STEREOTYPE PRINTING, signifies printing by fixed types, or by a cast

typographic plate. This plate is made as follows:--The form, composed in

ordinary types, and containing one, two, three, or more pages, inversely

as the size of the book, being laid flat upon a slab, with the letters

looking upwards, the faces of the types are brushed over with oil, or

preferably, with plumbago (black lead). A heavy brass rectangular frame

of three sides, with bevelled borders, adapted exactly to the size of

the pages, is then laid down upon the chase,[61] to circumscribe three

sides of its typography; but the fourth side, which is one end of the

rectangle, is formed by placing near the types, and over the hollows of

the chase, a single brass bar, having the same inwards sloping bevel as

the other three sides. The complete frame resembles that of a picture,

and serves to define the area and thickness of the cast, which is made

by pouring the pap of Paris plaster into its interior space, up to a

given line on its edges. The plaster mould, which soon sets, or becomes

concrete, is lifted gently off the types, and immediately placed upright

on its edge in one of the cells of a sheet-iron rack mounted within the

cast-iron oven. An able workman will mould ten sheets octavo in a day,

or 160 pages. The moulds are here exposed to air heated to fully 400°

F., and become perfectly dry in the course of two hours. As they are now

friable and porous, they require to be delicately handled. Each mould,

containing generally two pages octavo, is laid, with the impression

downwards, upon a flat cast-iron plate, called the floating-plate; this

plate being itself laid on the bottom of the dipping-pan, which is a

cast-iron square tray, with its upright edges sloping outwards. A

cast-iron lid is applied to the dipping-pan, and secured in its place by

a screw. The pan having been heated to 400° in a cell of the oven, under

the mould-rack, previous to receiving the hot mould, is ready to be

plunged into the bath of melted alloy contained in an iron pot placed

over a furnace, and it is dipped with a slight deviation from the

horizontal plane, in order to facilitate the escape of the air. As there

is a minute space between the back or top surface of the mould and the

lid of the dipping-pan, the liquid metal, on entering into the pan

through the orifices in its corners, floats up the plaster along with

the iron plate on which it had been laid, thence called the

floating-plate, whereby it flows freely into every line of the mould,

through notches cut in its edge, and forms a layer or lamina upon its

face, of a thickness corresponding to the depth of the border. Only a

thin metal film is left upon the back of the mould. The dipping-pan is

suspended, plunged, and removed by means of a powerful crane,

susceptible of vertical and horizontal motions in all directions. When

lifted out of the bath, it is set in a water-cistern, upon bearers so

placed as to allow its bottom only to touch the surface. Thus the metal

first concretes below, while, by remaining fluid above, it continues to

impart hydrostatic pressure during the shrinkage attendant upon

refrigeration. As it thus progressively contracts in volume, more melted

metal is fed into the corners of the pan by a ladle, in order to keep up

the hydrostatic pressure upon the mould, and to secure a perfect

impression, as well as a solid cast. Were the pan more slowly and

equably cooled, by being left in the air, the thin film of metal upon

the back of the inverted plaster cake would be apt to solidify first,

and intercept the hydrostatic action indispensable to the purpose of

filling all the lines in its face. A skilful workman makes five dips,

containing two pages octavo each, in the course of an hour, or about

nine and a half octavo sheets per day. The pan being taken asunder, the

compound cake of mould and metal is removed, and beat upon its edges

with a wooden mallet, to detach the superfluous metal. The stereotype

plate is then handed over to the picker, who planes its edges truly

square, turns its back flat upon a lathe to a determinate thickness, and

carefully removes the little imperfections occasioned by dirt or air

left among the letters when the mould was cast. Should any of them be

damaged in the course of the operation, they must be cut out, and

replaced by soldering in separate types of the same size and form.

[61] Chase (_chassis_, frame, Fr.), quoin (_coin_, wedge, Fr.), are

terms which show that the art of printing came directly from France to

England.

STILL (_Alambic_, Fr.; _Blase_, Germ.); is a chemical apparatus, for

vaporizing liquids by heat in one part, called the _cucurbit_, and

condensing the vapours into liquids in another part, called the

_refrigeratory_; the general purpose of both combined being to separate

the more volatile fluid particles from the less volatile. In its

simplest form, it consists of a retort and a receiver, or of a

pear-shaped matrass and a capital, furnished with a slanting tube for

conducting away the condensed vapours in drops; whence the term _still_,

from the Latin verb _stillare_, to drop. Its chief employment in this

country being to eliminate alcohol, of greater or less strength, from

fermented wash, I shall devote this article to a description of the

stills best adapted to the manufacture of British spirits, referring to

chemical authors[62] for those fitted for peculiar objects.

[62] The treatises of Le Normand and Dubrunfaut may also be consulted.

The French stills are in general so much complicated with a great many

small pipes and passages, as to be unfit for distilling the glutinous

wash of grains.

In respect of rapidity and extent of work, stills had attained to an

extraordinary pitch of perfection in Scotland about thirty years ago,

when legislative wisdom thought fit to levy the spirits duty, per annum,

from each distiller, according to the capacity of his still. It having

been shown, in a report presented to the House of Commons in 1799, that

an 80-gallon still could be worked off in eight minutes, this fact was

made the basis of a new fiscal law, on the supposition that the maximum

of velocity had been reached. But, instigated by the hopes of enormous

gains at the expense of the revenue, the distillers soon contrived to do

the same thing in three minutes, by means of broad-bottomed shallow

stills, with stirring-chains, and lofty capitals. In the year 1815, that

preposterous law, which encouraged fraud and deteriorated the

manufacture, was repealed. The whiskey duties having been since levied,

independently of the capacity of the still, upon the quantity produced,

such rapid operations have been abandoned, and processes of economy in

fuel, and purity in product, have been sought after.

One of the greatest improvements in modern distilleries, is completing

the analysis of crude spirit at one operation. Chemists had been long

familiar with the contrivance of Woulfe, for impregnating with gaseous

matter, water contained in a range of bottles; but they had not thought

of applying that plan to distillation, when Edouard Adam, an illiterate

workman of Montpellier, after hearing accidentally a chemical lecture

upon that apparatus, bethought himself of converting it into a still. He

caused the boiling-hot vapours to chase the spirits successively out of

one bottle into another, so as to obtain in the successive vessels

alcohol of any desired strength and purity, “_at one and the same

heat_.” He obtained a patent for this invention in 1801, and was soon

afterwards enabled, by his success on the small scale, to set up in his

native city a magnificent distillery, which excited the admiration of

all the practical chemists of that day. In November, 1805, he obtained a

certificate of certain improvements for extracting from wine, at one

process, the whole of its alcohol. Adam was so overjoyed, after making

his first experiments, that he ran about the streets of Montpellier,

telling every body of the surprising results of his invention. Several

competitors soon entered the lists with him, especially Solimani,

professor of chemistry in that city, and Isaac Berard, distiller in the

department of Gard; who, having contrived other forms of continuous

stills, divided the profits with the first inventor.

The principles of spirituous distillation may be stated as follows:--The

boiling point of alcohol varies with its density or strength, in

conformity with the numbers in the following table:--

+--------+-------------------+

|Specific| Boiling point, by |

|gravity.|Fahrenheit’s scale.|

+--------+-------------------+

| 0·7939 | 168·5° |

| 0·8034 | 168·0 |

| 0·8118 | 168·5 |

| 0·8194 | 169·0 |

| 0·8265 | 172·5 |

| 0·8332 | 173·5 |

| 0·8397 | 175·0 |

| 0·8458 | 177·0 |

| 0·8518 | 179·0 |

| 0·8875 | 181·0 |

| 0·8631 | 183·0 |

| 0·8765 | 187·0 |

| 0·8892 | 190·0 |

| 0·9013 | 194·0 |

| 0·9126 | 197·0 |

| 0·9234 | 199·0 |

| 0·9335 | 201·0 |

+--------+-------------------+

See also the table under ALCOHOL, page 16.

Hence, the lower the temperature of the spirituous vapour which enters

the refrigeratory apparatus, the stronger and purer will the condensed

spirit be; because the offensive oils, which are present in the wash or

wine, are less volatile than alcohol, and are brought over chiefly with

the aqueous vapour. A perfect still should, therefore, consist of three

distinct members; first, the cucurbit, or kettle; second, the rectifier,

for intercepting more or less of the watery and oily particles; and

third, the refrigerator, or condenser of the alcoholic vapours.

These principles are illustrated in the construction of the still

represented in _figs._ 1057, 1058, 1059, 1060, 1061.; in which the

resources of the most refined French stills are combined with a

simplicity and solidity suited to the grain distilleries of the United

Kingdom. Three principal objects are obtained by the arrangement here

shown; first, the extraction from fermented wort or wine, at one

operation, of a spirit of any desired cleanness and strength; second,

great economy of time, labour, and fuel; third, freedom from all danger

of blowing up or boiling over, by mismanaged firing. When a combination

of water, alcohol, and essential oil, in the state of vapour, is passed

upwards through a series of winding passages, maintained at a

determinate degree of heat, between 170° and 180°, the alcohol alone, in

any notable proportion, will retain the elastic form, and will proceed

onwards into the refrigeratory tube, in which the said passages

terminate; while the water and the oil will be in a great measure

condensed, arrested, and thrown back into the body of the still, to be

discharged with the effete residuum.

The system of passages or channels, represented in _fig._ 1058., is so

contrived as to bring the mingled vapours which rise from the alembic

_a_, into ample and intimate contact with metallic surfaces, maintained,

in a water-bath, at a temperature self-regulated by a heat-governor. See

THERMOSTAT.

[Illustration: 1057 1058 1059 1060 1061]

The neck of the alembic tapers upwards, as shown at _b_, _fig._ 1057.;

and at _c_, _fig._ 1058., it enters the bottom, or ingress vestibule, of

the rectifier _c_, _f_. _f_ is its top or egress vestibule, which

communicates with the bottom one by parallel cases or rectangular

channels _d_, _d_, _d_, of which the width is small, compared with the

length and height. These cases are open at top and bottom, where they

are soldered or riveted into a general frame within the cavity, enclosed

by the two covers _f_, _c_, which are secured round their edges _e_,

_e_, _e_, _e_, with bolts and packing. Each case is occupied with a

numerous series of shelves or trays, placed at small distances over each

other, in a horizontal or slightly inclined position, of which a side

view is given in _fig._ 1059., and cross sections at _d_, _d_, _d_,

_fig._ 1058. Each shelf is turned up a little at the two edges, and at

one end, but sloped down at the other end, that the liquor admitted at

the top may be made to flow slowly backwards and forwards in its descent

through the system of shelves or trays, as indicated by the darts and

spouts in _fig._ 1059. The shelves of each case are framed together by

two or more vertical metallic rods, which pass down through them, and

are fixed to each shelf by solder, or by screw-nuts. By this means, if

the cover _f_, be removed, the sets of shelves may be readily lifted out

of the cases and cleaned; for which reason they are called _movable_.

The intervals _i_, _i_, _i_, _fig._ 1058., between the cases, are left

for the free circulation of the water contained in the bath-vessel _g_,

_g_; these intervals being considerably narrower than the cases.

_Fig._ 1060. represents in plan the surface of the rectifying cistern,

shown in two different sections in _figs._ 1058. and 1059. _h_, _k_,

_figs._ 1058. and 1060., is the heat-governor, shaped somewhat like a

pair of tongs. Each leg is a compound bar, consisting of a flat bar or

ruler of steel, and one of brass alloy, riveted facewise together,

having their edges up and down. The links, at _k_, are joined to the

free ends of these compound bars, which, receding by increase and

approaching by decrease of temperature, act by a lever on the stopcock

_l_, fixed to the pipe of a cold-water back, and are so adjusted by a

screw-nut, that whenever the water in the bath vessel _g_, _g_, rises

above the desired temperature, cold water will be admitted, through the

stopcock _l_, and pipe _n_, into the bottom of the cistern, and will

displace the over-heated water by the overflow-pipe _m_. Thus a perfect

equilibrium of caloric may be maintained, and alcoholic vapour of

correspondent uniformity transmitted to the refrigeratory.

_Fig._ 1061. is the cold condenser, of similar construction to the

rectifier, _fig._ 1058.; only the water cells should be here larger in

proportion to the vapour channels _d_, _d_. This refrigeratory system

will be found very powerful, and it presents the great advantage of

permitting its interior to be readily inspected and cleansed. It is best

made of laminated tin, hardened with a little copper alloy.

The mode of working the preceding apparatus will be understood by the

following instructions. Into the alembic, _a_, let as much fermented

liquor be admitted as will protect its bottom from being injured by the

fire, reserving the main body in the charging-back. Whenever the

ebullition in the alembic has raised the temperature of the water-bath

_g_, _g_, to the desired pitch, whether that be 170°, 175°, or 180°, the

thermostatic instrument is to be adjusted by its screw-nut, and then the

communication with the charging-back is to be opened by moving the index

of the stopcock o, over a proper portion of its quadrantal arch. The

wash will now descend in a slender equable stream, through the pipe _o_,

_f_, thence spread into the horizontal tube _p_, _p_, and issue from the

orifices of distribution, as seen in the figure, into the respective

flat trays or spouts. The manner of its progress is seen for one set of

trays, in _fig._ 1059. The direction of the stream in each shelf is

evidently the reverse of that in the shelf above and below it; the

turned-up end of one shelf corresponding to the discharge slope of its

neighbour.

By diffusing the cool wash or wine in a thin film over such an ample

range of surfaces, the constant tendency of the bath to exceed the

proper limit of temperature is counteracted to the utmost, without waste

of time or fuel; for the wash itself, _in transitu_, becomes

boiling-hot, and experiences a powerful steam distillation. By this

arrangement a very moderate influx of cold water, through the

thermostatic stopcock, suffices to temper the bath; such an extensive

vaporization of the wash producing a far more powerful refrigerant

influence than its simple heating to ebullition. It deserves to be

remarked, that the maximum distillatory effect, or the bringing over the

greatest quantity of pure spirits in the least time, and with the least

labour and fuel, is here accomplished without the least steam pressure

in the alembic; for the passages are all pervious to the vapour;

whereas, in almost every wash-still heretofore contrived for similar

purposes, the spirituous vapours must force their way through successive

layers of liquid, the total pressure produced by which causes undue

elevation of temperature, and obstruction to the process. Whatever

supplementary refrigeration of the vapours in their passage through the

bath may be deemed proper, will be administered by the thermostatic

regulator.

Towards the end of the process, after all the wash has entered the

alembic, it may be sometimes desirable, for the sake of despatch, to

modify the thermostat, by its adjusting-screw, so that the bath may take

a higher temperature, and allow the residuary feints to run rapidly

over, into a separate cistern. This weak fluid may be pumped back into

the alembic, as the preliminary charge of a fresh operation.

The above plan of a water-bath regulated by the thermostat, may be used

simply as a rectifying cistern, without transmitting the spirit or wash

down through it. The series of shelves will cause the vapours from the

still to impinge against a most extensive system of metallic surfaces,

maintained at a steady temperature, whereby their watery and crude

constituents will be condensed and thrown back, while their fine

alcoholic particles will proceed forwards to the refrigeratory. Any

ordinary still may be readily converted into this self-rectifying form,

by merely interposing the cistern, _fig._ 1058., between the alembic and

the worm-tub. The leading novelty of the present invention is the

_movable_ system of shelves or trays, enclosed in metallic cases,

separated by water, combined with the thermostatic regulator. By this

combination, any quality of spirits may be procured at one step from

wash or wine, by an apparatus, simple, strong and easily kept in order.

The empyreumatic taint which spirits are apt to contract from the action

of the naked fire on the bottom of the still, may be entirely prevented

by the use of a bath of potash lye, _p_, _p_, _fig._ 1057.; for thus a

safe and effectual range of temperature, of 300° F., may be conveniently

obtained. The still may also be used without the bath vessel.

[Illustration: 1062]

Mr. D. T. Shears, of Southwark, obtained a patent in March, 1830, for

certain improvements and additions to stills, which are ingenious. They

are founded upon a previous patent, granted to Joseph Corty, in 1818; a

section of whose contrivance is shown in _fig._ 1062., consisting of a

first still _a_, a second still _b_, a connecting tube _c_, from the one

end to the other, and the tube _d_, which leads from the second

still-head down through the bent tube _e_, _e_, to the lower part of the

condensing apparatus.

The original improvements described under Corty’s patent, consisted

further, in placing boxes _f_, _f_, _f_, of the condensing apparatus in

horizontal positions, and at a distance from each other, in order that

the vapour might ascend through them, for the purpose of discharging the

spirit by the top tube _g_, and pipe _h_, into the worm, in a highly

rectified or concentrated state. In each of the boxes _f_, there is a

convex plate or inverted dish _i_, _i_, _i_, and the vapour in rising

from the tube _e_, strikes against the concave or under part of the

first dish, and then escapes round its edges, and over its convex

surface, to the under part of the second dish, and so on to the top, the

condensed part of the vapour flowing down again into the still, and the

spirit passing off by the pipe _h_, at top; and as the process of

condensation will be assisted by cooling the vapour as it rises, cold

water is made to flow over the tops of the boxes _f_, from a cock _k_,

and through small channels or tubes on the sides of the boxes, and is

ultimately discharged by the pipe _l_, at bottom.

[Illustration: 1063]

_Fig._ 1063. represents a peculiarly shaped tube _a_, through which the

spirit is described as passing after leaving the end of the worm at _b_,

which tube is open to the atmospheric air at _z_; _c_, is the passage

through which the carbonic acid gas is described as escaping into the

vessel of water _d_.

[Illustration: 1064 1065]

Now the improvements claimed under the present patent, are exhibited in

_figs._ 1064, 1065, and 1066. _Fig._ 1064. represents the external

appearance of a still, the head of which is made very capacious, to

guard against over-boiling by any mismanagement of the fire; _fig._

1065. is the same, partly in section. On the top of the still-head is

formed the first-described rectifying apparatus, or series of condensing

boxes. The vapour from the body of the still filling the head, meets

with the first check from the dish or lower vessel _i_, and after

passing under its edges, ascends and strikes against the lower part of

the second dish or vessel _i_, and so on, till it ultimately leaves the

still-head by the pipe at top.

This part of the apparatus is slightly altered from the former, by the

substitution of hollow convex vessels, instead of the inverted dishes

before described, which vessels have rims descending from their under

surfaces, for the purpose of retaining the vapour. The cold water,

which, as above described, flowed over the tops of the boxes _f_, for

the purpose of cooling them, now flows also through the hollow convex

vessels _i_, within the boxes, and by that means greatly assists the

refrigerating process, by which the aqueous parts of the vapour are more

readily condensed, and made to fall down and flow back again into the

body of the still, while the spirituous parts pass off at top to the

worm, in a very high state of rectification.

After the water employed for the refrigeration has passed over all the

boxes, and through all the vessels, it is carried off by the pipe _m_,

through the vessel _n_, called the wash-heater; that is, the vessel in

which the wash is placed previous to introducing it into the still. The

pipe _m_, is coiled round in the lower part of the vessel _n_, in order

that the heated water may communicate its caloric to the wash, instead

of losing the heat by allowing the water to flow away. After the heated

water has made several turns round the wash heater, it passes out at the

curved pipe _o_, which is bent up, in order to keep the coils of the

pipe within always full of water.

Instead of the coiled pipe _n_, last described, the patentee proposes

sometimes to pass the hot water into a chamber in a tub or wooden

vessel, as at _n_, in _fig._ 1061., in which the wash to be heated

occupies the upper part of the vessel, and is separated from the lower

part by a thin metallic partition.

The swan-neck _h_, _figs._ 1064. and 1065., which leads from the head of

the still, conducts the spirit from the still through the wash-heater,

where it becomes partially cooled, and gives out its heat to the wash;

and from thence the spirit passes to the worm tub, and being finally

condensed, is passed through a safety tube, as (_fig._ 1058.) before

described, and by the funnel is conducted into the cask below.

[Illustration: 1066 1067]

Should any spirit rise in the wash-heater during the above operation, it

will be carried down to the worm by the neck _p_, and coiled pipe, and

discharged at its lower end; or it may be passed into the still-head, as

shown in _fig._ 1062.

A patent was obtained by Mr. Æneas Coffey, in August, 1830, for a still,

which has been since mounted in several distilleries. It is economical

in fuel, labour, and time, but is said not to produce a clean spirit,

without peculiar attention.

The apparatus is represented in _fig._ 1067. _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, is a

sectional view of that part of the still wherein the wash is deprived of

its alcohol, and the vapours analyzed. It is described as consisting of

a chamber or vessel _a_, with the vertical chamber _b_, _c_, placed

above it; the lower half of this chamber is divided into compartments by

horizontal plates _e_, _e_, _e_, of thin copper or other metal; each of

these plates is turned down at one side, until it nearly touches the

plate next underneath it, as shown in the figure; thus leaving a passage

throughout the whole of them, by which any liquid falling on the top

plate may descend into the next under it, and from that to the third,

and so on, from plate to plate, at the alternate ends, until it arrives

at the last plate, wherein it falls into the vessel _a_, by the pipe

_f_; each of these plates is furnished with several light valves,

opening upwards, through which any steam or vapour may ascend; it may

also be perforated with holes, but they must not be so numerous or so

large as to allow of all the steam passing through them without raising

the valves; _c_, is a pipe by which the alcoholic vapour, after it has

been analyzed, and has acquired the proper strength, is conducted into

the vessel _d_, which is made perfectly close; the vapour will here be

condensed on the surface of the pipe _g_, _g_, _g_; from this chamber it

will descend in a liquid state into the pipe _h_, whence it may be

conducted to a worm or refrigerator, to be cooled in the ordinary way;

_i_, is a vessel through which the spent wash flows, after being

operated upon in the distilling apparatus, and is discharged in a state

of ebullition; _j_, is a vessel or chamber containing the wash to be

distilled. A force pump may be substituted, to force the wash through

the pipes _k_, and distilling apparatus, with the velocity required.

The patentee states that it is requisite the wash should be passed

through the pipe _k_, with sufficient velocity and force, so as to

prevent the deposition of sediment in the pipe; the wash in its passage

through the pipe _k_, will gradually become increased in temperature as

it passes through the spent wash in the chamber, and the close vessel

_d_, until it is discharged nearly at the boiling point on the upper

plate in the chamber, where it comes in contact with the vapours arising

from the vessel _a_.

It is to be observed, that the wort does not reach the boiling point

while in the pipe _k_, _k_; to ascertain which, a thermometer is placed

on the pipe, and by increasing or diminishing the quantity of wash, its

temperature may be regulated. The wash, after being discharged from the

pipe _k_, descends from plate to plate as before mentioned, at which

time a supply of steam from a boiler, or generator is admitted into the

apparatus, through the pipe.

The lower part of this pipe in the vessel _a_, is pierced with a number

of small holes, so as to spread the steam over the vessel; it then rises

upwards, passing through the plate by the small holes and valves, and

through the stratum or sheet of wash flowing over them; the wash, as it

descends, gives out a portion of its alcohol to the steam, as it passes

over every plate, until it is entirely deprived of its spirit, which it

will generally do by the time it arrives at the 7th or 8th plate; but it

is better to employ a greater number, to guard against accidents or

neglect.

A small steam pipe rises from the chamber _a_, with its upper end

opening into the box or chamber; into this chamber the end of a worm

projects from the cistern of cold water; the steam rising up the pipe is

nearly all condensed in the worm, and flows back into the chamber _a_,

by the pipe. The small portion of the steam uncondensed, is allowed to

escape at the upper end of the worm, and the flame of a small lamp or

taper is to be constantly kept over the orifice; when, should the least

quantity of alcohol descend with the wash into the chamber _a_, it will

rise with the steam through the pipe and worm, and immediately take fire

from the flame of the lamp or taper, thereby warning the attendant to

increase the supply of steam or diminish the quantity of wash, as may

seem necessary.

[Illustration: 1068]

I shall conclude this article with a description of the cheap still

which is commonly employed by the chemists in Berlin for rectifying

alcohol. _a_, is the ash-pit; _b_, the fireplace; _c_, _c_, the flues,

which go spirally round the sides of the cucurbit _d_; _e_, the capital,

made of block tin, and furnished with a brass edge, which fits tight to

a corresponding edge on the mouth of _d_; _f_, _f_, the slanting pipes

of the capital; _g_, the oval refrigeratory, made of copper; _h_, the

water-gauge glass tube; _i_, a stopcock for emptying the vessel; _k_,

do., for drawing off the hot water from the surface; _l_, tube for the

supply of cold water. A double cylinder of tin is placed in the

refrigeratory, of which the outer one _m_, _m_, stands upon three feet,

and is furnished with a discharge pipe _n_. The inner one _o_, _o_,

which is open above, receives cold water through the pipe _p_, and lets

the warm water flow off through the short tube _q_, into the

refrigeratory. In the narrow space between the two cylinders, the

vapours proceeding from the capital are condensed, and pass off in the

liquid state through _n_. The refrigeratory is made oval, in order to

receive two condensers alongside of each other in the line of the longer

axis; though only one, and that in the middle, is represented in the

figure.

STOCKING MANUFACTURE. See HOSIERY.

STONE, is earthy matter, condensed into so hard a state as to yield only

to the blows of a hammer, and therefore well adapted to the purposes of

building. Such was the care of the antients to provide strong and

durable materials for their public edifices, that but for the desolating

hands of modern barbarians, in peace and in war, most of the temples and

other public monuments of Greece and of Rome would have remained perfect

at the present day, uninjured by the elements during 2000 years. The

contrast, in this respect, of the works of modern architects, especially

in Great Britain, is very humiliating to those who boast so loudly of

social advancement; for there is scarcely a public building of recent

date, which will be in existence one thousand years hence. Many of the

most splendid works of modern architecture are hastening to decay, in

what may be justly called the very infancy of their existence, if

compared with the date of those erected in antient Italy, Greece, and

Egypt. This is remarkably the case with the three bridges of London,

Westminster, and Blackfriars; the foundations of which began to perish

most visibly in the very lifetime of their constructors. Every stone

intended for a durable edifice, ought to be tested as to its durability,

by immersion in a saturated solution of sulphate of soda, and exposure

during some days to the air. The crystallization which ensues in its

interior, will cause the same disintegration of its substance which

frost would occasion in a series of years.

[Illustration: 1069 1070 1071 1072]

STONE, ARTIFICIAL, for statuary and other decorations of architecture,

has been made for several years with singular success at Berlin, by Mr.

Feilner. His materials are nearly the same with those of English

pottery; and the plastic mass is fashioned either in moulds, or by hand.

His kilns, which are peculiar in form, and economical in fuel, deserve

to be generally known. _Figs._ 1069. and 1070. represent his round kiln;

_fig._ 1069. being an oblique section in the line A, B, C, of _fig._

1070., which is a ground plan in the line D, _a_, _b_, E, of _fig._

1069. The inner circular space _c_, covered with the elliptical arch, is

filled with the figures to be baked, set upon brick supports. The hearth

is a few feet above the ground; and there are steps before the door _d_,

for the workmen to mount by, in charging the kiln. The fire is applied

on the four sides under the hearth. The flame of each passes along the

straight flues _f i_, _f i_, and _f k_. In the second annular flue _g_,

_g_, as also in the third _l_, _l_, the flame of each fire is kept

apart, being separated from the adjoining, by the stones _h_ and _m_. In

the fourth flue _n_, the flames again come together, as also in _o_, and

ascend by the middle opening. Besides this large orifice, there are

several small holes, _p_, _p_, in the hearth over the above flues, to

lead the flames from the other points into contact with the various

articles. There are also channels _q_, _q_, in the sides, enclosed by

thin walls _r_, to promote the equable distribution of the heat; and

these are placed right over the first fire-flues _e_. The partitions

_r_, are perforated with many holes, through which, as well as from

their tops, the flame may be directed inwards and downwards; _s_ are the

vents for carrying off the flames into the upper space _u_, which is

usually left empty. These vents can be closed by iron damper-plates,

pushed in through the side-slits of the dome. _t_, _t_, are peep-holes,

for observing the state of ignition in the furnace; but they are most

commonly bricked up. _Fig._ 1071. is a vertical section, and _fig._

1072. a plan, of an excellent kiln for baking clay to a stony

consistence, for the above purpose, or for burning fire-bricks. A, is

the lower; B, the middle; C, the upper kiln; and D, the hood,

terminating in the chimney E. _a_, _a_, is the ash-pit; _b_, _b_, the

vault for raking out the ashes; it is covered with an iron door _c_.

_d_, is the peep-hole, filled with a clay stopper; _e_, is the

fireplace; _f_, _f_, a vent in the middle of each arch; _g_, _g_, flues

at the sides of the arches, situated between the two fireplaces; _h_,

_i_, _k_, are apertures for introducing the articles to be baked; _l_, a

grate for the fire in the uppermost kiln; _m_, the ash-pit; _n_, the

fire-door; _o_, openings through which the flames of a second fire are

thrown in. At first, only the ground kiln A, is fired, with cleft

billets of pine-wood, introduced at the opening _e_; when this is

finished, the second is fired; and then the third, in like manner. This

kiln is very like the porcelain kiln of Sèvres, and is employed in many

places for baking stoneware.

Mr. Keene obtained a patent, about a year ago, for making a factitious

stone-paste in the following way:--He dissolves one pound of alum in a

gallon of water, and in this solution he soaks 84 pounds of gypsum

calcined in small lumps. He exposes these lumps in the open air for

about eight days, till they become apparently dry, and then calcines

them in an oven at a dull-red heat. The waste heat of a coke oven is

well adapted for this purpose. (See PITCOAL, COKING OF.) These lumps,

being ground and sifted, afford a fine powder, which, when made up into

a paste with the proper quantity of water, forms the petrifying ground.

The mass soon concretes, and after being brushed over with a thin layer

of the petrifying paste, may be polished with pumice, &c., in the usual

way. It then affords a body of great compactness and durability. If half

a pound of copperas be added to the solution of the alum, the gypsum

paste, treated as above, has a fine cream or yellow colour. This stone

stands the weather well.

STONEWARE. (_Fayence_, Fr.; _Steingut_, Germ.) See POTTERY.

STORAX, STYRAX, flows from the twigs and the trunk of the _Liquidambar

styraciflua_, a tree which grows in Louisiana, Virginia, and Mexico.

Liquidamber, as this resin is also called, is a brown or ash-gray

substance, of the consistence of turpentine, which dries up rapidly, has

an agreeable smell, like benzoin, and a bitterish, sharp, burning taste.

It dissolves in four parts of alcohol, and affords 1·4 per cent. of

benzoic acid.

STOVE (_Poële_, _Calorifère_, Fr.; _Ofen_, Germ.); is a fireplace, more

or less close, for warming apartments. When it allows the burning coals

to be seen, it is called a stove-grate. Hitherto stoves have rarely been

had recourse to in this country for heating our sitting-rooms; the

cheerful blaze and ventilation of an open fire being generally

preferred. But last winter, by its inclemency, gave birth to a vast

multitude of projects for increasing warmth and economizing fuel, many

of them eminently insalubrious, by preventing due renewal of the air,

and by the introduction of noxious fumes into it. When coke is burned

very slowly in an iron box, the carbonic acid gas which is generated,

being half as heavy again as the atmospherical air, cannot ascend in the

chimney at the temperature of 300° F.; but regurgitates into the

apartment through every pore of the stove, and poisons the atmosphere.

The large stoneware stoves of France and Germany are free from this

vice; because, being fed with fuel from the outside, they cannot produce

a reflux of carbonic acid into the apartment, when their draught becomes

feeble, as inevitably results from the obscurely burning stoves which

have the doors of the fireplace and ash-pit immediately above the

hearth-stone.

I have recently performed some careful experiments upon this subject,

and find that when the fuel is burning so slowly in the stove as not to

heat the iron surface above the 250th or 300th degree of Fahr., there is

a constant deflux of carbonic acid gas from the ash-pit into the room.

This noxious emanation is most easily evinced by applying the beak of a

matrass, containing a little Goulard’s extract (solution of subacetate

of lead), to a round hole in the door of the ash-pit of a stove in this

languid state of combustion. In a few seconds the liquid will become

milky, by the reception of carbonic acid gas. I shall be happy to afford

ocular demonstration of this fact to any incredulous votary of the

pseudo-economical, anti-ventilation, stoves now so much in vogue. There

is no mode in which the health and life of a person can be placed in

more insidious jeopardy, than by sitting in a room with its chimney

closed up with such a choke-damp-vomiting stove.

That fuel may be consumed by an obscure species of combustion, with the

emission of very little heat, was clearly shown in Sir H. Davy’s

_Researches on Flame_. “The facts detailed on insensible combustion,”

says he, “explain why so much more heat is obtained from fuel when it is

burned quickly, than slowly; and they show that, in all cases, the

temperature of the acting bodies should be kept as high as possible; not

only because the general increment of heat is greater, but likewise

because those combinations are prevented, which, at lower temperatures,

take place without any considerable production of heat. These facts

likewise indicate the source of the great error into which experimenters

have fallen, in estimating the heat given out in the combustion of

charcoal; and they indicate methods by which the temperature may be

increased, and the limits to certain methods.” These conclusions are

placed in a strong practical light by the following simple

experiments:--I set upon the top orifice of a small cylindrical stove, a

hemispherical copper pan, containing six pounds of water, at 60° F., and

burned briskly under it 3-1/2 pounds of coke in an hour; at the end of

which time, 4-1/2 pounds of water were boiled off. On burning the same

weight of coke _slowly_ in the same furnace, surmounted by the same pan,

in the course of 12 hours, little more than one-half the quantity of

water was exhaled. Yet, in the first case, the aerial products of

combustion swept so rapidly over the bottom of the pan, as to

communicate to it not more than one-fourth of the effective heat which

might have been obtained by one of the plans described in the article

EVAPORATION; while, in the second case, these products moved at least 12

times more slowly across the bottom of the pan, and ought therefore to

have been so much the more effective in evaporation, had they possessed

the same power or quantity of heat.

[Illustration: 1073]

Stoves, when properly constructed, may be employed both safely and

advantageously to heat entrance-halls upon the ground story of a house;

but care should be taken not to vitiate the air by passing it over

ignited surfaces, as is the case with most of the patent stoves now

foisted upon the public. _Fig._ 1073. exhibits a vertical section of a

stove which has been recommended for power and economy; but it is highly

objectionable, as being apt to scorch the air. The flame of the fire A,

circulates round the horizontal pipes of cast iron, _b b_, _c c_, _d d_,

_e e_, which receive the external air at the orifice _b_, and conduct it

up through the series, till it issues highly heated at K, L, and may be

thence conducted wherever it is wanted. The smoke escapes through the

chimney B. This stove has evidently two prominent faults; first, it

heats the air-pipes very unequally, and the undermost far too much;

secondly, the air, by the time it has ascended through the zigzag range

to the pipe _e e_, will be nearly of the same temperature with it, and

will therefore abstract none of its heat. Thus the upper pipes, if there

be several in the range, will be quite inoperative, wasting their warmth

upon the sooty air.

[Illustration: 1074]

_Fig._ 1074. exhibits a transverse vertical section of a far more

economical and powerful stove, in which the above evils are avoided. The

products of combustion of the fire A, rise up between two brick walls,

so as to play upon the bed of tiles B, where, after communicating a

moderate heat to the series of slanting pipes whose areas are

represented by the small circles _a_, _a_, they turn to the right and

left, and circulate round the successive rows of pipes _b b_, _c c_, _d

d_, _e e_, and finally escape at the bottom by the flues _g_, _g_,

pursuing a somewhat similar path to that of the burned air among a bench

of gas-light retorts. It is known, that two-thirds of the fuel have been

saved in the gas-works by this distribution of the furnace. For the

purpose of heating apartments, the great object is to supply a vast body

of genial air; and, therefore, merely such a moderate fire should be

kept up in A, as will suffice to warm all the pipes pretty equably to

the temperature of 220° Fahr.; and, indeed, as they are laid with a

slight slope, are open to the air at their under ends, and terminate at

the upper in a common main pipe or tunnel, they can hardly be rendered

very hot by any intemperance of firing. I can safely recommend this

stove to my readers. If the tubes be made of stoneware, its construction

will cost very little; and they may be made of any size, and multiplied

so as to carry off the whole effective heat of the fuel, leaving merely

so much of it in the burned air, as to waft it fairly up the chimney.

I shall conclude this article by a short extract of a paper which was

read before the Royal Society, on the 16th of June, 1836, _upon warming

and ventilating apartments_; a subject to which my mind had been

particularly turned at that time, by the Directors of the Customs Fund

of Life Assurance, on account of the very general state of indisposition

and disease prevailing among those of their officers (nearly 100 in

number) engaged on duty in the Long Room of the Custom House, London.

“The symptoms of disorder experienced by the several gentlemen (about

twenty in number), whom I examined, out of a great many who were

indisposed, were of a very uniform character. The following is the

result of my researches:--

“A sense of tension or fulness of the head, with occasional flushings of

the countenance, throbbing of the temples, and vertigo, followed, not

unfrequently, with a confusion of ideas, very disagreeable to officers

occupied with important and sometimes intricate calculations. A few are

affected with unpleasant perspiration on their sides. The whole of them

complain of a remarkable coldness and languor in their extremities, more

especially the legs and feet, which has become habitual, denoting

languid circulation in these parts, which requires to be counteracted by

the application of warm flannels on going to bed. The pulse is, in many

instances, more feeble, frequent, sharp, and irritable, than it ought to

be, according to the natural constitution of the individuals. The

sensations in the head occasionally rise to such a height,

notwithstanding the most temperate regimen of life, as to require

cupping, and at other times depletory remedies. Costiveness, though not

a uniform, is yet a prevailing symptom.

“The sameness of the above ailments, in upwards of one hundred

gentlemen, at very various periods of life, and of various temperaments,

indicates clearly sameness in the cause.

“The temperature of the air in the Long Room ranged, in the three days

of my experimental inquiry, from 62° to 64° of Fahrenheit’s scale; and

in the Examiner’s Room it was about 60°, being kept somewhat lower by

the occasional shutting of the hot-air valve, which is here placed under

the control of the gentlemen; whereas that of the Long Room is designed

to be regulated in the sunk story, by the fireman of the stove, who

seems sufficiently careful to maintain an equable temperature amidst all

the vicissitudes of our winter weather. Upon the 7th of January, the

temperature of the open air was 50°; and on the 11th it was only 35°;

yet upon both days the thermometer in the Long Room indicated the same

heat, of from 62° to 64°.

“The hot air discharged from the two cylindrical stove-tunnels into the

Long Room was at 90° upon the 7th, and at 110° upon the 11th. This air

is diluted, however, and disguised, by admixture with a column of cold

air, before it is allowed to escape. The air, on the contrary, which

heats the Examiner’s Room, undergoes no such mollification, and comes

forth at once in an ardent blast of fully 170°; not unlike the simoom of

the desert, as described by travellers. Had a similar nuisance, on the

greater scale, existed in the Long Room, it could not have been endured

by the merchants and other visitors on business: but the disguise of an

evil is a very different thing from its removal. The direct air of the

stove, as it enters the Examiner’s Room, possesses, in an eminent

degree, the disagreeable smell and flavour imparted to air by the action

of red-hot iron; and, in spite of every attention on the part of the

fireman to sweep the stove apparatus from time to time, it carries along

with it abundance of burned dusty particles.

“The leading characteristic of the air in these two rooms, is its

dryness and disagreeable smell. In the Long Room, upon the 11th, the air

indicated, by Daniell’s hygrometer, 70 per cent. of dryness, while the

external atmosphere was nearly saturated with moisture. The thermometer

connected with the dark bulb of that instrument stood at 30° when dew

began to be deposited upon it; while the thermometer in the air stood at

64°. In the court behind the Custom-house, the external air being at

35°, dew was deposited on the dark bulb of the hygrometer by a

depression of only 3°; whereas in the Long Room, on the same day, a

depression of 34° was required to produce that deposition. Air, in such

a dry state, would evaporate 0·44 in. depth of water from a cistern in

the course of twenty-four hours; and its influence on the cutaneous

exhalents must be proportionably great.

“As cast iron always contains, beside the metal itself, more or less

carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, or even arsenic, it is possible that the

smell of air passed over it in an incandescent state, may be owing to

some of these impregnations; for a quantity of noxious effluvia,

inappreciably small, is capable of affecting not only the olfactory

nerves, but the pulmonary organs. I endeavoured to test the air as it

issued from the valve in the Examiner’s Room, by presenting to it pieces

of white paper moistened with a solution of nitrate of silver, and

perceived a slight darkening to take place, as if by sulphurous fumes.

White paper, moistened with sulphuretted hydrogen water, was not in the

least discoloured. The faint impression on the first test paper, may be,

probably, ascribed to sulphurous fumes, proceeding from the ignition of

the myriads of animal and vegetable matters which constantly float in

the atmosphere, as may be seen in the sunbeam admitted into a dark

chamber: to this cause, likewise, the offensive smell of air,

transmitted over red-hot iron, may in some measure be attributed, as

well as to the hydrogen resulting from the decomposition of aqueous

vapour, always present in our atmosphere in abundance; especially close

to the banks of the Thames, below London Bridge.

“When a column of air sweeps furiously across the burning deserts of

Africa and Arabia, constituting the phenomenon called simoom by the

natives, the air becomes not only very hot and dry, but highly

electrical, as is evinced by lightning and thunder. Dry sands, devoid of

vegetation, cannot be conceived to communicate any noxious gas or vapour

to the atmosphere, like the malaria of marshes, called miasmata: it is,

hence, highly probable that the blast of the simoom owes its deadly

malignity, in reference to animal as well as vegetable life, simply to

extreme heat, dryness, and electrical disturbance. Similar conditions,

though on a smaller scale, exist in what is called the bell, or cockle,

apparatus for heating the Long Room and the Examiner’s apartment in the

Custom-house. It consists of a series of inverted, hollow, flattened

pyramids of cast iron, with an oblong base, rather small in their

dimensions, to do their work sufficiently in cold weather, when

moderately heated. The inside of the pyramids is exposed to the flames

of coke furnaces, which heat them frequently to incandescence, while

currents of cold air are directed to their exterior surfaces by numerous

sheet-iron channels. The incandescence of these pyramids, or bells, as

they are vulgarly called, was proved by pieces of paper taking fire when

I laid them on the summits. Again, since air becomes electrical when it

is rapidly blown upon the surfaces of certain bodies, it occurred to me

that the air which escapes into the Examiner’s Room might be in this

predicament. It certainly excites the sensation of a cobweb playing

round the head, which is well known to all who are familiar with

electrical machines. To determine this point, I presented a condensing

gold-leaf electrometer to the said current of hot air, and obtained

faint divergence with negative electricity. The electricity must be

impaired in its tension, however, in consequence of the air escaping

through an iron grating, and striking against the flat iron valves, both

of which tend to restore the electric equilibrium. The air blast,

moreover, by being diffused round the glass of the condenser apparatus,

would somewhat mask the appearances. Were it worth while, an apparatus

might be readily constructed for determining this point, without any

such sources of fallacy. The influence of an atmosphere charged with

electricity in exciting headache and confusion of thought in many

persons, is universally known.

“The fetid burned odour of the stove air, and its excessive avidity for

moisture, are of themselves, however, sufficient causes of the general

indisposition produced among the gentlemen who are permanently exposed

to it in the discharge of their public duties.

“From there being nearly a vacuum, as to aqueous vapour, in the said

air, while there is nearly a plenum in the external atmosphere round

about the Custom-house, the vicissitudes of feeling in those who have

occasion to go out and in frequently, must be highly detrimental to

health. The permanent action of an artificial desiccated air on the

animal economy may be stated as follows:--

“The living body is continually emitting a transpirable matter, the

quantity of which, in a grown up man, will depend partly on the activity

of the cutaneous exhalents, and partly on the relative dryness or

moisture of the circumambient medium. Its average amount, in common

circumstances, has been estimated at 20 ounces in twenty-four hours.

“When plunged in a very dry air, the insensible perspiration will be

increased; and, as it is a true evaporation or gasefaction, it will

generate cold proportionably to its amount. Those parts of the body

which are most insulated in the air, and furthest from the heart, such

as the extremities, will feel this refrigerating influence most

powerfully. Hence the coldness of the hands and feet, so generally felt

by the inmates of the apartment, though its temperature be at or above

60°. The brain, being screened by the skull from this evaporating

influence, will remain relatively hot, and will get surcharged, besides,

with the fluids which are repelled from the extremities by the

condensation, or contraction, of the blood-vessels, caused by cold.

Hence the affections of the head, such as tension, and its dangerous

consequences. If sensible perspiration happen, from debility, to break

forth from a system previously relaxed, and plunged into dry air, so

attractive of vapour, it will be of the kind called a cold clammy sweat

on the sides and back, as experienced by many inmates of the Long Room.

“Such, in my humble apprehension, is a rationale of the phenomena

observed at the Custom-house. Similar effects have resulted from hot-air

stoves of a similar kind in many other situations.

“After the most mature physical and medical investigation, I am of

opinion that the circumstances above specified cannot act permanently

upon human beings, without impairing their constitutions, and reducing

the value of their lives. The Directors of the Customs Fund are

therefore justified in their apprehensions, ‘that the mode of heating

the Long Room is injurious to the health of persons employed therein,

and that it must unduly shorten the duration of life.’

“It may be admitted, as a general principle, that the comfort of

sedentary individuals, occupying large apartments during the winter

months, cannot be adequately secured by the mere influx of hot air from

separate stove-rooms: it requires the genial influence of radiating

surfaces in the apartments themselves, such as of open fires, of pipes,

or other vessels filled with hot water or steam. The clothing of our

bodies, exposed to such radiation in a pure, fresh, somewhat cool and

bracing air, absorbs a much more agreeable warmth than it could acquire

by being merely immersed in an atmosphere heated even to 62° Fahr., like

that of the Long Room. In the former predicament, the lungs are supplied

with a relatively dense air, say at 52° Fahr.; while the external

surface of the body or the clothing is maintained at, perhaps, 70° or

75°. This distinctive circumstance has not, I believe, been hitherto

duly considered by the stove doctors, each intent on puffing his own

pecuniary interest; but it is obviously one of great importance, and

which the English people would do well to keep in view; because it is

owing to our domestic apartments being heated by open fires, and our

factories by steam pipes, that the health of our population, and the

expectation of life among all orders in this country, are so much better

than in France and Germany, where hot-air stoves, neither agreeable nor

inoffensive, and in endless variety of form, are generally employed.

“In conclusion, I take leave to state to you my firm conviction that the

only method of warming your Long Room and subsidiary apartments,

combining salubrity, safety, and economy, with convenience in erection

and durable comfort in use, is by a series of steam pipes laid along the

floor, at the line of the desk partitions, in suitable lengths, with

small arched junction-pipes rising over the several doorways, to keep

the passages clear, and at the same time to allow a free expansion and

contraction in the pipes, thereby providing for the permanent soundness

of the joints.”

It would not be difficult to construct a stove or stove-grate which

should combine economy and comfort of warming an apartment, with

briskness of combustion and durability of the fire, without any noxious

deflux of carbonic acid. See CHIMNEY.

STRASS; see PASTES.

STRAW-HAT MANUFACTURE. The mode of preparing the Tuscany or Italian

straw, is by pulling the bearded wheat while the ear is in a soft milky

state, the corn having been sown very close, and of consequence produced

in a thin, short, and dwindled condition. The straw, with its ears and

roots, is spread out thinly upon the ground in fine hot weather, for

three or four days or more, in order to dry the sap; it is then tied up

in bundles and stacked, for the purpose of enabling the heat of the mow

to drive off any remaining moisture. It is important to keep the ends of

the straw air-tight, in order to retain the pith, and prevent its gummy

particles from passing off by evaporation.

After the straw has been about a month in the mow, it is removed to a

meadow and spread out, that the dew may act upon it, together with the

sun and air, and promote the bleaching, it being necessary frequently to

turn the straw while this process is going on. The first process of

bleaching being complete, the lower joint and root is pulled from the

straw, leaving the upper part fit for use, which is then sorted

according to qualities; and after being submitted to the action of

steam, for the purpose of extracting its colour, and then to a

fumigation of sulphur, to complete the bleaching, the straws are in a

condition to be platted or woven into hats and bonnets, and are in that

state imported into England in bundles, the dried ears of the wheat

being still on the straw.

Straw may be easily bleached by a solution of chloride of lime, and also

by sulphuring. For the latter purpose, a cask open at both ends, with

its seams papered, is to be set upright a few inches from the ground,

having a hoop nailed to its inside, about six inches beneath the top, to

support another hoop with a net stretched across it, upon which the

straw is to be laid in successive handfuls loosely crossing each other.

The cask having been covered with a tight overlapping lid, stuffed with

lists of cloth, a brazier of burning charcoal is to be inserted within

the bottom, and an iron dish containing pieces of brimstone is to be put

upon the brazier. The brimstone soon takes fire, and fills the cask with

sulphurous acid gas, whereby the straw gets bleached in the course of

three or four hours. Care should be taken to prevent such a violent

combustion of the sulphur as might cause black burned spots, for these

cannot be afterwards removed. The straw, after being aired and softened

by spreading it upon the grass for a night, is ready to be split,

preparatory to dyeing. Blue is given by a boiling-hot solution of indigo

in sulphuric acid, called _Saxon blue_, diluted to the desired shade;

yellow, by decoction of turmeric; red, by boiling hanks of coarse

scarlet wool in a bath of weak alum water, containing the straw; or

directly, by cochineal, salt of tin, and tartar. Brazil wood and archil

are also employed for dyeing straw. For the other colours, see their

respective titles in this Dictionary.

STRETCHING MACHINE. Cotton goods and other textile fabrics, either white

or printed, are prepared for the market by being stretched in a proper

machine, which lays all their warp and woof yarns in truly parallel

positions. A very ingenious and effective mechanism of this kind was

made the subject of a patent by Mr. Samuel Morand, of Manchester, in

April, 1834, which serves to extend the width of calico pieces, or of

other cloths woven of cotton, wool, silk, or flax, after they have

become shrunk in the processes of bleaching, dyeing, &c. I regret that

the limits of this volume will not admit of its description. The

specification of the patent is published in Newton’s Journal, for

December, 1835.

STRONTIA, one of the alkaline earths, of which _strontium_ is the

metallic basis, occurs in a crystalline state, as a carbonate, in the

lead mines of Strontian in Argyleshire, whence its name. The sulphate is

found crystallized near Bristol, and in several other parts of the

world; but strontitic minerals are rather rare. The pure earth is

prepared exactly like baryta, from either the carbonate or the sulphate.

It is a grayish-white powder, infusible in the furnace, of a specific

gravity approaching that of baryta, having an acrid, burning taste, but

not so corrosive as baryta, though sharper than lime. It becomes hot

when moistened, and slakes into a pulverulent hydrate, dissolves in 150

parts of water at 60°, and in much less at the boiling point, forming an

alkaline solution called _strontia_ water, which deposits crystals in

four-sided tables as it cools. These contain 68 per cent. of water, are

soluble in 52 parts of water at 60°, and in about 2 parts of boiling

water; when heated they part with 53 parts of water, but retain the

other 15 parts, even at a red heat. The dry earth consists of 84·55 of

base, and 15·45 of oxygen. It is readily distinguished from baryta, by

its inferior solubility, and by its soluble salts giving a red tinge to

flame, while those of baryta give a yellow tinge. Fluosilicic acid and

iodate of soda precipitate the salts of the latter earth, but not those

of the former. The compounds of strontia are not poisonous, like those

of baryta. The only preparation of strontia used in the arts is the

NITRATE, which see.

STRYCHNIA, is an alkaline base, extracted from the _Strychnos nux

vomica_, _Strychnos ignatia_, and the _Upas tiente_; which has been

employed in medicine by some of the poison doctors, but is of no use in

any of the arts. When introduced into the stomach, strychnia acts with

fearful energy, causing lock-jaw immediately, and the death of the

animal in a very short time. Half a grain, blown into the throat of a

rabbit, proves fatal in five minutes.

STUCCO. See GYPSUM.

SUBERIC ACID, is prepared by digesting grated cork with nitric acid. It

forms crystals, which sublime in white vapours when heated.

SUBLIMATE, is any solid matter resulting from condensed vapours, and,

SUBLIMATION, is the process by which the volatile particles are raised

by heat, and condensed into a crystalline mass. See CALOMEL and

SAL-AMMONIAC, for examples.

SUBSALT, is a salt in which the base is not saturated with acid; as

subacetate of lead.

SUCCINIC ACID, _Acid of amber_, (_Acide succinique_, Fr.;

_Bernsteinsaüre_, Germ.) is obtained by distilling coarsely pounded

amber in a retort by itself, with a heat gradually raised; or mixed with

one-twelfth of its weight of sulphuric acid, diluted with half its

weight of water. The acid which sublimes is to be dissolved in hot

water, to be saturated with potassa or soda, boiled with bone black, to

remove the foul empyreumatic oily matter, filtered, and precipitated by

nitrate of lead, to convert it into an insoluble succinate; which being

washed, is to be decomposed by the equivalent quantity of sulphuric

acid. Pure succinic acid forms transparent prisms. The succinate of

ammonia is an excellent reagent for detecting and separating iron.

SUGAR (_Sucre_, Fr.; _Zucker_, Germ.); is the sweet constituent of

vegetable and animal products. It may be distinguished into two

principal species. The first, which occurs in the sugar-cane, the

beet-root, and the maple, crystallizes in oblique four-sided prisms,

terminated by two-sided summits; it has a sweetening power which may be

represented by 100; and in circumpolarization it bends the luminous rays

to the right. The second occurs ready formed in ripe grapes and other

fruits; it is also produced by treating starch with diastase or

sulphuric acid. This species forms cauliflower concretions, but not true

crystals; it has a sweetening power which may be represented by 60, and

in circumpolarization it bends the rays to the left. Besides these two

principal kinds of sugar, some others are distinguished by chemists; as

the sugar of milk, of manna, of certain mushrooms, of liquorice-root,

and that obtained from sawdust and glue by the action of sulphuric acid;

but they have no importance in a manufacturing point of view.

Sugar, extracted either from the cane, the beet, or the maple, is

identical in its properties and composition, when refined to the same

pitch of purity; only that of the beet seems to surpass the other two in

cohesive force, since larger and firmer crystals of it are obtained from

a clarified solution of equal density. It contains 5·3 per cent. of

combined water, which can be separated only by uniting it with oxide of

lead, into what has been called a saccharate; made by mixing syrup with

finely ground litharge, and evaporating the mixture to dryness upon a

steam-bath. When sugar is exposed to a heat of 400° F., it melts into a

brown pasty mass, but still retains its water of composition. Sugar thus

fused is no longer capable of crystallization, and is called caramel by

the French. It is used for colouring liqueurs. Indeed sugar is so

susceptible of change by heat, that if a colourless solution of it be

exposed for some time to the temperature of boiling water, it becomes

brown and partially uncrystallizable. Acids exercise such an injurious

influence upon sugar, that after remaining in contact with it for a

little while, though they be rendered thoroughly neutral, a great part

of the sugar will refuse to crystallize. Thus, if 3 parts of oxalic or

tartaric acid be added to sugar in solution, no crystals of sugar can be

obtained by evaporation, even though the acids be neutralized by chalk

or carbonate of lime. By boiling cane sugar with dilute sulphuric acid,

it is changed into starch sugar. Manufacturers of sugar should be,

therefore, particularly watchful against every acidulous taint or

impregnation. Nitric acid converts sugar into oxalic and malic acids.

Alkaline matter is likewise most detrimental to the grain of sugar; as

is always evinced by the large quantity of molasses formed, when an

excess of temper lime has been used in clarifying the juice of the cane

or the beet. When one piece of lump sugar is rubbed against another in

the dark, a phosphorescent light is emitted.

Sugar is soluble in all proportions in water; but it takes four parts of

spirits of wine, of spec. grav. 0·830, and 80 of absolute alcohol, to

dissolve it, both being at a boiling temperature. As the alcohol cools,

it deposits the sugar in small crystals. Caramelized and

uncrystallizable sugar dissolves readily in alcohol. Pure sugar is

unchangeable in the air, even when dissolved in a good deal of water, if

the solution be kept covered and in the dark; but with a very small

addition of gluten, the solution soon begins to ferment, whereby the

sugar is decomposed into alcohol and carbonic acid, and ultimately into

acetic acid.

Sugar forms chemical compounds with the salifiable bases. It dissolves

readily in caustic potash lye, whereby it loses its sweet taste, and

affords on evaporation a mass which is insoluble in alcohol. When the

lye is neutralized by sulphuric acid, the sugar recovers its sweet

taste, and may be separated from the sulphate of potash by alcohol, but

it will no longer crystallize.

That syrup possesses the property of dissolving the alkaline earths,

lime, magnesia, strontites, barytes, was demonstrated long ago by Mr.

Ramsay of Glasgow, by experiments published in Nicholson’s Journal, vol.

xviii. page 9, for September 1807. He found that syrup is capable of

dissolving half as much lime as it contains of sugar; and as much

strontites as sugar. Magnesia dissolved in much smaller quantity, and

barytes seemed to decompose the sugar entirely. These results have been

since confirmed by Professor Daniell. Mr. Ramsay characterized sugar

treated with lime as weak, from its sweetening power being impaired;

from its solution he obtained, after some time, a deposit of calcareous

carbonate. M. Pelouze has lately shown that the carbonic acid in this

case is derived from the atmosphere, and is not formed at the expense of

the elements of the sugar, as Mr. Daniell had asserted.

Sugar forms with oxide of lead two combinations; the one soluble, the

other insoluble. Oxide of lead digested in syrup dissolves to a certain

amount, forms a yellowish liquor, which possesses an alkaline reaction,

and leaves after evaporation an uncrystallizable, viscid, deliquescent

mass. If syrup be boiled with oxide of lead in excess, if the solution

be filtered boiling hot, and if the phial be corked in which it is

received, white bulky flocks will fall to its bottom in the course of 24

hours. This compound is best dried _in vacuo_. It is in both cases

light, tasteless, and insoluble in cold and boiling water; it takes fire

like German tinder (AMADOU), when touched at one point with an ignited

body, and burns away, leaving small globules of lead. It dissolves in

acids, and also in neutral acetate of lead, which forms with the oxide a

subsalt, and sets the sugar free. Carbonic acid gas passed through

water, in which the above saccharate is diffused, decomposes it with

precipitation of carbonate of lead. It consists of 58·26 parts of oxide

of lead, and 41·74 sugar, in 100 parts. From the powerful action

exercised upon sugar by acids and oxide of lead, we may see the fallacy

and danger of using these chemical reagents in sugar-refining. Sugar

possesses the remarkable property of dissolving the oxide, as well as

the subacetate of copper (verdigris), and of counteracting their

poisonous operation. Orfila found that a dose of verdigris, which would

kill a dog in an hour or two, might be swallowed with impunity, provided

it was mixed with a considerable quantity of sugar. When a solution of

sugar is boiled with the acetate of copper, it causes an abundant

precipitate of protoxide of copper; when boiled with the nitrates of

mercury and silver, or the chloride of gold, it reduces the respective

bases to the metallic state.

The following TABLE shows the quantities of Sugar contained in Syrups of

the annexed specific gravities.[63] It was the result of experiments

carefully made.

[63] The author, in minutes of evidence of Molasses Committee of the

House of Commons, 1831, p. 142.

+------------------------+-------------+

|Experimental spec. grav.|Sugar in 100.|

| of solution at 60° F. | by weight. |

+------------------------+-------------+

| 1·3260 | 66·666 |

| 1·2310 | 50·000 |

| 1·1777 | 40·000 |

| 1·440 | 33·333 |

| 1·1340 | 31·250 |

| 1·1250 | 29·412 |

| 1·1110 | 26·316 |

| 1·1045 | 25·000 |

| 1·0905 | 21·740 |

| 1·0820 | 20·000 |

| 1·0685 | 16·666 |

| 1·0500 | 12·500 |

| 1·0395 | 10·000 |

+------------------------+-------------+

If the decimal part of the number denoting the specific gravity of

syrup, be multiplied by 26, the product will denote very nearly the

quantity of sugar per gallon in pounds weight, at the given specific

gravity.[64]

[64] This rule was annexed to an extensive table, representing the

quantities of sugar per gallon corresponding to the specific gravities

of the syrup, constructed by the author for the Excise, in

subserviency to the Beet-root Bill.

Sugar has been analyzed by several chemists; the following TABLE

exhibits some of their results:--

+--------+------------+----------+------+-----+-------+

| | Gay Lussac | | | | |

| |and Thenard.|Berzelius.|Prout.|Ure. | |

+--------+------------+----------+------+-----+-------+

|Oxygen | 56·63 | 49·856 |53·35 |50·33|in 100.|

|Carbon | 42·47 | 43·265 |39·99 |43·38| -- |

|Hydrogen| 6·90 | 6·875 | 6·66 | 6·29| -- |

+--------+------------+----------+------+-----+-------+

_Of the sugar cane, and the extraction of sugar from it._--Humboldt,

after the most elaborate historical and botanical researches in the New

World, has arrived at the conclusion, that before America was discovered

by the Spaniards, the inhabitants of that continent and the adjacent

islands were entirely unacquainted with the sugar canes, with any of our

corn plants, and with rice. The progressive diffusion of the cane has

been thus traced out by the partisans of its oriental origin. From the

interior of Asia it was transplanted first into Cyprus, and thence into

Sicily, or possibly by the Saracens directly into the latter island, in

which a large quantity of sugar was manufactured in the year 1148.

Lafitau relates the donation made by William the Second, king of Sicily,

to the convent of St. Benoit, of a mill for crushing sugar canes, along

with all its privileges, workmen, and dependencies: which remarkable

gift bears the date of 1166. According to this author, the sugar cane

must have been imported into Europe at the period of the Crusades. The

monk Albertus Aquensis, in the description which he has given of the

processes employed at Acre and at Tripoli to extract sugar, says, that

in the Holy Land, the Christian soldiers being short of provisions, had

recourse to sugar canes, which they chewed for subsistence. Towards the

year 1420, Dom Henry, regent of Portugal, caused the sugar cane to be

imported into Madeira from Sicily. This plant succeeded perfectly in

Madeira and the Canaries; and until the discovery of America these

islands supplied Europe with the greater portion of the sugar which it

consumed.

The cane is said by some to have passed from the Canaries into the

Brazils; but by others, from the coast of Angola in Africa, where the

Portuguese had a sugar colony. It was transported in 1506, from the

Brazils and the Canaries, into Hispaniola or Hayti, where several

crushing-mills were constructed in a short time. It would appear,

moreover, from the statement of Peter Martyr, in the third book of his

first Decade, written during the second expedition of Christopher

Columbus, which happened between 1493 and 1495, that even at this date

the cultivation of the sugar cane was widely spread in St. Domingo. It

may therefore be supposed to have been introduced here by Columbus

himself, at his first voyage, along with other productions of Spain and

the Canaries, and that its cultivation had come into considerable

activity at the period of his second expedition. Towards the middle of

the 17th century, the sugar cane was imported into Barbadoes from

Brazil, then into the other English West Indian possessions, into the

Spanish Islands on the coast of America, into Mexico, Peru, Chile, and,

last of all, into the French, Dutch, and Danish colonies.

The sugar cane, _Arundo saccharifera_, is a plant of the graminiferous

family, which varies in height from 8 to 10, or even to 20 feet. Its

diameter is about an inch and a half; its stem is dense, brittle, and of

a green hue, which verges to yellow at the approach of maturity. It is

divided by prominent annular joints of a whitish-yellow colour, the

plane of which is perpendicular to the axis of the stem. These joints

are placed about 3 inches apart; and send forth leaves, which fall off

with the ripening of the plant. The leaves are 3 or 4 feet long, flat,

straight, pointed, from 1 to 2 inches in breadth, of a sea-green tint,

striated in their length, alternate, embracing the stem by their base.

They are marked along their edges with almost imperceptible teeth. In

the 11th or 12th month of their growth, the canes push forth at their

top a sprout 7 or 8 feet in height, nearly half an inch in diameter,

smooth, and without joints, to which the name _arrow_ is given. This is

terminated by an ample panicle, about 2 feet long, divided into several

knotty ramifications, composed of very numerous flowers, of a white

colour, apetalous, and furnished with 3 stamens, the anthers of which

are a little oblong. The roots of the sugar cane are jointed and nearly

cylindrical; in diameter they are about one twelfth of an inch; in their

utmost length 1 foot, presenting over their surface a few short

radicles.

The stem of the cane in its ripe state is heavy, very smooth, brittle,

of a yellowish-violet, or whitish colour, according to the variety. It

is filled with a fibrous, spongy, dirty-white pith, which contains very

abundant sweet juice. This juice is elaborated separately in each

internodary portion, the functions of which are in this respect

independent of the portions above and below. The cane may be propagated

by seeds or buds with equal facility; but it is usually done by cuttings

or joints of proper lengths, from 15 to 20 inches, in proportion to the

nearness of the joints, which are generally taken from the tops of the

canes, just below the leaves.

There are several varieties of the sugar-cane plant. The first, and

longest known, is the creole, or common sugar cane, which was originally

introduced at Madeira. It grows freely in every region within the

tropics, on a moist soil, even at an elevation of 3000 feet above the

level of the sea. In Mexico, among the mountains of Caudina-Masca, it is

cultivated to a height of more than 5000 feet. The quantity and quality

of sugar which it yields, is proportional to the heat of the place where

it grows, provided it be not too moist and marshy.

The second variety of this plant is the Otaheitan cane. It was

introduced into the West Indies about the end of the 18th century. This

variety, stronger, taller, with longer spaces between the joints,

quicker in its growth, and much more productive in sugar, succeeds

perfectly well in lands which seem too much impoverished to grow the

ordinary cane. It sends forth shoots at temperatures which chill the

growth and development of the creole plant. Its maturation does not take

more than a year, and is accomplished sometimes in nine months. From the

strength of its stem, and the woodiness of its fibres, it better resists

the storms. It displays a better inflorescence, weighs a third more,

affords a sixth more juice, and a fourth more sugar, than the common

variety. Its main advantage, however, is to yield four crops in the same

time that the creole cane yields only three. Its juice contains less

feculency and mucilage, whence its sugar is more easily crystallized,

and of a fairer colour.

Besides these two varieties, another kind is described by Humboldt and

Bonpland, under the name of the _violet_ sugar-cane, for its haum and

leaves are of this colour. It was transported from Batavia in 1782. It

flowers a month sooner than the rest, that is, in August, but it yields

less solid sugar, and more liquid, both of which have a violet tint.

In saying that the cane may be propagated by seeds as well as buds, we

must remark, that in all the colonies of the New World, the plant

flowers, indeed, but it then sends forth a shoot (_arrow_), that is, its

stem elongates, and the seed-vessel proves abortive. For this reason,

the bud-joints must there be used for its propagation. It grows to seed,

however, in India. This circumstance occurs with some other plants,

which, when propagated by their roots, cease to yield fertile seeds;

such as the banana, the bread-fruit, the lily, and the tulip.

In the proper season for planting, the ground is marked out by a line

into rows three or four feet asunder, in which rows the canes are

planted about two feet apart. The series of rows is divided into pieces

of land 60 or 70 feet broad, leaving spaces of about 20 feet, for the

convenience of passage, and for the admission of sun and air between the

stems. Canes are usually planted in trenches, about 6 or 8 inches deep,

made with the hand-hoe, the raised soil being heaped to one side, for

covering-in the young cane; into the holes a negro drops the number of

cuttings intended to be inserted, the digging being performed by other

negroes. The earth is then drawn about the hillocks with the hoe. This

labour has been, however, in many places better and more cheaply

performed by the plough; a deep furrow being made, into which the

cuttings are regularly planted, and the mould then properly turned in.

If the ground is to be afterwards kept clear by the horse-hoe, the rows

of canes should be 5 feet asunder, and the hillocks 2-1/2 feet distant,

with only one cane left in one hillock. After some shoots appear, the

sooner the horse-hoe is used, the more will the plants thrive, by

keeping the weeds under, and stirring up the soil. Plant-canes of the

first growth have been known to yield, on the brick-mould of Jamaica, in

very fine seasons, 2-1/2 tons of sugar per acre. The proper season for

planting the cane-slips, containing the buds, namely, the top part of

the cane, stripped of its leaves, and the two or three upper joints, is

in the interval between August and the beginning of November. Favoured

by the autumnal weather, the young plants become luxuriant enough to

shade the ground before the dry season sets in; thereby keeping the

roots cool and moderately moist. By this arrangement the creole canes

are ripe for the mill in the beginning of the second year, so as to

enable the manager to finish his crop early in June. There is no greater

error in the colonist than planting canes at an improper season of the

year, whereby his whole system of operations becomes disturbed and, in a

certain degree, abortive.

The withering and fall of a leaf afford a good criterion of the maturity

of the cane-joint to which it belonged; so that the eight last leafless

joints of two canes, which are cut the same day, have exactly the same

age and the same ripeness, though one of the canes be 15 and the other

only 10 months old. Those, however, cut towards the end of the dry

season, before the rains begin to fall, produce better sugar than those

cut in the rainy season, as they are then somewhat diluted with watery

juice, and require more evaporation to form sugar. It may be reckoned a

fair average product, when one pound of sugar is obtained from one

gallon (English) of juice.

_Rattoons_ (a word corrupted from _rejettons_) are the sprouts or

suckers that spring from the roots or stoles of the canes that have been

previously cut for sugar. They are commonly ripe in 12 months; but canes

of the first growth are called plant-canes, being the direct produce of

the original cuttings or germs placed in the ground, and require a

longer period to bring them to maturity. The first yearly return from

the roots that are cut over, are called first rattoons; the second

year’s growth, second rattoons; and so on, according to their age.

Instead of stocking up his rattoons, holing, and planting the land anew,

the planter suffers the stoles to continue in the ground, and contents

himself, as the cane-fields become thin and impoverished, with supplying

the vacant places with fresh plants. By these means, and with the aid of

manure, the produce of sugar per acre, if not apparently equal to that

from plant-canes, gives perhaps in the long run as great returns to the

owner, considering the relative proportion of the labour and expense

attending the different systems. The common yielding on proper land,

such as the red soil of Trelawney, in Jamaica, is 7 hogsheads, of 16

cwt. each, to 10 acres of rattoons cut annually; and such a plantation

lasts from 6 to 10 years.

When the planted canes are ripe, they are cut close above the ground, by

an oblique section, into lengths of 3 or 4 feet, and transported in

bundles to the mill-house. If the roots be then cut off, a few inches

below the surface of the soil, and covered up with fine mould, they will

push forth more prolific offsets or rattoons, than when left projecting

in the common way.