+--------------------------------+--------+
| |Absolute|
| Name of the Wine. |alcohol.|
+--------------------------------+--------+
|_Roussillon (Eastern Pyrenees.)_| |
|Rive-saltes 18 yrs. old | 9·156 |
|Banyulls 18 | 9·223 |
|Collyouvre 15 | 9·080 |
|Salces 10 | 8·580 |
| | |
| _Department of the Aude._ | |
|Fitou and Leucaté 10 | 8·568 |
|Lapalme 10 | 8·790 |
|Sijeau 8 | 8·635 |
|Narbonne 8 | 8·379 |
|Lezignan 10 | 8·173 |
|Mirepeisset 10 | 8·589 |
|Carcasonne 8 | 7·190 |
| | |
| _Department of l’Herault._ | |
|Nissau 9 | 7·896 |
|Beziers 8 | 7·728 |
|Montagnac 10 | 8·108 |
|Mèze 10 | 7·812 |
|Montpellier 5 | 7·413 |
|Lunel 8 | 7·564 |
|Frontignan 5 | 7·098 |
|Red Hermitage 4 | 5·838 |
|White do. | 7·056 |
|Burgundy 4 | 6·195 |
|Grave 3 | 5·838 |
|Champagne (sparkling) | 5·880 |
| Do. white do. | 5·145 |
| Do. rose | 4·956 |
|Bordeaux | 6·186 |
|Toulouse | 5·027 |
+--------------------------------+--------+
WINE, FAMILY, may be made by the following recipe:--Take black, red,
white currants, ripe cherries (black hearts are the best), and
raspberries, of each an equal quantity. To 4 pounds of the mixed fruit,
well bruised, put 1 gallon of clear soft water; steep three days and
nights, in open vessels, frequently stirring up the magma; then strain
through a hair sieve; press the residuary pulp to dryness, and add its
juice to the former. In each gallon of the mixed liquors dissolve 3
pounds of good yellow muscovado sugar; let the solution stand other
three days and nights, frequently skimming and stirring it up; then tun
it into casks, which should remain full, and purging at the bung-hole,
about two weeks. Lastly, to every 9 gallons, put 1 quart of good Cognac
brandy (but not the drugged imitations made in London with grain
whiskey), and bung down. If it does not soon become fine, a steeping of
isinglass may be stirred into the liquid, in the proportion of about
half an ounce to 9 gallons. I have found that the addition of an ounce
of cream of tartar to each gallon of the fermentable liquor, improves
the quality of the wine, and makes it resemble more nearly the produce
of the grape.
WINE-STONE, is the deposit of crude tartar, called argal, which settles
on the sides and bottoms of wine casks.
WIRE-DRAWING. (_Tréfilerie_, Fr.; _Draht-ziehen_, _Drahtzug_, Germ.)
When an oblong lump of metal is forced through a series of progressively
diminishing apertures in a steel plate, so as to assume in its cross
section the form and dimensions of the last hole, and to be augmented in
length at the expense of its thickness, it is said to be wire-drawn. The
piece of steel called the _draw-plate_ is pierced with a regular
gradation of holes, from the largest to the smallest; and the machine
for overcoming the lateral adhesion of the metallic particles to one
another, is called the _draw-bench_. The pincers which lay hold of the
extremity of the wire, to pull it through the successive holes, are
adapted to bite it firmly, by having the inside of the jaws, cut like a
file. For drawing thick rods of gilt silver down into stout wire, the
hydraulic press has been had recourse to with advantage.
[Illustration: 1202]
_Fig._ 1202. represents a convenient form of the draw-bench, where the
power is applied by a toothed wheel, pinion, and rack-work, moved by the
hands of one or two men working at a winch; the motion being so
regulated by a fly-wheel, that it does not proceed in fits and starts,
and cause inequalities in the wire. The metal requires to be annealed,
now and then, between successive drawings, otherwise it would become too
hard and brittle for further extension. The reel upon which it is wound
is sometimes mounted in a cistern of sour small beer, for the purpose of
clearing off, or loosening at least, any crust of oxide formed in the
annealing, before the wire enters the draw-plate.
When, for very accurate purposes of science or the arts, a considerable
length of uniform wire is to be drawn, a plate with one or more jewelled
holes, that is, filled with one or more perforated rubies, sapphires, or
chrysolites, can alone be trusted to, because the holes even in the best
steel become rapidly wider by the abrasion. Through a hole in a ruby
0·0033 of an inch in diameter, a silver wire 170 miles long has been
drawn, which possessed at the end, the very same section as at the
beginning; a result determined by weighing portions of equal length, as
also by measuring it with a micrometer. The hole in an ordinary
draw-plate of soft steel becomes so wide, by drawing 14,000 fathoms of
brass wire, that it requires to be narrowed before the original sized
wire can be again obtained.
Wire, by being diminished one-half, one-third, one-fourth, &c., in
diameter, is augmented in length respectively, four, nine, sixteen
times, &c. The speed with which it may be prudently drawn out, depends
upon the ductility and tenacity of the metal; but may be always
increased the more the wire becomes attenuated, because its particles
progressively assume more and more of the filamentous form, and
accommodate themselves more readily to the extending force. Iron and
brass wires, of 0·3 inch in diameter, bear drawing at the rate of from
12 to 15 inches per second; but when of 0·025 (1/40) of an inch, at the
rate of from 40 to 45 inches in the same time. Finer silver and copper
wire may be extended from 60 to 70 inches per second.
By enclosing a wire of platinum within one of silver ten times thicker,
and drawing down the compound wire till it be 1/300 of an inch, a wire
of platinum of 1/3000 of an inch, will exist in its centre, which may be
obtained apart, by dissolving the silver away in nitric acid. This
pretty experiment was first made by Dr. Wollaston.
The French draw-plates are so much esteemed, that one of the best of
them used to be sold in this country, during the late war, for its
weight in silver. The holes are formed with a steel punch; being made
large on that side where the wire enters, and diminishing with a regular
taper to the other side. In the act of drawing, they must be well
supplied with grease for the larger kinds of wire, and with wax for the
smaller.
WOAD (_Vouëde_, _Pastel_, Fr.; _Waid_, Germ; _Isatis tinctoria_, Linn.);
the _glastum_ of the antient Gauls and Germans; is an herbaceous plant
which was formerly much cultivated, as affording a permanent blue dye,
but it has been in modern times well nigh superseded by _indigo_. Pliny
says, “A certain plant which resembles _plantago_, called _glastum_, is
employed by the women and girls in Great Britain for dyeing their bodies
all over, when they assist at certain religious ceremonies; they have
then the colour of Ethiopians.”--_Hist. Nat._ cap. xxii. § 2.
When the arts, which had perished with the Roman empire, were revived,
in the middle ages, woad began to be generally used for dyeing blue, and
became an object of most extensive cultivation in many countries of
Europe. The environs of Toulouse and Mirepoix, in Upper Languedoc,
produced annually 40,000,000 pounds of the prepared woad, or pastel, of
which 200,000 bales were consumed at Bordeaux. Beruni, a rich
manufacturer of this drug, became surety for the payment of the ransom
of his king, Francis I., then the prisoner of Charles V. in Spain.
The leaves of woad are fermented in heaps, to destroy certain vegetable
principles injurious to the beauty of the dye, as also to elaborate the
indigoferous matter present, before they are brought into the market;
but they should be carefully watched during this process. Whenever the
leaves have arrived at maturity, a point judged of very differently in
different countries, they are stripped off the plant, a cropping which
is repeated as often as they shoot, being three or four times in
Germany, and eight or ten times in Italy. The leaves are dried as
quickly as possible, but not so much as to become black; and they are
ground before they get quite dry. The resulting paste is laid upon a
sloping pavement, with gutters for conducting the juice which exudes
into a tank; the heap being tramped from time to time, to promote the
discharge of the juice. The woad ferments, swells, and cracks in many
places, which fissures must be closed; the whole being occasionally
watered. The fermentation is continued for twenty or thirty days, in
cold weather; and if the leaves have been gathered dry, as in Italy, for
four months. When the fermented heap has become moderately dry, it is
ground again, and put up in cakes of from one to three pounds; which are
then fully dried, and packed up in bundles for the market. Many dyers
subject the pastel to a second fermentation.
1,600 square toises (fathoms) of land afford in two cuttings at least
19,000 pounds of leaves, of which weight four-fifths are lost in the
fermentation, leaving 3,880 pounds of pastel, in loaves or cakes. When
good, it has rather a yellow, or greenish-yellow, than a blue colour; it
is light, and slightly humid; it gives to paper a pale-green trace; and
improves by age, in consequence of an obscure fermentation; for if kept
four years, it dyes twice as much as after two years. According to
Hellot, 4 pounds of Guatimala indigo produce the same effect as 210
pounds of the pastel of Albi. At Quins, in Piedmont, the dyers estimate
that 6 pounds of indigo are equivalent to 300 of pastel; but Chaptal
thinks the indigo underrated.
Pastel will dye blue of itself, but it is commonly employed as a
fermentative addition to the proper blue vat, as described under INDIGO.
Fresh woad, analyzed by Chevreul, afforded, in 100 parts, 65·4 of juice.
After being steeped in water, the remaining mass yielded, on expression,
29·65 of liquid; being in whole, 95·05 parts, leaving 4·95 of ligneous
fibre. The juice, by filtration, gave 1·95 of green fecula. 100 parts of
fresh woad, when dried, are reduced to 13·76 parts. Alcohol, boiled upon
dry woad, deposits, after cooling, indigo in microscopic needles; but
these cannot be separated from the vegetable albumine, which retains a
greenish-gray colour.
WOLFRAM, is the native tungstate of iron and manganese, a mineral which
occurs in primitive formations, along with the ores of tin, antimony,
and lead, in the Bohemian Erzgebirge, in Cornwall, Switzerland, North
America, &c. It is used by chemists for obtaining tungstic acid and
tungsten.
WOOD (_Bois_, Fr.; _Holz_, Germ.); is the hard but porous tissue between
the pith and the bark of trees and shrubs, through which the chief part
of the juices are conducted from the root towards the branches and
leaves, during the life of the vegetable. The ligneous fibre is the
substance which remains, after the plant has been subjected to the
solvent action of ether, alcohol, water, dilute acids, and caustic
alkaline lyes. It is considered by chemists that dry timber consists, on
an average, of 96 parts of fibrous, and 4 of soluble matter, in 100; but
that these proportions vary somewhat with the seasons, the soil, and the
plant. All kinds of wood sink in water, when placed in a basin of it
under the exhausted receiver of an air-pump; showing their specific
gravity to be greater than 1·000. That of fir and maple is stated, by
chemical authors, to be 1·46; and that of oak and beech, at 1·53; but I
believe them to have all the same spec. grav. as the fibre of flax;
namely, 1·50, as determined by me some years ago.[71]
[71] “From the small difference found by experiment between the
specific gravity of flax (1·50), and of cotton (1·47), I am inclined
to think that the density of both may be considered to be equal.” or
1·50.--_Philosophy of Manufactures_, 2d edition, pp. 97, 98, 99.
Wood becomes snow-white, when exposed to the action of chlorine;
digested with sulphuric acid, it is transformed first into gum, and, by
ebullition with water, afterwards into grape-sugar; with concentrated
nitric acid, it grows yellow, loses its coherence, falls into a
pulverulent mass, but eventually dissolves, and is converted into oxalic
acid; with strong caustic alkaline lyes, in a hot state, it swells up
excessively, dissolves into a homogeneous liquid, and changes into a
blackish-brown mass, containing oxalic and acetic acids.
The composition of wood has been examined by Gay Lussac and Thenard, and
Dr. Prout. The first two chemists found it to consist, in 100 parts,
of--
Oak. Beech.
Carbon 52·53 51·45
Hydrogen 5·69 5·82
Oxygen 41·78 42·73
According to Dr. Prout, the oxygen and hydrogen are in the exact
proportions to form water. Willow contains 50, and box 49·8 per cent. of
carbon; each containing, therefore, very nearly 44·444 of oxygen, and
5·555 of hydrogen. In the analyses of Gay Lussac and Thenard, there is a
great excess of hydrogen above what the oxygen requires to form water.
Authenrieth stated, some years ago, that he found that fine sawdust,
mixed with a sufficient quantity of wheat flour, made a coherent dough
with water, which formed an excellent food for pigs; apparently showing
that the digestive organs of this animal could operate the same sort of
change upon wood as sulphuric acid does.
TABLE of the DISTILLATION of ONE POUND of WOOD, dried, at 86° Fahr.
+-------------------------+----------+-----------+---------+---------+
| Name of the wood. |Weight of |One ounce |Weight of|Weight of|
| |wood acid.|of the acid|the com- |the char-|
| | |saturates |bustible |coal. |
| | |of carbon- |oil. | |
| | |ate of | | |
| | |potash. | | |
+-------------------------+----------+-----------+---------+---------+
| | _Ounces._| _Grains._ |_Ounces._|_Ounces._|
|White birch | 7 | 44 | 1-1/4 | 3-3/4 |
|Red beech | 7 | 44 | 1-1/2 | 3-3/4 |
|Prick wood (spindle tree)| 7-1/2 | 40 | 1-3/4 | 3-1/2 |
|Large leaved linden | 6-3/4 | 41 | 2 | 3-3/4 |
|Red or scarlet oak | 7 | 40 | 1-1/2 | 4-1/4 |
|White beech | 6-1/2 | 40 | 1-3/4 | 3-3/4 |
|Common ash | 7-1/2 | 34 | 1-1/2 | 3-1/2 |
|Horse chestnut | 7-1/2 | 31 | 1-1/2 | 3-1/2 |
|Italian poplar | 7-1/4 | 30 | 1-1/2 | 3-3/4 |
|Silver poplar | 7-1/4 | 30 | 1-1/4 | 3-3/4 |
|White willow | 7-1/4 | 28 | 1-1/2 | 3-1/2 |
|Root of the sassafras | | | | |
|laurel | 6-3/4 | 29 | 1-3/4 | 4-1/4 |
|Wild service tree | 7 | 28 | 1-3/4 | 3-1/2 |
|Basket willow | 8 | 27 | 1-1/2 | 3-1/2 |
|Dogberry tree | 7 | 27 | 2 | 3-1/2 |
|Buckthorn | 7-1/2 | 26 | 1-1/2 | 3-1/2 |
|Logwood | 7-3/4 | 26 | 1-1/2 | 4 |
|Alder | 7-1/4 | 22 | 1-1/2 | 3-1/2 |
|Juniper | 7-1/4 | 23 | 1-3/4 | 3-1/2 |
|White fir (deal) | 6-1/2 | 23 | 2-1/4 | 3-1/2 |
|Common pine wood | 6-3/4 | 22 | 1-3/4 | 3-1/2 |
|Savine tree | 7 | 20 | 1-3/4 | 3-3/4 |
|Red deal (pine) | 6-1/2 | 18 | 2-1/4 | 3-3/4 |
|Guiac wood | 6 | 16 | 2-1/2 | 4-1/4 |
+-------------------------+----------+-----------+---------+---------+
WOOF, is the same as WEFT.
WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. In reference to textile fabrics, sheep’s wool is of
two different sorts, the short and the long stapled; each of which
requires different modes of manufacture in the preparation and spinning
processes, as also in the treatment of the cloth after it is woven, to
fit it for the market. Each of these is, moreover, distinguished in
commerce by the names of fleece wools and dead wools, according as they
have been shorn at the usual annual period from the living animal, or
are cut from its skin after death. The latter are comparatively harsh,
weak, and incapable of imbibing the dyeing principles, more especially
if the sheep has died of some malignant distemper. The annular pores,
leading into the tubular cavities of the filaments, seem, in this case,
to have shrunk and become obstructed. The time of year for
sheep-shearing most favourable to the quality of the wool, and the
comfort of the animal, is towards the end of June and beginning of
July;--the period when Lord Leicester holds his celebrated rural fête
for that interesting purpose.
The wool of the sheep has been surprisingly improved, by its domestic
culture. The _mouflon_ (_Ovis aries_), the parent stock from which our
sheep is undoubtedly derived, and which is still found in a wild state
upon the mountains of Sardinia, Corsica, Barbary, Greece, and Asia
Minor, has a very short and coarse fleece, more like hair than wool.
When this animal is brought under the fostering care of man, the rank
fibres gradually disappear; while the soft wool round their roots,
little conspicuous in the wild animal, becomes singularly developed. The
male most speedily undergoes this change, and continues ever afterwards
to possess far more power in modifying the fleece of the offspring, than
the female parent. The produce of a breed from a coarse-woolled ewe, and
a fine-woolled ram, is not of a mean quality between the two, but
half-way nearer that of the sire. By coupling the female thus generated,
with such a male as the former, another improvement of one-half will be
obtained, affording a staple three-fourths finer than that of the
grandam. By proceeding inversely, the wool would be as rapidly
deteriorated. It is, therefore, a matter of the first consequence in
wool husbandry, to exclude from the flock all coarse-fleeced rams.
Long wool is the produce of a peculiar variety of sheep, and varies in
the length of its fibres from 3 to 8 inches. Such wool is not carded
like cotton, but combed like flax, either by hand or appropriate
machinery. Short wool is seldom longer than 3 or 4 inches; it is
susceptible of carding and felting, by which processes the filaments
become first convoluted, and then densely matted together. The shorter
sorts of the combing wool are used principally for hosiery, though of
late years the finer kinds have been extensively worked up into merino
and mousseline-de-laine fabrics. The longer wools of the Leicestershire
breed are manufactured into hard yarns, for worsted pieces, such as
waistcoats, carpets, bombasines, poplins, crapes, &c.
The wool of which good broad cloth is made, should be not only shorter,
but, generally speaking, finer and softer than the worsted wools, in
order to fit them for the fulling process. Some wool-sorters and
wool-staplers acquire by practice great nicety of discernment in judging
of wools by the touch and traction of the fingers. Two years ago, I made
a series of observations upon different wools, and published the
results. The filaments of the finer qualities varied in thickness from
1/1100 to 1/1500 of an inch; their structure is very curious,
exhibiting, in a good achromatic microscope, at intervals of about 1/300
of an inch, a series of serrated rings, imbricated towards each other,
like the joints of _Equisetum_, or rather like the scaly zones of a
serpent’s skin. See _Philosophy of Manufactures_, _figs._ 11, 12., page
91. second edition.
There are four distinct qualities of wool upon every sheep; the finest
being upon the spine, from the neck to within 6 inches of the tail,
including one-third of the breadth of the back; the second covers the
flanks between the thighs and the shoulders; the third clothes the neck
and the rump; and the fourth extends upon the lower part of the neck and
breast down to the feet, as also upon a part of the shoulders and the
thighs, to the bottom of the hind quarter. These should be torn asunder,
and sorted, immediately after the shearing.
The harshness of wools is dependent not solely upon the breed of the
animal, or the climate, but is owing to certain peculiarities in the
pasture, derived from the soil. It is known, that in sheep fed upon
chalky districts, wool is apt to get coarse; but in those upon a rich
loamy soil, it becomes soft and silky. The ardent sun of Spain renders
the fleece of the Merino breed harsher than it is in the milder climate
of Saxony. Smearing sheep with a mixture of tar and butter, is deemed
favourable to the softness of their wool.
All wool, in its natural state, contains a quantity of a peculiar
potash-soap, secreted by the animal, called in this country the _yolk_;
which may be washed out by water alone, with which it forms a sort of
lather. It constitutes from 25 to 50 per cent. of the wool, being most
abundant in the Merino breed of sheep; and however favourable to the
growth of the wool on the living animal, should be taken out soon after
it is shorn, lest it injure the fibres by fermentation, and cause them
to become hard and brittle. After being washed in water, somewhat more
than lukewarm, the wool should be well pressed, and carefully dried.
England grows annually about 1,000,000 packs of wool, and imports
100,000 bags.
Wool imported into the United Kingdom, in 1836, 64,239,977 lbs.; in
1837, 48,356,121 lbs. Retained for home consumption, in 1836, 60,724,795
lbs.; in 1837, 43,148,297 lbs. Duty received, in 1836, _£_190,075; in
1837, _£_118,519.
Having premised these general observations on wool, I shall now proceed
to treat of its manufacture, beginning with that of wool-combing, or