Chapter XI: Materials Used

=Alkanet-root= (botanical name, _Anchusa tinctoria_).--This plant is a native of the Levant, but it is much cultivated in the south of France and in Germany. The root is the only part used by French polishers to obtain a rich quiet red; the colouring is chiefly contained in the bark or outer covering, and is easily obtained by soaking the root in spirits or linseed-oil. The plant itself is a small herbaceous perennial, and grows to about a foot in height, with lance-shaped leaves and purple flowers, and with a long woody root with a deep red bark.

=Madder-root= (_Rubia tinctoria_).--This plant is indigenous to the Levant; but it is much cultivated in Southern Europe, and also in India. Its uses are for dyeing and staining; it can be procured in a powdered state, and imparts its red colour when soaked in water or spirits. This is a creeping plant with a slender stem; almost quadrangular, the leaves grow four in a bunch; flowers small, fruit yellow, berry double, one being abortive. The roots are dug up when the plant has attained the age of two or three years; they are of a long cylindrical shape, about the thickness of a quill, and of a red-brownish colour, and when powdered are a bright Turkish-red. Extracts of madder are mostly obtained by treating the root with boiling water, collecting the precipitates which separate on cooling, mixing them with gum or starch, and adding acetate of alumina or iron. This is in fact a mixture of colouring matter and a mordant.

=Red-sanders= (_Pterocarpus santalinus_).--The tree from which this wood is obtained is a lofty one, and is to be found in many parts of India, especially about Madras. It yields a dye of a bright garnet-red colour, and is used by French polishers for dyeing polishes, varnishes, revivers, etc.

=Logwood= (_Hæmatoxylon campeachianum_).--This is a moderate-sized tree with a very contorted trunk and branches, which are beset with sharp thorns, and blooms with a yellow flower. It is a native of Central America and the West Indies. This valuable dye-wood is imported in logs; the heart-wood is the most valuable, which is cut up into chips or ground to powder for the use of dyers by large powerful mills constructed especially for the purpose. Logwood, when boiled in water, easily imparts its red colour. If a few drops of acetic acid (vinegar) is added, a bright red is produced; and when a little alum is added for a mordant, it forms red ink. If an alkali, such as soda or potash, is used instead of an acid, the colour changes to a dark blue or purple, and with a little management every shade of these colours can be obtained. Logwood put into polish or varnish also imparts its red colour.

=Fustic= (_Maclura tinctoria_).--This tree is a native of the West Indies, and imparts a yellow dye. Great quantities are used for dyeing linens, etc. The fustic is a large and handsome evergreen, and is imported in long sticks.

=Turmeric= (_Curcuma longa_).--Turmeric is a stemless plant, with palmated tuberous roots and smooth lance-shaped leaves. It is imported from the East Indies and China. The root is the part which affords the yellow powder for dyeing. It is also a condiment, and is largely used in Indian curry-powder. Paper stained with turmeric is used by chemists as a test for alkalies, and it is also used in making Dutch, pink, and gold-coloured varnishes.

=Indigo= (_Indigofera tinctoria_).--Indigo is a shrub which grows from two to three feet in height, and is cut down just as it begins to flower. It is cultivated in almost all the countries situated in the tropics. The dye substance is prepared from the stems and leaves, and is largely used in calico-printing.

=Persian Berries= (_Rhamnus infectorius_).--These berries are the produce of a shrub of a species of buckthorn common in Persia, whence they derive their name; but large quantities are also imported into England from Turkey and the south of France. The berries are gathered in an unripe state, and furnish a yellow dye.

=Nut-galls.=--These are found upon the young twigs of the Turkish dwarf oak (_Quercus infectoria_), and are produced by the puncture of an insect called Cynips. The supply is principally from Turkey and Aleppo. Nut-galls contain a large quantity of tannin and gallic acid, and are extensively used in dyeing.

=Catechu.=--This is obtained from the East Indies, and is the extract of the _Acacia catechu_, a thorny tree. The wood is cut up into chips similar to logwood, and after boiling and evaporation the liquor assumes the consistency of tar; but when cold it hardens, and is formed into small squares. It is extensively used by tanners in place of oak bark.

=Thus.=--Thus is the resin which exudes from the spruce-fir, and is used by some polishers in the making of polishes and varnishes.

=Sandarach= is the produce of the _Thuya articulata_ of Barbary. It occurs in small pale yellow scales, slightly acid, and is soluble in alcohol; it is used in both polishes and varnishes.

=Mastic= exudes from the mastic-tree (_Pistacia lentiscus_), and is principally obtained from Chios, in the Grecian Archipelago. It runs freely when an incision is made in the body of the tree, but not otherwise. It occurs in the form of nearly colourless and transparent tears of a faint smell, and is soluble in alcohol as well as oil of turpentine, forming a rapidly-drying but alterable varnish, which becomes brittle and dark-coloured by age.

=Benzoin.=--This is the produce of the American tree _Laurus benzoin_, and also of the _Styrax benzoin_ of Sumatra, which is called "gum benjamin"; it is used in polishes and varnishes, and as a cosmetic, and is also burnt as incense in Catholic churches.

=Copal= is one of the most valuable of gums, and is furnished by many countries in the districts of Africa explored by Mr. H. M. Stanley, the discoverer of Livingstone. Copal is found in a fossil state in very large quantities. The natives collect the gum by searching in the sandy soil, mostly in the hilly districts, the country being almost barren, with no large tree except the Adansonia, and occasionally a few thorny bushes.

The gum is dug out of the earth by the copal gatherers at various depths, from two or three to ten or more feet, in a manner resembling gold-digging; and great excitement appears when a good amount is discovered. The gum is found in various shapes and sizes, resembling a hen's egg, a flat cake, a child's head, etc. There are three kinds, yellow, red, and whitish; and the first furnishes the best varnish and fetches the highest price from the dealers. Many of the natives assert that the copal still grows on different trees, and that it acquires its excellent qualities as a resin by dropping off and sinking several feet into the soil, whereby it is cleansed, and obtains, after a lapse of many years, its hardness, inflammability, and transparency.

=Dragon's Blood= is the juice of certain tropical plants of a red colour, especially of the tree _Pterocarpus draco_. After the juice is extracted, it is reduced to a powder by evaporation. It is used for darkening mahogany, colouring varnishes or polishes, etc., and for staining marble. Chemists also use it in preparing tinctures and tooth powders.

=Shellac=--or, more properly, _gum-lac_--is a resinous substance obtained from the Bihar-tree, and also from the _Ficus Indica_, or Banyan-tree. It exudes when the branches are pierced by an insect called the _Coccus ficus_. The twigs encrusted with the resin in its natural state is called Stick-lac. When the resin is broken off the twigs, powdered, and rubbed with water, a good deal of the red colouring matter is dissolved, and the granular resin left is called seed-lac; and when melted, strained, and spread into thin plates it is called shellac, and is prepared in various ways and known by the names of button, garnet, liver, orange, ruby, thread, etc., and is used for many purposes in the arts. Shellac forms the principal ingredient for polishes and spirit varnishes. Red sealing-wax is composed of shellac, Venice turpentine, and vermilion red; for the black sealing-wax ivory-black is used instead of the vermilion. Shellac is soluble in alcohol, and in many acids and alkalies. Lac-dye is the red colour from the stick-lac dissolved by water and evaporated to dryness. The dye, however, is principally from the shrivelled-up body of the insect of the Stick-lac.

Shellac is produced in the largest quantity and the best quality in Bengal, Assam, and Burmah. The chief seat of manufacture is Calcutta, where the native manufacturers are accused of adulterating it with resin to a considerable extent. The best customers are Great Britain and the United States, though the demand in the Italian markets appears to be on the increase.

=Amber= is a yellow, semi-transparent, fossil resin; hard but brittle, and easily cut with a knife; tasteless, and without smell, except when pounded or heated, and then it emits a fragrant odour. It has considerable lustre; becomes highly electric by friction; and will burn with a yellow flame. It is found in nodules of various sizes in alluvial soils, or on the seashore in many places, particularly on the shores of the Baltic. Amber is much employed for ornamental purposes, and is also used in the manufacture of amber-varnish. It will not dissolve in alcohol, but yields to the concentrated action of sulphuric acid, which will dissolve all resins except caramba wax.

=Pumice-stone.=--This well-known light and spongy volcanic substance is extensively quarried in the small islands that lie off the coast of Sicily. Its porosity and smooth-cutting properties render it of great value to painters and polishers for levelling down first coatings. Ground pumice-stone is the best for cutting down bodies of polish or varnish that are more advanced towards completion. The best way to get a surface to a piece of lump pumice-stone is to rub it down on a flat York stone, or, better still, an old tile that has been well baked. Pumice-stone should not be allowed to stand in water; it causes the grain to contract and to harden, thereby deteriorating its cutting properties.

=Linseed-oil.=--This valuable oil is obtained by pressure from the seed of the flax plant (_Linum usitatissimum_). Linseed contains on an average about 33 per cent. of oil, though the amount varies materially, the percentage obtained fluctuating considerably, not being alike on any two successive days. This is partly due to the varying richness of the seed, and partly to the manner in which it is manipulated in extracting the oil, it being a very easy matter to lose a considerable percentage of the oil by a lack of skill in any of the processes, though they all seem so simple.

The first thing done with the seed from which the oil is to be extracted is to pass it through a screen, to cleanse it from foreign substances. The seed is received in bags containing from three to four bushels, and pockets containing one-sixth of that amount. Having been screened it is passed through a mill, whose large iron-rollers, three in number, grind it to a coarse meal. Thence it is carried to what are known as the "mullers," which are two large stones, about eight feet in diameter and eighteen inches thick, weighing six tons each, standing on their edges, and rolling around on a stone bed. About five bushels of the meal are placed in the mullers, and about eight quarts of hot water are added. The meal is afterwards carried by machinery to the heaters, iron pans holding about a bushel each. These are heated to an even temperature by steam, and are partly filled with the meal, which for seven minutes is submitted to the heat, being carefully stirred in order that all parts may become evenly heated. At the end of that time the meal is placed in bags, which in turn are placed in hydraulic presses, iron plates being placed between the bags. Pressure is applied for about eight minutes, until, as is supposed, all the oil is pressed out, leaving a hard cake, known to the trade as oil-cake, or linseed-cake.

The product of these various processes is known as "raw" oil, a considerable portion of which is sold without further labour being expended upon it. There is, however, a demand for "boiled" oil, for certain purposes where greater drying properties are needed. To supply this want oil is placed in large kettles, holding from five hundred to one thousand gallons, where it is heated to a temperature of about 500 degrees, being stirred continually. This process, when large kettles are used, requires nearly the entire day. While the boiling process is going on, oxide of manganese is added, which helps to give the boiled oil better drying properties. A considerable portion of the oil is bleached, for the use of manufacturers of white paints.

=Venice Turpentine.=--This is obtained from the larch, and is said to be contained in peculiar sacs in the upper part of the stem, and to be obtained by puncturing them. It is a ropy liquid, colourless or brownish green, having a somewhat unpleasant odour and bitter taste.

=Oil of Turpentine= is the most plentiful and useful of oils. It is obtained in America from a species of pine very plentiful in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama, known as the long-leaved pine (_pinus Australis_), and found only where the original forest has not been removed.

=Methylated Spirits.=--The methylated spirit of commerce usually consists of the ordinary mixed grain, or "plain" spirit, as produced by the large distillers in London and elsewhere, with which are blended, by simply mixing in various proportions, one part vegetable naphtha and three parts spirits of wine. The mixing takes place in presence of a revenue officer, and the spirits so "methylated" are allowed to be used duty free. The revenue authorities consider the admixture of naphtha, having so pungent and disagreeable a smell, a sufficient security against its sale and consumption as a beverage. No process has yet been discovered of getting rid of this odour. It is illegal for druggists to use it in the preparation of medicinal tinctures, unless they are for external use.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.

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