Carbonate of lime 24·0 10·0
Silica 8·0 0·0
Alumina tinged with iron oxide 9·0 10·0
Sulphate of lime 0·0 9·5
Sulphur and loss 6·0 8·5
----- -----
100·0 100·0
The first of these specimens was from Heisker, the second from Rona,
both in the isle of Skye, upon the property of Lord Macdonald. From
these, and many other analyses which I have made, it appears that kelp
is a substance of very variable composition, and hence it was very apt
to produce anomalous results, when employed as the chief alkaline flux
of crown glass, which it was for a very long period. The _fucus
vesiculosus_ and _fucus nodosus_ are reckoned to afford the best kelp by
incineration; but all the species yield a better product when they are
of two or three years growth, than when cut younger. The _varec_, made
on the shores of Normandy, contains almost no carbonate of soda, but
much sulphate of soda and potash, some hyposulphate of potash, chloride
of sodium, iodide of potassium, and chloride of potassium; the average
composition of the soluble salts being, according to M. Gay Lussac, 56
of chloride of sodium, 25 of chloride of potassium, and a little
sulphate of potash. The very low price at which soda ash, the dry crude
carbonate from the decomposition of sea salt, is now sold, has nearly
superseded the use of kelp, and rendered its manufacture utterly
unprofitable--a great misfortune to the Highlands and Islands of
Scotland.
KERMES. There are two substances so called, of totally different
natures. _Kermes mineral_ is merely a factitious sulphuret of antimony
in a state of impalpable comminution, prepared in the moist way. Its
minute examination belongs to pharmaceutical chemistry. It may be
obtained perfectly pure, by diluting the proto-chloride of antimony with
solution of tartaric acid, and precipitating the metal with sulphuretted
hydrogen; or by exposing the finely levigated native sulphuret to a
boiling solution of carbonate of potash for some time, and filtering the
liquor while boiling hot. The kermes falls down in a brown-red powder,
as the liquor cools.
_Kermes-grains_, _alkermes_, are the dried bodies of the female insects
of the species _coccus ilicis_, which lives upon the leaves of the
_quercus ilex_ (prickly oak). The word _kermes_ is Arabic, signifies
little worm. In the middle ages, this dye stuff was therefore called
_vermiculus_ in Latin, and _vermillion_ in French. It is curious to
consider how the name _vermillion_ has been since transferred to red
sulphuret of mercury.
Kermes has been known in the East since the days of Moses; it has been
employed from time immemorial in India to dye silk; and was used also by
the ancient Greek and Roman dyers. Pliny speaks of it under the name of
_coccigranum_, and says that there grew upon the oak in Africa, Sicily,
&c. a small excrescence like a bud, called _cusculium_; that the
Spaniards paid with these grains, half of their tribute to the Romans;
that those produced in Sicily were the worst; that they served to dye
purple; and that those from the neighbourhood of Emerita in Lusitania
(Portugal) were the best.
In Germany, during the ninth, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth
centuries, the rural serfs were bound to deliver annually to the
convents, a certain quantity of kermes, the _coccus polonicus_, among
the other products of husbandry. It was collected from the trees upon
Saint John’s day, between eleven o’clock and noon, with religious
ceremonies, and was therefore called _Johannisblut_, (Saint John’s
blood), as also German cochineal. At the above period, a great deal of
the German kermes was consumed in Venice, for dyeing the scarlet to
which that city gives its name. After the discovery of America,
cochineal having been introduced, began to supersede kermes for all
brilliant red dyes.
The principal varieties of kermes are the _coccus quercus_, the _coccus
polonicus_, the _coccus fragariæ_, and the _coccus uva ursi_.
The _coccus quercus_ insect lives in the south of Europe upon the kermes
oak. The female has no wings, is of the size of a small pea, of a
brownish-red colour, and is covered with a whitish dust. From the middle
of May to the middle of June the eggs are collected, and exposed to the
vapour of vinegar, to prevent their incubation. A portion of eggs is
left upon the tree for the maintenance of the brood. In the department
of the Bouches-du-Rhone, one half of the kermes crop is dried. It
amounts annually to about 60 quintals or cwts., and is warehoused at
Avignon.
The kermes of Poland, or _coccus polonicus_, is found upon the roots of
the _scleranthus perennis_ and the _scleranthus annuus_, in sandy soils
of that country and the Ukraine. This species has the same properties as
the preceding; one pound of it, according to Wolfe, being capable of
dyeing 10 pounds of wool; but Hermstaedt could not obtain a fine colour,
although he employed 5 times as much of it as of cochineal. The Turks,
Armenians, and Cossacks, dye with kermes, their morocco leather, cloth,
silk, as well as the manes and tails of their horses.
The kermes called _coccus fragariæ_, is found principally in Siberia,
upon the root of the common strawberry.
The _coccus uva ursi_ is twice the size of the Polish kermes, and dyes
with alum a fine red. It occurs in Russia.
Kermes is found not only upon the _lycopodium complanatum_ in the
Ukraine, but upon a great many other plants.
Good kermes is plump, of a deep red colour, of an agreeable smell, and a
rough and pungent taste. Its colouring matter is soluble in water and
alcohol; it becomes yellowish or brownish with acids, and violet or
crimson with alkalis. Sulphate of iron blackens it. With alum it dyes a
blood-red; with copperas an agate gray; with copperas and tartar, a
lively gray; with sulphate of copper and tartar, an olive green; with
tartar and salt of tin, a lively cinnamon yellow; with more alum and
tartar, a lilac; with sulphate of zinc and tartar, a violet. Scarlet and
crimson dyed with kermes, were called _grain colours_; and they are
reckoned to be more durable than those of cochineal, as is proved by the
brilliancy of the old Brussels tapestry.
Hellot says that previous to dyeing in the kermes bath, he threw a
handful of wool into it, in order to extract a blackish matter, which
would have tarnished the colour. The red caps for the Levant are dyed at
Orleans with equal parts of kermes and madder; and occasionally with the
addition of some Brazil wood.
Cochineal and lac-dye have now nearly superseded the use of kermes as a
tinctorial substance, in England.
KILLAS, is the name by which clay-slate is known among the Cornish
miners.
KILN; (_Four_, Fr.; _Ofen_, Germ.) is the name given to various forms of
furnaces and stoves, by which an attempered heat may be applied to
bodies; thus there are brick-kilns, hop-kilns, lime-kilns, malt-kilns,
pottery-kilns. Hop and malt kilns, being designed merely to expel the
moisture of the vegetable matter, may be constructed in the same way.
See BRICK, LIMESTONE, MALT, POTTERY, for a description of their
respective kilns.
KINIC ACID; a peculiar acid extracted by Vauquelin from cinchona.
KINO, is an extractive matter obtained from the _nauclea gambir_, a
shrub which grows at Bancoul and Sumatra, but principally in Prince of
Wales’ Island. It is of a reddish-brown colour, has a bitter styptic
taste, and consists chiefly of tannin. It is used only as an astringent
in medicine. Kino is often called a gum, but most improperly.
KIRSCHWASSER, is an alcoholic liquor obtained by fermenting and
distilling bruised cherries, called _kirschen_ in German. The cherry
usually employed in Switzerland and Germany is a kind of morello, which
on maturation becomes black, and has a kernel very large in proportion
to its pulp. When ripe, the fruit being made to fall by switching the
trees, is gathered by children, thrown promiscuously, unripe, ripe, and
rotten into tubs, and crushed either by hand, or with a wooden beater.
The mashed materials are set to ferment, and whenever this process is
complete, the whole is transferred to an old still covered with
verdigris, and the spirit is run off in the rudest manner possible, by
placing the pot over the common fire-place.
The fermented mash is usually mouldy before it is put into the alembic,
the capital of which is luted on with a mixture of mud and dung. The
liquor has accordingly, for the most part, a rank smell, and is most
dangerous to health, not only from its own crude essential oil, but from
the prussic acid, derived from the distillation of the cherry-stones.
There is a superior kind of _kirschwasser_ made in the Black Forest,
prepared with fewer kernels, from choice fruit, properly pressed,
fermented, and distilled.
KNOPPERN, are excrescences produced by the puncture of an insect upon
the flower-cups of several species of oak. They are compressed or flat,
irregularly pointed, generally prickly and hard; brown when ripe. They
abound in Styria, Croatia, Sclavonia, and Natolia; those from the latter
country being the best. They contain a great deal of tannin, are much
employed in Austria for tanning, and in Germany for dyeing fawn, gray,
and black. Wool, with a mordant of sulphate of zinc, takes a grayish
nankeen colour. See GALLS.
KOUMISS, is the name of a liquor which the Calmucs make by fermenting
mare’s milk, and from which they distil a favourite intoxicating spirit,
called _rack_ or _racky_. Cow’s milk is said to produce only one third
as much spirit, from its containing probably less saccharine matter.
The milk is kept in bottles made of hides, till it becomes sour, is
shaken till it casts up its cream, and is then set aside in earthen
vessels in a warm place to ferment, no yeast being required, though
sometimes a little old koumiss is added. 21 pounds of milk put into the
still afford 14 ounces of low wines, from which 6 ounces of pretty
strong alcohol, of an unpleasant flavour, are obtained by
rectification.