SOAP, CANDLES, TALLOW TREE, SPERMACETI, WAX, MAHOGANY, INDIAN
RUBBER OR CAOUTCHOUC, SPONGE, CORAL, LIME, CARBON, OXYGEN, NITROGEN,
GAS, HYDROGEN, CHALK, AND MARBLE.
Of what is Soap composed?
Of soda or potash, and various oily substances; it is so useful for
domestic and other purposes, that it may be regarded as one of the
necessaries of life; immense quantities of it are consumed in all
civilized countries. Soft soap is generally made of a lye of
wood-ashes and quicklime, boiled up with tallow or oil; common
household soap of soda and tallow, or of potash and tallow; when
potash is used, a large portion of common salt, which contains soda,
is added to harden it. The finest white soaps are made of olive oil
and a lye consisting of soda and quicklime; perfumes are sometimes
added, or various coloring matters stirred in to give the soap a
variegated appearance. The ancient Greeks and Hebrews appear to have
been acquainted with the art of making soap, or a composition very
similar to it; and also the ancient Gauls and Germans. A soap-boiler's
shop, with soap in it, was found in the city of Pompeii, in Italy,
which was overwhelmed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, A.D. 79.
What is Soda?
Soda, or barilla, is obtained from the ashes of marine plants, and by
the decomposition of common salt; its great depository is the ocean,
soda being the basis of salt. The marine plants from which the soda is
obtained, are endowed with the property of decomposing the sea-salt
which they imbibe, and of absorbing the soda which it contains. It is
found native in Egypt, and is there called _natron_; a name similar to
that which it bore among the Jews and Greeks.
_Depository_, store-house, place where anything is lodged.
_Imbibe_, to drink in, to absorb.
Of what are Candles made?
Of Tallow, which means animal fat melted and clarified, that is,
cleansed or purified from filth. Tallow is procured from many animals,
but the most esteemed, and the most used, is that made from oxen,
sheep, swine, goats, deer, bears, &c.; some of which tallows or fats
are used in medicine, some in making soap, and dressing leather;
others in the manufacture of candles, &c. For the last-mentioned
article, that of sheep and oxen is most used; candles of a better sort
are likewise made of wax and spermaceti. Candles are kept burning by
means of a wick of cotton or rush, placed in the centre of the tallow,
which is moulded into a cylindrical form.
_Cylindrical_, having the form of a cylinder.
Is there not a tree which yields a vegetable Tallow?
Yes; China possesses a tree producing a substance like our tallow, of
which the Chinese make their candles; this tallow is extracted from
the stone of the fruit, the tallow being a white pulp which surrounds
it. In America, likewise, there is a shrub, a native of the temperate
parts, especially towards the sea-side, the seeds of which contain a
waxy substance used for the same purpose, and which is extracted by
boiling; this shrub is a species of myrtle, and does not attain to any
great size.
_Extracted_, drawn from.
What is Spermaceti?
A whitish, flaky, unctuous substance, prepared from an oil of the same
name, drawn from a particular kind of whale, distinguished from the
common whale by having teeth, and a hunch on its back.
_Flaky_, having the nature of flakes.
What is Wax?
A soft, yellow, concrete matter, collected from vegetables by the
bee, of which this industrious and useful insect constructs its cell.
Wax forms a considerable article of trade; it is of two kinds, the
yellow and the white; the yellow is the native wax as it is taken from
the hive, and the white is the same washed, purified, and exposed to
the air.
_Concrete_, grown together, solid.
What Tree produces the beautiful and well-known wood so much used in
making the various articles of household furniture?
The Mahogany Tree, growing in America, and the East and West Indies;
it frequently grows in the crevices of rocks, and other places of the
same description. This wood was not used for making furniture till
near the end of the seventeenth century. A London physician had a
brother, the captain of a West India ship, who, on his return to
England, having on board several logs of mahogany for the purpose of
ballast, made him a present of the wood, he being engaged in a
building project; his carpenter, however, threw it aside, observing
that it was too hard to be wrought. Some time after, the lady of the
physician being in want of a box to hold candles, the cabinet-maker
was directed to make it of this wood; he also made the same objection,
and declared that it spoiled his tools. Being urged, however, to make
another trial, he at length succeeded; when the box was polished, the
beautiful color of the wood was so novel, that it became an object of
great curiosity. Before this time, mahogany had been used partially in
the West Indies for ship-building, but this new discovery of its
beauty soon brought it into general use for making furniture.
_Crevice_, a rent, a crack.
_Ballast_, the heavy matter placed in the hold of a vessel
to keep it steady.
What is India Rubber or Caoutchouc?
An elastic, resinous substance, produced from a tree, growing
abundantly at Cayenne, Quito, and other parts of South America; and
also in some parts of the Indies. The tree which produces it is
large, straight, and about sixty feet high. There is, however, a small
species found in Sumatra and Java, and some of the neighboring
islands.
How is the Caoutchouc obtained from the Tree?
By making incisions in the trunk of the tree, from which the fluid
resin issues in great abundance, appearing of a milky whiteness at
first, but gradually becoming of a dark reddish color, soft and
elastic to the touch.
To what use is this substance put?
The Indians make of it boots, shoes, bottles, flambeaux, and a species
of cloth. Amongst us it is combined with sulphur, forming the
vulcanized rubber of commerce, which is used for many purposes. A
greater proportion of sulphur, produces vulcanite, a hard black
substance, resembling jet.
_Flambeaux_, torches burnt to give light.
What is Sponge?
A marine substance, found adhering to rocks and shells under the
sea-water, or on the sides of rocks near the shore. Sponge was
formerly imagined by some naturalists to be a vegetable production; by
others, a mineral, or a collection of sea-mud, but it has since been
discovered to be the fabric and habitation of a species of worm, or
polypus.
What do you mean by Polypus?
A species of animals called Zoophytes, by which are meant beings
having such an admixture of the characteristics of both plants and
animals, as to render it difficult to decide to which division they
properly belong. They are animal in substance, possessed indeed of a
stomach, but without the other animal characteristics of
blood-vessels, bones, or organs of sense; these creatures live chiefly
in water, and are mostly incapable of motion: they increase by buds or
excrescences from the parent zoophyte, and if cut off will grow again
and multiply; each part becoming a perfect animal. Myriads of the
different species of zoophytes reside in small cells of coral, sponge,
&c., or in forms like plants, and multiply in such numbers as to
create rocks and whole islands in many seas, by their untiring
industry. Polypus signifies having many feet, or roots; it is derived
from the Greek.
_Myriads_, countless numbers.
Whence are the best and greatest number of Sponges brought?
From the Mediterranean, especially from Nicaria, an island near the
coast of Asia: the collection of sponges forms, in some of these
islands, the principal support of their inhabitants. They are procured
by diving under water, an exercise in which both men, women, and
children are skilled from their earliest years. The fine, small
sponges are esteemed the best, and usually come from Constantinople;
the larger and coarser sorts are brought from Tunis and Algiers, on
the coast of Africa. Sponge is very useful in the arts, as well as for
domestic purposes.
What is Coral?
A substance which, like sponge, was considered as a vegetable
production, until about the year 1720, when a French gentleman of
Marseilles commenced (and continued for thirty years,) a series of
observations, and ascertained that the coral was a living animal of
the Polypus tribe. The general name of zoophytes, or plant animals,
has since been applied to them. These animals are furnished with
minute glands, secreting a milky juice; this juice, when exuded from
the animal, becomes fixed and hard.
_Series_, a course or continued succession.
_Glands_, vessels.
_Exuded_, from exude, to flow out.
Is this substance considered by naturalists as the habitation of the
Insect?
Not merely as the habitation, but as a part of the animal itself, in
the same manner that the shell of a snail or an oyster is of those
animals, and without which they cannot long exist. By means of this
juice or secretion, the coral insects, at a vast but unknown depth
below the surface of the sea, attach themselves to the points and
ridges of rocks, which form the bottom of the ocean; upon which
foundation the little architects labor, building up, by the aid of the
above-mentioned secretion, pile upon pile of their rocky habitations,
until at length the work rises above the sea, and is continued to such
a height as to leave it almost dry, when the insects leave building on
that part, and begin afresh in another direction under the water. Huge
masses of rocky substances are thus raised by this wonderful little
insect, capable of resisting the tremendous power of the ocean when
agitated to the highest pitch by winds or tempests.
_Architect_, one who builds.
How do these Coral Rocks become Islands?
After the formation of this solid, rocky base, sea-shells, fragments
of coral, and sea-sand, thrown up by each returning tide, are broken
and mixed together by the action of the waves; these, in time, become
a sort of stone, and thus raise the surface higher and higher;
meanwhile, the ever-active surf continues to throw up the shells of
marine animals and other substances, which fill up the crevices
between the stones; the undisturbed sand on its surface offers to the
seeds of trees and plants cast upon it by the waves, a soil upon which
they rapidly grow and overshadow the dazzling whiteness of the
new-formed land. Trunks of trees, washed into the sea by the rivers
from other countries and islands, here find a resting-place, and with
these come some small animals, chiefly of the lizard and insect tribe.
Even before the trees form a wood, the sea-birds nestle among their
branches, and the stray land-bird soon takes refuge in the bushes. At
last, man arrives and builds his hut upon the fruitful soil formed by
the corruption of the vegetation, and calls himself lord and master of
this new creation.
_Surf_, the white spray or froth of the sea waves.
Where is the Coral Insect found?
In nearly all great seas; but particularly in the Mediterranean, where
it produces Corallines of the most beautiful forms and colors: it is
in the Pacific Ocean, however, where these tiny workmen are effecting
those mighty changes, which exceed the most wonderful works of man.
What is that part of the Pacific called, where the Coral Rocks are
most abundant?
The Coral Sea, from the number of coral reefs and sunken islands, with
which it abounds; it includes a region of many miles in extent, the
whole of which is studded with numberless reefs, rocks, islands, and
columns of coral, continually joining and advancing towards each
other. All navigators who have visited these seas, state that no
charts or maps are of any service after a few years, owing to the
number of fresh rocks and reefs which are continually rising to the
surface. The wonderful instinct of these animals leads them to
continue working without ceasing, until their labors are finished, or
their lives extinct.
_Reef_, a chain or line of rocks lying near the surface of
the water.
_Extinct_, at an end, dead.
What are the names of the principal islands of Coral formation?
The New Hebrides, the Friendly Isles, the Navigator's Isles, the
Society Islands, the Marquesas, the Gambier group, and others. These
groups are separated from each other by channels or seas, wider than
those which divide the individual islands which form the respective
groups; but all these waters abound with shoals and minor islets,
which point out the existence of a common base, and show that the work
by which they will afterwards be united above the level of the sea is
continually going forward.
_Shoals_, shallows; places where the water is of little
depth.
_Minor_, less, smaller than others.
_Existence_, being.
What is a singular characteristic of the Coral Islands?
On all of them a plentiful supply of sweet and fresh water may be
obtained by digging three or four feet into the coral; and even within
one yard of high-water mark such a supply is to be found. They are
mostly covered with a deep rich soil, and well wooded with trees and
evergreens of different kinds. These islands vary in extent, as well
as in the degree of finish to which they have arrived; some of the
largest being about 30 miles in diameter, and the smallest something
less than a mile;--all of various shapes, and all formed of living
coral.
_Diameter_, a straight line through the middle of a circle.
Is Coral put to any use by man?
White Coral, which is nowhere so abundant as about the shores of
Ceylon, and others of the neighboring Indian coasts, is employed as
lime by the inhabitants of that part of the world, for building
houses, &c., by burning it after the manner of our lime. This coral
lies in vast banks, which are uncovered at low water. Coral,
particularly the beautiful red sort, is likewise made into various
ornaments, as necklaces, &c.
Of what is our Lime composed?
Of a useful earth, which absorbs moisture and carbonic acid, and
exists as limestone, or in marble and chalk, which, when burnt, become
lime: in its native state it is called carbonate of lime, and is burnt
to disengage the carbonic acid; when made into a paste, with one part
water and three parts lime,[13] and mixed with some other mineral or
metallic substances, it forms plastic cements and mortars; and
afterwards, imbibing carbonic acid from the atmosphere, it becomes
again carbonate of lime, as hard as at first; and hence its use in
building.
[Footnote 13: See Chapter XVI., article Lime.]
_Plastic_, yielding, capable of being spread out or moulded.
What do you mean by Carbon?
A simple substance, whose most common form is purified charcoal: it
is, in fact, the base of charcoal, divested of all impurities;
combined with oxygen, it forms _carbonic acid_ gas, formerly called
fixed air. It is diffused through all animal and vegetable bodies; and
may be obtained by exposing them to a red heat. In its pure,
crystallized state, it constitutes the diamond, and as graphite, is
used in making the so-called lead-pencils.[14]
[Footnote 14: See Chapter XIV., article Diamond.]
What is Oxygen?
Air, mentioned in the first chapter of this work as the gaseous
substance which composes the atmosphere, is formed by a mixture of two
distinct elements, one called Nitrogen, or Azote, the other Oxygen.
Oxygen is, therefore, an element or simple substance diffused
generally through nature, and its different combinations are essential
to animal life and combustion. It is, in fact, the most active agent
in nature, and the principle of acidity and combustion. So wholesome
and necessary is oxygen to life, that it is often called vital air.
_Agent_, an actor; a person or thing possessing the faculty
of action.
_Essential_, necessary.
What are the properties of Nitrogen or Azote?
Nitrogen is a substance also generally diffused through nature, and
particularly in animal bodies, and causes great changes in those
absorbing or exposed to it. This gas, combined with oxygen and
hydrogen, produces neither light, heat, nor combustion, but serves to
dilute the others: of itself, it is hurtful to animal life. Nitrogen
makes the principal part of the salt we call _nitre_.
What is meant by Combustion?
The decomposition of bodies by the action of fire; the union of
combustible bodies with the oxygen of the atmosphere. The greater
access the air has to a burning body, the more rapid and complete is
the process.
_Combustible_, capable of taking fire.
_Access_, the means or liberty of approach to anything.
Are all bodies equally combustible?
No; some are more so than others, and burn with a bright flame; as
wood, dry vegetables, resins, oils, fats, &c.; others with difficulty,
and without any sensible flame, as soot, coal, the ashes of plants,
&c. There are bodies, also, which are incombustible--that is,
incapable of taking fire, as some alkalies, earths, &c.
What is Caloric?
Caloric is that invisible agent which produces the sensation of heat.
It exists in all bodies; it is a force we are ever in want of, and
thus it is hid in everything around us, and penetrates all matter,
however different may be its nature or properties.
What is meant by Gas?
All highly elastic fluids are called gases. Some are salutary, but
many extremely noxious, especially such as those arising from the
putrefaction of animal bodies; the burning of charcoal; corrupted air
at the bottom of mines, cellars, &c. The inflammable gas, which lights
our streets, churches, shops, &c., is procured chiefly from coal,
burnt in furnaces for the purpose the gas being passed through metal
pipes, conveyed underground to the places where the light is required:
escaping at the orifice prepared for it, it is lighted when wanted,
and burns with, a brilliant flame. This gas consists of hydrogen and
carbon; and the oxygen of the air, combined with the hydrogen, causes
light as long as hydrogen and oxygen exist and combine.
_Salutary_, wholesome, healthful.
_Noxious_, hurtful, unwholesome.
_Putrefaction_, decay.
_Orifice_, opening, hole.
[Illustration: DIAMOND CUTTING AND POLISHING.]
What is Hydrogen?
One of the most abundant principles in nature; one part of it, and
eight of oxygen, form water. It is only met with in a gaseous form;
it is also very inflammable, and is the gas called the fire-damp, so
often fatal to miners; it is the chief constituent of oils, fats,
spirits, &c.; and is produced by the decomposition of water.
_Constituent_, that which forms an essential part of
anything.
What is Chalk?
A white fossil substance, by some reckoned a stone, but of a friable
kind, which cannot, therefore, be polished as marble; by others, more
properly ranked among the earths. It is of two sorts, one a hard dry
chalk, used for making lime; the other a soft, unctuous kind, used in
manuring land, &c. Chalk always contains quantities of flint-stone,
and the fossil remains of shells, coral, animal bones, marine plants,
&c.; from which circumstance there can be no doubt that _chalk is the
deposited mud of a former ocean_. The chemical name of chalk is
carbonate of lime. It effervesces strongly with an acid.
_Effervesce_, to froth or foam up.
_Deposited_, placed on anything.
Where is Chalk found?
In large beds or strata in the earth. Chalk, on account of its
abundance in England, forms an important feature in the scenery and
geology of that country; it causes the whiteness of its sea-cliffs.
Scotland and Wales are entirely without chalk. The white chalk is
found, with interruptions, over a space above eleven hundred miles
long, extending from the north of Ireland, through England, France,
Belgium, Germany, Poland, and Southern Russia, to the Crimea, with a
breadth of more than eight hundred miles. The Island of Crete, now
called Candia, situated in the Mediterranean, was formerly noted for
its chalk. This substance is very useful in many of the arts and
manufactures.
Where is the Crimea?
The peninsula of the Crimea is a part of Russia, lying on the Black
Sea, by which it is bounded on the west and south.
Are there any other kinds of this earth besides the common white
chalk?
Yes; there are various kinds of chalk, distinguished by their
different colors, as white, black, red, &c., found in various parts of
the world, of great use to the painter, both in oil and water colors,
and for drawing on paper, &c.
What is Marble?
A kind of stone remarkable for its hardness and firm grain, and for
being susceptible of the finest polish. It is dug in great masses from
pits or quarries; and is much used in ornamental buildings, and for
statues, altars, tombs, chimney-pieces, &c. The word is derived from
the French _marbre_, marble. Marble is supposed to be formed, deep
within the bowels of the earth, from a loose and porous carbonate of
lime, subjected to enormous heat and pressure.
_Susceptible_, easily admitting anything additional.
_Porous_, full of holes, or interstices.
Are there different sorts of this Stone?
Marbles are of many different kinds, usually named either from their
color or country; some of one simple color, as white, or black; others
streaked or variegated with different colors. They are classified as
ancient and modern: the ancient are those found in quarries now lost
or inaccessible to us, and of which there are only some wrought pieces
remaining;--the modern, those from quarries still open, and out of
which blocks of marble continue to be taken.
In what countries is Marble found?
The United States, Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Africa, Egypt,
and many other countries, produce marbles of different colors and
qualities; some more beautiful, valuable, and more highly esteemed
than others, as those of Egypt, Italy, &c. Those, also, of different
places in the same country frequently differ from each other in
quality and appearance Of the European marbles, that of Italy is the
most valuable.
What kind appears to have been held in the greatest esteem by the
ancients?
A beautiful white marble, called the Parian; of which the Grecian
statues were mostly made. By some, it is supposed to have taken its
name from the Isle of Paros, in the Mediterranean; but by others from
Parius, a famous statuary, who made it celebrated by cutting in it a
statue of Venus. Parian marble is often mentioned by ancient authors.
_Statues_, figures of men, animals, &c., cut in stone or
marble.
_Statuary_, one who makes statues.
Who was Venus?
The goddess of love and beauty, who was an object of adoration in the
idolatrous ages, when men ignorantly knelt down and worshipped stocks
and stones, which their own hands had fashioned after the likeness of
things on the earth, or imaginary creations of their fancy;--or,
again, the sun, moon, and stars, instead of the one and only true God.
In those times, every nation had its peculiar deities, to whom were
paid divine rites and honors, and to whose names costly temples were
dedicated: these deities were divided into two classes, superior and
inferior. Venus was one of the Grecian goddesses, supposed by them to
have sprung from the froth of the sea. Kings and celebrated warriors,
and sages too, after death, frequently received divine honors; as
Confucius, the founder of the Chinese empire, who, after death, was
worshipped by that people as a god. Romulus, the first king of Rome,
likewise, was thus adored by the Romans; and many similar instances of
the same species of idolatry amongst other nations might be recorded.
_Deities_, fabulous gods or goddesses.
_Idolatrous_, given to the worship of idols.
_Superior_, higher in rank.
_Inferior_, of a lower rank.
_Sage_, a wise man.