the die should be steel, and the opposite side lead, as was observed in the stamping; and this is the method now generally employed to form these silver ornaments. The inside shell of this silver moulding is filled with soft solder, and then bent into the requisite form.

The base of candlesticks is generally made in a die by the stamp, as well as the neck, the dish part of the nozzle or socket, and the tubular stem or pillar. The different parts are united, some with soft and others with hard solder. The branches of candlesticks are formed in two semi-cylindrical halves, like the feet of tea-urns. When an article is to be engraved on, an extra plate of silver is applied at the proper part, while the plate is still flat, and fixed by burnishing with great pressure over a hot anvil. This is a species of welding.

The last finish of plated goods is given by burnishing-tools of bloodstone, fixed in sheet-iron cases, or hardened steel, finely polished.

The ingots for lamination might probably be plated with advantage by the delicate pressure process employed for silvering copper wire.

The total value of the plate, plated ware, jewellery, and watches, exported in the year 1836, was 338,889_l._; but the value of the plated goods is not given in the tables of revenue. M. Parquin, the greatest manufacturer of plated goods in Paris (or France, for this business is monopolized by the capital), who makes to the value of 700,000 francs per annum, out of the 1,500,000 which, he says, is the whole internal consumption of the kingdom, states that the internal consumption of the United Kingdom amounts 30,000,000, or 20 times, that of France! He adds, that our common laminated copper costs 26 sous the pound, while theirs costs 34. Their plated goods are fashioned, not in general with stamps, but by the pressure of tools upon wood moulds in the turning-lathe, which is a great economy of capital to the manufacturer. There are factories at Birmingham which possess a heavy stock of 300,000 different die-moulds. See STAMPING OF METALS.

PLATINA-MOHR. The following easy method of preparing igniferous black platinum, proposed thirty years ago by Descotils, has been recently recommended by M. Dobereiner:--

Melt platina ore with double its weight of zinc, reduce the alloy to powder, and treat it first with dilute sulphuric acid, and next with dilute nitric acid, to oxidize and dissolve out all the zinc, which, contrary to one’s expectations, is somewhat difficult to do, even at a boiling heat. The insoluble black-gray powder contains some osmiuret of iridium, united with the crude platinum. This compound acts like simple platina-black, after it has been purified by digestion in potash lye, and washing with water. Its oxidizing power is so great, as to transform not only the formic acid into the carbonic, and alcohol into vinegar, but even some osmic acid, from the metallic osmium. The above powder explodes by heat like gunpowder.

When the platina-_mohr_ prepared by means of zinc is moistened with alcohol, it becomes incandescent, and emits osmic acid; but if it be mixed with alcohol into a paste, and spread upon a watch-glass, nothing but acetic acid will be disengaged; affording an elegant means of diffusing the odour of vinegar in an apartment.

PLATINUM, is a metal of a grayish-white colour, resembling in a good measure polished steel. It is harder than silver, and of about double its density, being of specific gravity 21. It is so infusible, that no considerable portion of it can be melted by the strongest heats of our furnaces. It is unchangeable in the air and water; nor does a white heat impair its polish. The only acid which dissolves it, is the nitro-muriatic; the muriate or chloride thus formed, affords, with pure ammonia or sal ammoniac, a triple salt in a yellow powder, convertible into the pure metal by a red heat. This character distinguishes platinum from every other metal.

_Native Platinum._--In the natural state it is never pure, being alloyed with several other metals. It occurs only under the form of grains, which are usually flattened, and resemble in shape the gold _pepitas_. Their size is in general less than linseed, although in some cases they equal hempseed, and, occasionally, peas. One piece brought from Choco, in Peru, and presented to the Cabinet of Berlin, by M. Humboldt, weighs 55 grammes = 850 grains, or nearly 2 oz. avoirdupois. The greatest lump of native platinum known, till of late years, was one in the Royal Museum of Madrid, which was found in 1814 in the gold mine of Condoto, province of Novita, at Choco. Its size is greater than a Turkey’s egg, (about 2 inches one diameter, and 4 inches the other,) and its weight 760 grammes, = 24 oz. or fully 2 lbs. troy. See _infrà_.

The colour of the grains of native platinum is generally a grayish white, like tarnished steel. The cavities of the rough grains are often filled with earthy and ferruginous matters, or sometimes with small grains of black oxide of iron, adhering to the surface of the platinum grains. Their specific gravity is also much lower than that of forged pure platinum; varying from 15 in the small particles, to 18·94 in M. Humboldt’s large specimen. This relative lightness is owing to the presence of iron, copper, lead, and chrome; besides its other more lately discovered metallic constituents, palladium, osmium, rhodium, and iridium.

Its main localities in the New Continent, are in the three following districts:--

1. At Choco, in the neighbourhood of Barbacoas, and generally on the coasts of the South Sea, or on the western slopes of the Cordillera of the Andes, between the 2nd and the 6th degrees of north latitude. The gold-washings that furnish most platinum, are those of Condoto, in the province of Novita; those of Santa Rita, or Viroviro, of Santa Lucia, of the ravine of Iro, and Apoto, between Novita and Taddo. The deposit of gold and platinum grains is found in alluvial ground, at a depth of about 20 feet. The gold is separated from the platinum by picking with the hand, and also by amalgamation; formerly, when it was imagined that platinum might be used to debase gold, the grains of the former metal were thrown into the rivers, through which mistaken opinion an immense quantity of it was lost.

2. Platinum grains are found in Brazil, but always in the alluvial lands that contain gold, particularly in those of Matto-Grosso. The ore of this country is somewhat different from that of Choco. It is in grains, which seem to be fragments of a spongy substance. The whole of the particles are nearly globular, exhibiting a surface formed of small spheroidal protuberances strongly cohering together, whose interstices are clean, and even brilliant.

This platinum includes many small particles of gold, but none of the magnetic iron-sand or of the small zircons which accompany the Peruvian ore. It is mixed with small grains of native palladium, which may be recognised by their fibrous or radiated structure, and particularly by their chemical characters.

3. Platinum grains are found in Hayti, or Saint Domingo, in the sand of the river Jacky, near the mountains of Sibao. Like those of Choco, they are in small brilliant grains, as if polished by friction. The sand containing them is quartzose and ferruginous. This native platinum contains, like that of Choco, chromium, copper, osmium, iridium, rhodium, palladium, and probably titanium. Vauquelin could find no gold among the grains.

Platinum has been discovered lately in the Russian territories, in the auriferous sands of Kuschwa, 250 wersts from Ekaterinebourg, and consequently in a geological position which seems to be analogous with that of South America.

These auriferous sands are, indeed, almost all superficial; they cover an argillaceous soil; and include, along with gold and platinum, debris of dolerite (a kind of greenstone), protoxide of iron, grains of corundum, &c. The platinum grains are not so flat as those from Choco, but they are thicker; they have less brilliancy, and more of a leaden hue. This platinum, by M. Laugier’s analysis, is similar in purity to that of Choco; but the leaden-gray grains, which were taken for a mixture of osmium and iridium, are merely an alloy of platinum, containing 25 per cent. of these metals.

The mines of Brazil, Columbia, and Saint Domingo furnish altogether only about 400 kilos. of platinum ore per annum; but those of Russia produce above 1800 kilos. The latter were discovered in 1822, and were first worked in 1824. They are all situated in the Ural mountains. The ore is disseminated in an argillaceous sand, of a greenish-gray colour, resulting from the disintegration of the surrounding rocks, and constitutes from 1 to 3 parts in 4000 of the sand. Occasionally it has been found in lumps weighing 8 kilogrammes (16 lbs.!), but it generally occurs in blackish angular grains, which contain 70 per cent. of platinum, and 3 to 5 of iridium. The ore of Goroblagodat is in small flattened grains, which contain 88 per cent. of this precious metal. The osmiure of iridium is found upon a great many points of the Urals, throughout a space of 140 leagues, being a product accessory to the gold washings. 32 kilogrammes of osmiure are collected there annually, which contain upon an average 2 per cent. of platinum.

M. Vauquelin found nearly ten per cent. of platinum in an ore of argentiferous copper, which was transmitted to him as coming from Guadalcanal in Spain. This would be the only example of platinum existing in a rock, and in a vein. As the same thing has not again been met with, even in other specimens from Guadalcanal, we must delay drawing geological inferences, till a new example has confirmed the authenticity of the first.

Platinum has been known in Europe only since 1748, though it was noticed by Ulloa in 1741. It was compared at first to gold; and was, in fact, brought into the market under the name of white gold. The term platinum, however, is derived from the Spanish word _plata_, silver, on account of its resemblance in colour to that metal.

The whole of the platinum ore from the Urals is sent to St. Petersburg, where it is treated by the following simple process:--

One part of the ore is put in open platina vessels, capable of containing from 6 to 8 lbs., along with 3 parts of muriatic acid at 25° B. and 1 part of nitric acid at 40°. Thirty of these vessels are placed upon a sand-bath covered with a glazed dome with movable panes, which is surmounted by a ventilating chimney to carry the vapours out of the laboratory. Heat is applied for 8 or 10 hours, till no more red vapours appear; a proof that the whole nitric acid is decomposed, though some of the muriatic remains. After settling, the supernatant liquid is decanted off into large cylindrical glass vessels, the residuum is washed, and the washing is also decanted off. A fresh quantity of nitro-muriatic acid is now poured upon the residuum. This treatment is repeated till the whole solid matter has eventually disappeared. The ore requires for solution from 10 to 15 times its weight of nitro-muriatic acid, according to the size of its grains.

The solutions thus made are all acid; a circumstance essential to prevent the iridium from precipitating with the platinum, by the water of ammonia, which is next added. The deposit being allowed to form, the mother waters are poured off, the precipitate is washed with cold water, dried, and calcined in crucibles of platinum.

The mother-waters and the washings are afterwards treated separately. The first being concentrated to one-twelfth of their bulk in glass retorts, on cooling they let fall the iridium in the state of an ammoniacal chloride, constituting a dark-purple powder, occasionally crystallized in regular octahedrons. The washings are evaporated to dryness in porcelain vessels; the residuum is calcined and treated like fresh ore; but the platinum it affords needs a second purification.

For agglomerating the platinum, the spongy mass is pounded in bronze mortars; the powder is passed through a fine sieve, and put into a cylinder of the intended size of the ingot. The cylinder is fitted with a rammer, which is forced in by a coining press, till the powder be much condensed. It is then turned out of the mould, and baked 36 hours in a porcelain kiln, after which it may be readily forged, if it be pure, and may receive any desired form from the hammer. It contracts in volume from 1-6th to 1-5th during the calcination. The cost of the manufacture of platinum is fixed by the administration at 32 francs the Russian pound; but so great a sum is never expended upon it.

For Dr. Wollaston’s process, see Phil. Trans. 1829, Part I.

Platinum furnishes most valuable vessels to both analytical and manufacturing chemists. It may be beat out into leaves of such thinness as to be blown about with the breath.

This metal is applied to porcelain by two different processes; sometimes in a rather coarse powder, applied by the brush, like gold, to form ornamental figures; sometimes in a state of extreme division, obtained by decomposing its muriatic solution, by means of an essential oil, such as rosemary or lavender. In this case, it must be evenly spread over the whole ground. Both modes of application give rise to a steely lustre.

The properties possessed in common by gold and platinum, have several times given occasion to fraudulent admixtures, which have deceived the assayers. M. Vauquelin having executed a series of experiments to elucidate this subject, drew the following conclusions:--

If the platinum do not exceed 30 or 40 parts in the thousand of the alloy, the gold does not retain any of it when the parting is made with nitric acid in the usual way; and when the proportion of platinum is greater, the fraud becomes manifest, 1st by the higher temperature required to pass it through the cupel, and to form a round button, 2, by the absence of the lightning, fulguration, or coruscation; 3, by the dull white colour of the button and its crystallized surface; 4, by the straw-yellow colour which platinum communicates to the aquafortis in the parting; 5, by the straw-yellow colour, bordering on white, of the cornet, after it is annealed. If the platinum amounts to one fourth of the gold, we must add to the alloy at least 3 times its weight of fine silver, laminate it very thin, anneal somewhat strongly, boil it half an hour in the first aquafortis, and at least a quarter of an hour in the second, in order that the acid may dissolve the whole of the platinum.

Were it required to determine exactly the proportions of platinum contained in an alloy of copper, silver, gold, and platinum, the amount of the copper may be found in the first place by _cupellation_, then the respective quantities of the three other metals may be learned by a process founded, 1, upon the property possessed by sulphuric acid of dissolving silver without affecting gold or platinum; and, 2, upon the property of platinum being soluble in the nitric acid, when it is alloyed with a certain quantity of gold and silver.

According to Boussingault, the annual product of Platinum in America does not exceed 8-1/3 cwts. At Nischne-Tagilsk, in 1824, a lump of native platinum weighing fully 10 lbs. was found; and in 1830, another lump, of nearly double size, which weighed 35-3/4 Prussian marcs; fully 18 lbs. avoirdupoise.

PRODUCTION OF PLATINUM IN THE URAL.

From 1822 to 1827 inclusively, 52 puds[41] and 22-1/2 pounds.
1828 94
1829 78 31-1/2
1830 105 1
1831 to 1833 348 15

[41] One pud = 40 Russian pounds, = 69,956 Prussian marcs (see
SILVER); 1 pound = 96 zolotniki.

ANALYSES of the PLATINUM ORES of the Urals, and of that from Barbacoas on the Pacific, between the 2nd and 6th degrees of northern latitude.

+------------+---------------------+-------------+----------+
| |From Nischne-Tagilsk.| | |
| | Berzelius. |Goroblagodat.|Barbacoas.|
| | | Not | Osann. |Berzelius.|
| | Magnetic.| Magnetic | | |
+------------+----------+----------+-------------+----------+
|Platinum | 73·58 | 78·94 |83·07 | 86·50| 84·30 |
|Iridium | 2·35 | 4·97 | 1·91 | | 1·46 |
|Rhodium | 1·15 | 0·86 | 0·59 | 1·15| 3·46 |
|Palladium | 0·30 | 0·28 | 0·26 | 1·10| 1·06 |
|Iron | 12·98 | 11·04 |10·79 | 8·32| 5·31 |
|Copper | 5·20 | 0·70 | 1·30 | 0·45| 0·74 |
|Undissolved}| | | | | |
|Osmium and }| 2·30 | 1·96 | 1·80 | 1·40| |
|Iridium }| | | | | |
|Osmium | | | | | 1·03 |
|Quartz | | | | | 0·60 |
|Lime | | | | | 0·12 |
| +----------+----------+------+------+----------+
| | 97·86 | 98·75 |99·72 | 98·92| 98·08 |
+------------+----------+----------+------+------+----------+

PLUMBAGO. See GRAPHITE, for its mineralogical and chemical characters. The mountain at Borrowdale, in which the blacklead is mined, is 2000 feet high, and the entrance to the mine is 1000 feet below its summit. This valuable mineral became so common a subject of robbery about a century ago, as to have enriched, it was said, a great many persons living in the neighbourhood. Even the guard stationed over it by the proprietors was of little avail against men infuriated with the love of plunder; since in those days a body of miners broke into the mine by main force, and held possession of it for a considerable time.

The treasure is now protected by a strong building, consisting of four rooms upon the ground floor; and immediately under one of them is the opening, secured by a trap-door, through which alone workmen can enter the interior of the mountain. In this apartment, called the dressing-room, the miners change their ordinary clothes for their working dress, as they come in, and after their six hours’ post or journey, they again change their dress, under the superintendence of the steward, before they are suffered to go out. In the innermost of the four rooms, two men are seated at a large table, sorting and dressing the plumbago, who are locked in while at work, and watched by the steward from an adjoining room, who is armed with two loaded blunderbusses. Such formidable apparatus of security is deemed requisite to check the pilfering spirit of the Cumberland mountaineers.

The cleansed blacklead is packed up into strong casks, which hold 1 cwt. each. These are all despatched to the warehouse of the proprietors in London, where the blacklead is sold monthly by auction, at a price of from 35_s._ to 45_s._ a pound.

In some years, the net produce of the _six weeks’_ annual working of the mine has, it is said, amounted to 30,000_l._ or 40,000_l._

PLUSH (_Panne_, _Peluche_, Fr.; _Wollsammet_, _Plüsch_, Germ.), is a textile fabric, having a sort of velvet nap or shag upon one side. It is composed regularly of a woof of a single woollen thread, and a two-fold warp, the one, wool of two threads twisted, the other, goat’s or camel’s hair. There are also several sorts of plush made entirely of worsted. It is manufactured, like velvet, in a loom with three treadles; two of which separate and depress the woollen warp, and the third raises the hair-warp, whereupon the weaver, throwing the shuttle, passes the woof between the woollen and hair warp; afterwards, laying a brass broach or needle under that of the hair, he cuts it with a knife (see FUSTIAN) destined for that use, running its fine slender point along in the hollow of the guide-broach, to the end of a piece extended upon a table. Thus the surface of the plush receives its velvety appearance. This stuff is also made of cotton and silk.

POINT NET, is a style of lace formerly much in vogue, but now superseded by the bobbin-net manufacture.

PORCELAIN, is the finest kind of pottery-ware. It is considered under that title.

PORPHYRY, is a compound mineral or rock, composed essentially of a base of hornstone, interspersed with crystals of felspar. It frequently contains also quartz, mica, and hornblende. That most esteemed is the antient porphyry of Egypt, with a ground of a fine red colour passing into purple, having snow-white crystals of felspar imbedded in it. Most beautiful specimens of it are to be seen in the antique colossal statues in the British Museum.

Porphyry occurs in Arran, and in Perthshire between Dalnacardoch and Tummel bridge. It is much used for making slabs, mullers, and mortars.

PORTER, is a malt liquor, so called from being the favourite beverage of the porters and workpeople of the metropolis and other large towns of the British empire; it is characterized by its dark-brown colour, its transparency, its moderately bitter taste, and peculiar aromatic flavour, which, along with its tonic and intoxicating qualities, make it be keenly relished by thirsty palates accustomed to its use. At first the essential distinction of porter arose from its wort being made with highly-kilned brown malt, while other kinds of beer and ale were brewed from a paler article; but of late years, the taste of the public having run in favour of sweeter and lighter beverages, the actual porter is brewed with a less proportion of brown malt, is less strongly hopped, and not allowed to get hard by long keeping in huge ripening tuns. Some brewers colour the porter with burnt sugar; but in general the most respectable concentrate a quantity of their first and best wort to an extract, in an iron pan, and burn this into a _colouring_ stuff, whereby they can lay claim to the merit of using nothing in their manufacture but malt and hops. The singular flavour of good London porter seems to proceed, in a great degree, from that of the old casks and fermenting tuns in which it is prepared. Though not much addicted to vinous potations of any kind, I feel warranted by long experience to opine, that the porter brewed by the eminent London houses, when drunk in moderation, is a far wholesomer beverage for the people than the thin acidulous wines of France and Germany. See BEER.

PORTLAND STONE, is a fine compact oolite, so named from the island where it is quarried. It is a convenient but not a durable building-stone.

POTATO (_Pomme de terre_, Fr.; _Kartoffel_, Germ.); is the well-known root of the _Solanum tuberosum_.

The following TABLE exhibits several good analyses of the potato:--

+-------------------+------+-------+----+-----+------+------+-------+
| Sort. | Fi- |Starch.|Veg.|Gum. |Acids |Water.| Ana- |
| |brine.| |al- | | and | | lyst. |
| | | |bum.| |Salts.| | |
+-------------------+------+-------+----+-----+------+------+-------+
|Red potatos | 7·0 | 15·0 |1·4 | 4·1 | 5·1 |75·0 |Einhof.|
|Id. germinated | 6·8 | 15·2 |1·3 | 3·7 | |73·0 | |
|Potato sprouts | 2·8 | 0·4 |0·4 | 3·3 | |93·0 | |
|Kidney potatos | 8·8 | 9·1 |0·8 | | |81·3 | |
|Large red do. | 6·0 | 12·9 |0·7 | | |78·0 | |
|Sweet do. | 8·2 | 15·1 |0·8 | | |74·3 | |
| | | | | \_______/ | | |
|Potato of Peru | 5·2 | 15·0 |1·9 | 1·9 |76·0 |Lampad.|
| . . England | 6·8 | 12·9 |1·1 | 1·7 |77·5 | |
|Onion potato | 8·4 | 18·7 |0·9 | 1·7 |70·3 | |
| . . Voigtland | 7·1 | 15·4 |1·2 | 2·0 |74·3 | |
| . . cultivated in| | | | | | | |
|the environs of | | | | | | | |
|Paris | 6·79 | 13·3 |0·92| 3·3 | 1·4 |73·12 |Henry. |
+-------------------+------+-------+----+-----+------+------+-------+

POTASH, or POTASSA. (_Potasse_, Fr.; _Kali_, Germ.) This substance was so named from being prepared for commercial purposes by evaporating in iron pots the lixivium of the ashes of wood fuel. In the crude state called potashes, it consists, therefore, of such constituents of burned vegetables as are very soluble in water, and fixed in the fire. The potash salts of plants which originally contained vegetable acids, will be converted into carbonates, the sulphates will become sulphites, sulphurets, or even carbonates, according to the manner of incineration; the nitrates will be changed into pure carbonates, while the muriates or chlorides will remain unaltered. Should quicklime be added to the solution of the ashes, a corresponding portion of caustic potassa will be introduced into the product, with more or less lime, according to the care taken in decanting off the clear lye for evaporation.

In America, where timber is in many places an incumbrance upon the soil, it is felled, piled up in pyramids, and burned, solely with a view to the manufacture of potashes. The ashes are put into wooden cisterns, having a plug at the bottom of one of the sides under a false bottom; a moderate quantity of water is then poured on the mass, and some quicklime is stirred in. After standing for a few hours, so as to take up the soluble matter, the clear liquor is drawn off; evaporated to dryness in iron pots, and finally fused at a red heat into compact masses, which are gray on the outside, and pink-coloured within.