+--------------+---------+---------+---------+
| | 1831. | 1832. | 1833. |
+--------------+---------+---------+---------+
| | Francs. | Francs. | Francs. |
|Woollen |1,863,147|2,070,926|4,319,601|
|Cachemere down| 433,410| 655,200| 609,900|
|Spun silk | 401,856| 351,152| 408,824|
+--------------+---------+---------+---------+
It appears that M. J. Girard at Sèvres, near Paris, has succeeded best
in producing Cachemere shawls equal in stuff and style of work to the
oriental, and at a lower price. They have this advantage over the Indian
shawls, that they are woven without seams, in a single piece, and
exhibit all the variety and the raised effect of the eastern colours.
Women and children alone are employed in his factory.
CASK, (_Tonneau_, Fr.; _Fass_, Germ.) manufacture of by mechanical
power. Mr. Samuel Brown obtained a patent in Nov., 1825, for certain
improvements in machinery for making casks, which seems to be ingenious
and worthy of record. His mechanism consists in the first place of a
circular saw attached to a bench, with a sliding rest, upon which rest
each piece of wood intended to form a stave of a cask is fixed; and the
rest being then slidden forward in a curved direction, by the assistance
of an adjustable guide, brings the piece of wood against the edge of the
rotatory saw, and causes it to be cut into the curved shape required for
the edge of the stave. The second feature is an apparatus with cutters
attached to a standard, and traversing round with their carrier upon a
centre, by means of which the upper and lower edges of the cask are cut
round and grooved, called chining, for the purpose of receiving the
heads. Thirdly, an apparatus not very dissimilar to the last, by which
the straight pieces of wood designed for the heads of the cask are held
together, and cut to the circular figure required, and also the bevelled
edges produced. And fourthly, a machine in which the cask is made to
revolve upon an axis, and a cutting tool to traverse for the purpose of
shaving the external part of the cask, and bringing it to a smooth
surface.
The pieces of wood intended to form the staves of the cask, having been
cut to their required length and breadth, are placed upon the slide-rest
of the first mentioned machine, and confined by cramps; and the guide,
which is a flexible bar, having been previously bent to the intended
curve of the stave and fixed in that form, the rest is then slidden
forward upon the bench by the hand of the workman, which as it advances
(moving in a curved direction) brings the piece of wood against the edge
of the revolving circular saw, by which it is cut to the curved shape
desired.
The guide is a long bar held by a series of movable blocks fitted to the
bench by screws, and is bent to any desired curve by shifting the
screws: the edge of the slide-rests which holds the piece of wood about
to be cut, runs against the long guide bar, and of consequence is
conducted in a corresponding curved course. The circular saw receives a
rapid rotatory motion by means of a band or rigger from any first mover;
and the piece of wood may be shifted laterally by means of racks and
pinions on the side-rest, by the workman turning a handle, which is
occasionally necessary in order to bring the piece of wood up to, or
away from, the saw.
The necessary number of staves being provided, they are then set round
within a confining hoop at bottom, and brought into the form of a cask
in the usual way, and braced by temporary hoops. The barrel part of the
cask being thus prepared, in order to effect the chining, it is placed
in a frame upon a platform, which is raised up by a treddle lever, that
the end of the barrel may meet the cutters in a sort of lathe above: the
cutters are then made to traverse round within the head of the barrel,
and, as they proceed, occasionally to expand, by which means the bevels
and grooves are cut on the upper edge of the barrel, which is called
chining. The barrel being now reversed, the same apparatus is brought to
act against the other end, which becomes chined in like manner.
The pieces of wood intended to form the heads of the cask are now to be
cut straight by a circular saw in a machine, similar to the first
described; but in the present instance the slide-rest is to move forward
in a straight course. After their straight edges are thus produced, they
are to be placed side by side, and confined, when a scribing cutter is
made to traverse round, and cut the pieces collectively into the
circular form desired for heading the cask.
The cask having now been made up, and headed by hand as usual, it is
placed between centres, or upon an axle in a machine, and turned round
by a rigger or band with a shaving cutter, sliding along a bar above it,
which cutter being made to advance, and recede as it slides along,
shaves the outer part of the cask to a smooth surface.
CASSAVA. _Cassava bread_, _conaque_, _&c._, are different names given to
the starch of the root of the Manioc (_Jatropha Manihot_, Linn.),
prepared in the following manner in the West Indies, the tropical
regions of America, and upon the African coast. The tree belongs to the
natural family of the _euphorbiaceæ_.
The roots are washed, and reduced to a pulp by means of a rasp or
grater. The pulp is put into coarse strong canvas bags, and thus
submitted to the action of a powerful press, by which it parts with most
of its noxious juice (used by the Indians for poisoning the barbs of
their arrows). As the active principle of this juice is volatile, it is
easily dissipated by baking the squeezed cakes of pulp upon a plate of
hot iron. Fifty pounds of the fresh juice, when distilled, afford, at
first, three ounces of a poisonous water, possessing an intolerably
offensive smell; of which, 35 drops being administered to a slave
convicted of the crime of poisoning, caused his death in the course of
six minutes, amid horrible convulsions.[16]
[16] Memoir of Dr. Fermin, communicated to the Academy of Berlin,
concerning experiments made at Cayenne, upon the juice of the Manioc.
The pulp dried in the manner above described concretes into lumps, which
become hard and friable as they cool. They are then broken into pieces,
and laid out in the sun to dry. In this state they afford a wholesome
nutriment, and are habitually used as such by the negroes, as also by
many white people. These cakes constitute the only provisions laid in by
the natives, in their voyages upon the Amazons. Boiled in water with a
little beef or mutton they form a kind of soup similar to that of rice.
The Cassava cakes sent to Europe (which I have eaten with pleasure) are
composed almost entirely of starch, along with a few fibres of the
ligneous matter. It may be purified by diffusion through warm water,
passing the milky mixture through a linen cloth, evaporating the
strained liquid over the fire, with constant agitation. The starch
dissolved by the heat, thickens as the water evaporates, but on being
stirred, it becomes granulated, and must be finally dried in a proper
stove. Its specific gravity is 1·530--that of the other species of
starch.
The product obtained by this treatment is known in commerce under the
name of _tapioca_; and being starch very nearly pure, is often
prescribed by physicians as an aliment of easy digestion. A tolerably
good imitation of it is made by heating, stirring, and drying potato
starch in a similar way.
The expressed juice of the root of manioc contains in suspension a very
fine fecula, which it deposits slowly upon the bottom of the vessels.
When freed by decantation from the supernatant liquor, washed several
times and dried, it forms a beautiful starch, which creaks on pressure
with the fingers. It is called _cipipa_, in French Guyana; it is
employed for many delicate articles of cookery, especially pastry, as
also for hair powder, starching linen, &c.
Cassava flour, as imported, may be distinguished from arrow-root and
other kinds of starch, by the appearance of its particles viewed in a
microscope. They are spherical, all about 1-1000th of an inch in
diameter, and associated in groups; those of potato starch are irregular
ellipsoids, varying in size from 1-300th to 1-3000th of an inch; those
of arrow-root have the same shape nearly, but vary in size from 1-500th
to 1-800th of an inch; those of wheat are separate spheres 1-1000th of
an inch.
CASSIS, the black currant (_ribes nigra_, Linn.), which was formerly
celebrated for its medicinal properties with very little reason.
The only technical use to which it is now applied is in preparing the
agreeable _liqueur_ called _ratafia_, by the following French
recipe:--Stone, and crush three pounds of black currants, adding to the
magma one drachm of cloves, two of cinnamon, four quarts of spirit of
wine, at 18° Baumé (see ARÉOMÈTRE OF BAUMÉ), and 2-1/2 pounds of sugar.
Put the mixture into a bottle which is to be well corked; let it digest
for a fortnight, shaking the bottle once daily during the first eight
days; then strain through a linen cloth, and finally pass through
filtering paper.
CASTING OF METALS. (See FOUNDING.) _Casts from elastic moulds._--Being
much engaged in taking casts from anatomical preparations, Mr. Douglas
Fox, Surgeon, Derby, found great difficulty, principally with hard
bodies, which, when undercut, or having considerable overlaps, did not
admit of the removal of moulds of the ordinary kind, except with injury.
These difficulties suggested to him the use of elastic moulds, which,
giving way as they were withdrawn from complicated parts, would return
to their proper shape; and he ultimately succeeded in making such moulds
of glue, which not only relieved him from all his difficulties, but were
attended with great advantages, in consequence of the small number of
pieces into which it was necessary to divide the mould.
The body to be moulded, previously oiled, must be secured one inch above
the surface of a board, and then surrounded by a wall of clay, about an
inch distant from its sides. The clay must also extend rather higher
than the contained body: into this, warm melted glue, as thick as
possible so that it will run, is to be poured, so as to completely cover
the body to be moulded; the glue is to remain till cold, when it will
have set into an elastic mass, just such as is required.
Having removed the clay, the glue is to be cut into as many pieces as
may be necessary for its removal, either by a sharp-pointed knife, or by
having placed threads in the requisite situations of the body to be
moulded, which may be drawn away when the glue is set, so as to cut it
out in any direction.
The portions of the glue mould having been removed from the original,
are to be placed together and bound round by tape.
In some instances it is well to run small wooden pegs through the
portions of glue, so as to keep them exactly in their proper positions.
If the mould be of considerable size, it is better to let it be bound
with moderate tightness upon a board to prevent it bending whilst in
use; having done as above described, the plaster of Paris, as in common
casting, is to be poured into the mould, and left to set.
In many instances wax may also be cast in glue, if it is not poured in
whilst too hot; as the wax cools so rapidly when applied to the cold
glue, that the sharpness of the impression is not injured.
Glue has been described as succeeding well where an elastic mould is
alone applicable; but many modifications are admissible. When the moulds
are not used soon after being made, treacle should be previously mixed
with the glue (as employed by printers) to prevent it becoming hard.
The description thus given is with reference to moulding those bodies
which cannot be so done by any other than an elastic mould; but glue
moulds will be found greatly to facilitate casting in many departments,
as a mould may be frequently taken by this method in two or three
pieces, which would, on any other principle, require many.
CASTOR. (Eng. and Fr.; _Biber_, Germ.) The castor is an amphibious
quadruped, inhabiting North America; also found in small numbers in the
islands of the Rhone. In the arts, the skin of this animal is employed
either as a fur or as affording the silky hair called beaver, with which
the best hats are covered. Beaver skins, which form a very considerable
article of trade, are divided into 3 sorts: 1. The fresh beaver skins
from castors, killed in winter before shedding their hair; these are
most in request among the furriers, as being the most beautiful. 2. The
dry or lean beavers are the skins of the animals killed during the
moulting season; they are not much esteemed, as the skin is rather bare.
3. The fat castors: these are the skins of the first sort, which have
been worn for some time upon the persons of the savages and have got
imbued with their sweat. The last are principally used in the hat
manufacture. In France, the marine otter has been for many years
substituted in the place of the castor or beaver.
CASTOR or CASTOREUM. This name is given to a secretion of the castors,
contained in pear-shaped cellular organic sacs, placed near the genital
organs of both the male and female animals. It is a substance analogous
to civet and musk, of a consistence similar to thick honey. It has a
bitter acrid taste; a powerful, penetrating, fetid, and very volatile
smell; but, when dried, it becomes inodorous. Several chemists, and in
particular Bouillon Lagrange, Laugier, and Hildebrandt have examined
castor; and found it to be composed of a resin, a fatty substance, a
volatile oil, an extractive matter, benzoic acid, and some salts.
The mode of preparing it is very simple. The sacs are cut off from the
castors when they are killed, and are dried to prevent the skin being
affected by the weather. In this state, the interior substance is solid,
of a dark colour, and a faint smell; it softens with heat, and becomes
brittle by cold. Its fracture betrays fragments of membranes, indicating
its organic structure. When chewed, it adheres to the teeth somewhat
like wax; it has a bitter, slightly acrid, and nauseous taste.
The castor bags, as imported, are often joined in pairs by a kind of
ligature. Sometimes the substance which constitutes their value is
sophisticated; a portion of the castoreum being extracted, and replaced
by lead, clay, gums, or some other foreign matters. This fraud may be
easily detected, even when it exists in a small degree, by the absence
of the membranous partitions in the interior of the bags, as well as by
the altered smell and taste.
The use of castoreum in medicine is considerable, especially in nervous
and spasmodic diseases, and it is often advantageously combined with
opium.
CASTORINE. A chemical principle lately discovered to the amount of a few
parts per cent. in Castoreum.
CASTOR OIL. The expressed oil of the seeds of the _Palma Christi_, or
_Ricinus communis_, a native tree of the West Indies and South America;
but which has been cultivated in France, Italy, and Spain. Bussy and
Lecanu discovered in it 3 species of fatty matters, obtained partly by
saponification, and partly by dry distillation--the margaritic, ricinic,
and elaiodic acids. None of these has been separately applied to any use
in the arts.
The quantity of castor oil imported in 1835 into the United Kingdom, was
1,109,307 libs.; retained for home consumption, 670,205 libs. See OILS.
CATECHU, absurdly called Terra Japonica, is an extract made from the
wood of the tree _mimosa catechu_, which grows in Bombay, Bengal, and
other parts of India. It is prepared by boiling the chips of the
interior of the trunk in water, evaporating the solution to the
consistence of syrup over the fire, and then exposing it in the sun to
harden. It occurs in flat rough cakes, and under two forms. The first,
or the Bombay, is of uniform texture, of a dark red colour, and of
specific gravity 1·39. The second is more friable and less solid. It has
a chocolate colour, and is marked inside with red streaks. Its specific
gravity is 1·28.