W^i:m. fi€RN INVeNTlO LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DD00Sfl7E3D3 ^^w^.l Tj.^ ^.m Class VAl Book ^A:L_ GofpghtN" COPYRIGHT DEPOSm JOHN JtcGOVERN. The Fireside University Home Circle Study and Entertainment With Complete Indexes... By JOHN McQOVERN. . AUTHOR OF History of Grain and the Grain Trade, ^^ ''History of Money ^ Banking, Stocks and Bonds, '^^ "■ The Empire of Information,^'' " The Golden Censer^''' The Toiler's Diadem,'^ Etc. UNION PUBIvISHING HOUSE. Chicago . 1 Library of Congresa Two Cones Received NOV 30 1900 Copynght entry SErONO COPY Oei>v«rad to OROtK DIVISION APK. 2 1901 "^^S^wS M. B. DOWNER & CO. B-pfe^ / F^ toB- fill Rir.HTS RFcrnvrn ^W ^^ / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ^M^i PUBLISHED BY The Ui^ioij PuWisMi^g Souse, ''"'"'^^^^f pUBLISHeRS'^ReFftCe, The author of The Eireside University was requested to entirely avoid, if possible, a technical description of the arts, sciences and manufactures, and to write a book for the masses of the people. It is hoped that every person who can read and write may read this book with interest, and derive benefit from it. The advancement of science and invention has been so rapid, and the organization of labor has become so complex, that within a few decades the masses have been entirely shut away from a knowledge of the means by which their existence is made pleasant, comfortable, and even luxurious. It is the object of this book to supply some of this knowledge. The spirit of this book, and the need for it, are illustrated in the following fact: Covering one, two, three, four, five city blocks, there arises the enormous Glucose Factory, grinding ,one hundred thousand bushels of corn daily. The people look with wonder upon this rising and increasing pile of buildings (whose inmates seem to be forever at toil), with no thought that at the beginning there was only a chemist at work in his little laboratory, developing certain ideas. Between his ideas, his hopes, his glass tubes and his multitudinous apparatuses, and this monstrous concrete thing called the Glucose Factory, there is an astonishing gap in the people^s knowledge. How did it come to develop so completely, before they had grasped even the idea of the chemist and the inventor ? iv publisher's preface. The Glucose Factory give us but a single illustration of what has happened on every side of us. The nickle-plated ornaments,, the finely spun fabrics, the beautifully colored prints, the swiftly flying street car, the glowing splendor of the modern night lit with thousands of incandescent lamps, the astonishing cheapen- ing of all articles that once were so costly that only a king could buy them — all these make chapters of marvelous charm, more certain of any reader's attention than the most fascinating novel ever written. Every page is full of curious and wonderful things. On the other hand such a book necessarily touches all the practical phases of our latest civilization. Incidentally the phy- sical needs of the human race are classified thus ; ist. Foods and food supplies of the world. 2d. The clothing and sheltering of the human race. 3d. Heating and lighting of the world. 4th. The power supply of the world. 5th. The modes and means of travel, traffic and the ex- change of thought. To each of these the highest inventive genius and most skill- ed labor have lent their energies, and in each of these great needs every thinking human being is deeply interested. We believe no such other book exists, and we present this work for the inspection of the people, sincerely hoping that it may interest them, as being strictly in accord with the trend of modern general intellectual progress. The Publishers. ...CONTENTS... :EIy]eCTRICITY. PAGE. Philosophy and Theories of this Vast Subject. — The Law. — Morse's Telegraph. — The Ocean Cable, and How the Messages are Read.— The Ticker.— The Rogers Wheel.— Careful Explana- tion of the Theory of the Dynamo. — Induction, Magnets, Klectro-Magnets, The Magnetic Field, Armature, Commu- tator.— The Sun, the Chief Magnet.— All About the Trolley Cars. — The Motor. — Elevated Electric Railroads. — Electric Bridge. — Something About Potentials, Accumulators, Con- densers, Plus, Minus. — All About Batteries- — Resistance and ' Heaters. — The Arc and Incandescent Lights. — Electric The- atre. — Electric Fountain. — Search Light. — Electric Meters. — Solenoids. — All About the Telephone. — Multipolar Magnets and Dynamos. — The Telephone Newspaper at Buda-Pesth. — The Theatrophone at Paris. — The Storage Battery. — Electric Launch. — Motorcycles. — All About the Telautograph for Writ- ing by Wire. — *' Electrocution." — Electric Fan. — War and Electricity. — ^The Battleships, etc. — Tesla's Oscillator. — Thermo - Electricity.— Weed - Killers.— Brott's Railway.— The Kinetoscope and Its Developments. — The Chaining of Ni- agara. — The Gas Flash-Lighter. — Electro-plating, or Electrol- ysis. — Map-making. — Finally, the Telegraph Wire to be Used to See Through 17 THE X RAY. Dr. Roentgen. — Account of his Discovery. — Its Genesis.— -Stokes, Crookes, Geissler and Others. — Fluorescence and Phosphor- escence. — Rhnmkorfif. — Edison's Fluoroscope. — Davis' Bulb. — The Blind. — Edison's X Ray Lamp. — Tesla's Alternating Cur- rents. — Comets. — Marconi. — Bell's Radiophone 93 vi CONTENTS. compr:!5SS^d air. page. The Air-Brake.— The Pneumatic Tube.— The Block Signal.— Com- pressed Air Power-Houses. — Compressed Air the only Compe- titor with Electricity as a Means of Transmitting Force. — The Rock Drill.— The Painting Machine.— The Caulker.— The Car Cleaner. — The Locomotive. — The Asphalt Refiner. — The Air Gun.— Wood-Pulp Silk.— The Coal Dump.— The Ash Dump.. . 105 BR:eAD, CAKES AND PASTRY. On Bread. — Grinding Grain. — The Middlings Purifier. — Mill Explo- sions.— Yeast. — "Vienna" Bread. — Corn and its Products. — Rye. — Rice. — Millet. — Bananas. — Barley. — Sago. — Tapioca. — Macaroni. — Corn Starch and How It Is Made. — Buckwheat. — Crackers. — Baking Powder and How It Is Made. — Graham Bread. — Beans 113 butt:er, chbesb, :etc. Butter and the Trade in Butter.— The Creamery.— The Cream Separ- ator. — The Milk-Tester. — The Bible.— Cheese and Cheese- Making. — Roquefort, Edam, Schweizer. — DeBrie and Camem- bert.^-Parmesan. — Schmir.— English Cheese. — Chief Milk-giv- ing Animals. — All about Oleomargarine, etc. — Condensed Milk. — Kumyss 131 FRUIT. The Apple, Pear, Peach, Apricot, Nectarine, Cherry. — The Straw- berry Trade. — Baskets and Boxes. — ^The Raspberry, Black- berry, Blueberry. — The Grape. — The Citrus Family and Orange and Lemon Trades. — History ot the Subject — The Tomato. — The Canning Industry. — California Canned Fruits. — The Plum, Prune, Date, Currant, Gooseberry, Cranberry. — The Melon. — The Pineapple.— The Fig.— Cocoanuts 149 NUTS. The Peanut, Chestnut, Walnut, Butternut, Hickory Nut, Hazel Nut, Almond, Brazil Nut, Pecan, Pistachio Nut 169 SPICBS. Pepper, Mustard, Horseradish, Ginger.— The Clove, Nutmeg and Mace, — Cinnamon. — Allspice. — Caraway. — Herbs. — How Mince Meat is Manufactured 1 7 .> CONTENTS. . rii COFFEE, T^ A, BTC. PAGB. Coffee, Its Histary and Culture.— Its Effects.— Tea, Its Culture in China and Elsewhere. — A Great Subject. — Brick Tea. — Choco- late, Another Great Trade. — Complete Description i8l m:e)at, btc The Union Stockyards at Chicago. — Description of the Slaughter- houses. — The Rabbi as a Butcher. — Cowboys 196 PICKI,:eS, VINl^GAR, BTC. The Great Pickle Factories at Pittsburg, Pa. — What Is Vinegar? — Theory of Acids. — How Vinegar is Made in Great Vinegar Factories 199 sai;t. Salt Is not a Salt— What Rock Salt Is— Theories of Life and Decay.— Salt as a Raw Material of Sodium and Chlorine. — The Greatest Use of Salt. — Salt Works. — History ^ '. . . . 207 th:^ spbctroscop:^. Its Uses. — The Spectrum. — Interference. — Fraunhofer's Lines.— The- Marks of Several of the Elements. — The Sun's Shining Spec- trum. — Star-Study. — Practical Uses of the Spectroscope 213 ch:^mistry. A Chapter of the Highest Importance. — The Elements. — Elements that are Gases, Liquids, Metals, Earths. — Elements that Life Must Have. — The Atomic Theory of John Dalton and Avo- gadro. — Compounds of Two and Three Elements. — Avogadro's Law. — The Crystal. — Specific Weight and Heat. — All About Symbols — Compound Radicles. — Valency. — Electricity in Com- pound Elements — Negative Elements. — Positive Elements. — The Meaning of ide, ate and ite, and tc and ous, at the Ends of Words.- -Importance of Carbon. — Allotrop)-. — Making Dia- monds.— Why the Chemist's Tube is Full of Bulbs— The Chem- ist's Tools. — The Hydro-Carbons, including the Alcohols, the Ethers, the Aldehydes, the Ketones, the Organic Acids, the Anhydrides and Acid Halides, the Ethereal Salts, the Organo- Metallic Bodies, the Amines and all the Aniline Dyes at Length, the Amides. — Cyanogen. — Nitrogen. — Nitroglycerin, Vlll CONTENTS. CH^MISTRY.Cont'd. page. Ammonia, Nitrates. — Oxygen, Ozone, Water and Its Remark- able Character. — The Halogens or Salt-Makers, Chlorine, Iodine, Bromine and Fluorine. — Sulphur, Selenium and Tel- lurium. — Sulphuric Acid and Its Importance to the Nations. — Quinine. — Phosphorus. — Boron and Borax. — Silicon. — The Alkalis, Potassium, Sodium, Lithium, Rubidium and Caesium and their Uses. — The Alkaline Earths, Calcium, Strontium and Barium. — The Magnesium Group, Including Zinc and Mercury. — White Zinc as a Paint. — Asbestos. — Copper, Silver and Gold. — The Copper Half-tone Engraving. — The Gold Cure. — Gold Miner's Formula. — The Lead Group. — Lead Pipe. — Litharge. — Aluminium and Its Manufacture at Niagara. — Iron. — Chromium.— Manganese. — Cobalt. — Nickel. — The Costly . Platinum Group. — The Tin Group. — Marvelous Uses of Tin. — Making Tin Cans. — The Arsenic Group. — Tartar Emetic, Antimony, Bismuth, Etc. — The Tungsten Group. — The Cerium Group. — The Welsbach Light. — Table of the Elements, for Reference 225 SUGAR. Chemical Nature of Sugar. — Saccharose and Glucose. — Sugar-mak- ing from Cane. — The Centrifugal Machines. — Diffusion and Beet Sugar. — A Beet Sugar Factory. — Molasses. — Polariza- tion. — The Sugar Crystal. — Maple Sugar. — Glucose. — A Glu- cose Factory. — Sorghum. — Rock Candy.— Caramel, — Candy and Candy-making 295 lyiF:^. Life, Motion and Matter. — Bioplasm. — Protoplasm. — The Micro- scope. — The Amoeba.— A Great Subject 316 THB BICYCI,:^. Man's Chief Instrument.— The. Drop Forging.— The Frame not the Heaviest part of the Machine;— The Wheels, the Tires, etc. . 319 SOAP. What Is Soap?— Its History.— Saltpeter.— Soap- Making.— Toilet Soap.— Castile Soap.— Transparent Soap 323 CONTENTS. IX I,IGHT AND H^AT. page Theory of Light.— Chassagne's Photographs.— The Colortypes. — The Stereoscope.— Heat.— Kerosene.— The Oil Wells.— The Pipes and Refineries.— Gas.— Coke.— Our Gas Meters.— The Pintsch Light on Railroad Cars.— " Natural Gas "—Coal.— Coal Min- ing.— Geology,— Peat. — Charcoal. —Electric Heat 330 ICE. Ice Is Water from which Half the Heat has Been Taken.— Ice-mak- ing Machinery. — ^The Ice Factory - - • "^50 OUR CI/OTHES. Antiquity of Cloth-Making.— Silk, the Worm, the Cocoon, the Threads, the Raw Silk-Throwing, Water in Silk, Scouring, Mourning Crape, the Wonderful Use of Tin, Artificial Silk, Satin. — History of Silk.— The Loom, its Antiquity, the Jacquard Loom, the Parts of a Loom, Why Looms are Noisy, Jacquard Cards. — Velvet Carpet. — Chinchilla. — Felt. — Gauze. — Lace. Cotton. — Its History ; the Cotton Gin, Spinning, the Machines, the Opener, the Lapper, the Scutcher, the Carding Engine, the Combing Machine, the Drawing Frame, the Slubbing Frame, the Roving Frame, the Throttle and the Mule-jenny; Arkwright and Hargreaves. — Thread and Thread-making; His- tory of Spools; Crotchet-Thread. — Lace on the Looms. — Looms in America. — Uses of Cotton Cloth. — Calico, the Press, Uses of Tin, Again; Finishing Calico; Uses of Chlorine. Wool. — Its Nature; the Scribbler; Wool Cloth- Finishing; Broadcloths and Meltons; Stuffs, Cassimeres,etc.; Classification;- Worsteds. Carpet- Weaving. — Ingrain, Brussells, Moquette and Wilton, Tapestry, Brussels, Axminster, etc. Felt.— How made; Felt Hats.— Silk Plush for Hats.— Shoddy. Linen. — Its Nature; Preparation of the Flax. — How Oil Cloth is Made and Printed. — Linoleum. — Lincrusta- Walton. — Straw Goods. — Textile Grasses. — The Textile Arts in General 355 INDIA rubb:er. Its Nature. — Gutta Percha. — Uses of Rubber. — Caoutchouc. — Raw Material. — The Masticator. — Vulcanization. — Hose. — Balls. — Woven-Goods. — Overshoes. — Clothes. — Combs. — False Teeth. — Goodyear and Mackintosh 408 X CONTENTS. NBBDI/15S AND PINS. page How Needles are Made.— The Polish.— History of the Needle. — The Sewing Machine. — How Pins are Made. — Mourning Pins. — Safety Pins. — What Becomes of the Pins ? , 416 GI^ASS. Its Nature. — How to Make It. — Glass Molds.— Glass Blowing.—In- scriptions. — The Gluhey and the Leer. — Lead Glass. — Window Glass.— The Blower.— Plate Glass.— Cut Glass.— Bohemian Ware.— Wire in Glass. — The Portland Vase 421 pap:^r. Its Nature, Uses and History. — Papyrus. — Wood Pulp from Spruc-e Trees.— Its Manufacture. — Sulphite Fibre. — The Paper Ma- chine. — Rag Paper. — Calendared Paper. — Water Marks — Glaze. — Ruling. — Wall Paper — Papier Mache. — False Faces... 429 CHINA, :etc. Man's First Dish. — The Flower Pot. — Why the Egyptians put Straw in their Bricks before Firing. — The Potter's Wheel. — The Glaze. — Stone Crocks. — What Makes Porcelain. — How we Learned from the Chinese. — Marco Polo. — Kaolin. — The Slip. — The Blue pictures on Chinese Ware. — The Kilns. — In Europe. — Interesting History. — Sevres. — Painting. — The Japanese. — American Kaolin. — Modern Colors. — ^Tiles. — Terra Cotta 437 match:es. Prometheus. — The Lamp of Fire. — Starting Fire. — Flint and Steel —The Bottle-Matches.— The Locofocos.— Safety Matches. — Wood for Matches. — Machinery 453 ASTRONOMY. Sir Isaac Newton. — The Universe. — Theory of its Shape. — The Moon. The Sun. — Sun Dogs. — Mercury. — Venus. — Life on Venus, if it Exists.— Orbit of the Earth.— The Atmosphere —The Moon Again. — The Moon is Dead. — Pictures of Mars. — Mars' Moons. Bode's Law. — The Asteroids. — Jupiter. — Jupiter's Eclipses. Saturn. — The Wonderful Rings of Saturn.— Saturn's Moons. Uranus. — Neptune. — The Finding of Neptune. — Herschel's Illustrations. — The Zodiac. — The Stars. — Celestial Distances. Parallax. — Calculi. — Illustration of a Simple Calculus. — Gravi- tation. — Account of Newton's Labors. — Halley and Bradley. Herschel. — Piazzi. — D'Alembert, Clairaut, and Euler. — Arago. Leverrier. — La Place. — His Great Book, called "La Mecanique Celeste." — Its Contents. — Lord Rosse. — His Big Telescope. Proctor. — His Lectures. — The Leading Observatories. — Stan- ford. — Yerkes* Telescope. — Present Aspect ol the Science. . 459 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FrONTISPIEJCE. Page. E1.ECTRICITY. Scene in Metropolitan Power-House a 17 Morse's First Telegraph , 22 Apparatus for Ocean Messages by Wire 24 Diagram of the Above Apparatus 25 The Rogers' Typewriter Preparing Tape 27 1 View of Type Arms ; 27 2 Type Magnified 27 Transmitting the Dispatch , 28 Windlass Plunge Carbon-Zinc Battery for Gold, Silver, Nickel-Plat- ing, Electric Light, Etc ^ 29 First Brush Arc Dynamo, 1877 ^o i6-Light, 2,000 Candle Power, Brush Arc Dynamo, Used Fourteen Years 13 Diagram to Illustrate the Theory of the Brush Dynamo 34 Armature, Commuta!tor and Pulley End a 25 Armature, Core and Commutator ^ a 3'5 A Multipolar (^Many Poles) Dynamo 27 Negro's First Electric Motor ^q A Thomson-Houston Stationary Motor 40 A Trolley Train in the Coal Regions 42 The Chloride Accumulator as Used in Modern Great Plants 44 The Electrical Machinery Which Propels the Trolley Car a 41 Zipernowsky's Early Lamp cq The Brush Light ^j Stages in the Making of Incandescent Lamps 52 Electric Fountain eg The Search Light and its Electric Arc Light 60 Maxim's Meter .- , 5^ Bell's Second Telephone 54 Gray's Telephone 65 Bell's Receiver 57 Xll TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Electricity.— Cont'd. Page. Bell's Telephone Mouth-Piece , 68 Blake's Transmitter 69 Edison's Carbon Speaking Telephone 70 Plante's Battery (Paris) as He Perfected It Before he Died 72 Samples of Telautographic Writing 74 The Telautograph — Transmitting and Receiving Instrument a 73 Tesla's Oscillator 79 Taking Photographs and Words for the Kinetoscope-Phonograph. . 82 1 The Five Thousand Horse Power Dynamo at Niagara 84 2 Cross Section of Same 84 3 Interior of Power-House and Wheel Pit 84 Dynamo, Hand-Power, for Electroplating, Etc 88 The X Ray. Portrait of Dr. Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen . , 94 A Fancy Geissler Tube 96 Apparatus for X Ray, with Fluoroscope a 97 Portrait of Thomas A. Edison a loi Edison's X Ray Lamp loi Bell's Radiophone 102 Bell's Selenium Cell 103 The P.uhmkorfi Coil 104 Compressed Air. The Rand Direct-Acting Air Compressor 107 Rock Drilling with Compressed Air 108 Bread, Etc. Planting Rice.. 112 Kuni's Apparatus for Testing the Baking Value of Flour 116 The Rice Plant 119 Malay Women Pounding and Sifting Rice 120 Transplanting Rice 121 Rice Mill at Saeong 124 Digestor for Starch Determination 126 Butter, Cheese, Etc. Koenig's Apparatus for Distinguishing Margarine from Butter 131 Krocker's Cream Measurer. 132 Soxhlet's Apparatus for Determining fat in Milk 134 Babcock's Milk-Testing Apparatus 135 A Cheese Grotto at Bertrich-Baden 136 Amagat-Jean's Oleo-Refractroscope for Testing Butter or Oils 137 Cheshire Cheese Press 140 TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xiii Fruit. page Gathering Dates , 148 Spices. The Pepper Plant 172 Chinese Ginger Plant 174 Branch from a Cinnamon Tree 176 Tea, Coffee, Etc. The Coffee Market of Pagen-Alam, Malaysia 180 The Coffee Plant and Its Parts '. 183 A Coffee Estate in Ceylon 185 The Tea Plant 187 Vinegar, Etc. Twitchell's Apparatus for Determining the Strength of Vinegar. . . 201 Salt. Interior of a Salt Mine 206 Spectroscope. The Spectroscope 2i3 Obtaining a Spectrum 214 Principles of the Spectroscope — i Prism. 2 Tube Through which the Light Passes. 3 Eye Pieces. 4 Scale 214 Spectral Apparatus for Showing Spectral Lines on a Screen 215 Browning's Spark Condenser to Make Sparks for Spectral Analysis 217 Herrmann's Haemoscope, or Blood-Testing Apparatus 218 Chemistry. Prof. Liebig in His Laboratory 224 Christomann's Apparatus for Discovering the Melting Point, with Electric Signal 227 Humboldt in His Study 228 Prof. Jolly's Apparatus for Determining the Specific Gravity of Minerals 229 Westfall's Apparatus for Obtaining the Specific Gravity of Liquids. 230 Lux's Balance for Weighing Gases 230 Bunsen's Apparatus for Obtaining the Volume of Chlorine 231 Apparatuses for Determining Molecular Weight 232 WoUaston's Reflecting Angle Measurer for Crystals 234 Apparatus for Comparing the Specific Heat of any Two Bodies 235 Thermometer Measuring as High as 2,700 degrees above zero, Fah- renheit 242 XIV TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Chemistry.— Cont'd. page. Automatic Low Pressure Air Pump for the distillation of metals and Unstable Substances in the Hydro-Carbons 243. Instructive View of Chemical Apparatus 244 Apparatus to Find the Quantity of Alcohol in Beverages, Etc 245 Apparatus for Determining the Ammonia in Plants and Vegetable Extracts 248 Woulff's Colorometer for Inspecting Aniline Dyes, 249 A Nitrogen Bulb 252 Apparatus for Quick Analysis of Air, Etc 252 Schellbach's Apparatus for Measuring Nitrogen in Gun Cotton and Other Explosives 253 Apparatus for the Manufacture of Ammonia 253 Apparatus for Analyzing the Soil 254 Woulff's Bottle for Hydrogen 255 McLeod's Air Gauge for Measuring Air Pressure Down to Ten- millionths of the Atmosphere 255 A Distillery, for Water 256 Apparatus for Measuring the Volume of Hydrogen 257 Kcehler's Gas Generator for Making Chlorine 258 Machine for Measuring the Volume of the Element Fluorine. ..... 259 The Crater of Vesuvius 260 Apparatus for Finding and Measuring Sulphur 261 Mitscherlich's Apparatus for the Determination of Phosphorus 264 Platinum Apparatus for Assaying Precious Metals 283 Marsh's Apparatus for Determining Arsenic 287 Sugar. Sugar, from Field to Hogshead 294 Sugar Cane Afloat 296 Apparatus for Measuring the Calcium in Sugar 298 Centrifugal Sugar Machines 299 Dubose-Soliel's Apparatus for Color- Analysis of Sugar 300 Apparatus for Finding the Alkalinity of Sugar 302 Szombathy's Apparatus for Determining the Sugar in Beets 304 Apparatus for the Exact Analysis of Sirups and Molasses 306 The Polariscope 306 Triple Effect Evaporation 311 Light and Heat. How Professor Pepper Made His Celebrated Ghost 329 The Stereopticon 332 Tagliabue's Apparatus for Testing Coal Oil 335 Diagram of a Steel Rig for Drilling Oil Wells 336 TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XV Light and Heat.— Cont'd. pask. Apparatus for Illustrating the Manufacture of Illuminating Gas 340 The Rose-Hastings Coal-Gas Apparatus 341 Apparatus for Gas Analysis 342 Ice. Ice- Making Machine 352 C1.0THES, Etc. Cotton from Field to Factory 354 Pre-historic Flax Cloth from a Lake Dwelling 355 Silk Fibres on the Microscope's Slide , 356 Silk-Secreting Apparatus in the Worm 357 Apparatus for Stifling the Silk Worm 358 Conditioning Apparatus ......' 360 Japanese Silk Operatives Feeding Silk Worms a 361 Silk Worm Rearing Establishment 364 Loom, 500 years B. C, showing Beam with Threads Hanging Open — From a Greek Vase. — Penelope 366 Turkish Women Weaving Rugs 367 Loom of an East Indian, Still in Use 368 A Japanese Silk Loom a 369 Power Loom 369 Hand Loom ; 370 Cotton Fibre 374 Three-Cylinder Cotton Opener, Beater and Lap Machine 377 Cotton Slubbing Frame 378 Cotton Drawing Frame 380 Cotton Roving Frame , 382 Throstle with Spindles and Flyers for Coarse Cotton Spinning 383 Self- Acting Mule for Fine Cotton Spinning 385 Continuous Hank Drying Machine (Cotton) 386 A Lace-Maker at Work 388 Wool Fibre 392 Wool Scribbler, with Diagrams 393 Woolen-Cloth Open- Width Scouring Machine 394 Mixing- Willey for Shoddy 399 A. Flax Plant. B. Flower. C. Fruit 401 Flax Spinners 402 The Jute Plant '. 406 India Rubber. The India Rubber Plant 409 xvi TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Gl^ASS. PAOB. Fashioning Glass Shades 422 Molding Common Tumblers 423 China. The Potter » » . 436 The Slip House 440 The Dipping Room 443 Gilding the Porcelain 445 Porcelain — Biscuit Scouring 447 Matches. Starting Fire , , . . 454 Astronomy. Sir Isaac Newton » , 458 Parhelia, or Mock Suns 462 Orbit of the Earth 466 The Aspects of Mars 474 The Constellation Orion , 532 Fi2. 18. SCENE IX THE METROPOLTTAX ELEVATED POWER HOUSE, CHICAGO, ILL. 800 and 1500 Kilowatt Direct-Driven Railway Generators. ,J„, )Electdciti2. • ,X, ^>^^/ /j Electricity ? It is believed to be one of the many demonstrations of what may plainly be called physical force. What are the other leading demonstratio7is of physical force ? They are called Motion, Heat, Light, Magnetism and Chemical Affinity. Are there still other forms of force ? Yes. Gravitation, Inertia, Aggregation and Animal Life itself. What is the doctri7ie of the conservation and correlation of forces ? It is a theory, promulgated as early as January, 1842, by William Robert Grove, and in 1843 advocated or demonstrated by Dr. J. P. Joule, both Englishmen, to the effect that light, heat, motion, electricity, etc., can be turned into one another without loss — in other words, that both motion and matter are indestructible. When did this theory become com,m,on with all classes of the people? As early as 1S70. Will you describe Electricity as Grove described it ? "Electricity is that affection of matter or mode of force which most distinctly and beautifully relates other modes of force, and 2-17 18 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. exhibits, to a great extent in a quantitative form, its own relation with them, and their reciprocal relations with it, and with each other." To what form of force can you most readily liken it ? To the X ray. Electricity, is in.visible, formless, without taste or smell, and acts through bodies of matter. Why is it, so far as the people are concerned, the most' inter- esting form of force? Because there is a likelihood that Electricity will furnish light, heat, transportation and traction power, news-transmission, and possibly medical aid to all the people. Should such results be accomplished, what good would follow ? The hard labor of the world would be reduced almost to zero, and the mental progress of the people would be enhanced. What cosmic theory seems to flourish most generally zvith the scientist ? The etheric theory, which supposes that all bodies of matter are comparatively loose aggregations of atoms (molecules), through which the ether moves as easily as water through gravel. What follows ? It may be that each molecule revolves in its own orbit or vortex. Certain forces may rnake the atoms go round one way and other forces may reverse the motion. What other action may take placel Certain forces may decompose the molecules, causing them to unite differently. When Electricity is used as this decomposing force, what is the act of decomposition called ? Electrolysis. Here is. the theory of Grotthus: Two plates of opposing metals — say a sheet of zinc and a sheet of copper — are immersed in sour water after the manner of the Voltaic battery. One of the sheets of metal attracts the molecule of oxygen in the nearest molecule of water, and the oxygen separates from the hydrogen which is its companion. This ELECTRICITY. 19 hydrogen, thus left alone, goes over and joins the next water , molecule, which forces away some more hydrogen, to go to the next molecule, and so across to the other metal plate, the so-called current being nothing else than this molecular movement. This, you will notice, presupposes that water is a mass of hydrogen-oxygen molecules poised in the etheric fluid or medium. What is Catalysis ? It is the name of a class of remarkable phenonriena. For instance : — Oxygen is a gas ; so is hydrogen. Mix these two gases and they will remain in an unaltered state. Introduce a thin sheet of platinum, and the gases will combine, but no change whatever has taken place in the platinum. Where does the word Electricity originate ? In the Greek word Electron — that is, amber. Amber was one of the chief articles of commerce with the Phoenicians, before the days of the Greeks. The Phoenicians had a route across Europe from Lyons to the North Sea, where they gathered the gum. Thales, the Greek philosopher, 600 B. C, studied the attractive power of amber when rubbed. Was amber the only body that could be rendered attract- ive by rubbing ? No, it was eventually found that if any two bodies were rub- bed the one might attract and the other repel light substances, such as hairs and feathers. Thus, Electricity came to be called positive and negative, and in the books of to-day the Electricity set up in glass is called positive or plus and that set up in resins is called negative or fninus. Two plus bodies repel each other. Two minus bodies repel each other. One minus body repels a non-electric body. All other combinations in which ovi^ plus body enters attract each other. Is the electrical spark Electricity f No. Grove early taught that there could be no emanation of the electric fluid, for, in his opinion, no fluid existed. Two electrodes, after contact and gradual separation, could in those days be widened (in a vacuum) as much as seven inches. 20 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. and the brilliant light would travel across in a steady stream. This light was discovered by Grove to be an emission of the matter itself from the point whence the fire issued, and a molecular action of the medium, (air, gas or ether) across which the light was transmitted. Thus the streak of lightning is red-hot air. The color of the Voltaic arc— (^r^ here means the streak of fire, because in the days of Sir Humphrey Davy, when the metal electrodes or carbon candles were always held horizontally, the fire in crossing curved upward, an action due to atmosphere and earth magnetism) — this color varies with the metal used for the transmission of the Electricity. With zinc, the light is blue; with silver, green; with iron, red. A portion of the metal is also found to be transmitted with the discharge. Is the arc light an ignition or a combustion ? Not strictly either. The matter which separates is more than heated, therefore it is not ignition. It is not combustion, for the arc will play in a vacuum, or without air, oxygen, or any of the bodies usually necessary when matter is chemically united with the attendant phenomena of light and heat. Again, in a vacuum, the electrodes deposit their particles on the inside of the receiver, and these particles are in an unaltered state. What hypothesis would it be wise for the unscientific student or thinker to adopt concerning force ? It liiay be recommended, as the simplest plan, to regard the Sun as the original engine of force, and what we call Light as the means of transmission of the sun's force to the Earth. Then every demonstration of force that we see had its origin in the Sun, and was stored in the Earth before it was liberated, or unbalanced. Thus useful Electricity is always obtained at a great expenditure of other power, and only with attendant loss. When the amber was rubbed, the power used in rubbing it was conserved or stored in the amber, ready to be liberated into the body of matter that was in the best state of affinity. When the amber was rubbed, would the amoimt of rubbing make any difference, and would a piece of amber give off more or less poiuer ? ELECTRICITY. 21 Yes. It was early determined that the terms Resistance, Electro-motive Force, Capacity, Quantity, Work, Induction and Power might be distinctively applied to bodies that had> been rubbed, or to bodies that were contributory or dependent on the rubbed bodies of matter. As electrical science developed, it became as necessary to measure by these terms as to measure wheat by the bushel or cloth by the yard. What is the system of electrical measurement? The fifty-third Congress of the United States, in 1894, passed a law that establishes and defines (1) the ohm as the unit of resistance; (2) the ampere as the unit of current; (3) the volt as the unit of electro-motive force; (4) the farad as the unit of ca- pacity; (5) the coulomb as the unit of quantity: (6) the Joule as the unit of work; (7) the Watt as the unit of power; (8) the Henry as the unit of induction. Do these names have any historical significance ? Yes. They honor the memories of George Simon Ohm, of Cologne, Germany, who discovered the law of electric currents, in 1827; of Andre Ampere, of Paris, who applied the term elec- tro-dynamics to his discoveries in 1826; of Alessandro Volta, of Italy, who invented the Voltaic pile in 1792, of Charles Au- gustin de Coulomb, of Paris, who invented the Torsion Balance about 1779 ; of Michael Faraday, the great English experi- menter ; of James P. Joule, of England, one of the founders of the theory of the correlation of forces ; of James Watt, inventor of the steam engine; and, finally, of Professor Joseph Henry, of Princeton College, New Jersey, who invented the first electrical engine or machine, and died in 1878. After concluding this chapter, you would do well to return and review these two par- agraphs. Can these measures be clearly and briefly defined in common language? No. Excepting that the coulomb, or unit of quantity, is legally declared to be the quantity of electricity transferred by a cur- rent of one ampere in one second of time. 23 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Proceed now to the useful features of the Electric Age. The first and perhaps the most important invention was the Electric Telegraph. Benjamin Franklin sent a kite into the skies and obtained the electric spark from the key at the end of the wet string immediately after a thunder-clap. It was thus shown that Electricity acted through the wet kite-string, Franklin's discovery created a sensation at Paris, where he had many political and scientific friends and admirers. Fig. 1. MORSE'S FIRST TELEGRAPH. ELECIRICITY. 23 Who was Morse? Samuel Finley Breece Morse was a portrait-painter, and Pres- ident of the New York National Academy. But at Yale College he had attended the scientific lectures of Professor Silliman, who had been sent to Europe by the Puritans to learn science with- out departing from the colonial religion. Morse was returning from Europe a second time when he heard on shipboard that the scientists of Paris *'had sent a spark of Electricity through a wire from magnet to magnet." It is said that, on hearing this news, and understanding that the armature of the magnet could be pulled back and forth across the space where the spark leaped, Morse went into his stateroom and invented the tele- graphic ''key'' or lever and dot-dash-space system of signals by which the world for fifty years transmitted its news. What did Morse do next ? Arriving in New York he made his machines, — for the dots and dashes were to be impressed on strips of paper, as it was not then known that the human ear could readily understand their significance. Men of middle-age can recall the strips of paper at the railroad stations where the telegraph was first used. These strips were like those now used for the ^'ticker." Morse secured for a business partner, Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University, and Congress appropriated forty thousand dollars for the experiments. With this money a wire was strung from Washington to Baltimore. The first message was sent May i, 1843, ^'^^ the machine, as well as the strip of paper on which the first message was impressed, was exhibited in the east gal- lery of the Electricity Building at the World's Fair of 1893. The tape and clock train were abandoned in practical work as early as 1864. In 1858, a Congress of European Commissioners pre- sented Professor Morse with a purse of eighty thousand dollars. The great inventor died in 1872. What was the next important development of the Telegraph ? The Atlantic Ocean cable, laid in 1857, which broke almost immediately, was the work of Cyrus Field, who subsequently became the chief promoter of this form of enterprise. There was no ocean cable during the civil war in America. The first 24 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. success was attained in 1866, and afterward, with John Pender, of London, Field laid cables all over the world, and acquired an enormous fortune, which was seriously impaired late in his life. He died in 1895, and John Pender in 1896. How are Electric Ocean Cables made ? In various ways. By Professor William Thomson's improved method, the core is a strand of fine copper wires, say seven in number, which are themselves made sticky with tar, resin and gutta percha. This core is then wrapped by several coat- ings of gutta percha, generally four. In applying the first coat- ing care is taken to exclude bubbles of air, as these would work to the surface in the deep sea, puncturing the strongest cable. After the four coatings, the cable is stored in a tank of water and tested with currents of Electricity. It is then wrapped with tarred jute, or yarn, or hemp — called the **soft bed" for the sheath. Soft iron sheathing wires, themselves covered with two servings of tarred canvas tape or tarred hemp, are now twisted on the cable. All these twistings and envelop- ings are done by machinery. Fig. 2. APPARATUS FOR OCEAN MESSAGES BY WIRE. How is the cable paid into ship ? It goes into a steel tank with a cone in the centre. Each layer of cable, called a '^ flake," is covered with boards. The m " T'] Fig. 11. ARMATURE COMPLETE. COMMUTATOR END. Fig. 12. ARMATURE COMPLETE. PULLEY END. ELECTRICITY. 25 cable goes out of ship over a "bow-sheave/' and a dynamometer registers the amount of tension on the cable. When the cable breaks, the ship sinks a grapnel to the bottom, and drags the bottom until the dynamometer shows that the thing pulling is a cable and not a rock or ooze. The North Atlantic has eleven cables lying on its bottom. Africa is surrounded. The 120,000 miles of cable in operation in 1897 had cost $200,000,000. The steamship Great Eastern laid the first one. How are cable messages read? A lamp is lit in a dark chamber. Its rays strike a small mir- ror, which is moved by the feeble current in the cable. The rays are reflected back upon a fine scale, and thus the meaning of the mirror's movements is made apparent. (See Figs. 2 and 3.) The rays of the lamp pass through a slit m mi, and into a lens L. The scale is at t t. The mirror S is swung on silk threads, and responds to the current in the coil that wraps the standard supporting the mirror. When Fig. 3. DIAGRAM OF THE APPARATUS. there is no current, the ray is in the centre of the scale at zero. To operate this apparatus through the longest cable, only a small Voltaic battery is required. Did Morse invent the word Telegraph ? No. The telegraph was in use in Europe during the time of Louis XIV., and St. Simon speaks of it. Signals were sent by semaphore, but could only be operated in good weather. 26 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What improvements have been made in the art of Telegraphy ? We may mention the multiplex system, by which many mes- sages are sent on the same wire at the same time, the "Wall Street Ticker," the recent improvements on the original ticker, by which all sorts of news are delivered to the subscriber in leg- ibly printed form, with wide lines, and the still more recent Ro- gers Synchronous wheel. What is Multiplex ? A telegraph wire runs, say, from Chicago to St. Louis. At each end of the wire branches are run to various receiving in- struments, Pairs of vibrators (buzzers), opening and closing the lines with great rapidity, are going at each pair of end keys — that is, branch No. i at Chicago, has a vibrator going that acts (''sings") in exactly the same time (and tone) with branch No. I at St. Louis. The vibrators for branch No. 2 are alike, but different in time from those of No. i. If we suppose that the current in the wir& acts like waves on the water, then we may understand that we could start all sorts of waves in the water, some on top of the others. The instrument set to lecord the little waves will hear only those. That is, the current is a set of the smallest waves that go over the wire. So when a signal is sent through these little waves, only the operator with the in- strument set for little waves hears it. His instrument does not act for any of the other v/aves that are passing in the main wire. So far as he knows, there is only one message on the wire, and that is the one he is receiving. Edison discovered and first worked on this principle. What is the history of the Stock Ticker ? It was called Law's Gold Indicator, when it was brought out in Wall street, to publish the latest quotations for gold on the Exchange — for from 1862 until J879 gold was at a premium over "greenbacks" in America. The Ticker is still used, under a large glass bulb. The subscriber pays so much rent, and the inspector-brings rolls of paper tape and keeps the inking ribbon in order. The type-writing machine, with its ribbon, is a direct outgrowth of this invention. The wheel or wheels on which the ELECTRICITY. 27 type are carried are operated by electric currents, and a weight and apparatus which is now self-winding gives the printing force to the instrument. Colahan, Phelps and others improved this very useful machine, which carries the market-prices of staples and securities all over the United States. The Ex- changes of other nations have always been withoiit* this conve- nience. What is the Rogers Synchronous Wheel ? It is a new invention, first put in operation by the United States Postal Printing Telegraph Company. First the message Fig. 4. ROGERS' TYPEWRITER PREPARING TAPE. is printed on a Rogers Typewriter, which prepares or perforates A Fig 5. A VIEW OF TYPEARMS. B TYPE MAGNIFIED. 28 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. a tape. This tape is then put on the Synchronous Wheel, and a wheel at the other end of the line reproduces the tape. The Synchronous Wheel operates on the principle of Gally's auto- matic wind music, the perforated paper serving as a guide for the eight styluses that pass over the ribbon. The reproduction Fig. 6. TRANSMITTING THE DISPATCH. of the message at the other end is automatic, and depends on the speed at which the wheels are run. Five hundred words have been transmitted in a minute. Is the Morse key still in use ? Yes. At the operating rooms of the great Exchanges, the po- litical conventions, race-tracks, ball games, and outdoor sports generally, the Morse process is usually seen, although the re- ceivers now-a-days use a type writer wherever convenient, and thus issue the message in a more legible form. Various cipher codes for shortening phrases are of course in use. Most Board of Trade and Stock Exchange firms, also, use their own cipher codes in sending and receiving dispatches. The Morse Telegraph in 1897, as for fifty years before, was an essential element of commercial and financial operations. How swiftly does Electricity act i^t the best mediums? It is said that it will act through 700,000 miles of the best copper wire in one second. The usual speed is stated to be 192,000 miles a second. But messages through an ocean cable are received slowly, through light-signals thrown on a screen in a dark room. No cable crosses the Pacific Ocean, but telegraphic messages may be sent from San Francisco ELECTRICITY, 29 to New Zealand, and defaulting criminals have thus been apprehended. All that yo7i have described so far is accomplished without a steam eiigine or otJicr power ? Yes. Only batteries made of jars of water and acids with plates of metal are needed. The decomposition of the metals Fig. 7. BATTERY. and water sets up currents of Electricity in the wires that run out of and into the batteries. Dynamos have lately come into use, however. What is the next most important triumph in Electricity ? The making of the Dynamo, through a study of the laws of Induction. What is Induction ? If the force of Electricity be set at work in a certain con- ductor, it will often set up a line of action in a neighboring but not a connecting conductor. The needle of a mariner's com- 30 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Fig. 8. FIRST BRUSH ARC DYNAMO 1877. pass will turn at right angles to the direction of a current of Electricity, if brought within the field of Induction. WJiy is Induction especially important in a popular sense ? Because it is a chief element in the success of the Dy- namo. This machine was first made by Pixii. It was varied and improved by Ritchie, Saxton, Clark, Von Ettings" hausen, St oh re r, Dove, Wheatstone — and finally by Sie- mens, Halske, Brush, Edison, Burgin, Crompton, Weston, Thomson, Houston, Westinghouse, Tesla and others. If a wire or conductor moves across a Magnetic Field, a current of Electricity passes through the wire. W/iat is a Magnet ? The Magnet that man first found was an iron ore called the lode-stone — the protoxidjs of iron. The Greeks mined it in the region called Magnesia, hence the name of Magnet. It would attract pieces of iron, etc., if they came within a certain distance. Within this distance was called the Magnetic Field. Upon your understanding of the existence and importance of this Magnetic Field depends the entire value of this chapter, for the very principle of modern Electricity lies in the mak- ing of Magnetic Fields and the rapid pushing of circuits of wire through those Fields. What was the first great use to ivhich this loadstone was put 7 It was used to point north and south in the Red and Mediter- ranean Seas. The Arabs introduced the mariner's compass into Spain, and thus the great ocean voyages of Vasco, Colum- bus and Magellan became possible. On the way to an under- standing of the Dynamo, let us note that every Magnet has a north and a south end or pole. The north end will repel the ELECTRICITY. 31 north end of another Magnet, and attract the south end. The Magnet is bent into the form of a horse-shoe merely in order to get the attractive effect of both poles at once. A straight Mag- net is just as much of a Magnet. \\ hat iviportant tiling is first to be said of the Magnetic Field of a Magnet? Lines of Force circulate in it, and through the Magnet. If we lay a straight Magnet fiat on a table, lay a sheet of paper on the Magnet, a sheet of glass on the paper, and sprinkle fine iron filings from a pepper-box evenly over the glass, and gently tap the glass while sprinkling the filings, they will arrange them- selves along the Lines of Force of that Magnet. Many circular lines will be formed, of which the Magnet-bar itself is the diameter, while other lines will radiate from each pole. It is supposed that the molecules within the bar of steel (the Magnet) arrange themselves in order, like the filings, wherever a Line of Force traverses the bar. Faraday made a wonderful study of these Lines of Force. The Magnetic Field is the most im- portant thing that is yet known of Electricity. More Electricity can be gathered by mere Induction to unconnected wires than can be gathered by any sort of rubbing or friction. Remember that it is not ordinary friction that causes the currents of Elec- tricity that move with so much power nowadays. Metals are merely moved with great swiftness and frequency near other metals, the second ones having been previously magnetized. Houj did the electricians improve the ordinary steel magnet ? They invented the Electro-Magnet, which is a rod or bar of soft iron wound with small wrapped wire. Through this little helical wire a current of electricity is sent, when the bar of soft iron within becomes a powerful Magnet, setting up strong Lines of Force, but ceasing to. act as a Magnet as soon as the current ceases in the little wire. The Electro-Magnet was invented seventy years ago. Prof. Oersted, of Copenhagen, had discov- ered that the magnetic needle would turn at right angles to the direction of a current in a wire, if brought within the Magnetic field. 32 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, Proceed to the Dynamo, We now have our Electro-Magnet, with its Magnetic Field, in which Lines of Force, like X rays, are playing, and piercing matter as easily as air. We say '^playing" and ''piercing," though it is not known that the lines move. We opine that In- duction is the result of Lines of Force — that is, if one wire without a current receive a current from a parallel charged wire, the Lines of Force were set up in little circles, whose circumfer- ences touched the two wires, and set their molecules in line crosswise of the wires. We now come to the wire or wires which are themselves to be set in motion in the Magnetic Field, so that currents will be set up in those moving (rotating) wires. First describe the simplest Dynamo that could be made ? We would set the north pole of any Magnet before us. We would fit a yard or two of wire together at the ends (making a hoop) for a '^ closed circuit." We would take hold of the wire with both hands, stretching a couple of feet of the wire out straight. We would lower our two hands past the north pole of the Magnet, not touching it, the wire stretching from hand to hand, and the pole being at one time between the hands, and a current would pass around the wire in one direction. We would lift the wire up past the Magnet again, and a current would pass over the wire in the opposite direction. How can we increase the power of this Dynamo ? In three ways. First, by making a stronger Magnet; second, by increasing the number of wires passed before the Magnet; third, by passing the wire faster. And this is the principle of the machines which send power to-day over such vast areas of territory. What is Armature ? It is armor. The word was first used to describe what is now called the *' keeper " — the bar of iron which, when put on the poles of a horse-shoe Magnet, would hold the magnetism in the ''horse-shoe." Next, it was applied to any bar that moved back and forth from the poles of the Magnet. Now it is applied to the built-up shaft (see Figs, ii and 12) which revolves on the Fig. 13. ARMATURE CORE. Fig. 14. COMMUTATOR. ELECTRICITY. 33 great Dynamos inside their many (multipolar) Magnetic Fields. Let us suppose a belt coming from a steam engine to this shaft, and acting on a small wheel so that the shaft will go very swiftly. Fig. 9. 16 LIGHT, 2000 CANDLE POWER. BRUSH ARC DYNAMO. USED FOURTEEN YEARS. Next let US see how the shaft is built up. The Laminated Core is first built. On the slim steel shaft is put a heavy cast- iron disk, in which are bolt-holes. Then a mica-disk is strung on; then a thin sheet-iron disk; then mica again, and thin sheet iron again, until at last a second heavy cast-iron plate finishes. Then these disks are bolted together and the whole shaft turned smooth in a lathe. This is done to secure a cool shaft, or it would set up so many currents of its own that it would burn out. (See Figs, ii and 12.) What come next ? The wires— just as we passed the wire in the Magnetic Field before the Magnet — are now to be passed, only with extraordi- nary speed and in great numbers. They are cut in pieces as long as the set of disks, and each heavy wire is covered with some 34 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. body of matter that does not readily carry Electricity. As the Roman bundle of sticks could not be broken when bound together, so the union of all these short wires increases their FIG. 10. DIAGRAM TO ILLUSTRATE THE THEORY OP THE BRUSH DYNAMO. The bobbins ^2 and ^5 are two opposite coils, connected to a slit oollar. Each pair of opposite coils is similarly connected with its own collar, and all the collars are grouped in two sets, forming the commutators Cj, C2; Al and A5 are connected with the first collar, A3 and A7 with the second, A2 and A6 with the third, and A4 and A8 with the fourth. The collars 1 and 2 form the first, and the collars 3 and 4 the second commutator. The upper brush of the first and the lower of the second commutator lead to the arms of magnets, the others to the outer circuit. When the bobbins Al A5 are passing between the poles of the magnets, the current passes as follows: Starting from the bobbin Al, it passes to Cl, thence through the brush Bl, to the electro magnets JV5, Nl, Si, S2, in order, and thenbaclc to B2 and the commutator C2, thence through the brush B3 to the external circuit for light- ing or trolley, thence to Bi !tud commutator Cl to A5 and back to Al. magnetic power. It may well be called the Fasces of the Twentieth Century. The wires are bound on the shaft with bands of German silver. When the armature for the Dynamo for the Intra-mural Elevated Railroad at the World's Fair v/as built up, it was made so large and heavy that it was feared it could never be carried out of Jackson Park. Now, when this shaft of wires revolves in the powerful Field of an Electro-Magnet currents will pass back and forth through all these wires. But we do not want the currents to go in two ways. We do not want Alternating Currents. How, then, to Commute, to ex- change the currents into one direction. ELECTRICITY. 35 Explain the idea of the Commutator ? At the end of the shaft there must be an apparatus for catch- ing the currents at the right time, and causing them to flow into the electric cable altogether. To describe this Commutator, let us imagine a simple Dynamo, made with one circuit of wire strung on a small shaft that revolves in front of a Magnet's pole. Each time the wires pass the pole they will reverse their current, yet the currents can be exchanged, or commuted into another wire, so that they will travel all in one direction. First, mount on the shaft a boss of hard wood. Next, mount on the wooden boss, the segments of a split tube of metal, which are to receive the current from the circuit of wire that revolves before the magnetic pole. These two segments do not enwrap the shaft, but leave spaces of wood between each other. Fixed away from the machine are immovable metal brushes, that rub the parts of the Commutator as it revolves, and an external coil of wire con- nects the two segments of the Commutator. As they revolve they take two currents at each revolution, but as the same one of two brushes always takes only every other current, the current in the external coil always goes the same way, although the current on the shaft Induced by the Magnetic Field is always alternating. The great cables which run along the streets of the city may be called the external coils of great Dynamos that are whirling ceaselessly through Magnetic Fields at the power-houses. ( See Fig. 14.) How are the Commtctators on the great Dynamos arrangedl The Commutator here may be called the changeable connec- tions of the moving wires on the shaft. This Commutator is made of pieces of copper insulated with mica. The brushes which rub on the copper commutator are strips of copper or pieces of carbon, and carry off the current at alternate times, as described in the simple Dynamo. There is no useful Dynamo that does not exhibit the three forms of (i) Magnetic Field, (2) revolving shaft with Armature, (3) Commutator. You said the Electro-Magnet that makes the Magnetic Field had to have a current going round it before it would 'inake a Field. How is that done f 36 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, It is called Exciting. First, it was accomplished by a separate battery of Electricity. Now Dynamos are made into and called Self-Exciters. The Armature on the shaft is connected with the wires that enwrap the Electro-Magnet. There is a feeble mag- netism resident in the iron of the Magnet, and a feeble current sets up in the Armature when it first revolves; that feeble cur- rent goes into the Electro-Magnet, and soon the whole machine is going at full power, the current that enters the big cables being practically continuous. Is some of tJie steam power lost ? Yes. To attract force into the electric cables power is lost. But the advantage lies in the facility with which the electricians can distribute and apply electric power when it has been secured. Power is only gained without effort when we unloose the storage batteries of nature, as in lighting a bed of coal, or engaging chemicals in decomposition. As soon as the steam ceases to Oush the piston, the Dynamo shaft ceases to revolve, and the jable on the street, or the trolley wire overhead ceases to be a '' live " wire. Tell me about Bigelow's demonstration ? In the autumn of 1891, Professor Frank H. Bigelow of Wash- ington, D. C, announced the successful culmination of his labors to show scientifically that the Sun is a Magnet; that the Earth is a Dynamo, and generates Electricity by revolving in front of the Sun. Lagrange of Brussels, had conceived this theory. We now have the big current of electricity in the cables run- ning out of the power-house. Whither does it go ? It goes out by cable and returns through buried wires and by other means to the power-house and the Dynamo. In the old days of the electric telegraph, the operator sank his wire into the earth, and this completed a circuit with any person to whom he was signaling with his key. Whether a line of molecules arranges itself all the way through the earth, or not, we do not know. In the case of the. trolley cars, when the trolley track is laid — and it is a very good one now-a-days — a thick copper wire ELECTRICITY. 37 38 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. is laid alongside one of the two track-rails. The current passes through the car-wheels into the rails, into the copper wire (into the earth also), and back to the Dynamo. Now f 07' the trolley cars. Why are they called trolleys ? In the old days a trolley was a skid, or railway truck. When the trolley was hung on an overhead wire, it was still called a trolley. The first application of Electricity to a surface car was through a trailing car or trolley that hung on a wire. The name was a natural outgrowth of the early conditions. Finally, a pole with a small wheel was pressed against the wire, and it was found that Electricity was so quick that it would come down the pole while the surface of the little wheel touched the wire. This pole is now the trolley-pole. How does the current reach the car-wheels to make thein go ? It comes down the pole to the power-switch, over the motor- man's head. (See page 42.) At the power-switch, power is taken off for light and heat in the car. Between the power- switch and the car-wheels are the lightning-arrester and other devices of a technical nature. A great number of wires are strung through the bottom of the car, in order to make the apparatus operable from either end of the car. What is the Controller ? This is the metallic box standing upright at the left of the motorman. It has two levers. The little one reverses or stops the action of the Electricity. The big one has nine notches of speed at which the car may be run when a full current is on the cables. The motor man usually stops the car with his hand- brake, but he may reverse his current and force his car back- ward by Electricity at pleasure. We have now reached the Motor. What is it ? The Motor is called the Electro-Motor by the electricians. We now come to a statement that must be wonderful to the inquiring mind. We have learned what a Dynamo is. There- fore, take note: '^If a Dynamo," says Maycock, ^* instead of being driven by an engine, and used to give a current, has a current from a separate source (as from another Dynamo), passed ELECTRICITY. 39 through it, its Armature will revolve, and the Dynamo will become an electric engine, capable of driving machinery.^' We saw that the Armature was the built-up shaft of plates and wires Fig. 16. NEGRO'S FIRST ELECTRO-MOTOR. that revolved between the poles of the great Magnets. So if we connected still another Dynamo to this great Magnet, sending the Electricity into the great Magnet, we could take the steam engine^s power off this built-up shaft, and it would go alone. Ac- cordingly, under the street-car is a Dynamo (that is, a Motor), only it is to be run backward — reversed. 40 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Where is this Motor ? The built-up Armature with its surrounding Magnet is not on the shaft of the car-wheels, because it whirls very much faster than the car-wheels. The Armature is on a shaft of its own; Fig. 17. STATIONARY MOTOR. which rests against springs. On this shaft is a little cog-wheel. Of course the little cog-wheel, going so very fast — so fast, that you hear it hum from your car-seat above it, — plays into a sort of clock-work train, and gains all the advantage of leverage in acting on the car-wheel. The springs on the Armature-shaft are there to take up the sudden jerk with which the Armature would elsewise begin its work when the current from the trolley-wire should be sent through the Magnet. Ex plaint the uses of the wires in the street f Running from the Dynamo in the power-house are great electric cables, covered with insulating material. At about every ELECTRICITY. 41 eighth telegraph pole in the street, one of these cables is tapped, and the current seeks an outlet in the wire that runs across the street. Going across the street, the current finds the trolley-wire and greedily enters that. What are the little wires for that form a net-work over the trolley-wires ? They are there only to protect telephone wires fiom falling on the trolley-wires and becoming ''live wires, ^' full of danger, from death and fire, to persons and property. In the early days of the "live wire," in an Eastern city on the Hudson River, a ''live wire" fell on a horse and killed it. A man touched the horse and was killed, and a second man, striving to rescue the first man, was also killed. Beside all these wires, and the one that lies in the track, copper plates are buried deep in the ground at certain distances, and wires run to the plates. The earth itself gives a current from the plates back to the Dynamo in the power house. What is the Elevated Electric Railroad ? The application of the trolley principle, as here described, to the passenger rolling-stock of an elevated railroad of the ancient style. The Electricity is carried in a third T rail, and the trol- leys hang from the trucks of the motor car. This system was exhibited for the first time at the World's Fair in the Intra- Mural Railroad, and was successfully installed by the Metro- politan Elevated Railroad of Chicago, a trunk-line with four branches. Its power-house, with four high vertical engine-dy- namos, is one of the sights of the city. There has been no delay in the operation of the road, all difficulties having been foreseen and provided for. (See Fig. i8.) What is the Electric Bridge ? It is the invention and design of William Scherzer, civil en- gineer, and the first installation was over the Chicago River, on the line of the Metropolitan Electric Elevated, here described. Mr. Scherzer patented his device December 26, 1896. The bridge opens in the middle and each side rises in the air to a vertical po- sition, so that cars cannot run into the river when vessels are 42 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, ELECTRICITY. 43 passing. Each half of the bridge is a rocker, as if two rockins:- chairs were tipped far back and together. At one end is a tower, in which is an electric motor. Power from the trolley-rail runs the motor. The bridge-tender uses a controller, like the devices on the cars. The bridge opens swiftly, and when it closes it locks itself. Four trains frequently stand on this structure at once, and it is treated as one of the strongest places in the right- of-way. The only difficulty that has arisen came from contrac- tion of metals in cold weathei. I think Izvould like to tmdcr stand something of ^'Potentials'' ^'Accninnlators,'' '^ Condensers'' and more of Plus and Minus ? As to "Potentials/' we may define the word as meaning the power or action which a body is capable of putting forth. The electricians presuppose the earth itself to be a magnetized body, and any smaller body of matter is a^t zero when no electricity will either go into it out of the earth, or out of it into the earth, always allowing that the body is at rest. Its Potential is then zero. It is neither positive or negative, for positive and plus are the same, and negative and r/iinus are the same. Zero is also called the ''electrical level." When a body has more elec- tricity than zero — like the charged electric cable, it has a "Posi- tive or Plus Potential Difference, of which it is trying to be rid. If, however, the body had less Electricity than the earth, it would have a Negative or Minus Potential Difference, and would be as active in taking up currents from the earth or elsewhere. Thus we have High Potentials. But the term "Low Potential" is customarily applied, not to a Minus Potential, but to a Plus or Positive Potential Difference that is not re- markably High^such as 25 volts as against 800 volts of pressure, or desire to get in or out of the earth. It is also true that if a body with, say 50 Minus come near a body with 100 Minus, the Potential Difference will b^ leveled. In the eagerness of earthly bodies to level the amount of their electrification lies the oppor- tunity of man to make them perform labor for him, and save his body from an equal amount of toil. How about thunderstorms ? The cloud may be Minus or Plus, and in the discharge of 44 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Electricity the earth may either give or receive what is popularly called lightning. The photographs of lightning flashes usually show in which direction the stream of red-hot air is *^flowing." Sometimes the stream has its gathering tributaries in the skies, sometimes near the ground. The law which we quoted as having passed Congress shows that these Potentials are meas- ured, as well as the Resistance which bodies under varying cir- cumstances offer to the entrance of the current. What is a Condenser ? It is also called an Accumulator. It was once called Benjamin Franklin's Pane (of glass.) It is also the Leyden Jar. It is a device for increasing the electrical Capacity of a body or con- Fi?. 20. THE CHLORIDE ACCUMULATOR, AS USED IN MODERN GREAT PLANTS. ductor. To explain: If a sheet of tinfoil be hung by itself, it will require a certain amount of Electricity to render it Plus to a certain degree. But if the tin foil be put near another sheet ELECTRICITY, 45 of tin foil, with a sheet of glass between them, and the second sheet wired into the earth, then the first tin foil sheet will re- quire more Electricity to make it register the same Potential Difference as at first. In a word, it is the principle of Storage — a body giving off at a later day what it once took up. Tell me about Galvani, Volta, the Voltaic Pile^ and the Galvanic or Voltaic Battery. Galvani, while dissecting frogs on a table near a magnetic machine or apparatus, conveyed a current of force into a dead frog's leg, and the leg moved. Volta took up this experiment and learned the Potential Difference of metals. He made the Voltaic Pile, with a- plate of zinc, a plate of copper, a woolen cloth wet with water, and many repetitions of this series of zinc, copper, cloth. This Voltaic Pile gave a slight shock. The zinc was/Z^/i- and the copper minus and the current passed toward the copper. Now immerse this Pile in a trough of water and dilute the water with nitric, sulphuric, muriatic or other acid, connect the two outside plates each with a wire, bring the wires together, and a powerful shock results. The spark leaps across a small open interval, and the electric arc is seen. Sir Humphrey Davy used a thousand plates in the battery with which he pro- duced the first good electric arc light. This Voltaic Battery — often called Galvanic, because Galvani opened the question — or its modifications, is usually the source of all the electrical power for the telegraph and telephone, the electric bell, burglar alarms, and other familiar devices by which a circuit is opened or shut. To what recent industrial uses have Magnets been put ? At the rolling mills, magnets are now used for lifting great masses of hot iron, diminishing loss of life and limb, and per- sonal inconvenience. Edison, in New Jersey, has succeeded in obtaining the iron from iron ore by crushing the ore and at- tracting the iron particles to magnets. Some of his pig iron thus obtained, it is said, is as malleable as wrought iron. What is Electricity in the light of all that has been said here ? Electricity is a phenomenon to which man has not yet been able to attach a satisfactory working hypothesis. At present, 46 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. he thinks of it as if it were water, seeking its level. Without understanding it, the scientists have detected so many of its peculiarities that, after about seventy years of almost toyish experiment, it has now become in most cases, the most favored method of conveying power. What are its presejit inconveniences and dangers ? These lie in the live wires and the cables that endanger life and property in the streets, or when put under the pavement, destroy the pipes that convey gas, water and other service. How long ago were street-cars riui by Electricity iji a prac^ tical way ? About 1880, in Buda-Pesth. There the cables and trolley wire ran underground. About 600 patents, up to 1897, had been issued in the United States for underground conduits. Three conduit-roads have been financially successful — the one at Buda- Pesth made by the Siemens-Halske Company, one at Washing- ton, D. C, and one at Blackpool, England. The first successful American trolley-lines for streetcars, both overhead and under- ground, were completed in 1884, by Bentley & Knight. But the overhead system, particularly in the environs of large cities, and in the open country between towns, has given to the people a cheap and delightful method of riding, which works well, sum- mer and winter, in all latitudes. Fears were entertained that in northern cities the heavy snowstorms would blockade the roads, but severe winter weather has come and gone, and the trolley cars swept the streets better than when the sweeping used to be done with horse-power. How is a car Jieated by Electricity ? A number of radiators, are put under the car-seats, exactly as if they were for steam or hot-water. A wire leads from the power-switch, over the Motorman's head, to the radiator. When the current reaches the radiator, it goes into Resistance-wires, which are heated red-hot. The air of the car absorbs this heat, and the car becomes warm. ELECTRICITY. 47 What is Resistance ? Whenever Electricity flows through a conductor or body, that conductor or body always becomes heated to a certain extent, because there is no substance that will allow Electricity to flow through it without offering so7ne Resistance to its passage (see Maycock) and it is in overcoming this Resistance that.the current develops heat. A big current in any little wire will heat or burn it, and a metal like german silver, offers great Resistance. Resistance is measured in ohms. How are Potential Dijferences measured? In volts. And current is measured in amperes. These three factors are always Dresent in electrical action, and, by Ohm's Law, when any t 7o factors are known, the other may be deduced. Recite Ohm's La v. The Current equals the Potential Difference, divided by the Resistance; again, th ^ Resistance equals the Potential Differ- ence, divided by the Current; or, again, the Potential Difference equals the Current, Tfiiiltiplied by the Resistance. This law was discovered in 1827, and has passed out of the realm of theory into the field of unquestioned fact, like other known ^laws of nature. I think I could now tuider stand some further statement re- garding the measiLrement of Electricity. We will quote Professor Elisha Gray — (see also page 22) — who says: *' When a Current of Electricity flows through a con- ductor, the conductor resists its flow more or less according to the quality and size of the conductor. Silver and copper are good conductors. Silver is better than copper. Calling silver 100, copper will only be 73. If we have a mile of silver wire and a mile of iron wire and want the iron wire to carry as much Electricity as -the silver and have the same battery for both, we will have to make the iron wire over seven times as large. That is, the area of a cross section of the iron wire must be over seven times that of the silver wire. But if we want to keep both wires the same size and still force the same amount of Current 48 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. through each, we must increase the pressure of the battery con- nected with the iron wire. We measure this pressure by a unit called the volt. The volt is the unit of pressure or Electro- Motive Force. The iron wire offers a Resistance that is about seven times greater than silver to the passage of the Current. The quality of the iron wire that prevents the same amount of Current from flowing through it as the silver is called its Re- sistance. The unit of Resistance is called the ohm, and the more ohms there are in a wire as compared v/ith another, the more volts we have to put into the battery to get the same Cur- rent. The strength of current that flows through a conductor is measured by the ampere. The ampere is the unit of Current." How are these units established ? We still quote from Professor Gray : *^ These units are estab- lished arbitrarily. The volt is the Potential or pressure of one cell of battery called a Standard Cell, made in a certain way. The Daniell Battery is about one volt. That is, the Electro- Motive Force of one cell of Daniell Battery is one volt. One ohm is the Resistance offered to the passage of a Current having one volt pressure by a column of mercury one millimeter in cross section and 106.2 centimeters in length. Ordinary iron telegraph wire measures about 13 ohms to the mile. Now con- nect our Standard Cell — one volt — through one ohm Resistance and we have a Current of one ampere. Unit Electro-Motive Force (volt) through unit Resistence (ohm) gives unit of Cur- rent (ampere). If we want to carry only a small Current for a long distance, we do not need to use large cells, but many of them. We increase the pressure or voltage by increasing the number of cells set up in series. If we have a wire of given length and Resistance and find we need 100 volts to force the right amount or strength of Current through it, and the Electro- motive Force of the cells we are using is one volt each, it will require 100 cells. If we have a battery that has an Electro- Motive Force of two volts to the cell, as the storage battery has, fifty cells would answer. If we want a very strong Current of great volume, so to speak, for electric light or power, and use a galvanic battery we would have to have, cella of large, surface ELECTRICITY. 49 and lower Resistance both inside and outside the cell. When Dynamos are used they are so constructed that a given number of revolutions per minute will give the right voltage. In fact, the Dynamo has to be built for the amount of Current that must be delivered through a given Resistance. The same holds good for a Dynamo as for a galvanic battery. If any one factor is a fixed one we must adapt the others to that one in order to get the result we want.'^ Why is a mentio^t of Resistance especially important ? Because all electrical operations in heating, cooking and lighting must be conducted on that line. All houses served with wires from a power-house may have radiators and cooking-ranges, and heat for such purposes is furnished in many of the great residences of the country. This heat has the ad- vantage of being without odor, and making no ashes to empty, or dust to gather on furniture. It has the disadvantage, along with other so-called radiators of heat — that it cooks the same air over and over, and gives the room a ^^dead"and ill-ventilated feeling, which is rarely possible where there is a good fuel fire with chimney. Describe the big Electric Light, such as hangs in the street in a large glass globe ? It is served, like the trolley, from a Dynamo in a power-house. The cables usually run under the streets, in conduits built for them using Barrett's Chicago system. The wire running to the lamp is covered with rubber. The light itself is the flame dis- covered by Sir Humphrey Davy, and was for many decades a toy in the laboratory. It was an electric discharge, like a streak of lightning, from a Plus Potential to a Minus Potential, meeting with high resistance. What was the Jablochkoff candle ? It was the first form of carbon stick or candle to be used. It was a double candle, with a layer of Plaster of Paris between. It sputtered and acted discontinuously, and soon gave way to the modern apparatus, in which the upper candle is fed down 4 50 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. to the lower candle by means of clockwork. The upper or Plus carbon burns twice as fast as the lower or Minus carbon. Particles of carbon are torn away from the upper candle, leaving a crater, and particles are deposited on the lower carbon making a point. It is thought that 85 per cent, of the light comes from the undetached particles of positive upper carbon; 10 per cent, from the undetached particles on the lower or negative carbon; and 5 per cent, from the flame, midway. About fifty volts of Potential are necessary, and ingeniously devised governing magnets at each lamp, allow just enough current to go through the candles, without robbing the other lamps on the same circuit. How early was this Light used for practical purposes in Amer- ica ? About 1882, when the Grand Pacific Hotel at Chicago, was lighted, and lamps were hung at Wabash, Indiana. The first central station was erected at San Fran- cisco. Although the City of Chi- cago at last erected its own power- houses in several districts, nearly every small city was earlier lighted by the arc light, (as the carbon candle light is popularly called) before the streets of Chicago were thus illuminated, and in 1897 many ELECTRICITY. 51 hundred miles of streets were still lit and controlled by private gas com- panies, to the prejudice of popular convenience. What great invention followed the introductiofi of the arc light in public places f Edison divided the arc light into smaller lights, and the incandescent lamp became a feature of life in modern communities. Millions of the glass-bulb devices are sold each year in the United States, and large glass factories are kept busy the year round making the bulbs. When Edison was inventing this lamp, he found the chief part of his trouble was the shadow which the stem of the bulb threw directly beneath, and it was said at the time that it was only by accident that he happened to turn the lamp up-side down, and noticed that it made no difference in what way the instrument was held — it would burn equally well. I see a thread of light in the bulb. How is that made ? It is caused by the Resistance which the filament or thread offers to the passage of Electricity. The thread is heated red- hot, and thus gives light. The air has been exhausted from the bulb, and thus the thread does not burn up, as does the carbon candle in the arc light. The current of Electricity comes to the lamp in the same way that the arc light and trolley car get their currents — that is from a Dynamo, although a single light may be made from a battery or jar. What is the thread made of ? Fibres of bamboo, cotton, silk, or tamodine (a variety of eel- Fig. 22. THE BRUSH LIGHT Clockwork replaced by brake- ring. A, solenoid; C, wrought Iron tube; c, spiral spring; c?, adjusting screws; B, holder of the upper carbon; G^ screw ad- justing the lower carbon; 2>, ring for lifting hook. 52 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. luloid). The strips of fibre are bent in iron moulds into the shape you see. Then they are packed in carbon dust. This pack is put into a crucible of plumbago or black lead, such as you find in your lead pencil. This crucible is sealed air-tight, Fig. 23. STAGES IN THE MAKING OF INCANDESCENT LAMPS. 1. Glass stopper or " saddle " showing platinum wires inside, i. Glass tube out of which the bulbs (5) are blown. 2. The stopper placed in a bulb. 5. Stopper and bulb fused together, as shown again in 6. 7. The long tube fused away. and put into a hot-air furnace where the crucible becomes white hot. In this way the filaments are charred and also absorb the carbon, and when they come out of the crucibles they are so steel-like that they may be straightened, and will spring back into their original shape. The loop you see in the thread now generally in use gives it a greater degree of illuminating power, as the Electricity must travel further to get past the obstruction. Edison discovered that the Electricity could only be delivered into a glass bulb through platinum wire, as platinum was the only metal that expanded and contracted under heat in the same degree with glass. If other wire were used, either the glass would break, or a passage for air would be made and the fila- ment would burn out. ELECTRICITY. 53 Do women figure in the manufacture of these lamps f Yes. It is found that they excel in handling the delicate fila- ments, and they have become glass-workers, for the platinum wires are fixed in a glass saddle and the filaments welded with glass to the platinum wires at a glass-blower's flame, and women perform this delicate feat with speed and accuracy. When the filament is properly wired in the bulb, that end is sealed air-tight, and is not again opened. How then is the air extracted ? You have noted a sharp point on the outer end of the bulb as it points down toward you. When the bulb came from the glass factory where it was blown, an open tube protruded at this point. This tube is still on when the girl gets through with the wire-end of the lamp. The bulb now goes to the mercury ex- haust-pump. The pump is connected with the end tube, and the air is nearly all taken out. The bulb meanwhile has been con- nected with electric wires, and a current is turned on. The fila- ment lights up and aids in expelling the air. If everything is satisfactory, the glass-worker now seals the passage by fusing the tube while the air-pump is still connected, the fused tube is broken off, and the lamp is air tight, and is ready for the brass cap which finishes it for the market. What other interesting thing can you tell me concerning this kind of light ? Edison added new splendors to the night. These lamps offer new methods of illumination, and almost inaccessible points may be lighted without inconvenience. Those who visited the World's Fair at Chicago, will recall the appearance of the Ad- ministration dome and the Ferris Wheel. In the Electricity Building, particularly, were demonstrations of the multitudi- nous ways in which the light may be used for decoration and advertisement. The bulbs are made in all colors of glass, and sets of bulbs are lighted and extinguished in order. I have noted these changing lights in city streets. How are these effects produced ? The machine which turns the lights off and on is like the cy- 54 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, linder of a hand-organ, and operates on that principle. When you see the lights ascending a column or traveling along a route, the appearance is illusory. Certain bulbs are lighted and ex- tinguished by their own connections at a certain moment, which gives the impression of a traveling light. Thus a barrel may seem to turn, or a sphere to rotate, but both are stationary. When the operating cylinder has revolved once, it catches a pawl or key and lifts it. The moving of this key perfects an electrical connection. It is an automatic Switch-Board. What is a switch ? Let us trace the word. It was first a twig, cut from a tree. Then it became a branch from a main trunk of railway. Next, probably the railroad men applied the term to the Switch line of wire on which the Morse telegraphic instrument would be stationed, for when the cumbrous mechanism was not in use it was not needed on the main wire. Accordingly, before the telegraph operator began work, he turned a little brass arm, which set the current of the main line running through his ma- chine. This business of shifting weak currents of electricity, made by Voltaic Batteries, has grown until the Switch-Boards of the Western Union Telegraph Company, or the Power-House of a city electric railway system, cover a great surface and are marvels of complexity. The Switch-Board before which the telephone girl works is another example of convenience, and every theatre has a Switch-Board. The Switch-Boards at the World's Fair were studied with interest by the electricians of the world. It follows from the origin of the word, that any lever or key which breaks or restores a circuit — that is, cuts or com- pletes a line of wire, is called a switch. The button of an elec- tric bell, which when pressed, completes a circuit, by joining two metals together, is such a switch. What other especial conveniences followed fro7n Edison's in- vention ? All street-cars and elevated stations are lighted thoroughly and without labor. The movement of brilliantly lighted cars through the streets carries with it a constant illumination. Light may also be taken into subterranean places— cellars, tunnels ELECTRICITY, 55 and the like, — where explosion would follow the ordinary means of lighting. Was the Electric Light, as produced by the , Dynamo y a scien- tific surprise ? I can best answer yes by quoting for you a paragraph in David A. Wells' book, "Things not Generally Known," edited by him in 1857. In this work, at page 302, is the following statement by Prof. Alfred Smee, F. R. S. : "There is one serious drawback against the use of Voltaic Electricity for the purpose of illumi- nation, and that is its serious expense. It is a primary law of nature that no power can be obtained without a corresponding change of matter. In Voltaic batteries, the combination of zinc with the oxygen of v/ater, constitutes the change of matter which gives rise to Electricity. As much dearer as zinc is than coal gas, so is the cost of the Voltaic Light over the ordinary mode of illumination. But the expense is even still greater, inasmuch as the equivalent of zinc is five times higher than that of carbon; and furthermore, carbon combines with two equivalents of oxy- gen to form carbonic acid. For this reason," continues Professor Smee, *'the Electric Light will probably forever remain a pretty, scientific toy; unless, indeed, some person shall have the good fortune to discover a battery with a carbon positive pole." Pro- fessor Smee, who was an eminent electrician, lived until 1877, when the positive pole of the Dynamo's armature circuit had become fairly well known to scientists. How many Electric Lights were lit at the World' s Fair of 1S93 ? There were 1550 electric arc lights out of doors. In the Man- ufacturers^ Building hung five electroliers, 140 feet above the floor, holding 400 arc lights, and there were 800 other arc lights, but the vast hall could not be well illuminated by artificial means. The Exposition Company also furnished 56,622 Edison bulb lights, (incandescent). A subway over six feet square, which was itself kept lighted traversed the grounds, and was 76,000 feet long. There were 1677 arc lights in the other main buildings. Private exhibitors used about 100,000 more lights. 56 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. It is quite likely that 160,000 lights were often in operation at once. There was public and private power for a far larger number. What is the Electric Theatre ? This was displayed in the Electricity Building and on Midway Plaisance. It is, in brief, a summary exhibition of the lighting facilities of a modern theatrical stage. The scene chosen at the World's Fair was in Swiss Mountains. The night slowly set in, the light appeared in the windows, the stars came out, the day slowly dawned, the sunlight grew strong, a storm arose, with lightning and thunder, a rainbow appeared in the sky, the sun- light reappeared, the evening approached, darkness set in, and the stars again twinkled on the mountain's crest — all this to slow music and to delighted free audiences that had stood hours waiting for admission. Describe some modern stage effects ? At the Auditorium Theatre, in Chicago, is one of the most com- pletely installations in the world. The stage, 90 x 160 feet, has 1500 electric lights. There are 150 footlights in three rows, red, white and blue. At fourteen different places, electric connections can be made. In the "Black Crook,'^ when Zamiel touches his thumb and forefinger together, there is an electric flash. In *'Faust," when Mephistopheles draws his sword in a circle, it strikes an electrically charged wrought iron ring, and there is a vivid circle of fire. Flowers light up when Mephistopheles curses them. Is there a Dynaino under the stage ? Yes, You may desire to know how the horizon and sky effects are produced. The rear scene of the stage will be a canvass about 40 feet square, such as is spread for a stereopticon lecture. Behind this rear canvass is a stereopticon, in which burns an electric arc light, or perhaps several stereopticons. Between the lens of the stereopticon and the electric light is a place where different machines may be introduced. Thus a glass disk, with clouds painted on it, when placed in this aperture and revolved before the light, throws great masses of pictured mist on the canvass. The lightning disk is revolved in another stereopticon, ELECTRICITY. 57 its flashes playing on the black storm clouds. Fire clouds, as in the ^'Huguenots" or other scenes of conflagration are painted in red, black and yellow and must be turned rapidly. For rain, hair-lines cross the disk in every direction. In- the '^Queen of Sheba," a caravan moves for countless miles on the desert horizon. Ripples on the water are produced by 'wavy black lines on the disk. What is the stage rainbow ? It is made by holding a prism of glass before the lens of the stereopiicon. A setting sun is a disk of ground glass behind which is an arc light. Glasses color the disk red, yellow, gray, and finally, as in ^'Tannhauser/' night comes in full darkness. This machine hangs on a pulley. A stage fire-fly is a minute arc light, and the lower candle is set on a small spring. When the current is on, the candle rises, and a tiny flash is seen. The current is an interrupted one. The Star, Venus is simulated by cutting a hole in the canvas, placing a green jew^-l in the aper- ture, and lighting an incandescent lamp behind. A switchbc)ard with fifty switches regulates the general lighting of the stage, and it is to the delicacy of the light gradations here made possi- ble that the scene called the Electric Theatre, previously described, owes its success. What is the Electric Fotnita 111 A beautiful device for the illumination of flowing water at night. Fountains of apparently colored water have been fea- tures of royal parks since the days of Louis XIV, at Versailles, and the ^'grand waters'^ have for centuries been city sights at Paris. But the Dynamo and the Arc Light made the coloration of uprising streams of water easily feasible, and the Electric Fountains at the Eiffel Tower in 1889, at Paris, were among the chief attractions of the World's Fair of that year. Within a year they were established in American parks, and two speci- mens were in frequent play at the World's Fair of 1893, i'^ Chicago, although the jets of water were often lighted from colored search-lights placed on some neighboring high place, like the South Colonnade of the Fair. Fig. 24. ELECTRIC FOUNTAIN. ELECTRICITY. 59 How is the Electric Fountain Operated ? If we take the two Fountains at the Chicago Fair of 1893 as examples, we find that a thirty-six inch main led from the pumps in Machinery Hall, and branched at the two Fountains. The water-basins were each sixty feet in diameter; and each received about 440 gallons a minute. The central jet sent a shaft of water 150 feet into the air. Twelve jets surrounded this center-piece, and at the outer edge nine geysers threw water at a slight angle upward toward the central jet. The floor of the water basin was the ceiling or roof of the sub- aqueous chamber in which the operators had their station. At a point in each pipe v/here it turned upward to throw the stream into the air, the bottom of the pipe was made of glass. Under this glass pipe revolved a wheel of glass with colored sections. Under the vari-colored wheel of glass was placed the Electric arc-light; under the arc-light a reflector, to throw all the rays upward. When a stream was turned on, it shot into the air, and as the arc-light threw its rays in the same direction, the light found a medium in the water, and if a red glass were over the light, the water appeared to be wine. The nineteen Jets could be turned on and off separately and variously lighted, and one or many electric lights could be used. At the Fair, each fountain used one eighty-ampere light, and the jets were assembled for collective lighting. To what other astonishing zcse has the Electric Arc-Light been put ? The Search-Light has been developed, and the largest example the world has seen was exhibited by the General Electric Company at the World's Fair of 1893. Lights and flames which project their rays to great distances have been the study of all lighthouse builders for centuries. Under the oper- ations of the early reflectors of light, although the flame were sheltered and backed by brilliant reflectors, yet as the flame was a central point, and its rays went out in all directions, it followed that in the cone directly in front of this central point the rays that went past the outer lips of the reflector or holder diverged into the sky and downward into the water or earth. The appli- g^ THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Fig. 25. THE SEARCHLIGHT AND ITS ELECTRIC ARC LIGHT. ELECTRICITY. 61 cation of the glass prism — that is a three-cornered bar of glass — to the work of reflection, while it corrected all the rays that reached it, and sent them all out in parallel lines ahead of the flame, so that they would travel to a great distance in the direc- tion where they could be useful, still did not cover the case of the rays that went out past the rim of the reflector, on the way upward, downward and sidewise. So Fresnel, who had applied the prism adopted the ingenious plan of nearly surrounding. his flame with prisms and mirrors, and letting out his rays only when they had been bent around so many times that if they went out at all they must go out straight, at an aperture just ahead of the flame. Describe the great Search-Light f It was shaped like a bass-dnum, and hung by trunnions on a fork, so that if it were really a drum, the drum-head would look forward into the sky, or any direction desired. The apparatus weighed 6,000 pounds, yet could be easily turned in all ways. Inside at one of the drum-heads was placed a Mangin concave lens mirror sixty inches in diameter. This piece of glass was only one-sixteenth of an inch thick at the centre, but it was three and one-fourth inches thick around the edges. The glass weighed 800 pounds, and its besel or ring and rear cover 800 pounds more. This mirror formed the inside of the rear drum- head, and the front drum-head was made of strips of glass placed vertically, like the strips of a picket-fence. What is polarized light ? When light goes through strips, it is supposed to cease to vi- brate sidewise, as a rope would do if it crossed two picket- fences. Efforts to shake the rope sidewise would only give it an up and down motion — a polarized motion — between the two fences. This is to prevent sidewise vibration and dissipation as the shaft of light is. shot out of the great light-mortar, for it is properly called a Projector. In the drum in front of the mirror sliding on ways on the bottom, was an Electric Arc-Light of 200 amperes, or twice and a half as much light as was used for one of the Electric Fountains. The carbon candles were coated with copper, and had soft cores that would make a deep crater 62 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, and high set off in burning. The crater of the upper candle was well exposed to the mirror, £o that this most brilliant point in the light would be well condensed by the mirror, and its rays sent in parallel rays toward the front of the drum. In the engraving (Fig. 25) may be seen the apparatus for the arc light. The small reflector prevented the arc light from being seen from in front of the search light. That is between the glass strips and the arc light was a smaller reflector to catch the rays that went forward and throw them back into the big mirror where they would be straightened, or sent out in a forward line. When the Dynamo was at full speed, the arc-light was said to give 100,000 candle-power, and the mirrors, by collecting or condensing all its rays threw on the sixty inch disk of air immediately outside of the strips of glass a degree of illumination equal to the theoret- ical value of 375,000,000 sperm candles. What was the effect ? When this Search-Light was directed upon the most distant clouds, it made its mark plainly upon them. When it was on top of the Manufactures Building at the Chicago World^s Fair, it could be seen at Milwaukee, and people at Aurora, west of Chicago, read by the aid of its beams. The shaft passed through the air overhead, much like the tail of a great comet. A smaller light on Mount Washington, makes objects visible that are 100 miles away, and the Search-Lights now in New York harbor are seen fifty miles away. Signals are flashed on the clouds. The Siemens-Halske Projector at the World^s Fair was also an ex- ample of the triumph of modern optical science, in the economi- cal use and concentration of light-rays. Are there electrical meters like gas meters ? Yes. We illustrate Maxim's Meter, and there are countless forms and patents. (Fig. 26.) What is a Solenoid ? A solenoid is defined as ^'an electro-dynamic spiral, having the conjunctive wire turned back along its axis, so as to neutralize that component of the effect of the current which is due to the length of the spiral, and reduce the whole effect to that of a se- ries of equal and parallel circular currents," ELECTRICITY. 63 MAXIM'S METER. Fig. 26 represents an Electro-meter constructed by Maxim. The solenoid B is in- serted in the main circuit L.L. w n is a branch circuit in which the Electro-Magnet T is inserted. The latter keeps the pendulum Q Q\\x constant motion in the following manner: When a current passes through the coils of the Electro-Magnet; the armature Q of the Electro-Magnet is attracted; the pendulum therefore, will move towards the left, taking with it the spring H. which breaks contact with S; the circuit is thus broken and T is then without current. The pendulum Q falls back again, making contact between B and -S", and causing a current again to pass through the Electro-Magnet. The motion of the pendulum is transmitted to the wheel m by means oi Q Q and a toothed wheel P fastened upon the axis of § not shown in the figure. The shaft I> 31 of the wheel m carries the cone L" which, when moving, touches the cone L' causing it to move also. The axis of L' has a movable weight El and is connected by means of a joint ^2 wif.h the shaft i^ of the registering apparatus. One end of the axis ^. is connected with the cone c of the solenoid B, by means of the rod B. This motion of the iron core causes a lowering and raising of the axis £J, at e which again causes the cone L' to touch the cone L" with more or less surface, and in this way the ratio of the times of rotation of the two is altered as the attracting force of the solenoid B. alters. The registering apparatus, therefore, will go faster or slower in proportion to the strength of the current. The apparatus is similar in principle to the Dynamometer constructed by Charles A. Carus-Wilson but differs in the details. Similar apparatus has been constructed by Brush, Swan, etc, 64 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. For what other great electrical i7ivention is our age notable ? The Telephone. On February 14, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell, filed at Washington specifications for a patent in which the toliowing language occurs, describing Bell's discovery: **The union upon and by means of an electric circuit of two or more Fig. 27. BELL-S SECOND TELEPHONE. instruments, so that if motion of any kind or form be produced in any way in the armature of any one of the said instruments, the amatures of all the other instruments upon the same circuit will be moved in like manner and form, and if such motion be produced in the former by sound, like sound will be produced by the motion of the latter." After seventeen years of litigation, involving a hundred million dollars worth of property, the above specification was held by the Supreme Courtof the United States to cover all forms of talking through wires. ]/{ ho was ElisJia Gray ? He invented a musical telephone and exhibited it prior to 1876, calling it a telephone. On the same February 14, 1876, —and it is claimed to have been just after the Patent Office ELECTRICITY. 65 opened in the morning — this sanie Eiisha Gray filed a caveat for a ''Speaking Telephone,'" describing an '^invention to transmit the tones of the human voice through a telegraphic circuit and reproduce them at the receiving end of the line, so that actual Fig. 28. GRAY'S TELEPHONE. conversations can be carried on by persons at long distances apart/' It was charged by Professor Gray, that a clerk showed his caveat and drawings to Bell's attorney at Washington, and that Bell thereafter amended his application, and secured the patent on March 7, 1876. Subsequent agreements between the inventors and their assigns, notably the agreement of November I) 1^79^ gave to both Gray and Edison (the latter having made valuable additions to the transmitter) a small share of the im- mense receipts that followed the establishment of telephonic service in the United States. What made the telephone so popular ? Its authenticity and usefulness. The sound of the voice is so faithfully reproduced that the sensation of personal intercourse 4 66 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. is secured. The connection is made quickly, and the cost and delay of messenger service, with all its inaccuracies, are avoided. Probably no other patent ever brought its owners a profit so large, with an expenditure of labor so small. In a city like Chicago, the subscriber for seventeen years paid an annual rental of $125.00 or S150.00 in quarterly installments. After 1893, some slight indulgences were offered to the public, but the essential powers of the monopoly remained unbroken, be- cause of the great number of patented improvements that had been added to the apparatus, mainly at the Central Station, where the operation of connecting the wires of subscribers has been vastly simplified. The success of the telephone led to an increased popular interest in Electricity, and much good re- sulted in a general way. You speak of a Central Station. Is there any poiver -house needed f No. The central station is for the purpose of connecting the wires of subscribers together at their request. In large cities, this action is made easier and more rapid by the establishment of sub-stations, where wires that are in the same region may be united at the sub-station. When I ring the telephone and call for a number, what hap- pens at the central station f As you ring, an electric light glows at the number of your telephone on a great board — the switch-board — which is full of small holes for pegs. A girl sits on a stool or stands before this board. Clasped to her ears are two small telephone receivers, made especially for her purposes. Before her there hangs on wires, a speaking disk or diaphragm, also made es- pecially for her purposes. She sees a glow at the hole which has your number. She connects her disk with your number and asks you what number you want. You reply. What does she do now ? She has in her hand an insulated wire, at each end of which is a peg, and this wire also runs through the wires that are at her ear, or may be so connected at her will. She places one of the ELECTRICITY. 67 pegs in the hole at your number and the other peg in the hole at the number you want, and a bell sets to ringing at the tele- phone which you have called up. This bell she can ring again, if she finds that you do not get action. She knows all your troubles before you know them yourself, and Unless she be a person of whom you should at once complain, it is always wise ta speak to her in a low voice pleasantly. You call for two thou- sand and. eight. She will '^prove" the call by repeating it thus — two double aught, eight. You say, yes. In case you are convinced that she is careless and worthless, you have only to ask her to call the superintendent to your telephone, and he will correct or discharge her — or he will gather from the tone of your complaint and the character of your charge, that she may not be altogether to blame. It is to be noted that complaints of this nature grow less frequent with the improvement of com- munication on the telephone. The telephone girl is generally admitted by those who see her while on duty, to be the busiest person in town. Describe the instrument at which I speak when I telephone. In the first place you have in the mechanism of your own ear, a telephone receiver and transmitter. The diaphragm or drum- head of your ear is practically imitated in the iron disks which Pig. 29. BELL'S RECEIVER. are placed one each in the receiver and the transmitter of the instrument. When sound strikes these diaphragms from with- out, the wire carries the sound-waves to the other end of the wire, where another diaphragm makes the same movements 68 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. that were caused by your voice at this end. In the receiver which you hold in your hand there is a Multipolar Magnet. What is a Multipolar Magnet ? We know that a Magnet does not need to be crooked like a horseshoe — it may be a straight bar. This straight magnet in the receiver is made of four strips of separ- ately magnetized steel, so that the diaph- ragm or disk, when you speak against it, plays against four poles at once- — multi- polar action-^^' many poles.'' But a small electro-magnet — that is, a magnet made by an electrified wire wrapped around it, is between the diaphragm and the long multi- polar magnet, and the two wires that go out of the receiver attach to the little Electro-Magnet, and not to the large com- pound or multipolar Magnet. You could talk into this diaphragm, for it is a tele- phone, but it receives far better than it transmits. The electricians do not give a thoroughly satisfactory reason for the use of two different Magnets in the receiver, but the big compound one seems to act only as a governor or storage, and all ordinary telephones have this receiver. Its long: case is made of vulcanized rubber. Fig 30. BELL'S TELE- PHONE—MOUTH PIECE Is the transmitter essentially different ?■ Yes, Edison's carbon button and Blake's platinum transmitter play an important part in giving clearness to the sound-waves. You speak against the disk in the box. In the center of the disk is a platinum point. This point presses against a carbon button, and the carbon equalizes the current of Electricity, making it stronger or weaker, according to the force with which the point strikes the carbon. ' The carbon connects with the electric circuit. The battery which electrifies the machine before you is in the box with the slanting lid over which you speak. The wire in its ELECTRICITY. 69 circuit begins and ends in this machine, and is called the pri- mary or local circuit. Your voice causes sound or electric waves in this circuit, and your voice has no direct connection with the wire on the poles in the street. Pig. 31. BLAKE'S TRANSMITTER. The current passes through the clamp K, into the primary coil of the induction apparatus J, through the spring/ into the platinum cylinder J3, through the carhon at m into F^ through TTto S, and then back to the battery. How is that connection secured ? By induction. When the street wire enters your box it coils into a fine silk-wrapped wire, which encircles the coils of your primary wire, and the Lines of Force from your local coil carry your voice over to the secondary coil, and it sounds much clearer than it would if it were the original current. You see that the arrangement at both ends is complex. There seems to the peo- 70 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. pie to be little use for the long Magnet in the hand-receiver, or for the primary coil in the box. What other use has opened for the telephone ? At Buda-Pesth, Hungary, a daily Telephone Newspaper has long been in successful operation. The news begins at 9:30 a. m. and continues until late at night. The programme is pub- lished to subscribers every day. The markets, foreign news, concerts, lect- ures, sermons, opera and drama, go on at certain hours. The receivers are small disks, which go on each ear, and the long compound magnet is left out. A corps of reporters gathers and writes the news. A corps of Stentors (loud-voiced speakers) is at hand to speak the news. The Hir- mondo Telephone is an institution of which Buda-Pesth is proud, and has a large number of annual subscribers. The sick or convalescent are especi- ally benefited by its conveniences. Is there any similar institution elsewhere? Yes. The Theatrophone. At Paris the theatres are served with telephone attachments, which convey to distant persons all the sounds of the stage and audience, by which not only the voices of the actors can be heard, but the stir in the audience, and the relative size of the "house" can be judged by the skill- ful. Is there a long-distance Telepho7te ? Yes. The small cities adjoining large ones were attached to the city systems as early as 1888. The fee is extra, and varies, usually up to half a dollar for a conversation between cities in the same State. But in 1890, after many failures, the Long Dis- tance Telephone between Chicago and New York was put in successful operation at a fee of nine dollars for five minutes' Fig. 32. EDISON'S CARBON SPEAKING TELEPHONE. ELECTRICITY. 71 conversation. Professor Bell was the first person to speak at the New York end, and Mayor Washburne replied from Chicago. What other remarkable thing has been do7ie lately with Elec- tricity ? The Storage Battery has been perfected, and by its agency the electric launches at the World's Fair are supposed to have yielded a profit of 8500,000. By attaching this battery to a Dynamo, certain chemical changes take place in the metals within. When the Dynamo is taken off, the chemical changes are reversed, and the work is more slowly undone. At Paris, the Societe Anonyme pour le Travail Electrique des Metaux, and at Philadelphia the Electric Storage Battery Company almost simultaneously discovered that a fusion of chloride of zinc and chloride of lead would, when put under electro-chemical action, produce pure lead in crystaline form, arousing much greater electrical action with less destruction of the original material than had ever before been attained. The resuft was the formation of an almost world-wide monopoly, and it seems probable that these Chloride Accumulators, as they are called, will soon be offered for rent in all houses, to run sewing ma- chines, electric fans, heaters, cooking-stoves, lights, and for chemical purposes. Is the Chloride Accumitlator commercially successful else- where than in the electric laiincJies ? (See page 44). Yes. The French Company runs three lines of street railway in Paris, two going to St. Denis, northwest ot the city, and furnishes light, to Paris streets in over 200,000 lamps of sixteen- candle power. The first installation of Storage Batteries at a power-house in America was at Merrill, Wisconsin, where, in January, 1895, a series of two hundred and forty Chloride Accumulators was attached to the Dynamo of the railway and lighting plants. When ihese Storage Batteries are full, the street cars can be operated without the Dynamo for hours at a time. Understand, that the Storage Batteries are not on the cars, but in the power-house. But suppose your Electric Light Dynamo stops at midnight. If you attached a Storage Battery to your light fixture or electrolier during the day-time, and 72 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. thus charged the Accumulator (Storage Battery), then, after midnight you could have electric light as long as the Accumu- lator stayed '^ alive.*' This is what would happen: While the current was acting in the acids of the battery, one form of lead was changing into another. When the intruding Electricity ceased, xh^ plus plates unloaded into the mimes plates, carrying back with them the matter that was deposited before, and Fig. 33. PLANTERS BATTEPvY (PARIS), AS HE PERFECTED IT BEFORE HE DIED. setting up a current of electricity in the wires that led out of the Accumulator. The man who first tried to do this was Gaston Plante, and all who have reaped benefits from the Storage Battery, owe to him their thanks, for though he did not make it pay, his lead plates are today the real basis of the Chloride Accumulator. He lived and toiled in order that countless thousands might be the happier. What advantages does the Electric Latmch possess ? The batteries are placed around the boat under the seats, giving twice the room that can be found on a steam launch. There is little pleasure in running a steam launch, owing to the intensity of watchfulness which the owner or engineer must give to the many cocks, registers and gauges. Nearly every owner speaks of this strain. In hot weather, when these ELECTRICITY. 73 boats are most in use, the heat of the boiler, the fumes of the gas, or the smoke of the coal, are uncomfortable. It is to be said, however, that accidents from explosion are remarkably- rare, if we consider the great number of amateur engineers that ply our little inland lakes. The electric launch does not dis- pense with the whirring sensation of the propeller-wheel. What is the history of tJie Electric LauncJi ? Trouve, at Paris, exhibited the first boat in 1881, at the Exposition. Reckenzaun put forty-five Accumulators on a launch at Vienna in 1882. Five years before the World's Fair at Chicago, electric launches were in regular use on the Thames River, at London, and on Lake Winandermere, in Lanca- shire. At the Edinburgh International Exhibition of 1890, the electric launches scored a decided success. At the Chicago World's Fair there were fifty thirty-six foot boats. There was a little electric motor on the propeller shaft. The Accumulators were charged at night at a station under the east platform of the Agricultural Building. Sixty-six Accumulator cells were used on each boat^ and the cost for power was about fifty-five cents a day for each boat. General Barney, who managed the World's Fair fleet, set up a manufactory at Boston. For zvhat other important use is the Accumulator intended? For street-carriages, or motor-cyles. These have pneumatic tires, and bicycle construction — that is, ball bearings. But it is also possible that the trolley may play an important part in the traction of all kind of vehicles, and that the horse as a draught animal may cease to be generally used. The lasting qualities of the latest Accumulators are highly satisfactory. They are charged in great rooms, hundreds and thousands at a time. What is the Telautograph f A wonderful electrical instrument invented by Professor Elisha Gray, of Chicago, whereby hand-writing is transmitted by telegraph, and bank checks may be signed at a great distance. At the receiving instrument a pencil moves as if by an unseen hand, and at the other end of the wire from the sending Fig. 34. THE TELAUTOGRAPH— TRANSMITTING INSTRUMENT. Fig. 35. THE TELAUTOGRAPH— RECEIVING INSTRUMENT. ELECTRICITY. 75 instrument. The pencil will write the word lighten and then go back and dot the i and cross the /. Describe the Transmitter ? An ordinary lead pencil is used, near the point o.f which two silk cords are fastened at right angles to each other. These cords connect with the instrument, and following the motions of the pencil, regulate the current impulses which control the receiving pen at the distant station. The writing is done on ordinary paper, — five inches wide, — conveniently arranged on a roll attached to the machine. A lever at the left is so moved by the hand as to shift the paper forward mechanically at the Trans- mitter, and electrically at the Receiver. Describe the Receiver. The receiving pen is a capillary glass tube placed at the junc= tion of two aluminium arms. This glass pen is supplied with ink which flows from a reservoir through a small rubber tube placed in one of these arms. The electrical impulses, coming over the wire, move the pen of the Receiver simultaneously with the movements of the pencil in the hand of the sender. As the pen passes over the paper, an ink tracing is left, which is always a fac-simile of the sender's motions, whether in the formation of letters, words, figures, signs or sketches. ' What is Electrocutio7t ? Execution of death sentence by Electricity. Through the ef- forts of Elbridge Gerry and others, the State of New York de- termined to kill its condemned murderers quicker and with less pain than through the ordinary means of hanging. In May, 1889, William Kemmler of Buffalo, murdered his wife, and was the first person to come under the operation of the new law. The Westin2:house Electric Company made a strong legal con- test in behalf of Kemmler, but the Supreme Court of the United States decided in favor of the State of New York. Kemmler was accordingly killed by Electricity at Auburn Prison, August 6, 1891. The arrangements were crude, as the Dynamo which made the current was at a distance, and the executioner had no 76 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. volt meter or register by which to measure the current which he was using. The murderer was seated in a rough chair. He was then made a part of the circuit coming from the Dynamo. This was done by fijcing a cap on his head, and other caps on his limbs. The caps or electrodes became loose and the body was burned, but after two attempts, Kemmler was pronounced dead. The chair was condemned as inefficient, and was afterwards exhibited in the Anthropological Building of the World's Fair of 1S93 Jugiro, a Japanese murderer, of New York City, was the second culprit upon whom sentence of death was executed in this man- ner, and the custom is now accepted as humane and successful. What is the Electric Fan ? A useful small brass wheel, shaped like a ship's propeller. In an iron sphere at its rear is an Electric Motor — that is, a Dynamo reversed. Wires connect the Motor with a power-house. Turn a switch, and the wheel revolves with high speed, sending out a column of moving air, which may be felt for a distance of twenty feet in a room that would otherwise be without an appreciable draught. What is an Electric Ventilator ? Practically the same apparatus on a larger scale. The wheel is made of iron, and placed in a circular aperture, usually leading directly to the open air. Here the air from the room is sucked into the blades of the revolving propeller, and a corresponding quantity of fresh air is attracted into the room through the doors and windows. The Electric Motor stands on a shelf near- by, and a belt carries its power to the fan in the wheel windovv'. Many crowded lodge-rooms, theatres, restaurants and depart- ment stores within the circuit of power-houses are thus supplied with ventilating facilities. It is of the greatest benefit in flour- ing mills. What ahont Electricity and war ? The Search-Light, mounted on a wagon, with its own steam engine and Dynamo, searches the battle-field for the wounded, and carefully explores the most distant points of the country for the enemy. The modern war vessel is wired from stem to ELECTRICITY. 77 stern and carries an Electrical Engineer. The Trenton, in 1886, was the first ship to be served with incandescent lights. The Search Light is on the conning tower. The officer in the con- ning tower fires the guns himself, whether singly or as broadsides. Let us see how that is done, as the same device may be used for firing any explosive blast. An open tube filled with powder is connected with the powder of the cannon. Into this tube and its powder runs a platinum wire wrapped with gun cotton. To this wire the wires of an ordinary battery are attached. The officer on the conning tower connects the two wires by pressing his button, and the platinum wire becomes so hot that it sets fire to the gun cotton. Gun cotton is made by soaking cotton or other fibre in nitric and sulphuric acids. What is a7i Electric Torpedo Boat ? A charge of explosives is carried in a cigar-shaped sub-marine vessel. There is an Electric Motor on board, served with an Electric cable from shore. On a reel is wound the cable that may be paid out as the torpedo moves away. At the other side of the reel lie coils of cable that may wind up to tak-e the place of the cable paid out. The Dynamo on shore starts and the Motor on board goes, cherefore its propeller goes. Steering apparatus is operated in the same way — all from shore, or from the con- ning tower of the man-of-war. This is the general idea of the Sims-Edison Torpedo Boat. It is designed to carry a mine of explosives under or near a hostile man-of-war, and to blow the enemy to pieces or cause great damage. In February, 1898, the first-class battle-ship Maine was blown to pieces in Havana harbor. What is the Gymnote ? It is a successful Electrical Submarine Vessel made for the French Navy by Zede, Krebbs and Ramazotti. The name is taken from the Latin name of the animal known as the electric eel. This vessel, built since 1888, is fifty-nine feet long, six feet in greatest diameter, and cigar-shaped. She carries three men on board. She is designed to travel at the surface of the water usually, and at ten knots an hour. She can be sunk to eight 78 ■ THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. yards beneath the surface and then proceeds at half the speed. The armature of the Motor is built up on the shaft of the four- bladed screw propeller wheel, which protrudes at the rear of the boat. Movable horizontal outside planes or guides, together with the force of the screw, direct the level at which the boat shall proceed; if these planes are slanted with the ends nearest the center of the boat turned downward, the screw will force the boat downward. At the center and top of the boat there is a cab-window for the engineer. The Storage Accumulators, weighing six tons, serve as ballast, and give out fifty-five horse- power. Water-tanks are filled as the vessel sinks, and emptied as she rises, to assist her movements. Chambers also contain compressed air, and whenever the air pressure inside is too great, foul air will escape. Incandescent lights are used on board. The French Government built a larger boat on these lines at a cost of $225,000. George C. Baker, of Chicago, tested a very ingenious and interesting submarine electric vessel in Lake Mich- igan in 1892. She carried an active steam engine when afloat, charged her Accumulators with a Dynamo, and after she sank, the Accumulators used the Dynamo for a Motor. It is believed that the great Search-Lights will be used in submarine vessels for scientific investigation. WJiat is the Electric Log ? It is a Marine Cyclometer, and measures the speed and progress of the ship. On the end of an electric cable, hung out from the ship, is a screw wheel. At every revolution of the wheel, the electric circuit inside the cable is broken and closed. A dial on board the ship records these movements, much as the cyclometer on a bicycle records the revolution3 of the bicycle- wheel. What is Nikola Tesla's Oscillator ? It is a combination of steam engine and Dynamo, which is expected to save 18 per cent, of friction now existing in the average steam engine, 10 per cent, of belt friction as engine and Dynamo are usually connected, and 32 per cent, of wasted energy occurring in such a Dynamo as we have already described — that is, the form of Dynamo in general use. Let us imagine ELECTRICITY. 79 Fig. 36. TESLA'S OSCILLATOR. a steam-chest; when the steam goes in, out goes the piston. On the piston is an Armature, the armature of a Dynamo. When the piston goes out it enters the Magnetic Field of an Electro- Magnet or coil, and a current is set up in the piston. When it goes back, another piston takes its place. Tesla's Oscillator was furnishing the power for sixty incan- descent lights when his laboratory burned in 1895. The pistons are vibrated eighty to two hundred times a second, or more rapidly than the eye can follow them. The first Oscil- lator was built on a vertical plan, as shown in our illustration. The suc- ceeding examples have been made on a horizontal plan. The machine shows that it makes no difference in what manner a wire enters a Magnetic Field, whether by rotation or piston movement. The Tesla machine caused a sensation among practical electricians, but in the meantime, attention was attracted to Edison, who hoped to turn heat into electricity without the intermediation of steam. Yes. Tell me about Thermo-Electricity , Thermo-Electricity means Electricity that is generated by means of heat. The Clamond Generator, a laboratory machine, is a pile of rings made of metal alloys. Between the rings of metal are rings of asbestos. By burning a light in the centre and allowing ordinary radiation from the outside, a feeble cur- rent of Electricity is generated. Edison and others expended years of study and experiment in trying to develop this idea, and great improvements have been made in the Clamond Gen- erator. Dr. W. Borchers, of Duisburg, Germany, has attacked the problem on what we may call its chemical side, hoping to act on coal with acids, and by cold combustion to secure the quantity of Electricity that is stored in every piece of fuel. The mechanism of animal life offers examples of cold combustion, and in the warmest blooded creatures the heat rises only to less 80 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. than 99 degrees above the Fahrenheit zero. Dr. Borchers has announced to the German Electro-Chemical Society that the cold combustion of the gaseous products of coal and oil in a gas battery, and its direct conversion into electrical energy can certainly be accomplished. Edison is understood to be part owner of a coal mine, and has a large personal interest in the success of these experiments. It is calculated that of loo per cent, of energy stored in the fuel which is used under the boilers" at the power house, only 15 per cent, goes into the "live" wire that hangs in the street — a waste of 85 per cent. What is the Electric Weed-Killer, This device is attached to a locomotive where the weeds or thistles are flourishing on a right-of-way, and strong currents sent into the vegetation as the locomotive passes destroy the growth. What is the Brott System for an Electrical Railway "i Its experimental line is built between Washington, D. C, and Chesapeake Bay. It is commonly called the Bicycle Railway. The General Electric Company guarantees generators, motors, and accompanying electrical apparatus that will propel these cars at the rate of 150 miles an hour — that is, the axles will go around fast enough if the atmosphere shall allow the passage of a car at such a speed. Inasmuch as the hundred-ton steam engine '^999," shown at the World's Fair of 1893, attained, a speed of 100 miles an hour, the claims of the Brott System are admitted by scientists. Why is it called a Bicycle Railway ? Because the weight of the car is to be sustained largely on one central rail, two other upper and side rails serving only as guides, and rarely in that way. That is, there will be three rails, a central one low down and two outer ones about six feet up in the air. When the car is going rapidly, its side-wheels, which protrude like the trunnions of a cannon, will not touch the side tracks, as the car will sustain itself vertically like a bicycle ELECTRICITY. 81 in motion. The electric motor will have its armature on the car axle, so that the axle will go as fast as the armature revolves within. its Magnetic Field. Why should this car go so fast as is expected ? Because the rotary motion of an old-time locom'otive wheel is the result of the motion of a steam piston that stops still twice for every revolution of the wheel, and no such v/heel can approach the possible speed of the rotary action of an electric motor. Again, ball bearings and bicycle construction give to the light car used a saving in friction as great as the difference in friction between the action of a bicycle and a farm wagon. The old system carries a ton of weight with each passenger; the new carries 400 pounds. The route to New York from Chicago is to be covered in eight hours. These light roads will come into favor first at pleasure resorts, and one is building at Minne- apolis. The electric current can be delivered at all speeds. The power-house will operate for fifty m.iles. Lubrication and air pressure offer no unknown difficulties, and a very fast railroad of this order is assured. The line is practically elevated, and all stretches of road between stations must be perfectly straight. It is thus to be seen that it will not work in the mountains, and must take the long way across the continent. What is the Kinetoscope ? In its full form it is the Kineto-Phonograph, an instrument for conveying to the eye-and ear, at the same time, a record of the acts and sounds of persons and animals. As the public has seen it for several years, it is simply the Kinetoscope, little effort having been made to conjoin the Phonograph. As the Kinetoscope is shown it is not electric, save that it is run by a Motor. The Kinetoscope has its origin in the Tachyscope, the Zoetrope, and other toys and machines that have been long familiar. Either the observer looks through a lens on a passing tape of lighted photographs, or this tape is thrown on a screen, and called Vitascope, Eidoscope, etc. But if we enter Edison's workshop and see how the photographs and phono- 6 82 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. graphs were prepared, we shall not cease to admire the patience, genius and success of this great American, the type of Modern Man. Describe Edison's Kineto- Phonographic Theatre ? It is a simple small room, growing less toward the stage end, where there is a black background. Twenty arc lights, with reflectors, throw fifty-thousand candle-power of illumination on the actors. At the proper distance stands the phonograph, with Pig. 37. TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS AND WORDS FOR KINETOSCOPE PHONOGRAPH. its big horn outstretched to catch every sound. This Phono- graph is electrically connected with the Kinetograph (not Kinetoscope, this time), alongside. Now the actors begin, or the pugilists commence to box. Professor Edison succeeded in taking forty-six photographs each second. Inside a drum, a highly-sensitized tape of celluloid, perforated at the edges, runs ELECTRICITY, 83 at the rate of twenty miles an hour. But the tape stops still forty-six times a second, and is at a stand nine-tenths of the time. As it stops, a shutter opens and the photograph is taken. The holes in the tape enable the locking machinery to start and stop the tape properly. When the tape stops^vthe electrical connection with the Phonograph regulates that instrument accordingly. We will now suppose that Corbett and Courtney spar for four rounds — a scene that first demonstrated the success of Edison's labors. Each round lasts exactly a minute. As the athletes strike and leap, clinch and break away, the tape makes two thousand seven hundred and sixty stops, and that many pictures are taken on a very long strip of celluloid. The electric part of the operation is now over. To merely see the reproduc- tion of this boxing match, the tape is reeled on spools, a lens or two may be put in a case overhead, an incandescent light may be lit under the lens, beneath the transparent tape, and the Motor set going. The tape goes by in one minute. The motions of the athletes are faster than they would be in a natural bout, and the eye detects a jerky movement, but to all intents, the picture is a complete and moving one, though moving too rapidly. What will be the uses of the Kineto-Phonograph in the future ? It will carry a much improved record to the next ages. Costumes, battles, volcanic eruptions, conflagrations, cyclones, voices, gestures, and physiognomy, the occult impressions con- veyed by great men, orators, leaders, teachers, reformers, inventors — all these records will be bestowed by the Nineteenth Century on the coming cycles of time; and education, thus aided by the past, will proceed more rapidly to the enfranchisement of the race. Tell me about the "' Chaining of Niagara Falls,'' as it is called. The mathematicians give to the fall of water at Niagara an energy of 8,250,000 horse power. The first or present power- house of the Cataract Construction Company utilizes 50,000 horse-power, and the canal and tunnel already made will run 84 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. two such power-houses. The energy utilized at the World's Fair of 1893, by the greatest battery of steam boilers the world had ever seen, was reckoned at less than 30,000 horse-power. Niagara would still serve 164 other similar power-houses. What did the Company do f It began its labors in 1889 and got practical results in 1895. It dug and walled a big canal to the site of the power-house. Fig. 38. - 1. T'lIE FIVE THOUSAND HORSE-POWER DYNAMO AT NIAGARA. 2. CROSS SECTION OF SAME. 3. INTERIOR OF POWER-HOUSE AND WHEEL-PIT. ELECTRICITY. 85 Then it sank a well or long wheel-pit alongside of the canal, where it could get water conveniently. Note that this deep well, at the earth's surface, was one hundred and forty feet long and twenty-one feet wide. This big well was sunk in the solid rock to a depth of one hundred and seventy-nine feet. Now let us view the general situation. The Niagara River, funning from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, falls over a ledge of rock a distance of from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty-four feet. At the bottom, the gorge into which the river has fallen also runs rapidly down-hill. The Company has extended its canal until it has been able to secure a private water-fall of one hundred and seventy-nine feet, although the actual fall of the water that is used is one hundred and thirty-six feet. After it is used, it follows a tunnel more than a mile and a quarter and empties into the gorge below the Falls. Thus, it goes a quarter mile in the canal; it falls one hundred and seventy-nine feet in the wheel-pit; it flows a mile and a quarter in the tunnel and again joins Niagara River, but man has caught, meanwhile, 50,000 horse-power of its energy, and needs to do that much less labor with his hands and back in order to live upon the earth. How does the water e7iter the wheel-pit ? In pipes or penstocks. At the bottom of the pit and at the end of the penstock is a turbine wheel. When the water comes to the wheel, the wheel goes around. The steel shaft that as- cends from the turbine wheel reaches the surface in the power- house, and, of course, turns around with all the power of the .wheel. The shaft is a rolled steel tube of thirty-seven inches in diameter. At its various bearings, on the way down to the bottom it becomes solid steel, with a diameter of eleven inches. Now, this shaft weighs thirty-six tons, and forty tons must be hung on it, as we shall show, and then the downward pressure of the water in the penstock is also to be resisted. Was it not probable that something would break ? How did they solve those questions ? A commission of engineers met at London to decide on gen- eral plans. ^ Its members were. Lord Kelvin, of England, Chair- 86 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. man ; Professor Cawthorne Unwin, of London, Secretary ; Pro- fessor E. Mascart, of Paris, and Dr. Coleman Sellers, of Phila- delphia. It was agreed that the power should be turned into Electricity instead of compressed air, because it was believed, the developments in Electricity bade fair to be more valuable than any improvements we might reasonably expect in the use of compressed air. No other methods of utilizing energy were seriously considered. It was determined that the water should leave the penstock in an upward direction, lifting the turbine wheel rather than dashing down on it. That is, the water, coming out of the penstock, moves with a lifting motion against the disk that carries the movable blades of the upper turbine. You must understand that nowadays, when a water-wheel's blade comes around where it opposes the water, it collapses and offers no resistance. The turbine wheel is five feet and a half in diameter, and goes around two hundred and fifty times a minute. Now also understand, that a shaft of steel rises out of the center of the turbine wheel — that is, on the wheel, to the top of the wheel-pit. Well, you spoke of forty tons that were to be loaded on this shaft. What was that ? The Dynamo. The top of the shaft was to be a Dynamo. It must be different from any Dynamo ever made before. It must not weigh more than forty tons, and it must have a fly-wheel effect of 550,000 tons. The fly-wheel in gearing, is a storage battery of power. It condenses or stores power, and equalizes the force of the machine. It is what the Accumulator is to Electricity. Now, naturally, the armature would be built up on the top end of the long steel shaft, but this would offer no fly-wheel. If the fly-wheel were added, there would be too much weight. So Nikola Tesla and the engineers solved the problem by fixing the Magnetic Field — that is, the Electro-Magnets and their Lines of Force — to the shaft itself, and the Magnetic Field revolves around the arma- ture, which is stationary. It is as though the shaft run by the steam engine in the Dynamo at your nearest street car power- house stood still, and the iron jaws of the Electro-Magnets that ELECTRICITY. 87 now inclose it, were turning somersaults around it. Now the shaft revolves, and the armature sends into its wires 5,000 horse- power of energy, or about twice the power of the largest Allis steam engine at the World's Fair of 1893. Thus, for the 50,000 horse-power of this power-house, there must be ten turbines, ten penstocks, and ten of these back-action Dynamos. The wires of the Company will carry working currents to Motors one hundred miles away. What has been done so far ? The City of Buffalo, twenty miles away, rents power for its water-works and street lamps. The rent for the water-works is twenty dollars each annual horse-power, and for arc lights, fifty dollars a year. The city of Buffalo may buy the local plant of Motors at the end of twenty years, and the Company must meanwhile charge all customers at one price. On the grounds of the Niagara Development Company adjacent, the Pittsburg Reduction Company, uses 3,000 horse-power in making alumin- ium. The Niagara Falls Paper Company uses 3,000 horse- power. A factory for calcium carbides, a material needed in the manufacture of acetylene gas, is one of the tenants. At the Electrical Exposition of 1896, in New York City, where Edison sent a telegraphic message around the world, machines were driven by power that came from the turbines in the Niagara wheel-pit. Five more Dynamos were put in in 1898. Is Electrotyping an Electric process? Yes. Distinctively so. The plates of this book are thus cast from the types of softer and less durable metal than copper. By making electro-plates many economies are wisely practised. First, the types are set into the form desired and dusted with plumbago. Then the form is turned face downward in a fiat vessel of beeswax, and properly pressed. Then the wax mould thus secured is suspended in a bath or battery containing usually a mixture of sulphate of copper and water, and a plate of copper is also put in the water. A Dynamo is turned on to secure rapid deposits of copper on the wax, and after a night in the bath, the wax comes out coated with copper, making a thin 88 • THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. copper shell. The shell is warmed so that a sheet of tin foil will adhere to its inside or back, and upon that tin foil melted type metal is poured, to give the plate strength. The plate can then be fixed upon a wooden block, or the backing can be made as thick as a type-form; but for book-work the plates are made so that they may be used on blocks which the pressman furnishes. When not in use, a set of book-plates is kept in strong boxes. The great objection to electrotyping is that it is too slow for modern times. The papier inache process of stereotyping, or making type-metal plates, is an entirely different process, with- out the use of electricity, except as power. What is the Gas Flash-lighter ? It is an electrical arrangement and device, whereby illumina- ting gas can be lit by touching a button in the wall. A battery is kept in the basement, which is inspected and attended by the company. The gasoiier is v/ired. Around each gas-burner is a jacket containing a tiny motor and stopcock. The motor is set going and opens the gas valve. An arm holding a wire-pole swings across the field of escaping gas; the spark flies from pole to pole at the nearest point to the other pole, and the gas takes fire. By this means, the light can be turned on or off by touching buttons, as if it were an electrolier instead of a gasoiier. What is Electro-plati7ig f The same as Electrolysis and Electrotyping, only that one Fig. 39. DYNAMO— HAND-POWER. FOR ELECTRO-PLATING, ETC. metal is deposited on another, a superior on an inferior quality. ELECTRICITY. 89 for many commercial purposes, but principally by jewelers and gold and silver smiths. In 1897, the price of silver had fallen so low, and competition had become so keen, that plated silver goods were to be had for the old price of tin. Jacobi, in Ger- many, John Wright, in England, and De Ruolz, in France, were the first great silver-platers. The vat holds a solution of cyanide of stiver in cyanide of potassium. The objects to be covered with silver are made of copper, zinc and nickel (german silver). These are washed in hot caustic potash, and before the washing are **scratch-brushed" with wires in a lathe, the wires being moistened with stale beer. Baths or ''pickles^' of nitric and other acids are also used. The articles are then ^'quicked'' by dipping them in a solution of nitrate of mercury or cyanide of mercury. A thin film of quicksilver is deposited on the article, which is now rinsed with water. What comes next f It is ready for the electric bath. The vats were once made of wood, but later, wrought iron was substituted. Plates of sil- ver are suspended from a frame which connects with the positive pole, or anode. The articles to be plated are suspended from a similar frame that connects with the negative pole, or cathode. (See the chapter on the X Ray). An ounce of silver will heavily plate a square foot of surface. The best manufacturers advertise triple-plated goods, implying that the article went in the silver bath three times. On removal, the plated objects are dipped in hot water, again ^'scratched brushed'^ with beer and dried in hot sawdust. What is Electro-Metallurgy ? Any similar process, by which one metal is deposited on another. Thus, copper plates for bank-notes are hardened by the deposit of iron. Flowers and insects are preserved by the deposit of beautifying metals. Exposed iron work is coated with copper. Plaster statues are coated with metal. Gold jew- elry of delicate workmanship is deposited by electricity in molds of gutta percha or plaster. Watch cases have offered a popular form of gold plating. 90 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, WJiat has been the effect of Electrical progress on the metallic industries ? A revolution has followed in these lines. Copper, (except from Lake Superior) Zinc, Manganese, Chromium, Aluminium, Sodium, Potassium, and all the Chlorates are produced by Elec- trolysis. Carborundum, to take the place of emery dust, is made by a current of Electricity. Calcium Carbide for acetylene gas, is made by Electricity. What happened to burglar-proof safes ? It was discovered, in 1897, that an electrical expert could fasten his apparatus to an electric light fixture, and with a car- bon candle, bore a hole in any safe whatever inside of two minutes. The hole could be made as big as a man's arm. The hardest steel melted like ice before the electric light thus applied. How are maps commonly made ? A copper plate is first covered with lampblack, and then with wax. Names of places, etc., are separately set in type in small hand-holders and stamped into the wax down to the black. The lines are also drawn down to the black. Thus a mold is made. This mold is then suspended in an electrotyper's bath, and copper is electrically deposited on the wax mold, making the electrotype or *'cut'' of the map. More maps are made at Chicago than anywhere else in America. Maps may, of course, be engraved on copper, steel or stone, without the electrical method. Finally^ tell me a wonderful thing that Electricity is yet to do ? We are to see through a thousand miles of wire. This in- strument is the Telectroscope — to see afar. It has been hypo- thetically invented by Leon Le Pontois, a French savant, and it is declared to be as clearly conceived as the theory of Columbus that a vessel could sail to the west around a spherical Earth. Before making an attempt to outline this invention, let us mark ELECTRICITY. 91 the ancient experiment of Professor Pepper, a noted lecturer, who burned a Drummond light in a dark camera. In this camera was a revolving disk that let out a slit (or thin sector) of a circle of light each time the disk revolved. This revolution was enormously rapid. But still a flash of light would be pro- jected each time the slit came around. In front of the camera was a very large wooden wheel. Now if the wooden wheel stood still in the dark — for the lecture-room was also darkened for this experiment — then we would see just one spoke, the spoke on which the little slit flashed jts light. A boy now turned the big wooden wheel, while Professor Pepper turned the metal disk. The wheel would be going so fast that its spokes could not be discerned if the lights of the hall were on. Thereupon the following phenomenon was shown : The slit was lighting each time a separate spoke of the big wheel, and yet the speed of light is so great and the registering power of the eye so good, that although the big wheel was revolving three hundred times a minute, still it apparently was not moving at all — in fact, it would oscillate slowly back and forth — a wonderful illusion, teaching that the eye cannot always be sure of what it sees. What has this to do with the Telectroscope ? The new instrument retains the revolving disks, and oxygen and hydrogen gases for the Drummond light, that made the Pepper experiment. We will now suppose a picture — let it be a shining one, such as a set piece of fireworks — and we want it to be seen a thousand miles away. The firework would cast its image toward a revolving disk with twenty holes in its outer part. The light coming through these disk-holes would strike an oxy-hydrogen light that would pulsate with the extra impressions of the disk-rays. All these pulsations are going over a telephone that is fitted to receive them, with a proper transmitter to exaggerate the impressions. At the other end of the telephone wire a similar disk is rotating by means of the same electric propulsion — that is, when a certain hole, say a, in disk No. I, goes past the top place in the disk's orbit, then hole a in disk No. 2, a thousand miles away, is at the same place in its circular path. Now the regular light vibrations are coming 92 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. through the wire; on top of these vibrations are the extra vibrations received on the Drummond light from the light coming through the disk, and each of these light rays, being of all kinds of powers, has chosen a different route over the wire. The picture is now passing over the wire. The Drummond light is burning from gases that are regulated by the diaphragm of the telephone receiver — that is, the light is exactly duplicated a thousand miles away. Disk No. 2 revolves so as to catch the whole of the light. This varying light is caught by lens and reflector and thrown with all its vividness on a ground glass. Through the other side of the ground glass the human eye is able to see, in the center of the vivid background, the original picture or fireworks, that shone on the disk at No. i. The picture has not passed, you say. Neither has your voice at the telephone passed. Certain pulsations caused by the voice have not been permitted to dissipate into nature so rapidly as they usually do. When man shall triumph over the electric difficulties of making two disks turn together, and two Drummond or electric lights burn together synchronously — that is at the same time — we shall see afar. We shall see fireworks, total eclipses that take place in Norway, operas, ballets, transformation scenes, great men, and distant relatives. Thousands of practical uses may evolve, undreamed of as yet. tibe X 1Ra^. iTi>TftT lTAT«Tr>Tpentng it. THE X RA Y. 95 Tell me something of the earlier history of the X Ray. The X Ray was not possible without long-continued study of the subject of Fluorescence or Phosphorescence, Radiance and Induction, as we will here try to show you. In 1852, Professor Stokes inserted a bulFs eye of blue (cobalt) glass in the wall of a dark room. Through this bull's eye a ray from the sun was admitted, making a feeble violet colored light. In front of the bull's eye he held a piece of canary glass (glass colored yel- owish green with oxide of uranium). This canary glass lit up brilliantly in the feeble light. Now he held, further away, but still in the track of the light, a piece of glass colored a brownish yellow W'ith the oxide of gold, and this glass became trans- parent. But if the Professor placed the gold glass before the uranium glass, the gold glass would not be transparent. In other words, the violet light of the bulFs eye would not go through the gold glass until it had first passed through the uranium glass and certain preparation had been given to its rays. We all have seen the rainbow effects of a three-cornered piece of glass lit by the sun — the spectrum. It had long been known that light fell outside of the blue band of the rainbow. This unseen light would effect chemical changes. Therefore it was light, or at least energy, and it was called the ultra- violet (that is, beyond the violet) ray. Ii was, of course, thought that Roentgen had found a new property of the ultra- violet ray. Stokes, however, with his fluorescent glasses — or glasses that would store up light — made the ultra-violet rays visible under many different circumstances. All luminous paints are made of materials that store light rapidly and emit it very slowly. The variations of color in the same chemicals at differ- ent times and the color effects generally, were never explained. State again the general facts of the rainbow and Fhiores- cence. The violet rays of the rainbow are the ones that cause the most chemical action — therefore these rays are called actinic. The yellow rays give the most light. The red rays give the most heat. Beyond the violet band of the rainbow are the ultra-violet rays, ordinarily not visible. They vibrate faster and 96 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. their waves are shorter, than the violet rays. But these ultra- violet rays, when passed through certain substances, become visible in a luminous state of that substance, and this luminosity is called Fluorescence. Now inasmuch as light is often desired without heat, the electricians have long sought to increase the vibrations of their machines in order to get a white light. Tell me about intensity coils — Ruhmkorffs, Tesla's, etc. Who was Ruhmkorfff Heinrich D. Ruhmkorff invented the Ruhmkorff Intensity Coil in 185 1. He died at Paris, December 21, 1877. He found that the most rapid movements could only be secured by wrap- ping one coil of wire over another. The currents were generated in the inner coil by Induction. The core of the coil was itself made of wires. A Dynamo sent its currents around the outer coil; the inner coil set up its own currents by Induction, and fed them into a condenser or Leyden jar; the Leyden jar discharged with increased velocity. Thus the Dynamo sent a current this way and that way around the small coil ten thousand times a second. This rapidity was multiplied beyond measure by the Leyden jar — up into the billions in a second. A feeble Leyden jar whose waves play only a few hundred times a second makes waves that are each twelve hundred miles long ; the shortest wave Tesla produced was thought to be seventy feet long. The wave needed to make white light is thought to be one fifty thousandth of an inch long. Thus electric waves are still far in the rear of light waves. What of the glass tubes ? For centuries the scientists have used glass tubes for the study of A FANCY GEissLER TUBE, gascs. Thus if we comprcss air THE X RA Y. 97 sufficiently, it becomes a fluid. This is usually shown in a hermetically sealed tube, and the fluid thus held will exhibit waves incomparably smaller and more sensitive to motion than the waves of water. Now what would be more natural than that Sir Humphrey Davy and the rest should put the arc light in a glass tube and exhaust the air, to see what the light would do in the tube ? The moment they did that much, they had a Crookes or a Lenard or a Geissler or a Hertz tube. Who is Professor Crookes ? William Crookes, of London, was a renowned scientist before the X Rays were found. He discovered the metal Thallium in 1861, and invented the Radiometer in 1864. What is a Radiometer ? A vacuum bulb made of glass. Inside are paddle wheels or vanes. One side of the vanes is black, the other bright. Take the bulb out of a dark place into the light, and the vanes revolve on their shaft, the bright side always in front. We may call it a light-mill. What is Anode and Cathode ? The wire that ran into the tubes ended in various ways — with a ball, a point, or a concave mirror — and it was called the anode. It was the negative pole. The wire that ran out of the tube, beginning with point, or ball, or mirror, was called the cathode or kathode. Of course, if the current entered the other way, the kathode would become the anode. These points or balls might be as far apart as the tube was big; but when the current was turned on, the tube would show a stream of light passing from anode to kathode, often in zig-zag, serpentine, or other courses. Professor Crookes at last made the bulbs that gave the best effects, putting the anode and kathode at various places, and setting the kathode mirror so that there would be a reflection of the kathode light. Dr. Roentgen had placed an aluminium window in the Crookes tube, and found that the kathode rays would go through that, in a Fluorescent way, before he found the X Ray. 98 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Was the light hi the Crookes tube Fluorescence ? Yes^ it was so considered. You will probably make the comment that Edison's incandescent light is an outcome of the tube idea, and so it is. There the current of electricity is aided in its passage from the anode to the kathode of the bulb by means of the filament of carbon, and the incandescence of the filament gives the light. With the Geissler and Crookes tubes toys and decorations were made, that were admired in the store windows long before the days of the Roentgen ray, and the' kathode rays, playing through the glass walls of the tube, were variously believed to receive changes in the glass, such as had taken place in Professor Stoke's canary^ glass. What produced the X Ray ? First Davy got the arc light in the air. Then it was flashed in a tube without air. Then the electricians increased the breaks in the circuit from one hundred to say a hundred millions in a second. Then Stokes discovered that the rays of light could be changed or ^'doctored." Then Stokes, Lenard and others made these rays go through aluminium. Then Roentgen, in doing this, discovered the presence of rays that are not ultra-violet because they cannot be produced outside of a tube, nor with low vibra- tions, nor with too much vacuum. What is the X Ray good for ? So far, it has been of great use in surgery, where the condi- tions of the bones of the hands or feet has been determined before the operation with knife. All bodies of medium density allow the X Ray to pass through them, and new ways of improving the value of the discovery are constantly found. How is the X Ray usually shown ? A photographic plate is put in its covered case. A cloth may be laid over the case. Any object — say the human foot, in boot and stocking — is set on the cloth and plate. The Crookes tube, of a pear shape, with its stream of Fluorescence to point toward the boot, is placed above the boot. The current is turned on the Ruhmkorff coil from the power-house or battery. The THE X RAY, 99 current goes in the condenser and the swift alternations begin. The boot is bombarded for one hour or more with streams of invisible matter, and after the photographic plate is developed it shows the skeleton of the foot, but no vestige of leather, stocking, cloth, or plate-holder. Sometimes the photograph will show only the iron pegs of the sole of a boot, the leather having vanished. The world, for nearly a year, was unanimous in its expressions of astonishment, and probably no man since Columbus became so quickly famous as Dr. Roentgen. WJiat did Edison do ? He at once set to work to make some practical use of the tubes and X Rays. He invented the Fluoroscope. This is a pyramidal box, (to be seen in the plate at the head of the chapter), with its small end covering the human eyes^ and closing them in. At the large end of the pyramid is a bottom or screen, covered with calcium tungstate,or a still better fluor- escing material, the name of which Edison keeps secret. Thus the observer is practically in a dark room, before a screen, on which is a substance that, like phosphorus, will retain light rays. A man's chest is next placed before the screen. The Crookes and Ruhmkorff or Tesla apparatus is placed behind the man's chest, and the current is turned on. The X Rays develop and go through the man's chest, reaching the screen, where they turn into light on the Fluorescent surface. Then the observer can see the organs of the body in action, and can form theories as to the state of the lungs. Where bullets or needles are imbedded in small bones, the Fluoroscope instantly locates them as well as the photograph, although the surgeons use the photo- graph, so as to make no personal error. What else did Edison do ? He coated the inside of the Crookes tube with his Fluorescing material, and the rapid light from the wires caused it to shine with a white, diffusive, and almost cold effect ; so that, between Edison and Tesla together, it only remains to obtain a big Condenser that will discharge as suddenly as a little one to get pulsations that will light up the bulb with a white, cold light. LefC. 100 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. . What is Da vies' bidb? It was made in March, 1896, under the direction of Professor Lodge. The anode wire with its platinum mirror was run out from a hollow ball made half of copper and half of aluminium. The electric charge went in by the wire leading to the anode. It leaped into the copper part of the ball. The air was pumped out of the ball. Thus we have a device somewhat like an open flower with a petal. The petal is the anode. The cup of the flower is the cathode. A cap of aluminium fits on the cup. The air is taken out. The charge of electricity comes up the inside of the stem into the petal. It goes down the outside, out of the cup. What were the results f This opaque bulb was set going at one side of the laboratory. Sixty-two feet away, a screen of thirty-six square inches was covered with a Fluorescing mixture of potassium platino-cyanide. Midway across the space three feet of timber were interposed. When the X Rays began pouring out of the metal bulb, they penetrated the three feet of timber, and the screen sixty-two feet away lit up. The hand interposed, made no shadow on the screen, so strong were the rays. This stream of force was thrown out of a dark metal ball. What has been done with blind people ? Blind scientists have been brought to experience new sensa- tions through theX Rays. The object seen appears to be in the brain itself, as the senses have no measure of distance. 2dison has made many experiments with blind subjects. Has harm resulted from the X Rays ? Yes. It is found that the rays have an irritating influence on the skin, and serious inflammation has resulted from exposure to the force. Describe Edison s X Ray Lamp^ as it is popularly called. The glass tube is made like an ^^^ on a glass standard, so that the ''egg" sits on the stem crosswise. The wires enter the "egg" at each end. One of the wires holds a mirror-disk that throws rays upward. The other wire has no disk or mirror THOMAS A.EDTSO^^ THE X RA Y. 101 The inside of the glass is coated with the Fluorescing material, and this has been fused into the glass. No X Rays pass beyond the glass in this tube, and Edison believes that their rapid waves Fig. 44. EDISON'S X RAY LAMP, cause the white cold light that sets up in the glass. There is but a small expenditure of power, and the economy is riine- tenths as compared with the incandescent light. That is, wh.en apparatus can be as cheaply applied to the Fluorescent light as it is to the arc light, the Fluorescent light will cost only one- tenth as much, and will give out almost no heat at all. For zvJiat is Tcsla celebrated? (See page 79.) For his inventions looking to the breaking and reversal of circuits, whereby these rapid movements can be secured. He is deemed the greatest of all the inventors of vibratory apparatus or oscillators. He was once a workman in Edison's laboratory. With his high frequencies he expects to project Kathode rays in the air from power-houses to lamps at great distances. That is, matter will be projected with force to Fluorescing substances stationed miles from the power-house, and they will become luminous without heat, as phosphorus is at night — or the glow- 102 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. worm. Thus the fire-fly and the decaying stump have at last taught their lesson to man. Is a comet Fluorescent ? Professor Crookes claimed a fourth state of matter — radiant matter — the other three conditions being solids, liquids and gases. There are certain aspects of great comets which could be theorized on the line of a radiant discharge from the celestial ether into the head of the comet. The tail of the comet precedes the comet when it goes out away from the sun, and stars are always seen through the tail. Whether or not such a comet as that of 1882, whose tail extended half way across the morning sky, is a flying kathode receiving the Fluorescent streams of a solar system, can be better determined after the spectra of all earthly forms of Radiance have been compiled and compared, W^ hat was Marconi's discovery ? William Marconi, an Italian, discovered that electric vibra- tions caused by an oscillator passed through a hill. Subsequent experiments showed that signals apparently could be sent through blocks of buildings in London to a distance of three hundred feet, passing seven or eight walls. Marconi believes that the electric rays pass through the general ether, and calls them electric X Rays, or Y Rays. Much is expected from these experiments. Marconi's apparatus was kept secret. Fig. 45. BELL'S RADIOPHONE. THE X RA Y. 103 What is Bell's Radiophone or Photophone ? It is a union of X Rays, search light and telephone. We have seen that Fresnel and others learned how to project light so that it would not disperse sidewise or laterally. It is now believed that a ray or a volume of light could be sent arouhd the world If the volume were caught at intervals and corrected to the cur- vature of the earth— that is, a row of search lights fifty miles apart would need only one electric light in order to throw a shaft of light around the world. How did Bell find that light would carry sound ? By means of a cell of selenium, a costly metal, (one of the elements — see Chemistry.) When a ray of light fell on the metal, a telephone connected with the metal gave out a sound. Fig, 46. BELL'S SELENIUM CELL. Afterward he found that lampblack was as good as selenium. The ray of light from a mirror strikes the selenium. A wire 104 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. leads out of the selenium into a telephone. Now if the mirrot is on the other side of a diaphragm or disk, against which a man is talking, the rays from the mirror carry the tone and words of his voice, and this has been done at a distance of a mile and a half. Furthermore, it is the X Rays that carry the voice, for matter may be placed in the line of the ray, apparently cutting off communication, and yet the voice will be heard just as well. An India rubber disk failed to stop a message. The light must be steady. Compresseb Hit. ^ What was the first pneumatic invention to attract general attention in America ? The Westinghouse Air-Brake^ by which the locomotive engineer could apply all the brakes of a railway train. This machine was invented and improved by Mr. Westinghouse, and^ after twenty years, was generally adopted by the railway men of the world. In the center beneath each car is a cylinder, with a piston extending from each end of the cylinder. Air goes in, the pistons go out, the brakes are applied, the air is let out of the cylinder and springs throw the pistons back, ready for another application. A secondary cylinder of Compressed Air is always ready, close by, to give instantaneous force to the pistons. Taking the pressure off the hose or pipe that goes to the locomotive from the brake lets the air out of the secondary cylinder and applies the brakes, so if the train severs itself the brakes apply themselves. Therefore the device is called and is at times an Automatic Brake. The series of cylinders and brakes are all connected through a '^triple valve," on one pipe that reaches an air-tank on the locomotive. The air-tank is filled by a little steam-engine on the locomotive, which you very often see going while the locomotive is standing at the station. Air-brakes are used on electric railways and the pump is operated by a separate motor. A dial in front of the motor-man records the air pressure. What is the Pneumatic Tttbe ? An ingenious and useful system in operation in populous cities, and in large establishments elsewhere. By this method, 105 106 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. small packages are almost instantly conveyed over considerable distances. A system of brass tubes with no right angles under- lies the streets. The central station is usually at the main telegraph office. Here a row of closed glass cases guards the entrances to the various tubes. The name of the newspaper or other establishment to which the particular tube leads is on the case. The pouch which is to pass through the tube is a cylinder made of leather, and is less than a foot long. The telegrams or letters are inclosed in this pouch, the pouch is set on end in a movable pneumatic car, and the car is pressed forward into the Pneumatic Field, which leads to the tube. As the pouch reaches the tube it is sucked or driven in, and a few seconds later is at the newspaper office. Communication between any two offices can thus be made very rapid if a trusty servant operates the central station, where a change must be made. Systems well worthy of the name were in operation in 1897, in Philadelphia, New York and Chicago. The Philadelphia tubes are six and a half inches in diameter. WJiat is the Electro- Pneumatic Block Signal f The railroad is divided into '*^ blocks," or sections, and no train is permitted to enter a block in which there is a train. If there is a train in the next block, a red light, or an out-stretched wooden arm or semaphore, warns the engineer or motor man, and he must come to a stop till the red light changes to green, or the wooden arm falls. Air-compressing engines are situated at the railroad shops, and a large storage tank stands near by. From this tank a large supply pipe runs the whole length of the track. Branch-pipes, with valves, lead to the semaphores. A section of track is electrically wired together and a well-battery is sunk in the ground at each block. The current goes up one rail to the end of the block and returns to the battery on the other rail — that is when there is no train on the track. When there is a train, the current crosses through the train and gets back to the battery the shortest way. At the semaphore is a compressed-air cylinder, like the Westinghouse. This com- pressed-air cylinder is operated by electro-magnets and springs that are released by electricity from additional batteries. When COMPRESSED AIR, 107 the batteries are operating, the arms are pulled down, and all is well. . When they cease to operate, or when a train comes on the block and the track current is shortened, a weight carries the arm of the semaphore outward, so that it commands the follow- ing engineer to stop. Sometimes two semaphores' on one post show the condition not only of the block just ahead, but of the block beyond that. The top one is red, the lower one green. All this action is automatic. If the signal does not change in so many minutes the engineer may proceed with caution. Where is the leading Compressed-Air power-house? At Paris. There Victor Popp has for many years furnished power for pneumatic clocks, of which there are at present about two thousand in the city. About ten thousand horse-power of energy is generated at these works. Power is furnished to refrigerating establishments, street-cars, dynamos, and other machinery. Pipes are laid under the streets and Compressed Air is measured to the customer by a meter, like gas. How is air compressed at such a pozver-house ? By a steam cylinder and a piston which unites the chest for the Compressed Air with the steam cylinder, one rod acting as a Fig. 47. THE RAND DIRECT-ACTING AIR-COMPRESSOR. piston in both of the cylinders. A pipe leads from the air- chest to the storage-tank. Service pipes lead from the tank into the streets of the city. The pressure is about seventy-five pounds to the square inch. Where has Compressed Air taken the first place as a motive power ? In the mines of America. The Hydraulic Power Company of Michigan, sends air in pipes from the Quinnesec Falls to Iron 108 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Mountain, to drive all the machinery of the Chapin and Luding- ton iron mines. What is the Compressed-Air Rock-Drill? It is a small machine that is braced against an adjustable iron column which binds against the walls of the shaft or tunnel in which the rock is to be removed. The air hose may lead down Fig. 48. ROCK DRILLING WITH COMPRESSED-AIR. the mine three-quarters of a mile or more. By means of this Drill holes are rapidly bored, and when enough are made the blast is set off. No other form of power has equaled Compressed Air for these subterranean purposes. The great Sanitary Canal, from Chicago to the Illinois River, has been cut through miles of lime stone by means of the Compressed-Air Rock-Drill. The steel drill is revolved by machinery, as air and steam will work in the same way ; but air has the advantage that it will not COMPRESSED AIR. 109 condense into water as steam must do when it is below two hundred and twelve degrees of temperature. What is the Compressed- Air Painting Machine ? It was invented by C. Y. Turner, for use at the World's Fair of 1893. Some of the buildings were so large that they could not have been painted by hand in the time required. The paint was put in tubs. The Compressed Air drew the paint into a hose and drove the paint through an atomizer with such force that the paint was put on and into the wood better than it could be done by hand, and with astonishing results economically. The machine moved on wheels. Since the World's Fair, the steel works have employed this device for painting railroad, bridges and building material. What is the Compressed-Air Calker? It is a machine, used notably in the Cramp Ship Yards at Philadelphia, where armored cruisers are made for the United States Government. All the calking of war-ships is done by such machinery, and one calker does the work of four men. It strikes four thousand blows a minute. A nearly similar machine is used by the stone and marble cutters. The engine is in the handle of the tool. What is tJu Car-Cleaner ? Merely a hose and nozzle. But by this simple means it is found that the dust inseparable from a railway journey behind a steam engine can best be eliminated from cushions, carpets and corners. It is rapidly displacing other methods of cleaning on all the railroads. How does a Compressed-Air Locomotive look ? Very large and cumbersome, more like a double oil tank-car than anything else. The steam-chests and drive-wheels,however, copy those of an ordinary locomotive. In France, between Paris and Nogent on the Marne River, they are charged for five mile trips and re-charged every mile and a half. A similar rail- way is running at Berne, Switzerland. What is the Asphalt-Refiner ? Asphalt, for street-pavements,comes from Trinidad in a crude 110 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. state. It must be boiled and well stirred. A cauldron like a soap-boiler is lined with pipes, but instead of steam alone, they also carry Compressed Air, which is sprayed from holes in the pipes. After three days' boiling, the mass has become homo- geneous, and will harden properly for use on the streets, where it makes the best pavement that has yet been devised for city use. What is the Air -Gun f It was at first an exhibition-affair, shooting a feathered shaft, for pleasure-seekers at fairs. It had its beginning in the child^s pop-gun. It is at last a great pneumatic cannon, invented by Lieutenant Zalinski, which throws a torpedo two miles and a half from a steel tube sixty feet long. High explosives cannot be projected with ordinary gunpowder, because they will not themselves endure the great initiatory shock. By the aid of Compressed Air, the projecting force increases with the journey of the projectile toward the muzzle of the cannon. It is understood, however, that powder will eventually displace the Compressed Air. What is Wood-Pulp Silk? A fabric woven in France. The wood pulp is chemically treated until it has become a gelatinous substance. It is then inclosed in a tank to which Compressed Air is introduced. This tank forces the pulp through a filter and into a second tank, out of which lead hundreds of glass pipes, whose tubes are each no larger than a silken fibre. The pulp issues from these holes in a thread, and six threads are woven into a strand of the silk. (See Silk, in Clothes.) What is the Coal-Dump ? By this device, one man caa feed coal to a battery of steam boilers however large. The cars are loaded, sent to their journey's end, dumped into automatic feeders, and returned for another load, all by the turning of a valve by a man who may retain his seat in a chair. The automatic chain feeders are displacing- coal-shovelers in the furnace-rooms of the ocean steamships. Cars on the Sanitary Canal were dumped by air- pistons. COMPRESSED AIR. Ill How Does Compressed Air rival Electricity ? In the convenience with which it may be transmitted. It is more safe. It is more easily understood, and does not arouse the fear and prejudice of the human race. It can be installed as the means by which every part of the work of a great factory may be carried on, as at a large machine shop in St. Louis, where a twenty-ton crane is moved. Shafting and bands are abolished, and each considerable machine has its own motor, fed by a hose. Water supplies for cities may be aerated, as at Little Rock, Ark. The pneumatic tire, on the bicycle, has brought the subject home to the people, and we have shown that the Council of Experts, at London, hesitated between Electricity and Air as the proper vehicle to use in transferring the power taken from the turbine wheels at Niagara Falls. What is the Automatic Ash-Dump ? A contrivance for removing the ashes of locomotives. The locomotive moves over a pit in which cars run on rails. Each car carries an ash-pan. The ashes are dropped into the pan. The little car carries the ash-pan under a frame work on which is a trolley. A compressed-air piston hanging to this trolley reaches down and seizes the ash-pan, drawing it up into the air. Another compressed-air piston pushes the perpendicular piston and its load along the trolley, over the ash-train, A spring opens the bottom of the ash-pan, and its ashes fall into the ash- train. w Breab, Etc. Is Bread the commonest of food? Yes, and it is ancient beyond the scope of history. In the earliest poems of the Bible the maidens are represented as sitting with mill-stones on their laps. In the English of England wheat is called corn — that is corn means ^r^/;?, and the people apply the term to the leading grain of their region. Thus the Scotchman calls oats corn. The settler in America, finding that Indian maize was seemingly best fitted to this climate, called maize corn, English settlers in Egypt and India have called rice corn, on the same principle. In reading the foreign press and dispatches, and the Bible, it must be remembered that cor7i nearly always means wheat. This grain, as we see it today, was as well known to the Pharaohs of the early dynasties, and wheat that had been inclosed in tombs for five thousand years was sown in the Botanical Gardens of Bath, England, in 1842, and grew fifteen or twenty bearded ears on each root. How was Wheat ground into fioiLr ?' First by lap stones, then by revolving mills on larger stones ; then the revolving stone was run by machinery. For ages, and until the 'seventies, the revolving stones, called buhrs, generally operated by water-wheels, were the means of making all the flour that was used by civilization. In 1877, the roller process was copied in America from European mills, where it had been recently invented, and the old-time mill by the stream, with its rumbling shafts and stones, began to pass away. Describe the '^nodern process. Wheat from the car or vessel goes at once to the top of the 8-113 114 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. mill. When it reaches the ground again it is in the form of Patent or best-grade flour, screenings, "offal," that is, bran and shorts, "clear ^' Flour, and first and second grade flour. The same bushel of wheat has produced these results, but the various grades of wheat have been through different series of machines. From the bin at the top of the mill the wheat falls past a blast of air, which carries away chaff and light dirt; next it strikes three sieves that catch the grains of corn, oats and rye. At a fourth sieve the wheat grains are themselves too large to go through, and they are thus separated from small seeds and pieces of dirt. But there is one seed that stay^ with the wheat despite all sieves, and that is cockle. So a drum was invented, and in this drum there are indentations the size of a cockle and too small for wheat. As the drum goes around, with wheat in it, the cockle fall into the little holes and are carried upward; as they pass overhead they fall on a catch-board in the drum. The drum slants and the wheat slides through slowly. Next, the wheat passes through a drum in which a wire brush revolves with high speed, creating also a strong air-blast. This process takes away all fuzz from the kernel, and even wipes out the crease, leaving it clean. As the stream of wheat leaves this drum it pours over an electro-magnet, which attracts all particles of iron, such as wire, or harvester and thrasher belongings. Is it now clean? Yes, and that is the main difference between the old and the new methods. The clean wheat is now to pass through grooved iron rollers, one of which goes faster than the other. The lines or strings on these rollers are like those on a screw, and the wheat is broken lengthwise. The first set of rollers is compara- tively coarse and set far apart ; the series progresses in fineness. A very little " break flour'' results, of a cheap grade. Next we come to the centrifugal machineSj so when you hear of centrifugal Flour you may know the source of the term. The crushed wheat goes to the centrifugals to be "scalped." The wheat is poured on these reels, and they, by rapidly revolving dash it -away from their centers, casting it against wire screens and silk gauze, and grading it according to the size of the mesh BREAD, ETC, 115 through which it escaped. It is now middlings. A German machine called a plane-sifter, by eccentric motion and jarring, does the same work with less force. What is the Middlings Purifier ? It is a blast of air. Before that blast the streams of variously- graded middlings pass, and the bran is blown into its own receptacle. The process now begins all over again from the rollers or crushers, and is repeated until there have been five operations. The flour then goes into barrels or sacks. The bran, however, after getting into the air blast, is passed through a machine which brushes it in search of flour. I have heard of 'inill explosions. What are they ? There was an explosive force in the flour dust, either when lighted by a flame, or under certain kinetic (or moving) circum- stances. It is believed that the modern ventilating fan, by revolving, draws this dust from the air in sufficient quantity to render the repetition of these calamities impossible. The flour is collected in a chamber, and is sold as a cheap grade — a warning to the buyer who values his health. Has flour or middlings eome to be used for other purposes ? Yes. The iron foundries of a large city use about two hundred barrels daily for mixture with sand in moulding. In years of scarcity in the corn crop, wheat is fed in prodigious quantities to animals. In the corn-famine of 1894, the Govern- ment Bureau estimated a consumption of eighty million bushels for this purpose. In a large city about sixt}^ barrels are daily made into paste. The bread and pastry bakeries use more flour each day than the city households, and five hundred barrels a day are made into crackers. China is now buying our flour. The meat-packing industries of America do not approach the value of the milling industries by $80,000,000 a year. What is Yeast ? Foam, froth, spume. Shakespeare speaks of the yeasty ocean. Yeast is described by the chemists as "^an insoluble substance forming an essential component of all sacchariferous juices 116 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, when in the state of vinous fermentation." Again, yeast is a substance which is added to the dough of bread. If allowed time, it will produce alcohol and carbonic acid from the actual or possible sugar present in the dough — for starch is capable of turning into sugar. The flour is made up of starch and gluten. The gluten forms a sack or cyst or hollow ball in which the carbonic acid gas is held, and as these cysts swell, the bread grows lighter. In the earliest historical times the yeasting princi- ple had been applied to dough, by keeping over wet yeast from 'baking to baking. But doubtless the feast of unleavened bread, when the Jews were compelled to destroy all leaven, was instituted in order to secure new and purer yeast. This hold- over yeast is called leaven, but is yeast. The Germans were the first to make the ferment, reduce ic to a paste, mix it with starch to still further dry it, compress it, and put it on the market in cakes. Next the process went to Scotland, and is now general in the United States, although many men and women are inclined to believe that the old hop-raisings, which were kept wet in an earthen vessel, produced more highly satisfactory results. What is Vie7ina Bread? We may group as ^' Vienna ^^ or '* French Bread '^ ail loaves that aim to give a maximum of crust, and to throw a quick crust around themselves as they enter a brick oven. As the loaf goes on the bricks or soapstone, it is called *' bottom " bread by the bakers. The long slim loaves are wrapped in can- vas bagging while they await the oven. Then they are unwrapped and placed on the baker's ^^peel" or paddle, where the baker gives them the three slits with a razor, and paints the tops with a corn-starch liquid which gives the loaf its reddish tint. Steam Fig. 50. KUNI'S APPARATUS FOR TESTING THE BAKING VALUE OF FLOUR. BREAD, ETC. 117 is admitted into the oven. The steam gives a thick crust, which holds in the gases, leaving them to escape only at the slits, and the way to know a good loaf of Vienna is to see that the baker's slits did not heal in the oven, but remained broken open by the escaping sjas. Is there anything peculiar about a baker s brick oven ? Yes. It is circular in shape and about fifteen feet in diameter. The bottom is made of soapstone, and is a circular disk, moving on its center by machinery. It holds about three hundred and fifty ordinary baker's loaves in pans, and these loaves are baked by being carried around slowly over the fire for half an hour. Each bakery makes from fifteen to twenty different kinds of pan bread, but there is little variance in the dough, which is kneaded by machinery. The wagons carry out the bread about three o'clock in the morning, and return with the unsold loaves of the day before, which are sold at the bakery to thrifty people for two cents a loaf. What other grain is used very largely for bread i7t America ? Corn. It is ground into meal, and this meal is used as a **bread-timber" through vast areas of the country. There is no yeasting process. The bread is often improved by the intro- duction of one-third wheat flour and some baking powder. Corn contains a fair amount of gluten and more vegetable fat than any other familiar grain. It is a heating food. For pan-cakes, or hoe-cakes as they are often called, corn seems especially well fitted, and even in the cities of the North, at the modern lunch-counters, corn cakes make a large item in the day's business. Corn *'gems" or buns are also popular. Mush and milk, or pudding and milk, made by stirring sifted corn meal in boiling water and serving hot in bowls of milk, offers one of the healthiest of foods where the bad effects of little or no exercise are felt. Mush and milk are remarkable for satisfy- ing the appetite quickly, but for only a short time. Green corn is canned in vast quantities. The corn crop of America is its principal production, and it is said of it that not five per cent, of it leaves county lines. The crop has run over two billion bushels for two years at a time. Corn is the principal crop of 118 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Mexico, and may almost be called the standard of value there, for nearly all mining enterprises depend for their cost on the yield of corn in Mexico during the period in which the labor is done. What is hominy f The word is a corruption of the Indian auhuminea, (parched corn). It is hulled corn. Dry corn is boiled in lye until the hull is eaten off, and the eyes begin to come out. It is then washed several times in cold water, and boiled in water with salt. It is eaten in milk or fried with pork gravy. " Hog and hominy " are twin dishes in the Southern States. What is corn-oil ? It is pressed out of the germs or hearts of corn at the glucose factories. It is used as a salad oil, and is sold to soap makers and paint mixers. What is cor7i-oil cake ? It is the residue of the corn germs or hearts after pressure in which the corn oil is secured. It is exported to Europe. What is ghcten, as sold on the market? It is the residue of corn after the germs and the starch have gone from it. It is pressed into wet cakes, dried, powdered, and sold for cattle feed at a good price. It is a gray or yellow- ish coarse meal or flour. Is Rye also used for bread f Yes, more and more, as Europeans have immigrated to America. Rye forms the great crop of Russia, over 700,000,000 bushels being harvested in a year. The rye loaf is very dense and damp. It is sweet and does not grow stale as quickly as wheat bread. For this reason it is prized by German saloon- keepers, and others who deal in free lunches. Many persons of foreign birth like aromatic seeds in the rye loaf. Rye grows taller than wheat, and the farmer often goes through his field before harvest, cutting off the tall heads, that ripen a little later than the wheat. The kernel is long, slim and dark. It does not present that edible appearance which is characteristic of the wheat berry. A large part of the American crop is used in the BREAD, ETC. 119 distillation of whiskey, and this brand of liquor is held in high esteem by druggists. Is any other gram largely eaten in America by all classes of people ? Oat-meal, or rolled oats, or prepared oats may be considered a growing staple breakfast food — at least in all large cities. The kernel has been divested of its husk and partly broken. It is put in water and boiled as glue is boiled, with one vessel inside another, the outer vessel containing boiling water. The paste thus prepared, is eaten with sugar and milk or cream. Children readily use this food, and doctors have favored it. In Scotland, oat cakes are eaten very generally. What is Rice ? The seed or grain of a grass called Oryza saliva — possi- bly the wheat oi the ancients. It forms the chief article of food for one - third of the human race, and is fermented into the leading liquor — saki (sah-kee) — of Japan and the arrack and shou-choo of the East. Where is it grown ? Rice is raised (as we raise wheat and corn) in China, Fig. 51. THE RICE PLANT. t i- t ^ i t- India, Japan, Ceylon, hgypt, Italy, Spain and the Southern States of North America. It must be sowed in a muddy or flooded soil, and is often trans- planted to drier ground. In the Southern States, where the best rice of the world's crop is raised, the seed is drilled in, as in a wheat-field, and the field is flooded to the depth of several inches. Then the water is drawn off. Later on, the water is let in again to kill weeds. When the harvest is nigh the field is flooded once more. BREAD, ETC, 121 What pcailiarities has Rice as a food? It exceeds ali other grains in the proportion of its fat-forming and heat-giving elements, and is adapted to the needs of the people in hot climates. How is Rice used in Northern climates ? It is good for puddings and is put in soups, A favorite table use of rice is to serve it in place of potatoes with stewed chicken Fifj. 53. TRANS PLANTING RICE. or any stew that furnishes a large amount of sauce. Rice may be eaten by invalids after serious illness in the intestinal tract, but it cannot be said that it plays an important part in the households of the American people, except in the Gulf States. Give me some idea of the effect of climate on the cereal crops and their use. We find oats and barley growing in the far north, like Canada, Scotland and Norway. In those countries the cakes and por- ridges to be made from these grains are sought and relished from habit and heredity. The next great crop going southward is rye, which as we have shown is a real competitor with wheat for the favor of half the Christian world. When we arrive in 122 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. climates where it is hot in July and August, wheat is the staff of life, and it grows by special care in many other regions, for there is a wheat harvest somewhere every day in the year. In the hot dry regions, corn is king. It was first called Turkish wheat, and was not originally found in America. When the climate becomes both hot and wet, rice and millet become the chief care of the people, for it is there they must obtain their farinaceous food. Rice is like oats, but is what we would call a water grass, or at least it must start in water. The impressions of Northern people regarding rice are borne out by scientific analysis, for rice is found to contain little gluten or sugar, the principal parts of bread. What is Millet? It is a grass seed filled with gluten, and is the smallest of the cereals raised for food. It is called Dhurra in Asia, and forms the chief breadstuff in Central India, Arabia and many parts of Africa, but is gradually being displaced by wheat in India. In the Northern States of America it is heard of only in the hay market. What other great food is borne on the stems of plants ? The banana or plantain. If we take all kind of bananas they may perhaps be claimed to be the leading food of the world, and it is said that they offer sustenance to 800,000,000 people. The consumption of bananas in America has grown enormously of late years, since their nutritious value was proved by invalids and children. Were the cost of transportation and distribution less, their use would be vastly increased. Where parents desire to feed bananas regularly to children that are not eating well, the cost of a dollar or more for a bunch or limb makes the ban- ana more a medicine than a food. The city parks usually keep banana trees in their conservatories, where the big plantain may be seen, with its bunches of bananas hanging with the bananas pointing upward in a very uncomfortable posture, to those observers who are used to seeing bananas only in warehouses or fruit stalls, hanging the other way. The bananas we get are all plucked very green, and ripen on the way or in the warehouse. The red bananas that look so luscious are in reality less palatable BREAD, ETC. 123 than the white or yellow ones. Gluten and starch are the main ingredients, and when the banana is fully ripe the starch has become sugar. In hot countries, the principal eating is done early, and bananas should not be consumed at night/ Is Barley used largely as food ? Not in America. Barley cakes are eaten abroad. The hotels and restaurants serve it in soups. The American crop is about sixty million bushels, and the world's crop is nine hundred million bushels, so we may get some idea of the world's taste for beer, as the main part of this yield goes to the top floors of the breweries. What is Sago f It is the starch of the sago palm, and is derived from the pith. The sago palm grows in Africa and the East Indies. One tree often yields five hundred pounds of commercial sago. The logs are split and the pith is taken out. This is pounded in water, and the starch settles on the bottom. After several washings, the paste is strained into small grains. Its use is for a dessert pudding. After soaking all night in water, milk, eggs, salt, sugar, and flavoring extract are added, and the vessel is placed in an oven where the sago is baked slowly and served hot or cold, with or without cream or milk. What is Tapioca ? It is a starch which is used in the same way as sago in the United States. It is from the same plant as cassava, which grows in South America, the West Indies and Africa, and is called the Brazilian Arrow-Root, or Manioc — the Jatropha manihot, a native of Brazil. The roots are peeled and reduced to a pulp. The prussic acid is squeezed out or evaporated and a powder free from poison is secured. Cassava bread is made from this powder, forming an important article of food to the negroes. Tapioca is the starch of the powder, dried on hot plates, and self-formed into the little granular masses that never entirely depart from the food. Tapioca pudding may be prepared like sago, or it may be made with milk instead of water. Apples are often added, and sometimes slices of orange. It may be eaten with cream. Good tapioca pudding is not BREAD, ETC. Vih easily made, as the masses or granules require skillful treatment or they will remain heavy to the taste. What are Spaghetti and Vermicelli ? They are two sizes of Macaroni — flour tubes that form the favorite food of the Italians and have come to be regarded with high favor in French and American restaurants. Usually the size is Vermicelli (worm size.) This is boiled, and served with tomato sauce and grated cheese — Parmesan cheese (from Parma) most often. Factories have been established in America, where Macaroni is made both in the old and the new way. Hard white Minnesota or Northern wheat is bought, washed and dried. Then it is cracked and polished into what is called ^^semolino." In the modern factory a hundred pounds of the semolino are put in an iron mixer, which has a shaft from which project round steel bars. Hot water is added, and the broken wheat is worked into a dough, which grows stiff slowly. Next the dough goes under the rolling machine, which is a granite wheel weighing several tons. This wheel goes around in a circle, traveling over the dough. This is a rolling-pin on a large scale. It leaves the dough in a shining condition. The kneading machine comes next. Here the bed goes around, and the dough thus passes under conical cog-wheels, that serve as knuckles. This lasts half an hour, and the dough is ready for the cylinder press. This is a steel box like a locomotive's steam- chest. A piston comes down on the dough with a heavy pres- sure. In the bottom of this cylinder are holes the size of the Macaroni wanted. In the holes are cores held by pins. The dough passes these pins and joins its sides afterwards, so that though it does not come out of a ring it still presents itself as a tube. The Macaroni as it hangs from the cylinder, is cut in lengths of ten feet, carried to the cutting table, cut again to box lengths, and then dried for eight days. The original American and English Macaroni was called noodles, and the noodle soup of the present day is made with Vermicelli. The letters of the alphabet are also cast in dough, and make a common and inter- esting ingredient of hotel and restaurant soup. Are there a7iy native starch puddings? Yes. Corn starch is used more largely than either tapioca 126 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, or sago. All baking powders now in use are more than one-third starch. America produces 500,000,000 pounds of corn starch, 2,000,000 pounds of wheat starch, and 30,000,000 pounds of potato starch. Wheat starch is used in the fine laundries. The largest consumers of starch are the paper makers, the carpet weavers and the makers of cotton and linen cloth. How is Corn Starch made ? The corn is cleaned under an air blast. It is then soaked in warm water, which is changed. In three days the corn is pulpy. Next it is ground in buhr-stones, in the old-fashioned manner, except that a stream of water is always passing through the stones. The milky water runs toward sieves where the bran and corn-germs remain behind for cattle- feed. , The starch-milk now runs down inclined planes, and as it is insoluble in cold water, it sinks to the bottom of the stream, like sand. This sediment is se- cured and washed over and over again. It is then molded into blocks about six by eight inches in size, which are baked. The heat draws out a crust of impuri- ties, which is scraped off by boys and girls. After scraping, the blocks are put in the drying room, where the steady but low heat causes them to break into the irregular masses which are sold in the trade. The fine brands are ground or pulverized for the market. The irregular crystals of the old time starch are seen no more, or rarely. Corn yields twenty-four to twenty-eight pounds of starch to the bushel. Wheat starch is made in the same way. • What is Buckwheat? It is a plant which raises a seed like a beechnut — that is, triangular in shape, and our word Buckwheat comes from the German Buchweisen, or Beech-wheat. A vast quantity of Buckwheat is used in the United States for griddle-cakes. The bees favor a buckwheat field, and its yellow blossoms tell of the Fig. 55. DIGESTOE FOR STARCH DETERMIN- ATION. BREAD, ETC, 127 yellow dye-stuff that the plant produces. In Asia, similar yellow dye-stuffs are used both for food and medicine. The buckwheat breakfast griddle-cake is a winter dish, remarkable for its light- ness, and the rapidity with which it can be cooked. It is a feature of the modern cheap lunch counter in large cities. " What are Crackers ? In Europe crackers are biscuits. Biscuit means twice cooked. In America, the term Biscuit is applied to small pieces of regular bread or to small pieces of bread-food that have been quickly fermented by means of baking powder. There are hundreds of different kinds of crackers, but we are accustomed to three main styles — first, the round cracker that comes in bar- rels and is about the size of a silver dollar ; next, the big square thin soda cracker ; lastly, the little oyster cracker, the size of a thumb's end. Plain water crackers and ship biscuits are harder and simpler in make-up. The cracker is usually made largely by machinery. The dough-mixer is cylindrical, with revolving arms inside, like the macaroni mixer. The dough is rolled out like paper, the crackers are cut by machinery, and a wide travel- ing band carries the pans into which they have fallen on an endless chain through an oven nearly forty feet long. They are usually subjected to great heat, so that the flour in a barrel of crackers weighed more before it was baked than afterward — that is, some of the water is dried out of the original flour as it came from the miller. In the civil war of 1861-65, the soldiers called their crackers '^ hard-tack." Name some of our crackers and cakes. Butter Wafers, Sea Spray and Pearl Oysters, Soda Biscuits, Club-House Wafers, Crystal Wafers, White Wings, Indian Gems, Graham Biscuits and Wafers, Oatmeal Biscuits and Wafers, Toast and Milk Biscuits, Pilot Bread, Arrowroot, Albert and Abernethy Biscuits, Afternoon Teas, Animals, Alphabets, Anise, Assorted Cookies and Jumbles, Almond Macaroons, Long Branch, Chocolate Wafers, Cracknels, Coffee Cakes, Cocoanut Bars, Fig Biscuits, Fig and Honey Bars, Frosted Creams, Ginger Snaps, Grandma Cookies, Honey Fingers and Jumbles, Lemon Creams, Snaps and Wafers, Marshmallow Eclairs, Murray 128 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Squares, New England Wafers, Orange Blossoms and Crisps, Pretzellettes, Raspberry Tarts, Snowballs. Sultana Fruit, Spice Nuts, Square Meal, Vanilla Squares and Wafers, Wine Biscuits, Cracker Meal, Imported German Wafers, variously scented, in tin cans, English scented Biscuits in cans. Dog Biscuits, Whole Wheat Wafers, Gluten Wafers, three grades of Oatmeal and of Graham Crackers. Every first-class city grocery is expected to keep all these and all the newly advertised brands on sale. What is Baking Powder ? It is a modern ready-made mixture of the acids and alkalis that were used by our ancestors to produce a quick rising in dough. [See Chemistry.] The wars of baking powder compa- nies, whereby each one endeavored to show that all the others used ammonia, have brought these institutions prominently before the people, but to the active housewife they are all well known on their own merits. A large city uses three million pounds of baking powder a year. Baking powder is composed of cream of tartar and soda, with starch added to keep the twain apart until they are wet in the dough. When wet, they generate carbonic acid gas, like yeast, and the dough '^ rises.'' Cream of tartar is a white powder or crystal, which is made from wine settlings, or '* argals.^' Crusts of tartar form on the casks, hence the name of '* cream,'' Beside its tartaric acid, it contains some potash. Soda is the carbonate of sodium, and sodium is one of the two principal alkali metals. Where does the word Alkali come from f From the Mediterranean sea-weed which the Arabs called Kali, and the ashes of all sea-weeds furnished the earliest source of the soda of commerce. Now it is produced more cheaply by the decomposition of common salt. Salt is burned with sulphuric acid, and then with chalk and coal. The mass is then soaked, dissolved and again roasted until it becomes the soda of our baking powder. We have described the making of starch. A Baking Powder Factory is the simple organization of an establishment for the economical and rapid mixing and boxing of tartar, soda and starch. Pipes lead from bins, and trucks pass under the pipes and take from each of the three BREAD, ETC. 129 exactly the quantity that is needed. It is mixed in a machine and put in round tin boxes of various sizes by girls. How are these powders adulterated? With alum and ammonia. Ohio, Minnesota and other States were prompt in legislative attempts to make this impracticable, and Germany has passed stringent laws. It is said that if you put baking powder that contains ammonia into boiling water, say a teaspoonful of the suspected powder to a cupful of water, the odor of ammonia can be detected. To find alum, put two teaspoonfuls of baking powder into a glass of cold water. If there be no alum present, the water will effervesce, but alum will prevent the foaming. What is Graham Bread ? Sylvester Graham was a minister of Massachusetts who died at Northampton, in 185 1. At that time Ohio was the Far West. He became a fanatical vegetarian, and attributed intemperance to the eating of meat. Among his other reforms- was the idea that bread ought to be baked from wheat flour that had not been sifted, so as to get more of the bran, or at least nearer to the husk, where the gluten lies thickest in the kernel. The millers found a ready sale for unbolted (unsifted) flour, and Graham flour is still a commercial article in the markets of America, though unknown by name in Europe. Of course, dyspeptic people enlarged on Graham's idea, and Boston Brown Bread — a loaf that looks like an English plum pudding — is still served at leading hotels and' restaurants. The brown crust of all "bottom " loaves of white bread serves a better purpose in the stomachs of people of delicate organisms, and the judgment of mankind has gone against coarse food as essential to health. Does climate affect food-practices ? It probably governs them. Man is the only animal that lives on all parts of the earth, for the reason possibly, that he is able to adjust his diet to the necessities of the situation. In hot lati- tudes, meats and stimulants are denied; in cold regions the same things are suggested. It is found that most of the great religions flourish best in the climates where they originated* Thus it 130 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. would be difficult for a devout Scotch Presbyterian and a devout Mussulman to change places and adhere to all their previous ideas. The two hundred and fifty million inhabitants of Hin- dostan are probably the most temperate people on earth, but the reason is to be found in the hot weather that is their portion in life. Are Beans eaten ? Yes. The Boston Baked Beans, as they are often called in this country, are first boiled, and then should be *^ fired ^' in an earthen bowl and in a baker's oven, with a small piece of fat pork to give them a certain flavor. Thus, the dish forms a kind of pie, with brown crust, much desired by bean-eaters. In New England towns the people took their own bowls of boiled beans to the baker's oven early in the morning. In the cities, very small individual vessels, thus prepared, are served at the lunch-counters and in many restaurants. The grocers also keep these beans in cans, and they are extensively advertised over the country. The Mexican frijoles, which, with corn, are the main food of the peons, are beans. The common white bean, which is thus used, is noted for its life-sustaining qualities, but is to be easily digested only by very active or healthy people. There are many other kinds of beans, but they are served in America as side dishes and used for pickles. The ^'locusts" that St. John ate in the wilderness, are usually said to have been beans. Pulse may be peas or beans, or any podded seeds. What of new uses for the various grains? The late war experiences developed a tremendous demand for smokeless powder. All the nations are equipping themselves with supplies of this recent invention. The exact formula of manufacture is a government secret, but immense quantities of alcohol derived from grain is used in the process. Then also, the use of grains for food is increasing faster than the increase of population. Vast mercantile interests have lately been built up on newly invented processes of pre- paring edible grains. The future of America as the great agricultural nation of the world is indeed very bright. £! Butter, Cbeese, Etc. !^*" ^//rt/ is Butter ? It is the fat of cows' or other animals' milk. It is highly palatable, nutritious, inimitable, and in the form which is common in the Northern States of America, is not known, or is little known, in the older countries of the earth bordering on the Mediterranean and Red Seas and Persian Gulf. It is highly recommended to all persons of spare build or afflicted with lung ailments. V/hat remarkable things have happened in the butter trade ? The methods of making have been re- formed and improved, and the business of adulterating and trying to imitate it has assumed enormous importance. When that great encyclopedia called the History of Adulteration shall come to be written, the principal chapter should be devoted to the war made on good butter by meat-pack- ers and renderers. One by one the good restaurants of the great cities have sur- rendered to the enemy, until it is only at high-priced and celebrated places that the wayfarer can procure what he pays for — cow's butter. In small households^ thanks to the Federal laws, there is far more protection, because the small grocer cannot afford to take out an oleomargarine license for selling substitute butter. Fig. 56. KOENIG'S APPA- RATUS FOR DISTIN- GUISHING MARGAR- INE FROM BUTTER. 181 132 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY Fig. 57. CHEESE GROTTO AT BERTRICK, BADEN. BUTTER, CHEESE, ETC. 133 WJiat great change in Bntter-making has eome ? The Creamery, where real butter is made by- machinery, and the odors of the old-time spring-house and milk-pans, so readily absorbed by butter, are precluded. As personal odors also entered into the old-time problem of butter-ladling, the modern creamery butter, all the year round, is often as good as the best hand-made butter used to be when grass was at its best. Where has butter-making led other industries in America ? In Dutchess and Herkimer Counties, New York, and at Elgin, Illinois. The Elgin Creameries became famous thirty years ago, and their practices have been copied in all the grazing regiors of the land. At the World's Fair of 1893, a separate building was erected for the dairies. Describe a modern small country Creamery. The institution is usually located at a thriving market-town, and is so placed as to be equally convenient to two main country roads. It may have been promoted by men who had machinery to sell, and can be carried with a capital of from $2,000 to $5,000, paying liberally on the investment. A large platform stands about wagon-high in front, and on this platform are the Fig. 58. KROCKER'S CREAM MEASURER. receiving tank-scales. The farmers drive up with their large milk-cans and the receiving-clerk empties the load, weighs it, 134 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, and enters the amount in his scratch-book. After this account has been made, the milk leaves the scales and flows into the big receiving-vat, which will contain three tons of the liquid. Near the big vat is a tempering caldron, with inside steam-pipes, which warm the milk to not less than 59 nor more than 61 degrees. Here it goes into the separator. Describe the Cream Separator. This centrifrugal machine has made it unnecessary to ^' set " milk, and milk-pans are out of use. It was invented in Sweden, where the steel of which the earliest bowls were made was of the highest quality. Later, Americans discovered a method of using sectional pieces of wrought iron piping, and now the cream separator has become comparatively cheap, and there are several great manufactories at Chicago, turning out thousands of machines each year. When a pan of milk is set, it is the force of gravity that is put at work, and the fats rise because they are lightest. If the milk-pail were swung about with great speed, in order to develop and maintain the centifrugal force or momentum, the cream would come toward the hand that swung the pail. If we put the milk in this bowl and set the bowl whirling at a greet speed, the separation will take place almost instantly. Thus a pipe of milk may be leading into the bowl, and two pipes out, for the cream will issue from a pipe at the top and the skim milk from a larger pipe at the side. This machine is geared to run by hand, horse-power or steam, but at the Creamery, the steam engine by which the milk is tempered also operates the separator. What becomes of the cream f The little cream pipe leads to a cream vat holding four hundred gallons, or two and one-half tons, while the skim milk goes in a small pipe to the milk vat. At the end of twenty-four hours a large cubical revolving box churn is nearly filled with cream. It is closed tightly and steam-power is applied to the axle on which the box hangs. The machine revolves swiftly, and in less than half an hour three hundred pounds of butter have been formed in the churn. This is thrown on a table and worked or ladled with a heavy lever that is fastened at one end to the table. It is then BUTTER, CHEESE, ETC. 135 salted, packed in large pails, and a salted cloth is spread over it, the cover is laid on, and it is ready for the market street of a great city, or the country store. In the cities, the small grocer goes to the market street early in the morning in his own wagon. In 1881 the price of the best Elgin creamery butter rose to sixty-five cents apound at the city groceries. For thirty years creamery but- ter has held the best place in the market, displacing the finest hand-made country butter. An ordinary country creamery will use 1,500,000 gallons of milk in a year, out of which it will make 55,000 pounds of butter and 66,000 pounds of cheese. The average creamery price of butter is ordinarily about twenty-one cents a pound. How are the farmers paid for their milk ? By the hundredweight — something like 70 cents for standard milk. The commonest adulterations are water,starch and yellow colors, such as the yolks of eggs, carrots and even metallic yellows. To keep milk from showing its age, boric and salicylic acids, soda, and other chemicals are added. Methods have been adopted which discover all these practices. To find the water a gravity tube is sunk in the milk. If a vessel holding a thousand pounds of water be filled with good milk it must weigh from one thou- sand and twenty-eight to one thou- sand and thirty-five pounds — both water and milk at 60 degrees of temperature. Suppose we weight- Fig.59. soxHLET'S APPARATUS ^d a closed glass tube with iron or FOR DETERMINING FAT mercury and let it stand upright in IN MILK. , ^ XT 1 .u . T the water. Now mark the water line 1,000. Sink the same tube in ordinary milk, and the tube will not go down to the water mark. Mark the milk-line, say 1031, and grade the space between the two lines into thirty-one equal parts. This tube would then be a lactometer. If the milk 136 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. shows less than 1028, it is certainly watered. If it goes over 1035, cream or another heavy body from outside sources has been added. About 87.5 per cent, of good milk is water. To find starch, tincture of iodine is introduced, which colors the starch cells blue. If there is dextrine in the milk, it will turn red. If the milk-tester discovers a can of milk that does not hold up to the lactometer properly, he can then proceed further. WJiat is Professor Babcock's sulphuric acid centrifugal mac I line ? This is in reality a cream separator into which sulphuric acid has been put along with the milk to be tested. What is desired is to know the proportion of fat to the milk. Milk, besides its 87.5 per cent, water, is composed of fat, sugar, caseine (that is cheese-ine) and salts. The sulphuric acid destroys the sugar, caseine and salts — that is, reduces them to the condition of water, so that, in the whirling of the test tube, they will stay with the water. The acid lets the fat alone. Now suppose the test tube or bottle to be so finely graded at the nozzle (like a drug- gist's graduate, or glass scale) that while the milk in the bottle represents one hundred pounds of milk, each mark on the nozzle represents one pound of butter fat. The bottle fits in a tin pall, and the pail is hung on a wheel that stands like the wheel of a car-brake. Then this wheel is whirled by a crank and gearing. Of course many bottles may be hung on at once. As in the cream-separator, the watery parts of the milk are thrown to the bottom of -the bottle as it flies out to a horizontal position, and the oil rises to the slim nozzle, where the graded marks show what proportion in pounds it will bear to one hundred pounds of the milk. Each week a test is made which shows the butter-producing quality of each farmer's milk, and he is paid for each hundred weight according to its value as a butter-producer. Fig. 60. BABCOCK'S MILK TESTING APPARATUS. BUTTER, CHEESE, ETC. 137 What is the hisioiy of Butter ? The word butter is very old, but the method of making it has varied. The word comes from the Greek 'Bolts, ox, cow, and tttros, cheese — that is, cow-cheese. The Hebrews and Semites generally used the word chameah. It was usually a liquid, as Judges 4:19 and 5:25. Yet butter was churned, as at Proverbs 30:33. The Romans preserved the name of butter in btUyriim. In India ghee is used, which is boiled butter. Beckman (History of Inventions) believes that butter came into Europe by the north, through the Scythians and Goths, and that the Romans used it as a medicine. In Italy, Spain and Portugal, and in the Southern States, oil often supplies the place of butter. Fig.61. AMAGAT-JEAN'S OLEO-REFRACTRO- SCOPE FOR TESTING OILS AND BUTTER. What becomes of the skim milk ? We left that in the big vat. The butter fat had been whirled out of it, but there still remained the caseine. In Latin, casetis is the word for cheese. Rich cheeses are never made from skim milk, but skim milk cheese is rich in nitrogenous or meaty qualities, and takes the place of animal food. When you set a pan of milk away and forget it, it curdles, or thickens, and turns sour. Cheese is itself a curd. Many acid substances will help to thicken milk, but one alone seems better than all others. It is the fourth or digesting stomach or rennet of a suckling calf. It is cut in strips, salted and smoked. When put in the milk vat it excites a rapid fermenting action, which can be secured by no other means as well, and which is scientifically known as yet only by its effects. To aid the fermentation, steam pipes raise the temperature of the mass, and the whey, or water, or serum, is allowed to escape. The mass is colored to supply the hue of the butter that has been taken from it by the cream separator, and paddled and mixed a good deal, until it is a solid rather than a fluid. It is then poured or shoveled into the 138 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, cheese-grinder, which mixes, beats and sifts the substance. What is it now ? The raw material of a cheese. This is put into hoop steels, the size of the box into which the cheese is to go, and pressure is applied. The hoop is lined with the cheese cloth which is to cover the product. More whey comes out under pressure. The finished cheese then goes to the curing room where it is shelved. A cream cheese ought to stay there six weeks. The skim milk cheeses made at our country creameries bring two cents a pound less than the cream cheeses. Canada excels as a cheese-produ- cing region, and at the World's Fair of 1893, in the Canadian pavilion of the Agricultural Building, the cheese that took the prize weighed 22,000 pounds. In Missouri, an eminent farmer received the soubriquet of " Big Cheese Robbins'' for a similar feat of cheese-making. Wliatforeign cheeses are liked in America ? The finest is Roquefort, which is made from ewes' milk, and is mixed with bread. By curing the cheese in a cave, which holds one temperature the year round, the bread molds in such way as to give a characteristic flavor to the cheese. A taste for this cheese once acquired, cannot be satisfied with any other make. It is the usual finishing touch at great banquets. Roquefort comes in sectional parts of small cheeses, wrapped m tin foil. It is not successfully imitated in America. What is Edam cheese ? It is usually the red sphere you see in the grocery. It used to be called Dutch cheese. It is colored with annatto, annotto, or arnotto, variously spelled, a red dyestuff obtained from a tree called Bixa in the West Indies. The curd is saturated in salt brine before it is pressed into the sphere, and this gives it the quality of *^ keeping" in nearly all climates. Probably the celebrity of Edam cheese comes rather from its being obtainable everywhere than from its just place among fine cheeses. All the way through its making, the idea is to salt it, and this was needed to meet the demands of the Dutch trade with the hot countries. BUTTER, CHEESE, ETC. 139 What is Schweizerkase ? This is the great Swiss cheese, which is so highly prized by- all the German race in America. It is a very hard goats' milk cheese in which gas has left large bubbles. It is. the stand-by of the beer saloon, and is a really fine cheese that cannot be success- fully imitated in America. The American substitutes lack in color, gaseous effects and taste. The smell, like that of all goats'-milk cheeses, is offensive to American nostrils, and Schweizerkase (that is, Swiss Cheese) is vulgarly called Limburger on this account, but we rarely see the latter. Lim- burger is sold in tin foil. What are De Brie and Camembert ? They are fine, rank-smelling French cheeses that come in small packages, and are pasty in substance. They are eaten by epicures both to satisfy an acquired taste, and to promote digestion, for it is usually said of these cheeses that although they are themselves indigestible, they may be eaten to digest other food. What is Parmesan cheese ? It is a cheese made on the banks of the Po River in Italy. It comes to America in bottles, the cheese having been rasped into crumbs. It is popular as a dressing for macaroni. But a great deal of this cheese becomes rancid from age, and judgment is required in buying. As a general thing, the foreign dainty that is seldom called for, being disliked by the masses of the people any way, is in bad condition when it is bought^ and probably the Edam cheese is the only product of the kind that is fairly proof against the tooth of time. What is Schmierkase ? Smear cheese, that is, whey cheese. It is made by house- wives all over the world. One of the fine cheeses— Neufchatel — belongs in appearance to this class of white, simple, unground, unleavened, unpressed, uncured curds. Yet the Neufchatel, although it looks as though it had been simply prepared, has been very carefully pressed out of sweet milk, with rennet. 140 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY For what are English cheeses noted? For their high flavor, color, purity and keeping qualities. The best are called Stilton, Cheddar, Cheshire, Wiltshire, Gloucester, etc. Stilton is made in Leicestershire, but is called Fig. 62. A CHESHIRE CHKESE PRESS. after a town in Huntingtonshire. The cream of an evening's milking is added to a morning's new milk, with rennet. The curd is not broken or paddled, but drams itself in a sieve gradually, and afterward under gentle pressure. Green mould comes on it when it is ripe, and care is exercised in all stages, even to eating it. Its fame in the English-speaking world is BUTTER, CHEESE, ETC. ' 141 very great. The American cheeses were for many years very poor imitations of England^s output, and. are yet considered tame and inedible by many epicures, but it must be considered that epicures eat cheese as a dessert, while the Apierican farmer, laborer and business man often depends on cheese and crackers for a good lunch. What animals give milk that is made into cheese^ butter^ or liquoj' ? The cow. In mountainous countries, the goat (Neufchatel and Swiss cheeses). At Roquefort, the sheep (Roquefort cheese) In Lapland the reindeer. In Russia, the mare, where Kumyss is made. In the Arabic deserts and countries, the camel. The cream is put in a skin sack and the sack is swung until the butter comes. Asses' milk is highly esteemed as a food for invalids in northern lands. Has imitation flourished, as in the case of butter? No. There is nothing to imitate save the fancy foreign cheeses, and there the epicure is an efficient judge for himself. But American cheese-makers have been abroad to study all the methods, and when the importations of a fancy cheese become notable — (the entire amount is not large) — that cheese is put on the market. One factory in New York is said to produce two hundred thousand foreign cheeses. They deceive nobody who really likes foreign cheese, but in the way of Schweizerkase the American bogus product displaces a really good article to a considerable extent. And here, where success is the greatest, the imitation is the poorest. What is Club-House Cheese ? A home product for which Americans deserve credit. It is full cream cheese, run through a grinder, mixed with butter, salted, cured also with a little brandy, put up in a glass, covered with paraffin paper, and a glass top screwed on. Here we have a package that will keep and will not absorb odors, or, what is better, give them out. It is also of a size convenient for purchase and use. What is the principal imitation of butter ? Oleomargarine, generally called butterine, A Parisian chemist 142 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, named Mege Mouries is credited with establishing the first imi- tation dairy in the world in 1870, during the siege of his city. The instant success of this institution led to the establishment of similar factories at the Stock Yards in Chicago, and it was not long before the farmers of America were confronted with a rivalry that was harmful in many ways. The new product undersold and cheapened butter, and yet was sold as butter. People who had paid for one kind of food got another. But first of the thing itself — oleomargarine or butterine. If olein were the chief element of butter, could not olein be rendered from other parts of a cow than her udder ? Margarine, like Margaret comes from the ancient name of the pearl. ^ It was a pearl-like fat. The word had long been in our large dictionaries. Olein is a modern word, but oleic acid can come from any vegetable or animal oil. The compound word Oleomargarine was brought into the world by the Parisians, and excited the greatest scorn in America, where the substance was to win its chief triumphs. The caul-fat of the cow, covering the intes- tines, w^as found to contain olein to the extent of twenty-nine pounds to each animal, and this caul-fat or olein, or oleomar- garine, or tallow, as it may properly be called, is expressed in oil, and shipped to Holland, to the extent of $10,000,000 worth a year. The Hollanders pay nearly ten cents a pound for the oil. Describe a butterine factory ? It may occupy a large building near a slaughter-house. The intestinal tallow or caul-fat is dumped in a tank of water, where the blood and dirt are washed away. The fat next goes to rows of iron cauldrons lined with steam pipes and the temperature is raised to one hundred and fifty-five degrees, for the fat must not be burned. Revolving arms stir the fat, and it slowly tries out. It drains into large clarifiers, where a sediment that is not wanted settles to the bottom. A siphon draws away the. clear oil into tin-lined trucks, which are trundled to a so-called cool-room, where the temperature is maintained at eighty-five degrees. Here it cools and granulates. What is next? It now goes to tne press-room. The tallow in the truck has BUTTER y CHEESE, ETC. 143 a yellowish cast, upholding the chemists' claim that it contains the principle of butter. Men now prepare it in little cakes for the presser. In front of each man is a small square mould. Over the mould a piece of white duck cloth is §pread. The mould is then filled with tallow and the duck is folded over the square cake. Eight cakes are then placed on a piece of sheet- iron under the big press, and covered with another piece of sheet-iron. Eight more cakes are put on, and thus the stack is built up until there are sixty layers and four hundred and eighty cakes. Screw pressure is applied, and the oleomargarine oil is expressed from the cakes. What remains ? Stearine in flattened cakes, pure white and almost tasteless. It is used as an ingredient in making certain brands of lard. The oil that comes away from the press was of a bright amber color. It again goes into steam-pipe cauldrons, where it is stirred by machinery. The temperature is raised to one hundred and eighty-five degrees, and it is again run into tin-lined truck-tanks and chilled. Now the oleomargarine passes through a bath or brine, and then granulates, resembling a light brown grade of sugar, and slightly resembling butter in taste. It is packed in tin-lined trays, six feet long by three feet wide, and goes to the store-room. What is Neutral ? It is leaf lard, from swine, that has gone through the brine, and is now to be used as an adulterant of this adulteration, for you see the manufacturers are not able to make enough money out of pure oleomargarine. The trays of Neutral are placed in the same storage with the oleomargarine. A chute leads from the storage floor to the creamery, and workmen, as the trucks holding oleomargarine and Neutral are trundled out, shovel them in equal parts. Forty per cent, of the butterine we eat is lard. Forty per cent, is oleomargarine. What is the remai^tder of 20 per cent ? In the best butterine it is good butter. The chute leads to a vat, where the two kinds of fat are heated to one hundred and eighty degrees, and stirred by men with paddles. We are now 144 ^^^ FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. in the churn-room. Near by are ail the appurtenances of the genuine creamery which we have previously described — milk- vats, cream separator and revolving butter churn. As the butter is churned, it is added with some of its buttermilk, to the big vat, where the men still stir with paddles, and perform what they call the operation of churning. If color be needed, it is added, exactly as at a country creamery, the same pigments being used. Is the mass worked f Yes. It goes on a circular table, and a long conical roller or butter-worker squeezes out the buttermilk and mixes in the salt which the operator adds, using meanwhile a wooden paddle. Again it is loaded into tin-lined trucks, and stands a day, when it once more goes on the circular table. Now it is ready for the packing-room down stairs. Here the United States takes a hand. Each package must be marked *•' Oleomargarine " in plain type, and the factory number must be added. The maker must pay a license tax of $600 a year, and a wholesale tax of $480, with a tax of two cents a pound on all the product manufactured. Retailers pay $48 more, yearly. Are there any State regulations ? Yes. In some of the Pacific States the keepers of inns and boarding-houses must place before each guest a card bearing a definite notification that the stuff set before him is sham butter, and the chemical ingredients must be separately stated. Is there any other adidteratiorif Yes. Cocoa is used. In 1895, there was established at Chicago, a factory for the manufacture of butter and lard for household use from cocoa-nut oil. Ceylon produces cocoa-nuts in enormous quantities, and the oil or " butter '^ is shipped to America at the rate of twenty-five million pounds a year, for the use of soap and candle-makers. But an inventor named Campbell found a new use for it. Describe a cocoa-butter factory and its output ? The pipes or barrels of cocoa-butter are carried to the top fig or, which is heated to one hundred and thirty degrees. The BUTTER, CHEESE, ETC, 145 butter in the barrels turns into oil. It is then poured into cauldrons which are jacketed with hot water, like oatmeal cookers. Into the cauldrons, mixing with the oil, the inventor puts a secret solution, which kills the fermenting germs of the oil. The oil next goes down-stairs and is mixed with water. The secret solution unites with the water and leaves oil. Then a centrifugal machine or cream-separator, making four thousand revolutions a minute, throws away the water and the solution. It is now *' stock, '^ ready for use. What is do7ie with it ? If it goes into immediate use, it is poured on top of water in tin vats. Into the water a cold air blast is injected with great force, and this churns the oil into granulated white butter. It goes to a store-room, where it ^'ripens," somewhat like cheese, developing acids that are desired. It may now be mixed with creamery butter, exactly as at the butterine factory. The capacity of this factory is twenty thousand pounds daily. Without mixing, the prodrct becomes a substitute for lard, and its makers claim for it many advantages over the fat of swine for cooking purposes. What is Condensed Milkf It is milk from which three-quarters of the water has been evaporated. It was put on the market three years before the Civil War by Gail Borden, who erected a factory at Wolcott, Conn. A few years later an establishment was started at Elgin, 111., where the milk of 2,000 cows is shipped in tin cans to all parts of the world, and several factories are operated by the New Yorl^ Condensed Milk Company. The milk comes to the factory as it does to a creamery, but perhaps even more care is taken as to cleanliness, and to prevent souring. At the scales the milk undergoes an eye and nose inspection, and all suspicious deliveries are sampled for the chemist's tests. Before the farmers' cans are returned, they are scalded, and they must be washed again at home. The copper storage tanks hold twenty thousand gallons. Thence the milk goes to '^ wells " where it is heated to the boiling point, and is strained o^ into the sugar- 146 ' THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. mixer, where granulated sugar, the preservative, is added. The mixture of milk and sugar is now ready for the vacuum- pans, for it is to be treated exactly as sap or sugar-cane juice are, *' boiled down." But it requies a temperature of only one hundred and forty degrees, and the evaporation is rapid. The remainder is condensed milk, a thick, white or cream colored custard. It goes to the coolers and thence to the little cans. What is its use ? It goes with the explorer across the forests of Africa, and with the civil engineer when he traverses Siberia or bridges the Andes. It is carried with every sportsman's outfit into the deep woods of America. Its reputation is so high that the factory keeps up a system of outside inspection, whereby every cow that contri- butes to the supplies of ihe factory is examined as to the condition of her health, and only certain kinds of food are allowed. The tin cans are made at the factory. To what other use is condensed milk put ? It is evaporated without sugar and sold in large quantities to the manufacturers of ice cream in cities, and to bakers and confectioners who use it in place of cream. What is sterilized milk? Milk raised to a temperature of one hundred and sixty-seven degrees Fahrenheit, and kept at that heat for twenty miuutes. In this way all bacilli are destroyed. A double boiler is used— that is, the outer vat is set in surrounding water. Large quantities of milk are thus prepared at factories for use in the market as food for infants and children. What is Kumyss ? Kumyss or Koumiss is an effervescent drink prepared from mare's milk by the Tartars, Calmucks etc., and imitated in America by manufacturers who make it from cow's milk. The Russian method is as follows : The fresh mare's milk, noted for its sweetness, is diluted with one-third to one-sixth water, and placed in a sack of goat-skin, or a bottle made from the BUTTER, CHEESE, ETC. 147 skin of the entire hind-quarter of a horse. The yeast used is koVy the sediment from a previous brewing. The bottle must be frequently shaken. In tv/enty-four hours the fermentation is complete, and the young '^Kumyss'^ is made. It is called sauinal. Fresh milk is added daily, and water evaporates from the surface of the hide. The Russian beverage is highly intoxi- cating, but the American Kumyss will not make anybody drunk. About 1876, it was well advertised in the European cities as a health drink, and invalids in America very generally tried it. Many persons who do not like butter-milk enjoy the taste of Kumyss as it is made here. 148 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY Fig. 63. GATHERING DATES. ^^ ^tutt. Is America tvell supplied with Fruit ? Yes. On account of the facilities of modern transportation, the people enjoy the luxuries of all climates. A visitor to the World's Fair of Philadelphia, in 1876, or Chicago, in 1893, might see, at the gates of those expositions, most wonderful arrays of fruit by common vendors and peddlers, at prices within the reach of everybody. The fruits of America were also displayed at Chicago in bewildering profusion in the west side of the long Horticultural Building, in the equally large buildings of Cali- fornia and Washington, and in the Agricultural Building. What do yoti consider the most important American fruit ? The Apple. Its tree is hardy, and has been known to live two hundred years, although an orchard usually dies or ceases to bear in fifty years. The wild crab apple of the old world, is thought to be the parent of all our apples. The varieties best known are perhaps the Rhode Island Greening, Bellflower, Pippin, Northern Spy, Rambo, Russet, Spitzenberg, Nonesuch, Wine apple, Baldwin, Snow apple and Seek-no-further. The Rambo is good at harvest-time. Such apples as the Greening and Northern Spy are hard and sour at that season, but in the middle of winter they soften and granulate, becoming delight- fully edible at a time of great need.. The Russet, thick-skinned and forbidding to the latest moment, is the last to be eaten, and serves as the final reminder of the previous year. We export many apples to Europe. New York is a celebrated apple region because its orchards are well established. 149 150 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, What followed the failure of vines in France ? The culture of apples, and the use by the French of cider a^ a drink, until a billion gallons a year were consumed. How are Apple trees improved ? By grafting. The old Indian orchards, so frequently met in the West, show a fruit not much above the crab-apple in quality. A branch is sawed off, and the twigs of a good apple tree are inserted in the split end of the amputated trunk. The graft is gummed in, and the new branch that grows bears better apples. The twig is called the scion, and the branch the stock. There are various other forms of making the juction, but the split is commonest. Webster's Dictionary gives a good and full illus- trated account at the word ^^ Grafting." How are Apples consumed? They are barreled and stored in cellars for consumption at the fireside. They are dried and sold at the groceries. They are made into a preserve called apple-butter. They are crushed for their juice, which ferments into cider, and this cider is boiled into a thick sirup. They are sliced and canned for pies, and apple pie is eaten everywhere. What is the Alden process of drying ? A wooden chamber is built. Through this chamber endless chains operate by stages, moving once in four or five minutes. On these chains are placed trays of the apples or other fruit to be dried. Below the chamber a steam coil heats a blast of air. The air comes from a blower driven by a steam engine that heats the coil. The air grows less humid as the chain descends through the chamber. If necessary, moisture is imparted to the air blast. The process was called Supermaturation by its inven- tor, who likened its action to the course of nature in the Bartlett pear and the fig after they are plucked from the tree. What fruit closely allied to the Apple has become common ? The, California or Bartlett Pear. On account of the opening of the Pacific Railroad, in 1869, the further cheapening of trans- portation by rival lines, and the capability of this fruit to self- ripen on its long journey, the yellow pear, during its season, FRUIT, 151 in the autumn, is the most notable fruit on the stands of the street-vendors. So novel and delicious was- this fruit regarded in the States east of the Mississippi in 1870, that single pears sold for from fifteen to twenty-five cents each orr the streets of the cities. At that time there were about two hundred and eighty thousand pear trees in California. The number enormously increased, and it was found that it would be profitable to ship even the smallest specimens of the fruit eastward. The native pears of the Eastern United States have a thicker green skin, and never take on a golden yellow. But they are preferred by many. Pears are canned more largely than apples. The cider made from pears is called Perry. The pear is as old historically as the apple, and both were well known to the ancients. WJiat can you tell me of the Peach ? It is an ancient fruit, being the Tao of Confucius, 500 B. C. The Nectarine is an outgrowth of the Peach, and the Peach is probably an outgrowth of the Almond. The Plum is very closely allied to the Peach. The Peach comes to Western civilization from Persia, and belongs to the botanical genus Prunus Persica According to the soil and climate in which it grows, it varies from a small^ mealy, indifferent ball of vegetable fur, to a very large, rich, juicy, highly flavored aad beautifully colored article of diet and refreshment. The Peach grows best at the margin of great bodies of fresh water, from which steady winds blow, as on the eastern coast of Lake Michigan, where a poor sandy soil has furnished some of the best Peaches in the world. The Peaches of California are still larger. Are there two kinds of all Peaches ? Yes, clingstone and free stone. The clingstone Peach, while considered of superior flavor, does not cut up so well, but serves as conveniently in preserves or sauces. It comes very early. How are Peaches cultivated? They are planted in orchards, and several of the battle-fields of the civil war were fought over Peach orchards, as at Shiloh and Gettysburg. As the tree is somewhat like a willow, its thick foliage offers shelter from view, without safety from bullets, so the Peach orchards of battle have been death-traps. 152 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. where the carnage was always worst. A disease called ''yellows'' attacks the trees, and entire regions are denuded of their orchards, but it sometimes happens that individual trees resist disease with the good fortune of individual men, and for no better known reason. The Peaches are shipped from the orchards in baskets holding a bushel or one-fifth bushel. The small circular baskets have passed out of use. The common form is long and low, with a handle. The supplies for a great city make shiploads daily, and fruit trains also run on the rail- roads in season. Over two million baskets come to a city like Chicago in a year. How a7'e Peaches tised? They are sold on the streets, to be eaten in hand. They are eaten raw 'on the table, sliced, with sugar and cream, and are nearly as highly esteemed in this way as strawberries, but are extremely perishable, requiring greater care in serving. They are stewed. They are dried, like apples, and this was once the common way of preserving them. They are made into Peach butter or jam, a thick sauce, and the fruit makes an excellent pickle, cloves being thrust in the sides for flavor. The Peach pie, made all the year round, is as staple as the apple pie at the city restaurantb and lunch counters, and the consumption is enormous. A7'e Peaches canned? Vast quantities are prepared for use by canning, and doubt- less the canned Peach, as you see it at your grocery, leads all other forms of commerce in preserved fruits. There are great factories where the round three pound tin cans are made; there are great printing-works, where the most luscious peaches are pictured on paper, for the outside of cans, and at nearly every town where Peaches are raised for the market, the canning establishment flourishes. At first the fruit was peeled and stewed in a heavy liquor of sugar and water, but subsequently It was learned that the public preferred a cheaper and thinner preparation. The skin of a Peach is best removed by scalding. The general operation of canning is described later. (See Tomato.) The Peach is alv/ays sliced into halves, and the pit is taken out. The canning factories, by operating near the FRUIT, 153 orchards, furnish needed employment to the boys and girls of the town. Do the California Canned fruits rank separately ? Yes, and in three grades or qualities. The 'names of the Peaches usually chosen for canning in California, are Lemon Cling, White Heath and Yellow, Attempts are also made by the trade to supply Peaches in cans for use on the table with cream. What is the Apricot ? It is a Peach with a smooth skin. It does not grow so large as a Peach, nor does it acquire a flavor so fine. It comes on the markets of America for short seasons, but cannot compete with the Peach. What is the Nectarine ? It is still another small smooth-rind Peach that comes from Persia along with the others. It is a California fruit and does not figure on the Eastern markets. The Cherry is also an important fruity I think. Yes. And both kinds, the Eastern and Western, have their admirers. The Cherry of the East is red, juicy and luscious. The Cherry of California is much larger, but has less flavor. It is somewhat sweeter, with less of the cherry acid, which is so highly liked by many. Both kinds of Cherries have their origin in Asia, and it is said that Lucullus brought them to Rome when he returned from his campaign. The California kinds are called Ox-heart, both red and white, but they are also known as Dukes and Bigarreaux. The Eastern or common red cherries are called Morello and Gean (from Guigne). The householder finds that they play an important part as a canned fruit, and beside the immense quantities put up by Eastern women, the sale of Cali- fornia canned Ox-hearts is very general. These are called White and Black. The California Black (Red) Cherries that appear for a while on the fruit stands of America, are, for such pur- poses, perhaps the finest fruit we see. Our own Eastern cherry orchards are famous, and no tree could be more beautiful than a Cherry in May, when it is in full bloom, or in July when 154 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. it is loaded with its gleaming red berries. Cherries are never cheap in the great cities. The hucksters cannot sell them on account of high pVice, and the season is short. There are about one hundred varieties. What is the Strawberry ? It is considered by mankind generally to be the most desirable product of the earth, and a taste for Strawberries usually endures far into middle life, or perhaps to death. The Straw- berry furnishes one of the greatest commercial interests we have, and doubtless there are few Americans who do not each year obtain as many berries to eat as they ought to get. Nature gives a short period for the eating of this fruit, but at a city like New York, the season begins for the rich as early as March, and ends as late as August. Where do the word and the berry come from ? From the earliest races, who called it a stray-berry, a straying plant. The Aryans had the same word as stray for star. The scientists tell us that the strawberry is as if a wild rose had turned inside out, the stalk becoming swollen into a tumorous condition, with the seeds, which are little nuts or fruit, sticking in the side and exposed to the air. What makes the Strawberry red? The oxidation of its tender tissues — the same tendency that is in every green thing, as happens to all the autumn leaves. Where redness favors the life of a plant, it grows very bright; elsewhere the tendency is suppressed. Now the Strawberry, with its astonishingly malformed seed-holder, needs the birds to carry it away, for the birds cannot injure its seeds, but must scatter them in the earth. So its tendency to red is heightened. A plant so widely grown, with so many curious men at work upon it, must show the utmost variation, and it may be gener- ally said that this variation has resulted in a poorer berry, and man would have done well to let the birds alone. Some berries are offered on the market that have no more juice than a banana, and less flavor. The wild Strawberries are still the sweetest. FRUIT. 155 How are Strawberries distributed ? They are carried to cities and towns on fruit trains, which make trips of five hundred miles or more, the strawberry harvest beginning on the Gulf of Mexico, and going slowly northward to Canada, which is reached in July. A quart box with a high bottom is used. Two dozen of these boxes are piled in two layers in a larger box, and the grocer exposes the fruit with the top of the larger box off. Shiploads come to New York and boatloads to Chicago, the Michigan harvest being especially large. Something like a million cases a year pass into or through a large city. The Strawberry cannot be satisfactorily dried, canned or preserved, which perhaps tends to strengthen its hold on the appetites of the people. How are fruit boxes and berry boxes vtade ? Blocks of black ash are boiled in a steam-pipe cauldron. The hot logs, three feet long, are put in the lathe, and a knife turns the log into a sheet of veneer. The veneer is sawed into narrow strips for baskets or wider strips for boxes. To make a bushel basket, strips are placed in a ring or mould, so that they will all cross one another at the center of the ring. Then a punch drives a rivet at the center. The wheel of strips is then put on a metallic basket-form, and a ring descends which moulds the wheel down around the form. The lather or basket-maker then nails on strips of veneer for hoops, just as a cooper would dp, passing around the apparatus as he nails. This operation makes an acrobat of the expert, as hands, feet and mouth are always busy. A boy puts on the bottom hoop, which is to protect the basket. The handles, carefully made, are put in place by a boy, and a machine sews them on with wire. How are berry-boxes made ? The variation from the process just described is not important. Two pieces of veneer are crossed. A machine descends and cuts part way through the veneer at the places where it is to fold upward. It is now bent on the box-form and a wide strip of veneer, extending below the bottom, is nailed around the entire box, making a double thickness of wood. The factory gets about half a cent for each box. A man named Halleck is said 156 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, to have invented the hollow bottom, making shipment of filled boxes in crates easy and practicable. He patented the idea. Box and basket factories thrive in all the American fruit regions — particularly in Michigan, California, Illinois and New Jersey. What is the Raspberry ? A delicately flavored berry of many colors, growing on a bramble, thorny vine, or bush. The old name was Raspise Berry and Bacon calls it a Rasp. The name comes from the file called rasp. This fruit appears on the market just as Straw- berries are closing out. It comes in pint boxes. The red berries are so fragile that fermentation or mould sets up soon, and they are not easy to distribute. The black or blue berries are dry or seedy. It is in the preserves that the full flavor and beautiful purple of the dark raspberry are obtained, What are Blackberries ? A fruit similar to the Raspberry. Neither is a berry, but a collection of little cherries, nuts, or peaches Q2X\&(^ drupes. The Blackberry crop is very important, and a wide distribution takes place among the people. Blackberry pies are widely consumed, and the flavor obtained in cooking is nearly as delicate as that of the Raspberry. The people preserve them in glass jars, and the Eastern Blackberry is canned. Some varieties of the fruit are cultivated too far, and the result is a product remarkable for the size of its seeds. Blackberries are held in esteem as an astringent food in dog days, and the Canadian or dew berry is one of the sweetest outgrowths of Mother Earth. What is the Blueberry or Whortleberry ? It is also called the Huckleberry. The Blueberry grows on tall shrubs in marshes. The Huckleberr}^ is black, round, and grows in dry ground on a very low shrub. Blueberries are sought for harvest pies, and form a notable article of commerce in the Eastern States. They are canned, but are not popular in that form. Blueberries come to the cities in the same way that the other berries are sent, and are sold by the quart. They are used most largely for pies at the bakeries. FRUIT, 157 What are Grapes ? Grapes are the source of Wines, and therefore are the most important of crops in certain regions. In New Jersey, and along the North Atlantic shore, in those parts along the south shore of Lake Erie and on the islands, and on the Pacific Coast, no other product occupies so much attention. But we here desire to speak of Grapes as a table fruit, or for food. In general, it is with Grapes as with Cherries and Pears — there are two main kinds, California and Eastern. California Grapes are large and '^ white ^'; Eastern Grapes are smaller and either blackish-blue or reddish. The California Muscatel Grape is generally dis- tributed in five-pound baskets over the country, and is the richest or sweetest in flavor. California, Ohio, New York, Missouri, Illinois and Pennsylvania are in their order, the principal Grape-growing States, viewed from commercial results. What are the Isabella^ Concord and Catawba f These are grown from Canada to North Carolina, are favorites in the Kelley Island districts, and are all offspring of Vitis Labrusca. Mention some other kinds. The Southern Fox, or Muscadine, or Bullace, not found north of Maryland. The Scuppernong and the Mustang of Texas are relatives of this vine ; so are the Mish, Thomas and some other Southern Grapes. The Summer Grape has varied into the Delaware, Herbemont, Rulander, etc. The Frost Grape has a fragrant flower and has many names, like Clinton, Taylor, Franklin, etc. There are nine of these families. What is the California Grape ? It is the Vitis Vinifera, or winebearer. It might also be called the raisin-bearer. And the cream of tartar of all our baking powder owes its existence to the same kind of Grape. It may be known as a family, by the fact that the skins cling to the pulp, nor is the pulp so tough as it is in the dark or red Grape. In the dead of winter we get a Grape of this order from Malaga, Spain. It comes in barrels, packed in sawdust, and sells at a high price. Invalids find it cooling and grateful 158 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. to the taste, but the Malaga has no such sweetness as the Muscatel, What are Raisins ? Dried Grapes. They are nearly always '^ white ^' Grapes. Sometimes the stem of the cluster of Grapes is cut partly through, and the fruit dries on the vine, and^^ Raisins of the Sun^^ are thus secured. The clusters may be gathered, dipped in lye to soften the skin, and spread in the sun. Sometimes, as in Asia Minor, the clusters are dipped in water on which floats a layer of olive oil. The oil gives a lustre to the skin. Spain is the source of the finest cluster Raisins, which are dried from Malaga Grapes. The Raisins and *^ currants'^ of the Mediter- ranean, are small and inferior. California is producing good Raisins, and in time the California Muscatel should be the best, as the Grape is the sweetest and best flavored in its mature state. How do Grapes grow ? On large trailing vines. In the wild state the vine may reach the top and overspread the tallest tree of the forest, though saplings are usually chosen. Although there are many thousands of vines, the name of Vine usually designates clearly the stock on which Grapes grow, so ancient is the practice of grape- culture, and so important the commercial industry. The vine and figtree represent home in the ancient world. Name the principal members of the Citrus family. The Orange, Lemon, Lime, Citron, Bergamot, Cedrat, Lume, Tangerine, Shaddock. The oils of all these fruits are isomeric with each other — that is, the same elements are present in apparently the same quantities, yet, in mixing differently, a different chemical product results. They are also isomeric with oil of turpentine and other oils. The fruit is a large berry, in botany, and is called Hesperditim. We sometimes see the enormously large Shaddocks on the fruit stands. It is said that a Captain Shaddock introduced this tree in the West Indies. For what is the Orange remarkable ? For the beauty of its color and shape and the perfume which FRUIT, 159 it exhales. It grows on a beautiful evergreen tree and its culti- vators grow enthusiastic as they produce it for the market. The climate which is required for Orange culture recommends itself to all invalids, and Orange groves have thus united them- selves in popular thought with health, joy and peace. Where are the great Orange groves of America f In California and Florida and on the Gulf coast. These regions view each other jealously, though it often happens that untoward weather throws one or the other of them out of the market. Where do our foreign Oranges come from ? Sicily, and other islands of the Mediterranean. Something like 2,000,000 boxes are imported. The Oranges of the Azores are celebrated, but of late years Florida has grow^n a large Navel Orange that has no superior in size, quality and absence of seed from the pulp. The California Navel Oranges have long been celebrated. What are Citrus Fairs ? Expositions of all the fruits, like Oranges, Lemons, Limes, Citrons, that are allied. The fruit is built into towers, pyra- mids, bells, gateways, and the plants are shown in full bearing, or with fruit unpicked and hardening. What was practically a citrus fair was to be seen in the California exhibits at Chicago in 1893, and similiar fairs have been held in all the Eastern cities. How is the fruit packed? Each Orange is wrapped in tissue paper, and an oblong box with a partition is packed full or more than full. A thin cover is pressed on, and the box is ready for its long journey in the fruit car. At the market streets of great cities, the grocers and hucksters are supplied, but probably the greatest sale is accom- plished at the fruit stands in the streets, where the Orange is the standard attraction, along with the Banana, of which we spoke in our chapter on Bread food. Name some fancy Oranges. The Blood Orange comes from Malta, and is grown all along the Mediterranean. The Mandarin Orange is from China. It 160 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, was taken to Portugal. Thence the Arabs carried it to Constan- tinople. Thence it went to Morocco, and the Tangerine Orange results. It is a little Chinese looking fruit, of no special excel- lence beyond its value as a curiosity. Give me the history of the Orange ? It originated in Northern India, and the Sanscrit poems call it Nagrungo. The Hindustani made this Narimjee. The Span- iards made this Naranja, and the Arabs Naranj. In the Western tongues the 7t fell away. The Italians called it Ara7icia, The Romans had called it the apple of Media^ but it was Latinized Auraritium^ which agreed well with its golden color. The Romance languages made it Ara^igi, and the English Norange, clinging to the Persian word. But like other words in English beginning with a consonant, the article a7i stole away the n — that is a Norange became an Orange. (See Townsend's Art of Speech.) What are Lemons? They are another form of Citrus, yellower and sourer than the common Orange, In fact they are valued alone on account of the large amount of citric acid which may be squeezed out of them. This is used for the national drink of lemonade, so cooling in the hottest weather. Citric acid is prized as a cure or ameliorantof rheumatism, but lemonade should not be drunk so steadily as to harm the mucous tract of the body, the acid being very strong. Where do Lemons come from ? Two or three million boxes are imported each year. Their value is $4,000,000 or $5,000,000. Lemons are raised in Florida and California. The trees are tenderer than Orange trees, but the fruit will keep better, and as the supply is always compara- tively short, the profit is larger. The tree, too, is one of the most fertile of all growths, bearing as many as three thousand Lemons in one season. It is, like the Orange tree, a beautiful evergreen, with thick regularly formed leaves, but does not grow so symmetrically as the Orange tree. It reaches a height of twelve feet. FRUIT. 161 Is Lemon a favorite flavor f It is. Pieces of the peel are put in puddings, pies and liquors. Lemon is served with meats. So necessary is the Lemon to epicures that Sidney Smith made a .famous joke, when he was out of London, by dating a letter " Twenty miles away from a Lemon." The flavor is contained in the oil-sacks of the peel. Oil of Lemon and Extracts of Lemon, as sold by the trade, all have something to gain chemically before they will report the true flavor of a simple piece of Lemon peel. It often happens that the turpentine principle rather than the citrus principle is secured. At the soda fountains improvements in the art of expressing the oil of Lemon are yearly coming into vogue, and reinstating the flavor in public esteem. The ice cream makers use Lemon scents, and the confectioners put it in their candy. How are Lemons distributed to tJie people ? They go in the original boxes to the groceries. There the housekeeper buys them by the dozen. The street hucksters rarely sell them, and then only in closing out stocks, the wagon being filled with Lemons. Saloons must always keep them, and although the sale of lemonade in saloons is not large, the use of the fruit is constant. It is practically imperishable, and deservedly enjoys the highest reputation among the people, high and low. Is Lemon or Orange Peel sold ? What is known as Fancy Leghorn Orange Peel and the same brand of Lemon Peel come in drums holding twenty-two pounds. They sell at the same price. Fancy Leghorn Citron Peel brings a price one-third higher. How is Extract of Lemon made ? As we have suggested, the natural essence of Lemon is not wholly soluble in the rectified spirits of wine; but Lemon peel may be *• digested" in alcohol until the peel is brittle. The peel may then be powdered. The best flavor obtainable may now be transferred to the alcohol by letting that fluid percolate 11 163 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. through the powdered peel. This must be carefully kept, or it will become the extract of turpentine. What is the Lime ? It is practically a small Lemon. It is grown in Lemon coun- tries. The juice is used for many medicinal purposes, and for drinks. Candy tablets strongly impregnated with the sour juice are sold at the drug stores. The English would have done well to have spelled Lemon with an i. Then the meaning of Lime would be more apparent. Lime juice is preferred to Lemon juice as a preventive of scurvy in the naval service of the world. What are Tomatoes ? All the English books credit them to South America, but Linnaeus has named the fruit Lycopersicum escule^itum^ which would indicate a Persian origin. The Tomato is grown in all North American gardens, although it was once considered a hot- house plant, and even now must be set out with care. The fruit is of many colors and forms, but the large red variety is the one of commerce. The Tomato is sliced and eaten raw with vinegar or oil and it is stewed. It is sliced and forms a leading material in various kinds of pickles. It is the best flavoring for stock sauces and meat gravies. Describe the canning of Tojnatoes. As this is one of the leading industries in this line, and as the canning of corn, beans, peaches, apples and cherries is done on the same lines, we may profitably note the operation at some length, once for all. A long low building with steam plant is occupied, and many women are employed. The cannery will turn out from thirty thousand to sixty thousand cans a day, ready for the cars. The Tomato is taken from its bin and put in a cylinder which is partly filled with hot water. Through this water a screw shaft revolves, which carries the Tomato slowly along to the end, lifts it out, and sends it over a slide into a pail. This pail, numbered, say 14, goes on a movable or traveling table to girl No. 14, who pulls it over to the stationary part of her table. The tomatoes can be denuded by a quick motion of the hands, and two pails, one with the peeled FRUIT. 163 tomatoes, and the other with the waste, go back on the traveling table. The Tomatoes go to their bin and the waste to a vat below. The **^ filler" is a machine with a plunger. It is shaped like a coffee-mill — that is a hopper tapers down to the spot where the can is placed. The cans go in a chute, and reach this spot automatically. The tomatoes are fed into the hopper. Down goes the plunger, crushing the tomatoes into the can. A knife cuts off the stream of tomatoes, and the can pops out on a traveling belt. What is the " capper f * It is the soldering machine. Six cans are treated at once, being held together by iron clamps. Six syringes project acid on the can covers. Hot steel cups or pressers, the size of the can covers or plates, descend, and a bar of solder is passed over the hot edges of the caps. These, holding the solder or descending upon it where it has fallen, make a circular movement, and affix the cover hermetically on the can. A vent hole still remains in the can. Desc7'ibe the sealing and cooking machine ? It is fifty feet long, and has two iron hot water, chambers. The cans are now placed in trays on a traveling wire belt, which goes slowly through a bath of boiling water, which cooks them in eight minutes, and expels superfluous fluid. The belts arrive at a long table, where the sealers solder the vent-hole by hand. The tray full of cans is again set on the traveling belt, and descends into a shallow bath of water. If a can leaks, it sends up a bubble of water, and the workman locates the leak and mends it. Now the belt goes forward into the second hot water chamber, where it is half an hour in making its passage, and the Tomatoes are thoroughly cooked. Then they dry. How are they labeled? The labeling machine is an inclined plane. An iron trough is covered with rubber. A can starts at the top. It reaches a paste brush which rises out of a bath of paste and wets the can. Next, the rolling can goes over a pile of labels turned wrong side up, that rises into place by a spring. The can picks up a label and rolls itself up in it. Then another paste-brush or roller 1G4 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY completes the job by fixing the edges of the label. As the can rolls downward, it passes under swinging levers that turn the paste daubers in their bath of paste. The can, after it has dried, is now ready for the market. Is Corn cooked longer ? Yes, very much longer. The corn is cut from the cob by knives attached to wheels. The ^' filler " is different and catches the silk, nor does it have to cut off the stream, as if it were a large fruit like Tomatoes. The peeling of apples, peaches and pears also differs with the case in hand, but the perfect organi- zation of labor over the old kitchen methods has produced wonderful results. What are Plums ? A well-known fruit of secondary importance. They are of all colors and sizes. California offers the most beautiful specimens on our markets, although the Green Gage and other eastern varieties are worthy of mention with the best. If we call the Apricot and Nectarine offsprings of the Peach, we must go further to the Plum, for the structures of the fruits are much alike. What are Prunes ? ■ • French Plums that have been dried and otherwise cured. The crop is a leading one in Southern France. What are Dates ? They may be called Asiatic Plums. They grow on the Date Palm, a typical tree of the tropics. The Date is rich in sugar and gum, and is a leading article of food in Barbary, Arabia, and Persia. For our market, the Dates are pressed into a mass called "adjoue," which may be cut up and sold by the pound. The Arabs soak the pits in water and feed them to cattle. [See illustration at head of this chapter.] What is the Currant ? A highly popular, hardy, low shrub, which yields a large quan- tity of fruit of various colors — red, white, black, etc. The botanical name is Ribes. The little berries hang in clusters like Grapes. The household article called jelly is usually considered FRUIT. 165 best when made from Currants. They are made into pies when green, and when ripe are eaten with sugar on the table, the white ones being best for this use. In the great cities, the season is short, the price always good, and the distribution, which used to be in draw^ers, like Figs, is now carried on in small, square boxes. Currant jelly is imitated by meat packers, and vast quantities of the imitation are put on the market. WJiat a7'e Crajiberries ? An important marshy crop of bright, pink berries, a little smaller than cherries. In stewing, these berries turn to the deepest crimson, and the tough skins are usually strained away, leaving a jam or pure jelly. The American people eat cranberry sauce with roast turkey, and there is a prodigious market for the product at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The berries are used as a regular winter dessert where large numbers of men are boarded. The great crops are from Wisconsin, New Jersey and Cape Cod. The two shapes are called bell and cherry. Cran- berries are pac-ked in barrels and sold by the quart. They keep as long as may be necessary, and may be taken as sea-stores. The original name was Crane-berry. The high-bush Cranberry has no commercial value. The Russians make a wine out of Cranberries. What are Melons ? They are remarkable for the diversity of their size, shape and taste, and are divided into ten tribes. It is said that Columbus brought them to America. We use two kinds — the watermelon and the musk melon. The commercial importance of both is great. Atlanta is the centre of the leading watermelon trade, and melon trains leave there for all the cities east of the Missouri. The garbage attending the consumption of melons in great cities is one of the leading problems with which the health authorities deal. Canteloupes are generally preferred to the larger musk melons. When the timber land of the West was first cleared, the melons that grew along with the corn are the boast of the generation that is passing away. Fresh watermelons are justly famous for their refreshing and health-giving qualities in the hottest weather. It seems probable that the melon of the 166 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Romans was serpent-shaped. The Dotanical name of the great tribe of Melons is Cucumis Melo. That is, the melon is a Cucumber. The Cucumber, in turn, is a Gourd. From this you may judge that the Gourd tribe is worth numbering. What is the Citro7t ? It is a melon much resembling some small kinds of water- melons. It is mottled like large serpents and grows nearly spherical. It is not eaten like the ordinary melons, but is cut open, its inner parts thrown away, and the pared rind is pre- served in various ways. The rinds of watermelons are similarly preserved. When cut in small cubes, after preparation in sugar, this fruit is highly edible, and is used in mince pies, cakes and candies. What is the Gooseberry? It is a very familiar but somewhat unimportant relative to the Currant in our gardens. The true name is Groiseberry, from Kroes, frizzled, or prickly. Gooseberry pies are eaten^ but Gooseberries are not an article of commerce to any great extent. What is the Pineapple? It is a well-known but remarkable fruit that comes from the tropics. A large cone, weighing from one to six pounds, topped with flowery plumes, and surrounded with leaves of the cactus order, contains a woody pulp filled with juice of a high and desirable flavor. The cone is pared or cut free of its leaves and harsh skin, and thin slices of the inside are covered with sugar. The fruit is also preserved well in cans. Pineapples are espe- cially useful in diphtheria and throat disease, as the juice has a cutting and clearing acid. • What is the Fig? Of all our dried fruits, except the Raisin, the Fig easily leads in public estimation throughout the northern climate. It is cultivated in California, but fresh Figs are not liked as well in the Northern States or in England as the dried ones. The Fig, in fact, improves with kneading and packing. The best come from Smyrna. They are put in thin, wide boxes, and the FRUIT, 167 Turkish word " Eleme/' which we see on the finest kinds, means *^ hand-picked." What are Cocoa-nuts? One of the most serviceable products of the world, furnishing to the people of the tropics cloth, food, drink, oil and vessels for household use. The nut grows at the top of a beautiful palm. It is especially cultivated for export in Ceylon. (See chapters on Butter and Soap.) Although cocoa-nuts are seen in our fruit stores and on our fruit-stands, we think their use has diminished so far as purchase for eating is concerned. But the confectioners and bakers use dessicated cocoanut more than ever, and it makes its way into many of the pies sold at the city lunch-counters. Name some otJier well-known fruits and confections. The Paw-paw grows freely, but is not much eaten. , It is borne on a tree like the Catalpa. Wintergreen berries some- times find their way to market. They are red, and the size of currants. They grow on a low plant with laurel-like leaves that contain the oil of wintergreen, one of the favorite flavors and scents. The Pomegranate and the Persimon are fruits that are known in the Southern States^ and are of the Fig order. The Pomegranate is named Pimica, implying that it once came from Carthage. 168 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. BRANCH, WITH BLOSSOM OF HORSE-CHESTNUT. a, Verticle section of single flower, b, Fruit, c, A single seed, its coat partly removed. COCOA-NUT PALM. a, Portion nf young spatbe with inclosed inflorescence, b, Branch of spadix. c, Smaller portion enlarged, showing a female flower below and male flower above, d. Cocoa-nut e, husk cut open showing hard endocarp at f, opened to show the single seed. ►I<>X*UJ'I^ii* U kat is the leading NtU in America ? Probably the Peanut, or Earth-nut, which grows in the ground. It is distributed everywhere, and offers to the fruit peddler one of his main sources of revenue. Like coffee and cocoanut, roasting alters its chemical character for the better. Fresh roasted peanuts, deprived of the light, dry, inner husk that clothes the meat, are a valuable food. The taste quickly dis- covers the stale condition of old or ill-kept goods. Peanuts require a warm climate and sandy soil, and North Carolina is the greatest producer. They are called Ground-nuts in New Jersey and in the East and "Goobers'^ in the South. Large quantities of peanut candy are sold. What is the Chestnut? This is a nut that comes with the frost. It grows in a burr, with two or three nuts together. The tree is large and beautiful, but does not bear plentifully west of Ohio, and the Eastern States furnish the western market. The Chestnut requires boil- ing or roasting. On account of its thin shell, it is easily attacked by insects and mould, and soon becomes unmarketable. The Italian fruit peddlers, however, roast it on the streets, and in its short autumn season the Chestnut outsells the Peanut. What are Walnuts and Butternuts? These rich nuts grow in green and acidulous husks that never freely leave the nut. The trees are among the noblest of the forests, and, when given sufficient sunlight, spread into great 170 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, shade trees. The nuts fall to the ground after frost, and are gathered in wagons. Months are required for drying, and then the core must be burst with a mallet or hammer. This leaves the nut rough. The meat of the Walnut is fat, rich and palat- able. The Butternut is a more delicate morsel, but even richer. These nuts are the particular luxury of the farm houses on winter nights in timbered regions. What is the Hickory nut? There are two kinds, the shell-bark and the pig hickory. The shell-bark hickory is a monarch of the forest, and this hickory nut is nearly as large as the walnut. The husk, however, comes off in sections. Pig hickory nuts are common and cheap. The average American prefers all of these native nuts to those which still remain to be be described. The western farmer usually spares many pig hickory trees for the sake of his children, who get a great deal of good food from this source. What is the Hazel-nut ? It is the wild Filbert, and may be considered a better nut for our uses, because it is in a fresher condition when it reaches us. The common shrub of our fence-corners is cultivated with care in Europe, and the Filbert of our groceries results. The cluster of nuts is remarkable in shape. What is the Almond? The Almond is related to the Peach, as the wolf is to the dog — that is, the nut we eat was surrounded by a pulpy mass resemb- ling a Peach. It is a North African tree twenty-five to thirty feet high, which has been cultivated along the north shore of the Mediterranean. It flowers in the spring and produces fruit in August. The best Almonds come from Spain. The Almond is ground by bakers and made into the famous Maccaroon, which to be good must bend and not break. Almonds are served on the banquet table at the close. What is the Brazil nut ? This magnificent nut does not export well, but the people of the Orinoco River are justly proud of their product. The tree is one of the tallest and handsomest. As many as fifty of the NUTS. 171 .large three-sided black nuts may be contained in a single pod or shell, which has six compartments. The meat is full, white, and very rich. As the oil both absorbs and ferments easily, the nut is rarely in its prime condition on northern tables, but science will undoubtedly improve the manner of its distribution. What is the E^tglish Walnut ? It does not resemble the American Walnut very closely, nor is it so rich or free from tannin. But it is more easily cracked and presents a shell that is less rude and more cleanly. Ii is there- fore to be seen on banquet-tables from which the better native nuts are excluded. All the imported nuts lose in taste by their voyage and the time that must elapse in distribution. They are kept at all groceries, and over ten million pounds of Walnuts and Filberts are imported each year. What is the Pecan ? A Southern or Mexican Hickory-nut. Its shell is a little thicker and harder than the shell of a chestnut. The meat is in two lobes, long, like a Butternut, less oily, and very full of tannin — so much so as to warn the palate. Pecans, however, seem to be slowly winning their way in the northern market. What is the Pistachio-nut ? It comes from Sicily and Syria, and grows on a turpentine tree. It is the size of the Filbert, and is remarkable for its greenish meat, which colors Pistachio ice cream. Spices, Etc. ui^L^itL^U.^ What condiments are nearly always present on our tables? Black and red pepper, vinegar, oil and mustard. In city restaurants a small dish usually holds grated horse-radish in vinegar. Pepper and salt are served in small individual metal tubes or boxes. The foreign restaurants serve black pepper in a machine which grinds what is needed for the plate. Salt cellars are also still in use. What is Pepper ? It grows on a Pepper-vine in Sumatra, Java, Borneo and Malaj^sia. The vines are trained on trees or shrubs, and are allowed to grow four years before a crop is gathered. The berry grows in the fashion of a red currant, on rather longer stalks, with the size of the fruit tapering to little ones at the end of the cluster. The ber- ries are gathered green, and dried on mats in the sun. This turns them black. White Pep- per is made by soaking these berries until the outer skin peels off. Long Pepper is a product of the same vine. Americans use a great deal of Pepper — particularly on their meats. What is Red Pepper ? Red Pepper, called also Cayenne Pepper, is the principal condiment in all hot countries. The plants which bear the Fig. 64. THE PEPPER PLANT. SPICES, ETC. 173 various kinds of Red Peppers bear no botanical relation to Black Pepper, but are often large triangular red pods. The pods may be bottled in vinegar, which will absorb a high degree of their pungent property. It is said that even the .birds of the tropics resort to these vegetables for a tonic that will arouse their digestion, and die if they are deprived of this food. Our Pepper sauce and Tobasco sauce are made by steeping small Red Peppers in vinegar. What is Mustard? A very ancient condiment. It was also used by the first doctors whose names have reached us. In 1720 Mrs. Clements, of Durham, England, invented the present method of preparing table Mustard, and having pleased the taste of George T, the article attained a popularity it has never lost. The small round seeds are ground and the husks are separated from the flour. Black and white Mustard are mixed with wheat flour or starch in adulteration, and it often happens that such a preparation sells best on the market. There is a great consumption of Mustard in saloons where free lunches are dispensed, and wherever cheese, especially Schweizerkase, is served on the premises. What is Horseradish ? It is a nasturtium. Its large white roots are sold by the vegetable gardeners and farmers, and may be grated at home. It is sold in the prepared form. Horseradish is much used on raw oysters. It is good for all skin diseases, the Grippe, etc., and well liked by all old and experienced people. The leaves are frequently eaten as potherbs — or '^ greens " as we say. There is a Horseradish Tree in India, which is another thing. Evaporated horseradish is much stronger than the liquid preparation. What is Ginger ? One of the staple condiments of the American kitchen. A pot of Canton preserved Ginger or the dried roots themselves will best describe their odd shape. The root travels in the ground and forms nodes or tubers, which are more tender than the stalk- root. For this reason it is called a rhizome. Ginger has a similar name in Sanscrit, Greek and Latin, which means ''horn- 174 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Fig. 65. CHINESE GINGER PLANT. shaped." There is a mountain in India called Gingi_, because it is credited with bearing the first Ginger roots. Although India introduced the plant, the best comes from Jamaica, and its essence is sold as one of our principal hot weather medi- cines. What is Canton Ginger ? A sweet preserve of this bulbous root. It is put up in small spherical jars of various sizes, and shipped from China. It is boiled and cured with sugar. The price has cheapened in late years, and the demand for it has increased. How is Ginger prepared for the kitcheit ? The plant must grow a year. It is then pulled, scalded, peeled, dried in an oven and ground into flour. It is then black Ginger. If it is dried in the sun it is white Ginger. The root is sold to housewives for use in preserves, such as tomatoes, but for use in baking the ground Ginger is nearly always purchased and in small quantities. Ginger bread and Ginger cakes form an important item in childhood, and are never despised by grown people. Ginger is principally starch. Beside its peculiar oil, it contains acetic acid, potash, gum and sulphur. What is the Clove f It has been called the nail by nearly all people who have known it. Clove is elavics, nail, in Latin. It is kruidnagel, herb-nail, in Danish. The Clove as we see it, is the unopened bud of a flower. It grows on a large evergreen tree which Sir Stamford Raffles described as ** of noble height, somewhat like the bay, composing by the beauty of its forms, the luxuriance of its foliage, and the spicy fragrance with which it perfumes the air, one of the most delightful objects in the world." The odor of Cloves is so marked and agreeable, that most people can recall- it to their imagination, and the faintest trace of its presence is detected. In this way, comparatively few trees scent the world. SPICES, ETC. 175 How are Cloves prepared? They are gathered unripe or unopened, and dried in the sun. The round ball is the corolla surrounding the stamens, etc., and the shaft or nail is the calyx tube. The Portuguese discovered it on the Molucca Islands in 15 ii. The Dutch, by cutting down trees, tried to restrict the trade, and when the product came too fast to Europe, they burned their stores. But despite this policy, the cultivation of the Clove began all over the tropics, and the Dutch lost their monopoly. I see that Cloves never cost so much as Nutmegs and Mace.- It is because of the extraordinary fertility of the Clove. A tree will live one hundred and fifty years, and when it is full grown it will bear sixty pounds of Cloves. The product, there- fore, must always be larger than the demand. What are the principal uses of the Clove ? It comes whole or ground, and our housewives and cooks use it in both forms. Cloves are stuck whole into pickled Peaches. The ground form is used in mince pies, and even Gingerbread is often *' proofed " with Cloves. Americans do not like this kind of spice in their leading foods. In medicine, the oil of Cloves is used for nausea and to stop the toothache by killing or benumbing the exposed nerve. Clove^are at hand in all drinking-places, and are used for the breath. What are Nutmegs and Mace ? Here we have again a fruit like the Chocolate, Peach, etc. It is as large as a Pear, and Pear-shaped. The fruit dries and splits in two parts. A nut is exposed. This nut is gathered, and dried over a low fire for two months. It is then cracked open with a mallet, and the shell is discarded. A sheaf is exposed, which is Mace. Next is the Nutmeg. The word is an English and French corruption of musk-nut, from Low Latin mix muscata. The Nutmeg is treated in lime to preserve it from insects and to sterilize it, but this process is held to be unnecessary. Where are Nutmegs grown ? The Barda Islands furnish nearly all the supplies, and the price is kept high. The first Nutmegs came from the Moluccas, 176 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY along with the Cloves. Like the Cloves, they escaped the Dutch into all the tropics, but have not flourished. There are three crops in a year, the last in April. Unlike the Tea, the final gathering is the best. The Mace is red, but grows yellow in baking. The Chinese like their Nutmegs to come in the shell. The East Indians also preserve the big pear-like fruit. The Nutmegs are assorted, and the little ones are ground and the oil of Mace is expressed. It is called Nutmeg Butter. Do we tise Nutmegs largely ? Yes. More Mace comes to the United States than to any other nation, and about every fifty inhabitants use a pound of Nutmegs in a year. Nutmeg is the favorite flavor for apple sauce. The housewife has a small implement which holds a Nutmeg and carries with it a grater. This Nutmeg may be grated into pies, cakes and puddings. Mace is used in pickling, in mince meat, and wherever Cinnamon can be added. What is Cinnamon ? It is the Kinnamon of the Bible, the Phoenicians and the Greeks. Western tongues have softened the C. Our best Fig. 66. BRANCH FROM A CINNAMON TREE. qualities go by the name of Saigon in Cochin-China, but the plantations of Ceylon are famous over the world, and Cinna- SPICES, ETC. ' 177 momun Zeylanicum is the name of the small tree from which the bark we use, is gathered. Cinnamon barkis peculiar in this, that though it imparts its aroma readily to liquids like vinegar, it does not soften or grow edible, like Mace. Describe a Cinnamon plantation f Open glades of the forest are chosen, as the little trees require protection and a rich, light soil. Cinnamon-peeling begins in May after the rains, and lasts till November. The bark is slit, cut across, and the strip is peeled away. It is then soaked to remove the outer rind of bark. It is rolled in quills about three feet long, and sometimes smaller quills are pushed inside. The air, at cinnamon harvest, is loaded with the pleasant aroma, and the harvesters make the season a festival. What else may be said of Cimiamon ? It is notable for the brightness of the red coloring matter it contains, as seen in the cinnamon candy drops. There is camphor in its roots. Rich men sometimes burned grate fires of Cinnamon, as when Charles V came to Fugger's house, and Fugger burned the bonds in a Cinnamon fire. The Cinnamon fruit yields a fat that was made into candles for the King. Cassia is an inferior grade of Cinnamon. Cinnamon is a sharper flavor of the same taste as Nutmeg, but it cannot be so truly imparted to cookery. In mince pies, in pickles, and in some preserves, however, its true value is obtained. Foreign countries use it in plain cookery much more than we do. Cinnamon trees have left their traces in the Eocene rocks under the soil of America. What is Allspice ? It is Jamaican Pimento. Like Black Pepper, it is a small berry, gathered unripe and dried in the sun, but instead of growing on a vine, it comes from a small tree that reaches twenty feet in height. It contains the flavor of Cinnamon, Nut- megs and Cloves, hence its name of Allspice. The flavor is less pungent than that of the spices which it resembles. What is the Caraway ? It is the small aromatic seed of a plant that is cultivated in 12 178 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Europe and America. A common form comes from the confec- tioner's, where every seed has been surrounded with a rough coating of sugar. The Caraway seed is prized in rye bread by many foreign races, and many such loaves are seen in America. Brewers as well as bakers use the seeds. What herb-spices do we use f Sage, Savory, Thyme and Marjoram. These are dried leaves and stems, something like Tea, but dried stem and all. Sage is put in Sage Cheese. Where meats or fowl are stuffed, one of these herbs is nearly always grated into the filling. Mutton and turkey, particularly, require expert seasoning of this order. AH these native dried herbs are sold at our groceries. There are many constitutions, however, with which these herbs do not accord, whether it be on account of their coarse and insoluble nature, or the volatile oils with which they are flavored. Describe a Mince-Meat Factory. The Mince-Pie which is served in public places to-day, is made of a preparation which comes on the market in square boxes of twelve ounces each. About fifteen million pounds are used each year, mainly in the cold season. The meat is cut in strips and boiled in a cauldron jacketed on the inside with steam pipes. It then goes to the chopping machine, which has a revolving table on which knives play up and down. In a batch of two thousand pounds of mince-meat five hundred pounds will be chopped beef. On another chopping machine five hundred pounds of dried apples are also chopped. A spice-room contains two grinders, and here allspice, nutmegs, mace, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and pepper are all ground separately and stored in barrels. Citron is chopped like the apples. How is Mince- Me at mixed? The mixing-trough is capable of holding two thousand pounds of mince. The five hundred pounds of meat go in first, the five hundred pounds of apples next, then layers of chopped citron, picked raisins and currants, then a layer of sugar, then fifty pounds of mixed ground spices. On top of all a few gallons of good apple cider are poured. Now a gang of strong men with shovels begin the mixing, which is kept up until the mass is SPICES, ETC. 179 comparatively dry. Allen's dry mince meat is the standard product. The mixture is shoveled into trucks, and stands for a certain time. Next it goes on ^ traveling belt. This passes the packing table, where girls, working with their bare hands, fill the little boxes. By a motion of the foot, a press comes down on two boxes at a time, and the mass is made very compact. The lid is put on, the box is put in a pasteboard case, the case is wrapped in paraffine paper, and the packers put it in the wooden box for the market. At these factories over three hundred and fifty thousand pounds of spices are used. The product finds favor in Europe, and is bought by the best Parisian eooks. Fig. 67. THE COFFEE MARKET OF PAGER-ALAM, MALAYSIA. (Toffee, Zca, Etc. „^. LI^lZL! lZ^ kl^ l3^ It is the seed of a red, juicy berry that grows on a small ever- green tree. There are two kinds of trees or shrubs, cojfea Arabica and coffea occidentalism although it is said that the plant has varied under domestication, and that more than three- fourths of the world's coffee-trees are the offspring of a single plant sent from the Dutch East Indies to the Botanic Gardens of Amsterdam, in 1690. Small plants from its seeds were dis- tributed in the West Indies. Hence the shrub was transplanted to Brazil, and to-day there are six hundred million trees growing in Brazil. Where does the 7iame come from? Probably from Caffa, in Africa, where the shrub grew wild. The Turks, who first used it, call it quahuah, pronounced qua- veh, but also apply the word to wine, and to a restaurant — as we say Cafe, which is French for coffee. Where is Coffee chiefly cultivated? In South and Central America. At the World's Fair costly and beautiful buildings were erected by Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala and Nicaragua, in which the culture of Coffee was typified; and its results shown in many interesting ways. The South America Coffee, having originally come from Rio Janeiro, popularly takes the name of Rio, and sells at about twenty-eight cents a pound in the middle West, according to cost of freight. 181 182 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What is Mocha and Java Coffee ? It comes from Arabia, Java and Ceylon. The berry is fatter than the Rio berry, and the aroma rising from the decoction or from the ground roasted berry is finer. Less than one-fifth of the Coffee used by the non-producing world comes from Asia. Why are the Arabian and Javan Coffees so highly prized? Because the soil, the frequent rains and the brilliant sunshine impart to the plant and to its seed a certain fragrance not secured elsewhere. The usual mixture in America, where costly Coffee is used, is two-thirds Java and one-third Mocha, As Mocha is better liked abroad than in America, it is generally under- stood that little genuine Mocha comes over, and that our Mocha comes from Javan soil. It may be said that no better Coffee grows than that of Java. What is the annual production f South and Central America and the neighboring islands ship about nine million six hundred and twenty-five thousand bags, or one billion, two hundred and seventy million, five hundred- thousand pounds, valued at $240,625,000. Asia ships one million six hundred and twenty-five thousand bags, or two hundred and fourteen million, five hundred thousand pounds, valued at $48,750,000. Europe takes about six-tenths of this production, and the United States consumes far more than any other other nation. On the Coffee market, the '' Rio^' grades are known as Rio, Mexican, Maracaibo, Santos and Guatamalan. Wliat is the J list or y of Coffee ? A manuscript in the National Library at Paris, states that Coffee was known in 875, A. D. An Arab writer remarks that Coffee was brought to Arabia from Abyssinia about 1500, A. D. by a learned and pious Sheikh. It is from the port of Mokha, in Yemen, that the berry was first shipped generally to the world, and it is said that none of the picked berries of this true Mokha get out of Moslem countries. Mokha enjoyed the Coffee trade of the world for two hundred years. When coffee-houses reached Constantinople, about 1550, they excited religious oppo- sition, as was the case also when they extended into Christian COFFEE, TEA, ETC. 183 capitals. The first London coffee-house was opened by a Greek, Pasqua Rossie, in 1650, so that it took a hundred years to get from the Golden Horn to the Thames. Twenty-five years later Charles II, issued a royal edict against public coffee-houses, as breeding-places of sedition. It may thus be deduced that the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth, Mass., and the Cavaliers at Balti- more knew nothing of Coffee. This was true as well of Tea and Cocoa, for all three came to Europe nearly together. Describe the culture of Coffee. Sloping hillsides above the sea are the best places for coffee orchards. The seeds — that is, Coffee — are first sown in a nur- THE COFFEE PLANT AND ITS PARTS. sery, and when the plants are a foot high they are set out-doors in rows about six feet apart. If left untrimmed, the shrub 184 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY would grow to a height of twenty feet, but it is trimmed to eight feet, the branches being trained out laterally. The orchard, when in full bloom, is white and fragrant, and lives nearly fifty years. Doubtless the fame of the Arabian coast as a land of fragrance arose from the presence on its hills of the Mokha plantations. What follows the white flower ? A bright red berry, resembling a cherry, with a pulpy body and two pits in a pod or cyst. These berries group themselves close to the stalk. These pits are the Coffee. The bushes bear good berries the third year. These are picked and fed into a machine, which separates the pits. The wet pits are spread on frames to dry, and the cyst or pod, which is very light, is beaten or winnowed off. Children sort the pits or bean as the Coffee is called, and it is then ready for the big bags which we see in groceries. A tree will yield from one to three pounds of Coffee, so that there must be nearly a billion cofTee-shrubs in existence and under cultivation. How does Coffee reach the consumer? It takes about thirty-five days for a consignment of Coffee to reach Chicago from Rio de Janeiro, and the freight is about sixty cents a bag of one hundred and thirty-two pounds. It arrives at the wholesale warehouse in coarse gunny sacks, and goes to the top of the building, like the wheat in a flour-mill, where it is stored in bins. Along one side of the room is a row of roasters. These roasters are ingeniously moving hollow cylinders, with many little holes. These cylinders, when loaded with raw Coffee, revolve and twist slowly over a furnace fire, which is controlled by an air blast. All the grains are roasted alike, and the heat is cut off at the proper moment. Each variety of Coffee grown on earth requires a different amount of roasting, and the master-roaster is an expert of the highest order. How is it served to the groceries ? It is now customary for the grocer to grind the Coffee for the purchaser, who buys only small quantities at a time. The aroma departs rapidly from the best ground Coffee, and some Fig. 69. A COFFEE ESTATE IN CEVl.ON. 186 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. coffee-drinkers require fresh-ground Coffee each day. The whole- sale manner in which Coffee is now roasted, has improved the average quality, which for many decades was bad in both America and Great Britain. The Centennial Exhibition of 1876, where Vienna bread and Coffee were for sale at high prices, awakened a keen desire for progress in the art of preparing this beverage. How may Coffee be served the on table ? The scientists say it should not be boiled, nor should any foreign substance, such as ^z%i be added. The least economical method is by infusion — pouring hot water through the grounds. Excellent Coffee can be made by a decoction begun in cold water. Let the grounds and water be surrounded with boiling water — as glue' is cooked. As soon as the grounds have settled to the bottom the Coffee is ready for the table, and the sooner it is used, the better. The older the unroasted Coffee, the better, like wine. What is the effect of Coffee as a drink? It stimulates the nerves and blood vessels. It has a slightly greater food value than Tea. It acts adversely on the liver and kidneys, and is so powerful as a nerve tonic as to be unsafe as a beverage where sleep is not easy to obtain at all hours. It should be only moderately drunk. Has it a7iy other use ? Yes. It is a valuable disinfectant, and for that reason the roasting of Coffee at home is a good thing. Freshly ground' Coffee will correct the odor of damp places, and even the boiling of Coffee in a house improves the condition of the air. With what substance is Coffee adulterated? Chiefly with chicory, or succory. The roots of this plant are dried, roasted and ground with Coffee. This is done largely in Europe, where a taste for chicory has been cultivated. There is not much chicory in Western America. Our clever adultera- tors sell what they call '^cerealized coft"ee,'' that is, it has been mixed with rye or other grain that roasts somewhat like Coffee^ What other adulterations are practised? Coffee foundries have been established, where the bean is COFFEE, TEA, ETC. 187 cast from various substances, the form of Coffee being simulated. These cast coffees are then boiled in the extract of Coffee, and colored, and when the product is mixed with ordinary genuine Rio, the cast bean or berry is perhaps the one that would be least suspected. These practices flourish best at times when a world-wide speculation in 'Coffee is going forward, when the price of the crop is advanced several cents a pound. Can y OIL 7ianie an American authority on Coffee? Francis J. Thurber, of New York City, one of the best known grocers of the United States, has written a book of four hundred and sixteen pages, entitled ^^Coffee, from Plantation to Cup,"" well illustrated. This covers the subject, and the author writes from personal experience. What is Tea? It is, with Coffee, oae of the two principal drinks of Americans. While men usually prefer Coffee, women are inclined to Tea. Fig. 70. THE TEA PLANT. Tea, as we buy it, is the dried and broken leaves of an evergreen shrub which grows best in China, but also in Japan, India, Cey- 188 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY Ion/ and many other parts of Asia. The plant grows from four to six feet high, and bears white blossoms that resemble wild roses. What beautiful flower is a close relative of Tea ? The Camellia. Linnaeus established two kinds of Tea — Thea Bohea and Thea viridis (green), but the English learned, in 1843, l^hat both black and green Tea are made indifferently from each plant. A big Tea tree has been found in Assam, which botanists think is the parent species of all cultivated varieties. Is Tea a hardy plant? Yes. It may be likened to wheat in that regard. It is cul- tivated in Japan as far north as thirty-nine degrees of latitude, and southward through Java, India, Ceylon, South Africa, Australia and Brazil. But the climates that best conduce to its growth are the most fatal to Europeans. Describe a Tea-Farm or Garden ? The methods of the Chinese have been altered by the Indian cultivators, but the fame of the Chinese Tea is undiminished, and all other offerings, however highly extolled by their manu- facturers, fail to meet the popular demand. Good as is the Chinese Tea, the very best never goes outside of China, and the second best goes only to Russia, and is exported through the northern gates of the Great Wall. The tea-farm is usually small, on the sloping side of small hills, far from the mouth of the river. The seeds are planted, and the shrub grows three years before any leaves are plucked. The shrub is now estab- lished and throws out young shoots or ''flushes'^ in profusion. A garden will contain about fifteen hundred plants to the acre, and about three hundred pounds of finished Tea will be produced. How are the leaves plucked? By hand. The Tea of each leaf has a name. The little leaf on the tip of the shoot is flowery pekoe {irons. pak- ho , white hairs); the next larger leaf is orange pekoe; the next, still a tender leaf, is pekoe; the next is pekoe souchong (from siaoiL-chung, little plant); the next is souchong, the next is congou (from Kung-fu^ labor); and if there be a still larger leaf on the shoot, it is bohea. COFFEE, TEA, ETC, 189 (from wu-i, the mountains in Fuh-keen). These shoots will come out four times a year. The most fragrant picking is the first, in April, which is hyson (from j/^-/j^>;^, before the rains, or from Tu-chuHy flourishing spring). Other pickings follow in May, July and August or September, the latest being the poor- est. Oolong means black dragon, and other names usually ap- ply to the region of growth, for the souchong of one province may be as sweet as the pekoe of another. What are the commercial names of Tea ? They are Chinese appellations, sometimes translated, but usually merely imitated in soundo The great grades of Tea are four — black, green, brick and perfumed. How are these grades subdivided? The blacks are named after the size of the leaf — that is, the three pekoes, the two souchongs, congou and bohea. The greens are called gunpowder, imperial hyson, young hyson, hyson skin and caper. There are black and green scented Teas and two sizes of bricks in brick Tea. How is black Tea prepared ? The leaves of the shoots are all plucked together and exposed to the sun and air on circular trays. Here a slight fermentation takes place. The sugar of the leaf unites with a volatile oil. There is a loss of tannic acid. The leaves become flaccid, and are spotted with red or brown. By the odor arising, the tea- maker knows just when to begin the roasting which the leaves undergo, for it is to be understood that the alkaloid principle for which the human race craves, is nearly the same in Tea, Chocolate and Coffee, and is obtained in all cases by the action of fire and from evergreen trees or shrubs. After the roasting in an iron vessel, the hot leaves are kneaded or rolled in the hands, and juices are squeezed out. Finally, when they have been several times manipulated, the leaves are dried in sieves over a charcoal fire, and in this last stage, but owing to the hand man- ipulation, they turn black. How is green Tea prepared? There is no drying in the sun. The leaves are hurriedly 190 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. placed in the iron vessel, then rolled in the hand, and then dried in the same iron vessel, but constantly stirred and fanned. The green color follows as a result of this rapid evaporation, no al- teration taking place in the essence called chlorophyll. This Tea is not exported. The green tea sent out of China is colored with gypsum and Prussian blue. How is brick Tea prepared? It is made of broken leaves, stalks and fragments of large leaves. This is a staple article of family use in an area of Central Asia larger than Europe. Sometimes it is slightly pressed and packed in skins, but often it is solidly cast or pressed into hard cakes, with gilt characters on the side, like India ink cakes. The tribes of Central Asia stew brick Tea in milk with salt and butter, and eat it as a vegetable. Great quantities go with the yearly Asiatic caravan, from Pekin to Moscow. Brick Tea also serves as money over a vast region. How is scejited Tea prepared? The finished Tea, either black or green, is mixed with odorif- erous flowers until the Tea has taken up the perfume. It is then sifted and immediately packed and excluded from the air. Is pekoe made o?ily of the tender es-t leaves ? Not exactly. The finished Tea is sifted, and the qualities are named rather according to the size of the fragments than in any other way. Many pieces of souchong can thus enter the pekoe. Does adidteration thrive ? Not since the success of the Indian tea farms. It is as cheap to fabricate from the tea-plant as from any other herb, and the customs authorities at London and Liverpool are very expert in the detection of fraud. But the finer the alleged grade of Tea, the stronger is the inducement to cheat. It is also to be averred that the brands of Tea thrown on the market from the new tea- farms, are grossly inferior to the average supply that used to come from China. JVhai commercial brands of Tea are sold in America ? Six different qualities and prices of Basket Fired Japan, Sun Cured Japan, Moyune (Amoy), Gunpowder, Assam, Young Hy- COFFEE, TEA, ETC. 191 son, Oolong and Orange Pekoe, Monsoon, white or yellow label, and the new Ceylon Teas. Various other Teas with special names of no significance are offered. It is to be seen that the finest Pekoe grades do not come to market. What is tJie history of Tea ? Strangely enough, Marco Polo, our first historian or observer of Chinese ways, does not mention Tea. In China, the name is CJiUi but the Amoy dialect has it Tee, whence English merchants got the name which survived, although it was first known at London as CJia or Chaw. All agricultural and medicinal know- ledge is assigned, in China, to the traditional Emperor Chin- nung, who reigned in 2737, B. C, and he discovered the virtues cf Tea. A Chinese writer named Lo Yu, who doubtless lived under the Tang dynasty, 618 to 906, A, D., says of Tea, that ''it tempers the spirits and harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents drowsiness, lightens or refreshes the body, and clears the perceptive faculties. '' When did Tea reach Europe ? It came back as the result of Vasco's voyage around Cape Good Hope, but theRortuguese did not take kindly to the bev- erage. When the Dutch Company was set up, trade began in earnest, for the officers of the company were not slow to ac- quire the habit of drinking Chaw. When Tea first came to Eng- land, it sold at from $30 to $50 a pound. In September, 1658, the following notice appears in the Mercuriiis Politictts: "That excellent and by all Physitians approved China Drink, called by the Chineans Tcha^hy other nations, Tay, alias Tee^ is sold at the Sultaness Head, a coffee-house in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London." Old Pepys drinks Tee in his cele- brated diary, and in six years' time has it at home, as a medicine for his wife's cold. Was Tea-drinking opposed? Yes. With the same arguments that went against Coffee. It was called a base, unworthy Indian practice. The doctors as- sailed it as the cause of hypochondriac disorders. But in the end it fastened on the northern countries with a greater hold than 192 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, Coffee has attained. It is the great Russian drink, and the Russians excel in the convenience, elegance and skill with which they prepare it. In fact, their apparatus is at last to be seen in many parlors of America. What great change took place in the Tea-trade of America ? The opening of the Pacific Railroad in the United States put the middle west directly into connection with China and Malay- sia, and now the fine wheat flour of our Pacific coast goes to China in exchange for good Tea, and the tea-gardens of Ceylon and India are finding wide markets in the Mississippi Valley. What is Chocolate? Chocolate is the Mexican name of the cacao-tree, and Cocoa and Chocolate are two commercial preparations of the same substance — cocoa or cacao beans. Where does the Cocoa tree grow f The best grows in Venezuela, and is shipped from Caraccas. All the tropical countries produce the tree. How is the Cocoa Bean seciLred? The tree looks like a young cherry tree, but it bears a sort of cucumber, with ten ribs, of a yellowish red color. In the pulp of this fruit are twenty or thirty nuts called beans, like almonds, of ash gray color. Inside the nut-shell are two meaty lobes, called nibs, from which Cocoa and Chocolate are made. The shell is more easily broken than an almond shell. Describe a Cocoa plantation. The small cocoa trees, from nurseries, are planted between rows of food-yielding trees, for the plants require shade. The cocoa trees are seven or eight years in coming to their growth, but one man can attend to an orchard of one thousand trees. The fruit is gathered in June and December. Only a pound and a half of seeds can be taken from one tree. The tree grows wild, also, and the wild fruit is marketable. There must be frequent rain, and the soil must be moist all the time. How is the fruit gathered? The trees carry buds, flowers and fruit in all stages at the same time. In Caraccas there is the crop of St. John and the COFFEE, TEA, ETC, 193 Christmas crop. The workman, armed with a long pole, on which is a knife, shears, or a prong, selects o.nly the pods that are fully ripe. The pod is from seven to ten inches long. The stem is leathery. The nuts or beans lie in rows , in a delicate pink acid pulp. The pods are gathered into heaps on the ground and left for twenty-four hours. They are then cut open and the seeds are taken out and drained of the moisture of the pulp. They are carried in baskets to the sweating-box. Then they are to be treated like Coffee and Tea before they go to market ? Yes. Fermentation without great heat is desired, and some- times, instead of the box a trench is dug and clay is thrown on the mass. But whether the sweating take place in box or trench, the mass must be often stirred. It is in the Caraccas orchards that the greatest skill is used in securing the proper degree of fermentation, which in favorable weather can be finished in two days. When the nuts are exposed to the sun, the best ones take on a warm reddish tint. ) How does Chocolate reach a great city f In bags of nuts with the shells on. The nuts go to the top floor of the chocolate factory, where they are roasted with as much care as Coffee. The roaster is a cylindrical machine which turns slowly over a coal fire. The nuts must have just so much heat, and must be cooled in an exact manner, or their flavor becomes inferior. Where are the greatest Chocolate Factories ? In Holland, and it is said that the Caraccas output does not come largely to America. But the great chocolate makers of the world erected buildings at the World^s Fair of 1893, and by their operations stimulated the demand for high priced goods. What is the cracker-and-fanner? It is the machine to which the roasted nuts go. This is a loosely-set grinder in a fanning-mill. As the nut goes through the iron disks, its light shell is broken off, the air blast sends the shells out of the way, and the meats or nibs fall in a box below. 194: THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, Are the nibs ground ? Yes. They are fed into a hopper and travel to the mill on the first floor. Here the nibs pass between grinding-stones, and a thick chocolate paste results. This is " premium " Chocolate. It is stirred in kettles, cast in cakei , and v/rapped in tin foil for the market. How is Cocoa Butter made ? The chocolate-paste from the grinding mill is treated like the oleomargarine. It is formed into little cakes wrapped in canvas, and layers of these are stacked under a hydraulic press. (See Oleomargarine.) The cocoa bean or nut is over half fat, and all this fat comes away. What use is made of this Cocoa Butter? It is used by confectioners and for the very finest grades of soap. The American factories cannot supply the demand, and over 2,000 tons are imported each year. What is Cocoa f It is the residue after the oil has been expressed. The little cakes, taken from the press, are broken with a mallet and are ready to be ground again. Now instead of a paste, a fine flour is secured. For drinking purposes, this flour is packed in tin boxes, and is ready for the grocery. If it is for the candy- maker, the flour goes to a mixer, where after sugar and flavor have been added, the mass goes through rollers. Cocoa is preferred as a drink because the average consumer cannot tolerate so much oil as Chocolate contains. Is Chocolate also sweetened and flavored ? Nearly always, in Europe; less frequently in the American factories. The little cakes from Holland and Paris, that are so tastefully wrapped, are prepared by secret formulas, and coated with cocoa butter. Heat, cold, sugar and perfume play impor- tant parts in the processes. Hot rooms and refrigeratories change the temperature of the mass rapidly. For confectioners, the American manufacturers make up raw bricks of cen pounds each. COFFEE, TEA, ETC. 195 How did Cocoa get its botanical name of Theobroma ? Linnaeus had eaten the seeds, and knew the possibilities of Chocolate as a food. He honored it with a name \vhich meant food for the gods, from the Greek Theos, god, and bronios, food. Do Americafis use Chocolate largely ? Yes, but as a confection. About 50,000,000 pounds of Choco- late are consumed annually, and 10,000,000 pounds of Cocoa are bought for drink. Coffee and Tea remain the prime favorites, and the people refuse to detect in Cocoa the principle or stimulant which theyfind in the two other drinks. Yet chemistry reports a surprising likeness between the alkaloids of all three. For pulmonary complaints, where digestion remains fair, experiment should be carefully carried on with Chocolate, on account of the large ratio of fat which it carries. ^ttIt^t* fcTjfcTftTiiTifcTi fIDeat, Etc. :i^: What changes have taken place m tlie prodnction of animal food? The business has fallen into the hands of a few firms. Refri- gerating cars and ships are made to carry fresh meat to any distance, and prepared or pressed meats are delivered at all the inns of Europe and America. Ham, turkey, chicken and other meats are potted and sold in cans. Turkey and chicken are canned in slices. But the great staple of this kind is doubtless pressed corned beef. Where are the greatest sources of this manufacture f At Chicago, in the Union Stock Yards, although branch-houses have been established in all the large Western cities. The Stock Yards are in the south-western quarter of Chicago, and are bounded by Halsted street on the East, Ashland avenue on the west. Fortieth street on the north and Forty-seventh street on the south. The great community that grew up about this industry was long known as the Town of Lake. Dexter Park was at the Stock Yards in early days, and here the horse Dexter made his fastest time of 2:17^, How are Swine slaughtered? At the leading packing establishments you are furnished a uniforrned guide. He takes you to the pork house first. The Swine are brought into the room in a pen mounted on low wheels, a dozen animals at a time. A man seizes a hog by the hind leg and loops on a small steel chain. The chain is 196 MEAT, ETC. 197 connected with an overhead railway, and the animal is instantly suspended head downward. Thus hanging, his throat is cut, the blood flows from the carcass, and it passes into the cleaning machine, where knives take off nearly all the bristles. Again the carcass is suspended, and it is ready for cutting. In three minutes from the time the hog was caught, its meat is boxed for delivery. How are Beeves killed? Next you are taken to the beef-killing building. Here is where the steer called Judas operates. He leads the company of cattle to the movable pens, and as they pass in he returns to secure further recruits. Each slaughter-house has a Judas. The movable pens come into the room with only two victims at a time. Their heads are forced into position and a terrific blow with a steel hammer is dealt between the eyes. Instant insen- sibility follows. The animal is suspended, and passes rapidly before the various butchers, who do the work apportioned to them with great skill and speed. The carcass is laid down in order to remove the hide, again hung, cut in halves, and travels onward to the cooling rooms by means of the overhead railway. I have heard that the Jews must kill their Beeves separately. Yes. The victim must be examined, approved and killed by a Rabbi, or priest. The guide will take you to the Hebrew department. Here you see a low, heavy-set man, with a long beard and a solemn air. The animal to be slaughtered is brought into the room by a long rope, which passes through a steel ring fastened firmly in the floor. As the rope is drawn tightly, the animaFs head is pinioned fast to the floor. Another rope is attached to one hind-leg. The Rabbi has now thor- oughly washed and re-sharpened his huge knife. He approaches, and with one stroke cuts the jugular veins. The carcass is then hung. Swine are kept as far as possible away. How are Sheep killed? Just before you see the Rabbi, you go to the large room where mutton is prepared for the market. The process is similar to the hog-killing. In removing the pelt, care is taken 198 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. that the wool do not touch the meat. The carcass is washed and tagged. How many animals are thus killed at Chicago f About 2,500,000 beeves and calves, nearly 500,000 swine, and over 1,500,000 sheep each year. In an establishment such as we have described, there can be killed in one day, 11,000 swine, 4,500 cattle and 2,500 sheep. Nothing is wasted, meat, glue, beef extract, butterine, tallow, pepsin and fertilizer are the principal products. The horns are polished for ornamental furniture. What are Cow-boys ? The popular name for the herders of the West. Cattle for many years were driven in vast herds across the plains, follow- ing a beaten path from Texas to Montana. The cattle were branded with the owner's mark, and the round-up showed how each proprietor's property stood. Animals without a brand were known as "mavericks." The cow-boys rode horses or ponies called broncos, a California name. A man who could train a young or wild bronco was called a bronco-buster. Eastern and European people have become familiar with this class through the Wild West Shows of the last twenty years. (See "The Story of the Cow-Boy,^' by E. Hough. D. Appleton & Co.) Was this meat-raising business controlled ? So it was alleged. Although the cattle-ranchers of the West complained of low prices, it was many years before there was' a decline of price in meat, and Congress made several investiga- tions. Foreign governments have regarded the growth of American meat industries with jealousy, and have alleged many reasons for cutting off the trade. At last, the President was authorized by Congress to retort. If our meats were debarred, he was to prohibit the entrance of the leading article of that nation's commerce. This did some good, but difficulties still menace the trade. We export a vast amount of pork and lard. Our cured hams go all over the world. ^^ pickles, ti)meoar,lEtc._f, Where are the largest Pickle Factories ? In Pittsburg, Pa. It is said that one establishment bottles nearly five billion cucumbers each year. The Pickle Factories establish salting houses m the cucumber districts, and the vegetable gardeners carry wagon loads to great cylindrical vats. The cucumbers are put in brine, and sometimes tank cars carry them eastward. Some of the Western cities pack these pickles in barrels, but even this class of work is largely done eastward of Chicago. What takes place at the Factory ? The salted pickles are washed in warm running water, and so treated that they will keep their green color. They next are poured into a very odd-looking sorting machine. Imagine a revolving shaft placed at an incline toward the floor. On the first part of the shaft put a very large cage with bars near together. As the cucumbers revolve in this cage the littlest ones fall out ; the bigger ones pass onward toward a second cage with larger intervals between the bars, A third cage lets out cucumbers a size larger, and at the end, the biggest ones come out together. Thus, beside the machine, four baskets are filling at once. How are the ciicMmbers bottled ? They now pass at once to rows of girls at tables, who use a pair of slim wooden tongs. With these they arrange the cucumbers around the sides of the bottles in even rows. After this careful arrangement, the vinegar and spices are 199 200 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. poured in, according to the formula of the factory. The bottle is then corked and covered with tin foil. The label is put on by girls in another room. Sweet pickles are made by pouring into the bottle a sweet liquid. Are other vegetables pickled at these factories ? Yes. Small onions, cauliflower, small tomatoes, beans and other products. For this purpose many steam kettles are used, and gardens are maintained for the production of choice goods and special sizes. The smallest cucumbers, made originally in imitation of the French, are popularly called ^'Tiny Tims,'^ and are considered a delicacy. They are pickled sweet. Are there Catsup Factories f Yes. The waste from the tomato canneries was once utilized, but later the tomato was boiled to a pulp, passed through sieves, spiced, mixed, bottled and labeled. The manufactured catsup closely resembles the home product, but is usually of a lighter red color, without seeds. Although we usually mean tomato catsup when we use the word catsup, there are catsups made of grapes, currants, goeseberries, cucumbers, peppers (Tobasco sauce), mushrooms, walnuts, etc. The word came from the East Indies, and is variously spelled. It properly applies to any hot sauce. What is Chow Chow ? It is a preparation of pickles with the addition of mustard, which in China is held in high esfeem. Cauliflower is the leading or conspicuous ingredient, with cucumbers. All the spices may be added, to which mustard gives the characteristic yellow color. Chow Chow came with the Union Pacific Railroad and the Chinese to America, and has been accepted as one of the national sauces. In fact y all vegetable things may be pickled ? Yes. Although the cucumber leads^ various fruits and veg- etables are preferred in different parts of the country. As we go southward, red pepper grows in importance as an adjunct, for climatic reasons. PICKLES, VINEGAR, ETC. 201 All this is done with Vinegar. I am interested to know something of this wonderfnl liquid. Vinegar, as a word means sour or sharp wine, and comes from Fig. 71. TWITCHELL'S APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING THE STRENGTH OF VINEGAR. the French {vin aigre). It is best known to the masses of our people as sour cider. However it be made, it is the commonest form of acid. What is an Acid? In common terms, to be an acid the substance must dissolve in water ; it must taste sour; it must have the power to turn vegetable blues to red ; it must have the power to decompose carbonates with effervescence as the carbonic acid leaves ; it must counteract the alkalis, at the same time turning to salts itself. 202 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, Acetic acid (which is Vinegar) is composed of water, oxygen, carbon and hydrogen. Still I do not know what Acid is. Nearly all human knowledge, when thus brought to bay, must confess that it cannot go further. As we have said con- cerning the action of rennet in cheese, we know it does it just so, but why we do not know, nor have the cheese-makers found anything else that ferments the cheese in as good a way as rennet. That may be ** personal error" or prejudice, or truth. But men, as in the case of Electricity and Darwinism, are compelled to erect working theories, and chemists frequently accept Gerhardt's theory that acids are always salts of hydrogen, and are always desirous to give up their hydrogen for a metal. [See Chemistry.] Thus we come to an Electric phase of the question ? Yes. You may refer to plus and minus in the chapter on Electricity. Acid is Electro-negative, and is borne to the positive pole in a battery. Gerhardt believed that some materials of acids displaced one atom of hydrogen, some two atoms, some three. In this way he accounted for the three forms or more of phosphoric acid. He grouped the acids into three great types — water acids, hydrochloric acids, and ammonia acids. Owing to this Electric-negative condition of Vinegar, it may be seen how greedily such a metal as copper or lead would be attacked, and as the matter given up by the copper or lead would be a poison, a cucumber preserved in a vessel of such metal would be full of the poison. As the copper makes a green color, a pickle that is not green certainly has no copper in it, although there may be no copper in a green colored pickle. What wonderful thing is it that keeps the cucumber from decomposing ? Various theories are held. Oxygen, the most plentiful element in nature, is negative and goes toward the cucumber, oxidizing it, or rusting it. Pasteur demonstrated that the oxygen was here aided by microbes, and that decay would be extremely slow or perhaps impossible where microbes were PICKLES, VINEGAR, ETC. 203 excluded. In water, where there is not so much oxygen, the process is one rather of solution than what we call decay. But possibly the minute organisms are aiding in the action. Now acid is hostile to life germs. The attack of tl\e acid on the entire structure of the cucumber is energetic, and the result is this — that we entirely lose the taste of the vegetable, and find ourselves eating cells that are apparently nothing but acetic acid. This acid dissolves the starchy and fatty food in our stomachs, destroys germs and, moderately used, gives good results. It is likely that our race, or a good part of it, craves sour things because of the need of destroying the bacilli that might otherwise overcome the life of the human tissues. How do we obtain our Vinegar ? Wine was the first material. The wine stood till it was sour. Apples were our great source in earlier days, and cider Vinegar is still considered the best and safest for table use. The barrels of cider stood in the cellar, and sometimes ^' mother " was added from old Vinegar, and thus the fermentation was hastened. What kinds of Vinegar do we have now-a-days ? Red-wine Vinegar, the strongest and costliest ; cider Vinegar, the most popular ; white wine Vinegar, which does not come from wine at all, the common form for use at the pickle factories. Describe the manufacture of white wine Vinegar ? Corn and rye arrive in cars and go to the top of the Vinegar Factory, where they are stored in bins. A spout leads from the bin to the boiler far below. This is a closed steam cauldron, which carries a pressure of about sixty pounds. Into this vessel about one hundred bushels of shelled corn descend, and water is added. In two hours it is a mush or mash, and is blown in a tube upstairs into the mash-tubs, which hold eight thousand gallons each. Now fifty bushels of malt are added. What is Malt ? It is barley or other grain steeped in water until it germinates, then dried in a kiln, evolving the sugar ; or it may come wet 204 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. and finely ground to the mash-tubs. The mass of mash and malt is now agitated by revolving paddles, at a temperature of one hundred and forty-eight degrees. The cooking of the corn in the boiler separated the starch; the addition of the malt and the warmth turns the starch to sugar, and there is a sensation of the presence of molasses. After several hours of churning, certain pipes in the bottom of the vat are filled with cold water, and the yeast is added. What is the Yeast ? A copper-lined kettle holding two hundred gallons is filled with malt, rye and water and the mass is boiled. A yeast ferment is added, and soon the big two hundred gallon yeast is made. This big yeast is " planted ''Mn the mash-vat, and the whole body is passed in pipes to the fermenting tanks, where for seventy-two hours the sugar *' works ^^ and the alcohol is liberated. A link-pump now carries the mash to the still up stairs. Steam is forced through the mash and into the still. As the alcohol goes with the steam into a pipe that passes through the still, cold water on the outside of the pipe condenses the alcohol and it runs down the pipe into a vessel. The mash now is ready for the cattle that eat it. What is next ? The generators. These are tall wooden tanks or leaches, filled with beech shavings. As water goes through ashes and makes lye, by percolation, so the alcohol is now to percolate through the shavings. But the chemical change that takes place here is owing to the oxidation of the alcohol, and the shavings are only for the purpose of offering the widest surface for the oxygen of the air to reach the alcohol. When alcohol and oxygen meet, acetic acid or Vinegar is the result. Several floors are covered with generators. The alcohol trickles in at the top; the Vinegar trickles out at the bottom of each tank. It stands a while in tanks and is then barreled. A bushel of grain makes about four gallons of white wine Vinegar. It is sharper than apple cider Vinegar. PICKLES, VINEGAR, ETC. 205 Is the process of making Cider Vinegar also hastened? Yes. Hard cider Vinegar is passed through the beechwood shavings in the generators, and the product is allowed to stand in old whisky barrels, which ripens it. Is Red Wine Vinegar also generated? Yes. The wine for the generators comes from both Ohio and California. In years of enormous grape crops, this use insures the vineyards against absolute waste, however cheap the price. **W* Salt* PV/iat is a Salt ? A Salt is the result of an Acid and some other matter when they combine, and this resulting substance must be different from either the Acid or the other matter (the base, as the other matter is called). , What is otir table Salt? A union of Sodium and Chlorine. Sodium is a white metal, never found in its pure state. Sir Humphrey Davy first isolated it. Chlorine is a gas that has a green color, hence its name, from chloros, Greek iov green. It also is never found free. Then our table Salt is not a Salt ? You are right. It is the Chloride of Sodium. There are three other elements — Fluorine, Bromine and Iodine — that are capable of uniting with metals and making substances much like sea Salt. Hence the four are called Halogens, or salt-producers, from the Greek ^als^ which meant both Ocean and Salt, because the ocean was salt. What makes the ocean so salt ? Evaporation of its water, and nothing else. All lakes, if they lasted long enough, would become salt by evaporation. The ocean is least salt where the icebergs are melting, and where the Amazon is pouring in. Its Salt keeps it from freezing at 32 degrees of Fahrenheit. Its Salt renders it more buoyant than fresh water. It is therefore better fitted for navigation. 207 208 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What are beds of Rock-Salt f They are the deposits of former seas, for all the land has been underwater, however high it may tower above the sea-level. At Cardona, in Spain, there is a precipice of Rock Salt four or five hundred feet high, overlooking a valley. It is quarried, and needs only grinding for table use. Salt deserts and marshes occur in America, Russia, Persia and Abyssinia. The Abys- sinian salt was used for money, a block decreasing in value as it neared the quarries or mines. What properties does the Chloride of Soditun possess? It is white and sparkling when ground as we see it. It is bluish and crystalline as Rock Salt. It has a sharp taste, but not sour, nor spice-like. It does not alter its composition in a red heat. It will not dissolve in alcohol, while cold water will dissolve very nearly as much Salt as will hot water. The salt crystal is usually a cube, but at high temperature, the process of crystallization becomes more rapid, and the form is a hollow pyramid. But what other great property does Salt possess? It preserves against decay. It is called a detergent, because it cleanses. The cucumbers will keep in the salt vat, but they will absorb so much Salt that only a little bit could be eaten. The meat that we eat after it has been preserved in brine must often be soaked in water. The absence of what we call decay may be caused by the balance of electricity, or static condition; or by the presence of a metal or gas fatal to the life cell or bioplasm; or by the absence of the life cell. What is this Life-cell? Scientists are not yet able to deny- that there are things that are alive and things that are dead. (See Life.) Strangely, when a thing does not decay, it is dead; when it decays, it has come to life — life has been added, according to Pasteur^s demonstra- tions. By life, we mean a movement of some combination of Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Hydrogen. That movement is not electrical, but willful, eccentric, animal, to some extent human — that is, it is alive. Again, that movement is as much a SALT. 309 thing of itself as the action following the introduction of the rennet in the cheese. Cannot the scientists make this Life mixture ? No. They can only make the dead mixture. The living mass of Carbon, etc., called a life-cell, may be seen, under the micro- scope to move^ its atoms going among each other. In an unsalted piece of dead meat, this living mass would surround a particle of tissue and absorb it; presently an atom would start out away from the mass, and become a new mass, a process called cell-cleavage. In some fatal diseases, these masses multiply in number and with rapidity almost beyond credence. What does Salt do ? In certain quantities it arrests that action. The mass itself dies. But there may be some Salt present, for the human blood, and all blood, which is filled with life-cells, contains Salt, and tastes of Salt. Until man shall know just what happens, his theories will work badly enough to show him that they are all faulty. With life thus tolerant of Salt, it must follow that the meat-packers have found other preservative substances more valuable, and a mixture of boracic acid, sodium phosphate, saltpetre and common Salt, will preserve meat in the proportion of only one teaspoonful to the pound of meat. Is Salt taken apart ? Yes. Its Chlorine is needed for bleaching powder, for electric accumulators, etc. Its Sodium is needed for soda in soap, for glass-making and for other alkaline purposes. England manufac tures caustic soda and carbonate of soda in vast quantities, and our soap factories import nearly 100,000,000 pounds a year. It all comes from Salt. What is its greatest use ? Simply as a condiment or seasoning in our food, and in the food of animals. It is one of the necessities of life, and every nation has access to it, either at the ocean's edge, in mines, or by salt springs or wells. The Smithsonian Institution exhibits the large quantity of Salt present in the average man of one hundred and fifty pounds. 210 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Where are our leading Salt- Works ? The greatest are in Michigan. New York, West Virginia and Ohio are vast producers. Salt was the earliest manufacture in American history, for the colonists at Jamestown, Va., before 1620, had established salt works at Cape Charles, and sent salt to the Massachusetts Puritans in 1633. In 1689, Salt was made in South Carolina, and sea-water establishments were in opera- tion on the coast of every State from Maine southward. Solar evaporation at Cape Cod, Mass., and Key West, Fla., has flourished for a century. What of the interior States ? The French Jesuits were familiar with the Onondaga Salt Springs near Syracuse, N. Y., and the white settlers boiled five hundred bushels in 1788. The French and Indians used the springs of Southern Illinois in 1720. The Kentucky springs were used before 1790. The first salt manufacture in Ohio was in 1798. In. Western Pennsylvania the business began in 1812. Rock Salt was discovered in what is now West Virginia at a very early date. The Great Salt Lake of Utah measures fifty by twenty miles, and its waters are one-fifth Salt. Salt lakes of smaller size abound in the Western deserts, especially in Cali- fornia. Missouri, so rich in every valuable mineral, has vast resources of this kind, and nearly every State could be a large exporter. Describe the Onondaga works. The springs are in low marsh lands, in which wells of two or three hundred feet are sunk. Out of these wells the salt water is pumped to the resorvoirs. The brine holds from seventeen to twenty per cent, of Salt. It stands in the reservoir to let the sediment settle, and alum is added to hasten this action. Coarse Salt is secured by running the brine out of the reservoirs into tanks that are only six inches deep. The tanks near Syracuse cover hundreds of acres. Here the sun will leave fifty bushels a year in a tank only sixteen by eighteen feet in size. How is fine Salt secured ? Parallel rows of vat-cauldrons, set in brick '' blocks," extend the length 0/ the works^ Each cauldror> wiU boi) one hundred SALT, 211 gallons of brine. By the process of the nianufacturers, whether by precipitation or otherwise, the sulphate of lime, oxide of iron, and chlorides of magnesium and calcium are taken away, and when this fine Salt is barreled it weighs fourteen pounds less to the bushel than the solar Salt. The State of New York owns the wells, and receives a royalty on all Salt produced. Seven- eighths of the product are made by boiling. A cord of wood or a ton of. coal will secure forty-five bushels of fine Salt. What developed the Michigan works ? The economy of uniting the lumber and salt industries. Eight thousand square miles of salt-producing rock, about 800 feet under the surface of the earth, promise an illimitable supply of brine. Wells have been sunk as far as 2,000 feet. The first one was put down in 1859. The benefits of lake navigation are secured. Steam from the saw mills evaporates the brine by day, and the sawdust ^nd other waste furnish fuel at night or at other times. Barrels for packing may be made from rejected timber. Through all these arrangements, and on account of private ownership, the works have surpassed all other American establishments in product. What is the history of Salt f Such a history is of course as old as that of the creatures who cannot live without Salt. The relation of Sodium and Salt was at once known. Sodom, the city, meant burning in the Semitic tongues. The name of Sodium is Natron in German and older languages, and the Egyptians valued their Natron marshes as well for embalming purposes as for Salt. Salt pits are mentioned in Joshua, and in Leviticus the Jews are ordered to make no offer- ing without Salt. Babes were washed in Salt. Salt was the symbol of fidelity and death. Conquered cities were sown with Salt. Treaties were concluded with the eating of Salt. What of modern history ? Salic laws were sometimes edicts levying a tax on salt, but the Salic law that kept women off the throne was promulgated on the River Sale. The Gabelles were salt-taxes on the French 212 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY provinces, so unjustly and unequally levied that they disclosed the unfitness of the nobles to enjoy their rights, and led to the great French Revolution. The salt manufacture has often been a State monopoly. The East Indian State monopoly was not abolished till 1863. The Cracow works in Poland, have been operated for six hundred and fifty years. ^be Spectroscope. JVka^ is the Spectroscope ? It is an instrument, variously made, for the examination of the light that emanates from heated bodies. Why is that light to be sttidied ? Because every Element emits a different set of rays or undula- Fig. 73. A SPECTROSCOPE. tions, and all the Elements may be recognized by the lights and shadows which they cast. What is a Spectruin ? If you darken a western room in the afternoon while the sun is shining, and then niake a round hole in the window curtain, so that the sun can shine through the hole, a line of sunlight will go through the hole and follow a straight line to the wall, where a round, bright spot will appear on the wall. If you hold 213 214 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. a three-cornered bar of glass — a prism — with one of its sharp corners up, so the line of light will go through at a point in the '^ blade ^' of the prism a little from the top edge, the round, bright spot will disappear from its previous place on the wall, 5s^2£!£dBeam Fig. 74. OBTAINING A SPECTRUM. and, falling several degrees, will become a *' long spot with round ends " that is, the disk will be stretched out. But this is not all. The top of the spot will be red, the middle yellow, the bottom blue, with all the shades and tints interspersed between. It was found, forty years before the X Rays, that just above the red end (in the dark) bodies could be heated^ and just below the blue end (also in the dark) bodies could be chemically affected, so that there were X Rays even in those days. But these outside and non- luminous rays were not X Rays like those which Doctor Roent- gen discovered in 1895. (See X Rays.) The long spot on the Fig. 75. PRINCIPLE OF THE SPECTROSCOPE. (a ) Prism, (b.) Tube through which the light pa.s.se.s. (c.) Eye-piece, (d.) Scale. THE SPECTROSCOPE. 215 wall is the sun's Spectrum. Two such spots would be Spectra (plural). Study of this spot is Spectral Analysis. Newton began the investigations. What did the scientists think about the long spot ? They concluded that the prism had made a long row of spots on the wall, each overlapping the other. So they began experi- menting with knife-cuts or slits in the window curtain, to see if they could not get also a row of slit-like bright places on the wall. But these experiments only demonstrated that light went through the prism in every degree of refrangibility, and that the divisions of color we make with our eye are only illusory, or at least rude. Fig. 76. SPECTRAL APPARATUS FOR SHOWING SPECTRAL LINES ON A SCREEN. What is Refrangibiliiy, Refraction, etc ? When you put the oar of a boat in the water, the oar seems bent. The oar represents a line of light sent into the water. It bends. A line of light sent through the prism bends downward and spreads downward, and the blue end of the Spectrum or rainbow spreads more than the red end. If the line of light 21G THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. were a cable of fine wires, the red wires would bend the least, the blue wires the most. All that is refraction. . - What is Diffraction or Interference ? An important phenomenon of which the people have much less opportunity to know. If a coin be held before the hole in the curtain through which the sun shines, the coin's shadow on the wall will have a ring or rings around it. Theory accounts for these rings on the basis that light is a force sent through the atoms of the air or ether. When the atoms meet obstructions they must alter their motions, and after the atoms or the forces rejoin, the effect of the collision must remain and manifest itself. To get at our point, if light sent from all burning substances do not act in the same way — if it act differently for different sub- stances — then the shadows and light places on the wall will differ for every burning substance. Newton discovered the^ peculiarities of diffraction. Fresnel (see Search-light), accounted for them on the theory of moving atoms of ether. What have shadows to do with the Spectrum ? It is with these shadows that Vv^e deal entirely. After the opticians had made iheir slit in the window-curtain and obtained lines of light instead of disks of light on the wall, they found also lines of darkness running across the Spectrum. That is, if a hair-comb were laid lengthwise on the Spectrum, the lines of darkness would run the same way as the teeth of the comb. J^ hat were these dark lines first called? Fraunhofer's Lines. And it was further found that if the light let in at the slit were not the sunlight, the Fraunhofer Lines would be bright instead of dark. How was the Spectroscope made ? As the experimenters desired to avoid refraction of an unequal kind, they laid trains of prisms to correct the refraction. They set lenses before their eyes to magnify the Fraunhofer Lines. Finally, they m.ade gratings on speculum metal which caused diffraction or interference, and by another means separated the ray of light into its light and dark cross lines. Machines were made by which the speculum mirror or grating showed ten, THE SPECTROSCOPE 217 iweiity, fifty, one hundred, and at last one hundred and forty thousand lines in an inch of space, A ray shining on these lines met each one of them and set one hundred and forty thousand series of Fig. 77. BROWNING'S SPARK CONDENSER, TO MAKE SPARKS FOR SPECTRAL ANALYSIS. atoms in motion, making light and darkness. By these gratings, the lenses are dispensed with, and the image of the Spectrum, with all the Fraunhofer Lines, can be thrown on a screen. The more closely the lines are ruled, the more the Spectrum is spread out, extending over a space of many feet. What is the law of the Spectrum ? Every Element, when heated to a glowing vapor, emits a light that when sent through the Spectroscope, shows a Spectrum with Fraunhofer Lines different from the lines on the Spectrum of any of the other Elements. The Spectrum is divided into one hundred and forty thousand places to the inch by the recent inventions, and arny variation of that degree is at once easily noted on the screen. This offers opportunity for seeing as many Fraunhofer Lines. Name some Fraunhofer Lines. Zinc flame shows three blue lines and one red line crossing the 218 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Spectrum at certain places. Copper sends three green lines. Hydrogen has double violet lines. Iron has many lines. Nitro- gen and Manganese show three and Calcium one. It was from the Indigo-blue line of the Spectrum that the chemists discovered Indium, the metal. These lines are bright. But the lines on the Sun's Spectrum are dark ? That was explained by Kirchoff, one of the greatest of the Spectroscopists, in 1859. The Spectrum was then well mapped, and he identified the dark line at Fraunhofer's D on the sun's Spectrum, as the same line which was bright in the Spectrum of the Element Sodium, when its light was sent through the Spec- troscope. In those days, the Spectroscope was a three-tubed, star-shaped apparatus, such as we illustrate, and by letting in the sun^s light and the Sodium_'s light at the same time, he made the Fraunhofer lines fit on one another. In this way he sug- gested the presence of Sodium, Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, Nickel, Barium, Copper, Zinc and Cobalt on the sun. Why are the sun' s lines dark^ while the same Elements, burning on earth, throzv bright lines ? It is explained on the theory that Sodium, in burning on the sun, makes a shadow by comparison with the vivid power of the light around it. The Persian poet imagined the glory of God to be such that the sun itself was His shadow. Did the study progress ? Very rapidly. Professor Crookes, of the celebrated X Ray tubes, was one of the most successful experimenters, succeed- ing in lighting the Elements by the electric spark and noting the map of their Spectra. In tS6i he thus discovered Thallium. What wonderful result followed? The Spectroscopists found lines on the sun's Spectrum that were not present in any light given on earth. They therefore named the two sources of these Lines Helium and Coronium. Fig. 78. HERRMANN'S HEMOSCOPE, or BLOOD- TESTING APPARATUS. THE SPECTROSCOPE: 219 Helios is the Greek name for the sun. In 1895 Lord Rayleigh, who had isolated the Element Argon, a gas, announced that in isolating Argon he had found the Spectrum of Helium, and soon Helium was isolated by several chemists. Thus one of our Elements w^as first recognized at a distance of ninety-five million miles from the earth. No Gold is found on the sun. Af'e the Stars studied ? Yes. They have been classified into stars like our sun that show many metals. Capella, in the Constellation Auriga, shows many metals. There is a large class like Sirius, that show more gas than our sun, principally Hydrogen. The third class show Iron, and their Lines are like those of the sun's spots. They are believed to be cooling into a molten condition. What is the most interesting residt of the Spectral Analysis of the stars ? The Fraunhofer Lines in a star's Spectrum shift as the star comes or goes. When the star is coming, the Lines move toward the blue end of the Spectrum; when the star recedes, the Lines move toward the red end. The color of the star, too, changes with its motion. If a green star moves toward us most rapidly, it turns violet. If it recedes at enormous rate, it turns red. For two days and ten hours the star Argol, in the Constellation Per- seus, comes toward us as fast as twenty-six miles a second; then for the like period of fifty-eight hours it recedes at the same speed. Some stars move one hundred miles a second. The Spectra of the moon, planets and comets, are like the Spectrum of the sun — a mirrored showing from the great source of light. Have Americans led in these Spectral experiments f. Yes. Professor Rowland, and the scientists of the Johns Hopkins University, have brought the Spectroscope, with its gratings, to a perfection almost incredible, and without doubt, the number of Elements and the peculiarities of the Carbon Compounds will be investigated with important results to the human race. What theory prevails as to the motion whicJi the Fraunhofer Lines betray f Since the sunlight sends shafts of motion of ah kinds, and not 220 ^■^^" FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY merely seven kinds, as Newton thought — that is the colors of the rainbow — the chemists and Spectroscopists now are forced to theorize that the atom of each Element sets up a motion within itself, and that the Interferences and Diffractions take place in the ether that plays inside the atom. This is believed because two atoms of different Elements — say a molecule of Salt (Chlorine and Sodium) make a Spectrum of their own^ showing that the ether moves in the molecule, as it does in the atom. What makes the ether move ? — that is, what is Light ? — must be better answered in the future than it is now. What results fro7n the developments of the Spectroscope ? It follows that the knowledge of mankind concerning Matter spread from the four hundred lines of Fraunhofer to the one hun- dred and forty thousand Interferences for each inch of the Johns Hopkins Spectrum. The secrets of each flame will be given up, the vibrations that make each dark or bright line will be scaled or theorized, the rapidity of Light undulations will be fixed within possible figures, the relation of the Electric vibrations to the Light vibrations will be sufficiently expressed, and the number of new Elements will become innumerable, until the uniform constitution of matter, as an outgrowth perhaps of Hydrogen, will be demonstrated. The imagination recedes before the labors that await our modern scientists. Where may I read a brief suinmary of Spectral Analysis ? In the article Spectroscopy^ in the Encyclopoedia Britannica, you may gather the main facts of the chemical Spectra, group by group, as we shall go over the ground in describing the Elements. (See Chemistry.) The importance of dealing with the Elements in groups will become apparent if we look further into the subject. It is alleged that the alloys of Gold and Copper can be told apart in the Spectroscope if they differ the one-ten thousandth of a degree. Lt criminal trials, where the Spectroscopist is called as a witness J how can he influence the jury ? In the trial of Luetgert, at Chicago, accused of the crime of murdering his wife and destroying her body in a solution of THE SPECTROSCOPE. 221 alkalis, Professor Delafontaine, Spectroscopist, testified in part as follows: "The Spectroscope is an instrument which consists essentially of a stand on top of which is a triangular piece of glass called a prism, that is enclosed in a box, to which are attached three tubes. Through one of them light is admitted, a light from any flame or any source that we want to study. Through another tube we send light to show a scale by which we locate lines and colors. The third tube is one through which we look and see what there is to be seen. I have just described the plain, ordinary Spectroscope, the same that I used. Now, when we place a gas light or a candle light or a kerosene flame in front of one of the tubes, the one to admit the light, and look through the small telescope, we see a bright band of color lights, the seven primary colors of the rainbow lights, passing gradually into each other; that is called the Spectrum of white light, or the continuous Spectrum. Now, if you hold in front of that tube in a flat bottle, or in a tube, some clear liquid, more or less of the light is absorbed, and we do not see all the seven primary colors as before. Now, some liquids have the power of absorb- ing just certain colors and letting the others pass. Of course, where the light has been absorbed, there is a black band. When you look through you see some of the color, more or less of the rainbow, but at a certain spot, which is always the same for the same substance, there is one black band, or several bands. Some will give quite a number of lines and bands and others only one." What did the State prosecutor next ask ? The prosecutor asked: *' Do the elements or metals have dis- tinctive colors or combinations of colors?'' To this Professor Delafontaine replied: " Yes. If we take what is called a Bunsen burner — that is, a gas burner that gives a blue flame like the kitchen stoves where they burn gas, just a blue flame, and hold it in front of that tube, it gives nothing when you look through except under certain conditions of the test. Now, if you bring in that blue flame a little of the salt of say, Potassium — hold it in that flame on the end of a Platinum wire — and look through, then we see all black or nearly black, except at one place there is a bright red line. That bright red line is always at the same 222 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. place whenever Potassium is put in the flame, and no other metal gives that same line at the same place, and therefore, we say that it characterizes Potassium — that means to say that whenever we see that red line in the flame, that means that we have brought into that flame some compound of potassium, and the same in regard to Sodium. Common salt, for instance will give you a bright yellow line, which is alwa3's at the same place, never to the right or to the left. It always corresponds to some degree of your scale." In what zvay cotUd the Spectroscopist discover evidences of gicilt f The witness was asked: '^ How much material is necessary to make the spectroscopic test such as you have just described ?' A. — ^'Oh, for common salt (containing Sodium), exceedingly little. So little that in fact we can hardly avoid getting in that Sodium line, because in the test here, if I shake the table it will go there into the flame; it is very hard to make an observation in which that Sodium does not show itself, but we understand that. I never figured it in fractions of a pound, but we know the fraction of a drachm is about the two-millionth part of a drachm. As regards Potassium it will require about one thousand times more of the compound to show a red line." In what way did the Spectroscopist discover the presence of blood? The Professor said: "Blood is a liquid in which are floating microscopic round bodies called the red corpuscles and others called the white corpuscles. Blood is red because it contains the red corpuscles. Now, those red corpuscles contain a coloring matter which is called, when the blood is fresh, hemoglobin. When blood is boiled or heated with the alkali, that hemoglobin is soon transformed first into another coloring matter, that I do not need to mention now, and finally into hematine, which remains dissolved, and it is what we call alkaline hematine. If we take a solution of the alkaline hematine in a glass tube, and hold it in front of the Spectroscope, while the ray of alkaline hematine passes through it, the seven primary colors of the THE SPECTROSCOPE. 223 rainbow, which the white light would give, are obscured by a specific dark band, in the region of the red and orange." In what way do such investigations become convincing to a jnry f The Spectroscope finds that incriminating Elements are present, and exculpatory Elements are absent, or vice versa. Thus, there was no trace of spices in the matter contained in Luetgert's vat; there were Aluminium lines in the spectrum, and it was charged that Mrs. Luetgert had worn a set of artificial teeth with an aluminium plate. Fig. 79. PROF. LIEBIG IN HIS LABORATORY. ^^ . • Cbemistr^. ^M. W/iat are the Elements of Nature ? The Chemists have separated the Universe into something like eighty or ninety kinds of matter. One of the latest Elements found. Helium, was first seen on the sun by means of an instrument called the Spectroscope, and Helium was thereafter recognized and isolated on the Earth. Scientists are all the time in search of new Elements. What is the good of knoiving the Elements ? If we learn the list of the principal ones, we then know that practically all other things, however familiar by some misleading name, must be compounds of two or more of the Elements. How shall I learn the list of Elements ? It would be well to divide it into several sections. First of all, it is important to know that Carbon forms compounds with more Elements, and in more ways, than all the rest of the Elements put together, so that Chemistry may be divided into two departments — Carbon and non-Carbon, or as they are called, organic (Carbon) and inorganic (non-Carbon) Chemistry. Name the Elements that are deemed most importa.nt ? Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Sulphur, Calcium, Sodium, Potassium, Chlorine, Iodine, Iron, Aluminium, Bromine, Copper, Lead, Mercury, Silicon, Silver, Tin and Zinc. All of these were known in the eighteenth century except Potassium, Sodium, Calcium, Silicon, Chlorine, Bromine and 226 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY Aluminium. Davy separated Potassium, Sodium and Calcium early in the nineteenth century. These make twenty-one. Give me the second list. Second in importance come Antimony, Arsenic, Barium, Bismuth, Boron, Cadmium, Chromium, Cobalt, Fluorine, Gallium, Gold, Magnesium, Manganese, Nickel, Platinum, Strontium. More than half of these were known before the nineteenth century, and several of them are of the highest antiquity in history. This list makes sixteen more, or thirty-seven in all. Name the third list. Argon, Caesium, Cerium, Didymium, Decipium, Erbium, Germanium, Glucinum, Helium, Indium, Iridium, Lanthanum, Lithium, Molybdenum, Neodymium, Niobium, Osmium, Palla- dium, Praseodymium, Rhodium, Rubidium, Ruthenium, Selen- ium, Scandium, Tantalum, Tellurium, Thallium, Thorium, Titanium, Tungsten, Uranium, Vanadium, Yttrium, Ytterbium, Zirconium. These forms of matter complete the catalogue of Elements which we shall call to your attention. Why is the last list called unimportant ? Because these Elements are of rare occurrence, or our knowledge of them is often limited to the mere fact that they exist. Many of them are more costly to obtain than Gold, and they must usually be preserved in petroleum or otherwise kept from oxidizing. Caesium, Thallium, Rubidium, Gallium, Argori, Helium, Neodymium, Praseodymium and others have been isolated for the first time at a date since i860. At the end of this important chapter we shall append a table of the Elements, their symbols and their weight. Do the endings of these words signify any particular thing ? No, except that by far the greater number of recently- discovered Elements have been named so as to end in ium or um. Gen means to generate; as Oxygen generates acids, Hydrogen generates water, Nitrogen makes nitre, and the four halogens (Chlorine, Bromine, Fluorine and Iodine) generate salt. (See Salt.) CHEMISTRY. 237 How many Elements appear nattcrally as gases? Five certainly, and probably six if we include Fluorine. The five are Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Chlorine and Argon, How many appear naturally as liquids ? Mercury and Bromine. Gallium is also said to be a liquid. All the rest are solids. That is, at least sixty-one of the Fi< CHRISTOMANN'S APPARATUS FOR DISCOVERING THE MELTING- POINT, WITH ELECTRIC SIGNAL. Elements must be heated, as we say, more or less to turn them into fluids. Give me an idea of the use to zvJiicJi the Elements are put in nature ? The Air consists mainly of Oxygen and Nitrogen, and this envelope surrounds the earth to a great distance. The Water is mainly Hydrogen and Oxygen. The solid earth is mainly Oxygen, Silicon, Carbon, Calcium, Magnesium, Aluminium, Iron and Potassium — that is, far greater quantities of these than of any other Elements could be contracted for, to be delivered on another world. They wo"M be found in quartz, silica, limestone, clay and felspar. \ I XT TITIC k^'PTTHV CMEM/STf^y. 2'^0 What Elements must animals and plants have ? The only absolutely necessary ones appear to be Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Sulphur, Phosphorus, Calcium, Iron, Potassium, Sodium, Chlorine, Silicon and Magnesium. What is the ehemieal dijference between plants and animals ? Animals have Nitrogen in addition to the leading Elements that the plants have. Plants breathe out Oxygen ; animals take it up. Animals breathe out Carbon ; plants take it up. The refreshment felt in the woods and fields is probably due to the great supply of Oxygen that is offered to the lungs of animals whose supplies may have been scantier. How are Elements compared scientifi- cally ? By extending them into gases, weighing them, noting the amount of heat they have taken up, and measuring the volume into which they have expanded. It is also important that the electric condition of the Element should be noted, and it is therefore put between the poles of a battery where it seeks one or the other, accordingly as it is positive or negative. Faraday demon- strated the likeness of what are called chemical and electrical movements, and gave added weight to the Atomic and Molecular theories. Who set up these theories, and when ? John Dalton, an Englishman, at the be- ginning of the century, and Professor Avogadro, an Italian, at Turin, a little later. You might interest yourself in determining which one of these men deserves the most honor, as the Atomic Fig. 82. PROF. JOLLY'S APPARATUS FOR DE- TERMINING THE SPE- CIFIC GRAVITY OF MINERALS. 230 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. and Molecular theories are perhaps the most ingenious things that man has done on the earth. How did the theories arise ? Certain things had already become evident in Chemistry. If water, air, salt, sugar, or any other compound were taken apart, ii: was always found to give exact proportions of the Elements that made it. By weighina: all the Elements that could be heated into a gaseous form and still weigh- ed, it was determined that Hydrogen was by far the lightest, most of the Elements being from twenty to heavier, but all in different degrees, a standard of weight at i, and Fig. 83. WESTPHAL'S APPARA- TUS FOR OBTAINING THE SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF LIQUIDS. two hundred times Thus Hydrogen . offered Fig. 84. LUX'S BALANCE FOR WEIGHING GASES. CHEMISTRY. 231 Fi^. 85. BUNSEN'S APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING VOLUME OF CHLORINE (gas). Other Elements like Gold^ could be put at 196.2 and Iron at 55.9. Let us go farther for the following examples, and weigh Chlorine (a gas) at 35.36 times the weight of Hydrogen, and Silver at 107.66, according to the books. Then we will find that if we mix Chlorine with Silver it will make a new thing, called Chloride of Silver. and if we take the Chloride of Silver apart, we find that out of 143.02 parts of Chloride of Silver. 35*36 were Chlorine and 107.66 were Silver. Why do the chemists say ide, in Chloride ? This is a suffix which is specifi- cally added to the non-metallic Elements like Fluorine, Iodine, etc., when they have mixed with some other Element without forming an acid. What next did the chemists discover ? They found that certain Elements, like Oxygen, united with other Elements in more than one way, but always in multiple proportions, or regular progression of one, two, three, four or even five times their weight of Hydrogen. Thus, fourteen parts by weight of Nitrogen, united with eight parts of Oxygen. This they called Nitrous Oxide. Twice as many parts of Oxygen (16) united with fourteen parts of Nitrogen and made what they named Nitric Oxide. Thrice as many parts of Oxygen (24) united with fourteen parts of Nitrogen and made what they named Nitrous Anhydride. Four times as many parts of Oxygen (32) united with fourteen parts of Nitrogen and made what they called Nitric Peroxide. Five times as many parts of Oxygen (40) united with fourteen parts of Nitrogen and made what they called Nitric Anhydride. Here were five different substances made out of nearly the same things.. It was to be seen that a certain quantity, molecule, atom, or division of Oxygen was 232 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY being doubled, tripled, etc. Note also that Nitrogen itsielf is just fourteen times heavier than Hydrogen, the standard. Did the chemists next experiment with compounds of tJiree Elements ? Yes. They found that when they took compounds of three Elements apart, there was always at least enough of each to make its relative weight once in Hydrogen. If there were more than enough, it was twice enough, thrice enough. For instance, Bromine, an Element, weighs 79.75 parts of Hydrogen. Mix Bromine, Silver and Chlorine together into a new thing; take them apart, and out of the mass there would come 79.75 parts of Bromine, 35.36 parts of Chlorine, and 107.66 parts of Silver. It was found that any two of three such, ingredients would them- selves combine in the exact way they had clung to or amalga- mated with the third. But they might, like Oxygen and Nitro- gen, have several ways of uniting, by the doubling, tripling, etc., of one of the Elements. In this way you see, discovery of the relation of Elements rapidly proceeded. Figs. 86 and 87. APPARATURES FOR DETERMINIIs^G MOLECULAR WEIGHT. CHEMISTRY. 233 . What did Daltoii and Avogadro do with these laws ? They deduced the theory that the Elements are themselves composed of molecules or combinations of atoms. These atoms have shapes, weights, affinities of their own. They are all alike in their own molecule. But they readily leave iheir own mole- cule to attach themselves to a molecule of another kind of atoms ; or a whole molecule may attach itself to another mole- cule ; or several molecules may fasten on a larger molecule, making a conglomerate mass ; or certain molecules may refuse to fasten to certain other molecules. But usually the molecule of a compound like sugar is composed of atoms from <-he mole- cules of the Elements, and these atoms have come together in a new molecule, which to all intents seems as important as the original molecule, and crystallizes into a certain shape, generally different from all other crystals. How 7nany atoms may a molecule eontain f In order to carry out Avogadro's hypothesis, there are in a molecule of the compound called Albumin, at least 226 atoms, and in Stearin at least 173. Understand, that however impressive tlie name of a substance may be, if you do not find it in the list of names which have been given on a previous page, it is a com- pound of two or more Elements, and usually the chemical name will reveal to your ear two of the Elements. What is this crystal, which I see whe7i I take grantdated zvhite sugar in my hand? Not much is known about it as a crystal. A large company of scientists have striven to reach some hypothesis concerning the crystal. It can be seen springing into existence under the microscope, but why it does so, or in what shapes it may form, is not sufficiently known. Many Elements and compounds are recognized by the shape of their crystals, but the formations are themselves compound, and a crystal may be split down to a smaller shape. Again, Elements (as Sulphur and Carbon) and compounds, as Carbon with Calcium, when they crystallize, may make altogether different crystals at different times and in vary- ing conditions. The crystal makes itself, as in sugar, or refuses to make itself, as in molasses. Its molecules in solution throw 234 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. light in various ways, and thus give the scientist an opportunity to name substances by this action of their solutions — as the sac- charose solution throws light to the right, and is sweeter than the glucose solution that throws light to the left. You say different molecules can make the same crystals. Yes. Alum, which is a compound of Sulphur, Potassium and Aluminium, is made of molecules that make the crystal which you see in alum. But molecules of Sulphur, Sodium and Alumin- ium, or of Sulphur, Potassium and Chromium will make the same kind of crystals. This often leads the chemists to measure the atoms by such means, where they have no better way, it being felt that the atoms are of the same size and shape-that is isomorphous. Vanadium was found through ex- periments in this direction. Pursue Avogadro's hypothesis a little further . Avogadro stated, in 1811, that equal volumes of different gases contain equal numbers of mole- cules. Under the same conditions of pressure, etc., the Elements may be weighed as gases, the amount of heat may be measured which goes into them to make them gaseous, and the pressure may be noted. We now mix Chlorine, a gas, and Hydrogen, a gas. We have found that Chlorine atoms weigh 35.36 times as much as Hydrogen atoms. The mixture is to be called Hydrochloric acid gas. As related to pure Hydrogen, we might expect a mixture weighing 36.36. But in reality, it weighs only 18.18. Now, inasmuch as other experiments with Chlorine have not permitted the existence of an atom weighing 17.68 (or half of 35.36), it would seem that for every atom of Chlorine (35.36) two atoms of Hydrogen have been used, and these three atoms have formed one molecule of Hydrochloric acid gas. To prove that the Chlorine atom was not cut in two, (into 17.68), Pig. 88. WOLLASTON'S REFLECT- ING ANGLE MEASURER FOR CRYSTALS. CHEMISTRY. 235 the chemists take other light or gaseous compounds of Chlorine. Thus, Sulphur Chloride weighs 57.36. On taking it apart, it is found to contain 61.64 P^^ cent, of Chlorine, and this percentage is very close indeed to 35.36 weights of Hydrogen taken in Chlorine. When Oxygen is tested in compounds, it continually shows either 15.96 times the weight of Hydrogen, or multiples of 15.96. What Elements have been tested and weighed as gaseous compounds ? About thirty, of which Boron, Bromine, Carbon, Chlorine, Hydrogen, Iodine, Lead, Mercury, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phos- phorus, Silicon, Sulphur, Tin and Zinc are the most important. How did the chemists study the Elements that they could not readily treat in the form of gases ? They attempted to ascertain the Specific Heat. If the Ele- ments be raised in temperature, say from 50 to 55 degrees, a Fig. APPARATUS FOR COMPARING THE SPECIFIC HEAT OF ANY TWO BODIES. different amount of heat will be required for each one, and if they be lowered ten degrees, each one will give off a different amount of heat. For a standard, one gramme of water is raised 23G I^^J^ FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. from a temperature of o to i degree Centigrade in Paris. This would be a heat-unit. Define these terms ? A gramme is a French unit of weight. A cubic centimetre of water at 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit at Paris, in a vacuum, w-eighs 15.433 grains avoirdupois. A Centigrade thermometer has zero at the freezing point (32 degrees Fahrenheit), and the space to the boiling point (212 degrees Fahrenheit), is divided into one hundred places or degrees. What IV as found by Specific Heat ? The Elements usually absorbed or gave off a number of heat units which could be multiplied d.'^ times in order to get the figure representing the weight of the atom, according to Avo- gadro's hypothesis. The scientists then adopted a theory of atomic weights for such of the Elements as they could not weigh in gaseous forms, and they did it by means of the Specific Heat. They also studied the crystals. What are these Elements so treated ? The most important are Aluminium, Calcium, Copper, Gold, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Nickel, Platinum, Potassium, Silver and Sodium. What is agreed upon as to the molecules of Elements ? Thirteen Elements have been theoretically and experimentally developed with regard to a molecular hypothesis. Beginning with the belief that a Hydrogen molecule contained two atoms, the same condition is now scientifically suggested for Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Selenium and Tellurium. Mercury and Cadmium appear to have only one atom in their molecules. Sulphur, at different very high temperatures, has six and two atoms respectively. The greater heat, the fewer the atoms in the Sulphur molecule. What are Symbols ? These, are the letters which stand for the Elements. These letters usually furnish a clew to the word they represent. Some- times, however, a foreign language has been used to name the Element. These exceptions are Sb (Stibium) for Antimony ; CHEMISTRV. . * 237 Au for Gold (Aurum); Fe for Iron (Ferrum); Pb for Lead (Plumbum); Hg for Mercury (Hydrargyrum); K for Potassium (Kalium); Ag for Silver (Argentum); Na for Sodium (Natrium); Sn for Tin (Stannum); Cu for Copper (Cuprum); and W for Tungsten (Wolfram). Barring these eleven Elements, the others begin with letters that agree with their English names, but only a few are represented by a single letter. You will find an instructive and convenient table of these names and Symbols at the close of this chapter. What Elements are represented by the single capital letters ivith zvliicJi tJieir names begin ? Boron, Carbon, Fluorine, Glucinum, Hydrogen, Iodine, Nitro- gen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, Sulphur, Uranium, 'Vanadium, Yttrium. No Element is represented by two capital letters. Some of the letters, such as A, D, E, J, M, Q, R, T, and Z, are not utilized separately for Elements. Small letters are added to particularize, as in the four B's — Barium, Ba; Bismuth, Bi; Boron, B; Bromine, Br. Someof the most important <;^7;^^<72^;^^5 have Symbols, notably MCy for Metallic Cyanide, but this is rare. Why are Symbols used? To give an instantaneous knowledge of the chemist's theory of the constitution of his compounds. Thus, he writes Sulphuric Acid — HgSO^. This is to inform us that he holds that each molecule of this substance is formed of two atoms of Hydrogen, one atom of Sulphur, and four atoms of Oxygen. Sofarasthey can, chemists hope to express a single atom by a single Symbol like S in the Sulphuric Acid Symbol, and the number of atoms in a molecule by the small figures; but this they do not always accomplish. It is perfectly safe for you to read a chemical Symbol like CgH^Og (Acetic Acid) as two atoms of Carbon, four atoms of Hydrogen, and two atoms of Oxygen. This combina- tion of Symbols, or any other, is called 2. formula. A large figure put in front of the formula multiplies the entire formula — thus, 2C3H,03 is equal to the formula C^H^O^. What is a Chemical Equation ? It is a rapid statement of what follows a mixture of Elements 238 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. or compounds. Thus, the chemist is able to say by the formula — 2HCl+Zn=ZnCl2+H,— all that follows: '' If I take a mixture of two parts of Hydrogen and two parts of Chlorine (forming Hydrochloric Acid) and mix it "with one part of Zinc, I shall obtain two other bodies, one being Chloride of Zinc (ZnCl,), in which there are two parts of Chlorine, and the other being H\J^ogen, in which there are two parts or atoms. I have thus released the Hydrogen in the Hydrochloric Acid, and fastened the Chlorine molecules to the Zinc molecules." But I have see^i Symbols in parenthesis like this — S02(OH)2. These formulas are still further descriptive of the chemical action which took place in the constitution of the substance in question . The above formula describes the making of Sulphuric Acid. Two atoms of Hydrogen and one of Oxygen — H3O— make water. Now drop into this water one atom of Sulphur and three more atoms of Oxygen. It is theoretically necessary at present to hold that the molecule of water adheres to the molecule of Sulphur and Oxygen (trioxide of Sulphur) without an entirely new constitution, only one of the three atoms of additional Oxygen going into the water molecule. Thus the molecule of the whole thing stands as follows: One atom of Sulphur and two atoms of Oxygen cling in one molecule. This molecule clings to a molecule made of two atoms each of Hydrogen and Oxygen. This is Sulphuric Acid. Instead of parenthesis-marks, a simple period or a comma may be used to represent the two molecules. What are these sub-Molecules called ? They are known as Compound Radicles, and can be handled by the chemists as if they were atoms. The atoms of the Elements are Simple Radicles. Note that the names of all acid Radicles end m yl. The t^rms perissad Sind artiad, applied to such molecules, mean only odd 2.viA even^ referring to the num- ber employed in the combination. Thus, Carboxyl is an atom of Carbon and an atom of Oxygen acting together in acid form as if they were one molecule of one Element. The capital let- ter R stands for Radicle, or sub-molecule. CHEMISTRY. 239 What is the Valency of an Element ? Its power to unite, as contrasted with the power of Hydrogen to unite, with other Elements. Hydrogen will unite with but a single atom of Chlorine. An atom of Zinc will unite with two atoms of Chlorine; Boron with three of Chlorine; Silicon with four; Phosphorus with both three and five. We have previously shown the remarkable Valencies of Nitrogen and Oxygen toward each other. Sugar is a Polyvalent Alcohol or an alcohol with many Valencies. What Elements are Metals ? All except the following. (But classification in this way is not regarded as satisfactory): Boron, Bromine, Carbon, Chlorine, Fluorine, Hydrogen, Iodine, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, Selenium, Silicon, Sulphur and Tellurium. These are popularly called non-metals. They are by far the most important group that could be mentioned. The rest are metals. What does Electricity do among the Elements ? When a compound of two Elements is decomposed in an electric current, the two Elements make their appearance at opposite poles. Those Elements that come to the negative pole are called Positive or basylous (base-making) Elements, while those that appear at the Positive pole are called Negative Elements. Classification in this way, however, is as objectionable as the metallic catalogue. What Elements are remarkably Negative to all the others ? Chlorine, Bromine, Fluorine, Iodine, Oxygen, Sulphur, Selenium and Tellurium. Acids are Negative. All the other Elements are more or less Positive, the most notable one being Caesium. Group the compounds into which 7iature has formed the Elements, so that I may gather some of the salient ideas of Chemistry. First of all, there are the Carbon Compounds, which form half of the subject. CarbonJChemistry was called Organic Chemistry because the elder chemists supposed that nothing but a living organism could form the complex molecules of Carbon, Hydro- 240 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. gen. Oxygen and other Elen^ents, in which the study abounded. Then there are the Hydrides, the Oxides, the Acids, the Salts and the Sulphides. There is a group of Chlorides, Bromides, Iodides and Fluorides — the salt-makers. Nitrogen is an exclu- sive Element, and makes but few alliances, so that the Nitrides are not numerous, but the Ammonias and the Cyanides (them- selves from Nitrogen) are the parents of vast groups of compounds. The Phosphites, the Alkalis, the Iron group, the other metallic groups, complete the necessary parts of a passing index of Chemistry. Explain words like SitlpJiide^ SiilpJiate, Sidphite, etc. Where bodies unite in only one simple way, like Chlorine and Sodium (making salt), it is easy to name them, but bodies with the Valency of Oxygen, Sulphur, Phosphorus, Chlorine, etc., give the scientists more trouble. You may usually consider 2V^ to be the broadest term, and Sulphide and Sulphuret are the same, meaning a mixture of Sulphur with some other (non-acid) body. Ic means that there is more of the Element used than if it were 02ts — thus Sitlphuric Acid has more atoms of Sulphur than Sulphurous Acid. Sulphite is a union of Sulphurous Acid with another Element. Sulphate is a union of Sulphuric Acid with another Element. As we have many Elements, the number of formulas possible is not to be limited, and chemists are likely to attempt to give a descriptive name to each of the most inter- esting combinations of Elements. These names, of course, must test the entire capacity of our language. It is much easier to' learn the Symbols and then read the formulas by that means. But the suffix iuin, or ttni for the newly-discovered Elements, ite for rocks, and the other suffixes that we have noted, with Sulphur (or some other Element) as a mere stem on which to place them, will give you a reasonable understanding of the chemical terms that we hear most frequently. / did not know Carbon was so important. What is this Element ? It is always present in all animal or vegetable substances. While it seems probable that only a small number of atoms of other Elements combine in compound molecules, there is only a CHEMISTRY. 241 very high limit to be placed on the number of Carbon atoms that may so unite. While the other Elements will-furnish one stable compound each with Hydrogen, Carbon will unite with Hydro- gen in hundreds of v/ays. Nor are these the only perplexing features of Carbon. It is also AUotropic. What does AUotropic inemi? It means different appearances for the same thing. You may see a diamond. It may have any color. It is Carbon in its crystallized form. You may also see the black substance in your lead pencil, called graphite. That also is Carbon, in its crystallized form. Again, in lamp-black you may see Carbon in an extremely soft powder, without form. In diamonds the crystals are eight-sided, or related to eight-sided forms, and very hard— the hardest substance known ; in graphite the crys- tals are six-sided and soft ; in lamp-black and other coals, cokes, etc., there is no regular form to the grains. It would require over 14,000 degrees of heat Fahrenheit to make a diamond boil; the greatest heats usually practicable char it into formless char- coal. It is but logical that the chemists should hold that the diamond is the really pure form', and that the two other forms are impure. But Oxygen and Ozone offer a similar puzzle of Allotropy, being different things to all intents and purposes, but made of the same Element. Have diamonds been made ? In 1896, before the New York College of Physicians and Sur- geons, M. Henri Moissan, of the Institute of France, gave his demonstration of the methods by which diamonds are produced in nature. He determined that the Carbon is subjected to great pressure. To get this pressure, he chose Iron. When fluid Iron grows cold it shrinks. By making a little bullet of Iron, with charcoal inside, he obtains a tiny diamond. The apparatus is a brick crucible — two thick bricks with a small cavity between them. Into this cavity the crucible is placed. The cavity is sprinkled with magnesia. Into the little crucible he puts Iron filings and charcoal. The bricks are put together. Then, with Electricity he heats the crucible to a temperature of 2,500 de- 16 242 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, greies. In the region of the crucible there is a boiling and flaming of clay and Iron. In ten minutes the process is com- plete. The crucible is dropped in cold water. The Iron bullet b ^v__ ^ r^ ftil Fig. 90. THERMOMETER, MEASURING AS HIGH AS 2,700 DEGREES ABOVE ZERO, FAHRENHEIT. in the crucible now condenses as it cools, pressing the charcoal into diamond. The diamond made is small, faulty and com- paratively worthless, but it is diamond. M. Moissan finds that the manner of cooling determines the color of his diamond product. On the Allotropic nature of Carbon he has learned that Carbon becomes a gas and reacts into graphite unless it be under pressure, when it only liquifies and returns to solid as a diamond. Have formulas been made for all cotntno^i things? No. As the commonest and yet the most remarkable things are Carbon compounds, there the chemists have found their most difficult problems. They do not yet attempt to write the formulas for the tree-gums — the resins, mucilage, gum tra^a- CHEMISTRY. 243 canth, India-rubber, balsams,— the bitumens, the albuminous substances, such as the whites of eggs, the globulin in our blood, the casein in cheese, pepsin in our stomachs, and many other Fig. 91. AUTOMATIC LOW-PRESSURE AIR PUMP FOR THE DISTILLATION OF UNSTABLE SUBSTANCES IN THE HYDRO-CARBONS. compounds, all of them extremely familiar. That is, no chemist attempts to say how the molecules of these substances come together, although the Elements concerned are usually Hydro- gen, Nitrogen, Carbon, Oxygen and sometimes Sulphur, as Carbon in the Albuminoids* 244 THE FIRESIDE ONJVERSITY, CHEMISTRY. 245 Why are the glass tubes of the laboratory so full of bulbs ? The bulb offers more surface, on which the vapors (or gases) • that rise in the tube may precipitate and turn to liquid. Name some of the Carbon groups that are fully theorized. The Hydro-Carbons are the parent forms of all the Carbon compounds that are to follow, and they are themselves divided into many series, say fifteen in number. India-Rubber is a pure Hydro-Carbon. There is the marsh-gas (Methane) or Paraffin series; the define or oily series; the Acetylene series; the Terpene series (the essential feature of Turpentine, Lemons, Oranges, etc ); the Benzene series of Benzene, Naphthalene, Anthracene, etc., in which theory carries the molecule to a ring of Carbon atoms with arms of Hydrogen atoms (Benzine), or two circles of Carbon atoms in a large ring of Hydrogen atoms (Naphthalene), or even still more complex forms. The Benzenes and Naphthalenes are themselves divided into many series. All these Hydro-Carbons are used by nature to make the other and following groups in Organic Chemistry. • Na7ne some of the Carbon groups that have their descent from a union with Hydro-Carbon molecules. First in popular interest are the Alcohols, of which there are Fig. 93. APPARATUS TO FIND THE QUANTITY O F ALCOHOL IN BEVERAGES, ETC. many families. An Alcohol is usually fluid, but may be a crys- talline solid. It is often an oil. It is often made by the action 246 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. of an atom of Oxygen and an atom of Hydrogen, acting together in one molecule as an acid Radicle — that is .OH, or Hydroxyl — on another molecule of Hydrogen and Carbon. The Alcohol we buy at the drug-store is a union of two atoms of Carbon, five atoms of Hydrogen, with the outside Radicle molecule of one atom each of Oxygen and Hydrogen. There is a huge number of Oxygen Alcohols, and as Sulphur, Selenium and Tellurium will form Radicles with Hydrogen, there may be three more families — Sulphur, Selenium and Tellurium Alco- hols. Sugar, as we said, is classed as a Polyvalent Alcohol. What are Ethers ? A second great group. They are derived from all four of the families of Alcohols, and also from the four Halogens or salt- makers — Chlorine, Bromine, Fluorine, and Iodine. Instead of the Radicle molecule that is in the Alcohol, we have two atoms either of Oxygen, Sulphur, Selenium, or Tellurium. What are Aldehydes ? A third great group, made from at least eleven of the primary Alcohols, and to be made from all. Two atoms of Hydrogen are withdrawn from the main or stem-molecule of Alcohol, leav- ing the Radicle molecule still clinging. It is an Aldehyde that gives the aroma to Cinnamon, Cassia, Benzoin and other odor- ous things. What are the Ketones ? A third great group, called after the Greek name for Whale. They are made from the Aldehydes, with certain changes in the subsidiary molecules or Radicles. With one of the Ketones, Methyl-Phenyl-Ketone, by the action of Nitric Acid, Soda-Lime and Zinc-dust, the chemists make Indigo-blue (Aniline). What are the Organic Acids? A fourth great group, in which is Vinegar, or Acetic Acid. We have shown, in a previous chapter, how Vinegar is made from common Alcohol. Each of the Organic Acids may be made from some one of the Alcohols. Two atoms of Hydrogen are taken away and one atom of Oxygen joins the new molecule. CHEMISTRY. 247 What are the Anhydrides and Acid Halides? A fifth great group, related to the Organic Acids as Ethers are to Alcohols. All Oxygen acids were first known as Anhydrides. Anhydrides are the Ethers of Acid Radicles. An Anhydride is often a heated Organic Acid. Add water to an Anhydride and it becomes an Organic Acid. The Acid Halides are the Organic Acids in which atoms of the Halogens or salt- producers, that is, Bromine, Chlorine, Fluorine and Iodine, are concerned. What are the Ethereal Salts ? A sixth great group of the Carbon Compounds. Any acid. Organic or Inorganic, Carbon or non-Carbon, may combine with Alcohols so as to form Ethereal Salts. Ethereal Salts may be normal or acid.' Many Acids form Ethereal Salts by seeking the little sub-molecule that attaches to the Alcohol molecule. The theory of the Ethereal Salt molecule represents it as very com- plex, although only three Elements enter into it. Their atoms form rings, or squares, or cubes with certain atoms as centres, or certain layers. Nature forms the greater number of these Ethereal Salts. Name some Ethereal Salts that are well known. The oil of wintergreen owes its fragrance to a four-layered molecule which makes Methyl-Salicylate. The Oleins, Palmitins and Stearins are all Ethereal Salts of Glycerin. You will best understand what Glycerin is by remembering the old name of Glucose — that is, Glycose, and you know what Glucose is. (See Sugar.) Glycerine is a highly important chemical. The Glu- cosides are Ethereal Salts, and they are contained in many of the vegetable coloring-matters, like Madder. What we know as Vanilla is a Glucoside, or Ethereal Salt. What are Orgajio-Metallic Bodies ? A seventh group of the Carbons that descend from the Hydro- Carbons. There are twenty-nine of these bodies known. They are not merely Organic or Carbon compounds that contain mineral Elements, but the Hydro-Carbon sub-molecule or Radi- cle must directly hold the metal atom, and not be connected merely by a chain of other atoms. The molecule of Zinc Ethide, 248 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. an example of Organo-Metallic bodies, is theorized as a row of four molecules, made of ten atoms. The last molecule is a Hydro-Carbon Radicle or molecule, and it touches the Zinc atom. Touching this chain of four molecules, but not touching the Zinc atom, are two other molecules of two atoms each of Hydrogen. These Organo-Metallic bodies serve as tools with which the chemists seek new or old results with other Elements, and are very useful. What are the Amines? An eighth group, highly important in a popular sense, because they contain the celebrated Aniline. The Amines are all deri- Fig:. 93J^. APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING THE AMMONIA IN PLANTS AND VEGETABLE EXTRACTS. vations of Ammonia, which we will speak of when we reach the Element Nitrogen. The names of these salts usually end with amine. I am partic7ilarly desirons of knowing what Aniline is. It takes its name from the Indigo-plant, which is called by the botanists hidigofera Anil. Its chemical name is Phenylamine. If we take its name to pieces we shall find phene, coal-tar, j///, an CHEMISTRY. 249 acid Radicle or sub-molecule, and airline^ a derivative of Ammonia. Aniline was first distilled from Indigo by the agency of a Potassium compound. It is found in coal tar oils. It is manu- factured on a large scale for dye- stuffs by reducing • Nitro-benzine with Iron and Vinegar, and has replaced all vegetable colors. How does Aniline look? It is a colorless, oily liquid, having a peculiar odor. Millions of dollars v/orth of this substance or its compounds are imported each year into the United States. It is united with other compounds to make all the colors with which we are acquainted. These dyes may be used for all the cloths, leathers, papers, inks, candies, cel- luloids, horn-goods, ivories, etc. What is Aniline Red? It comes in the form of Rosani- line Salts, a compound of Aniline and Toluidine (certain molecules of Carbon, Hydrogen and Nitrogen). It is the most important of all these multitudinous dyes. It makes magnificent green crystals, soluble in water, with a color varying from a beautiful cherry-red to a crimson. The number of possible Aniline Reds is beyond computation. Saffranine is an Aniline Pink, or Aniline Oxide. Are there Anili7ie Violets and Blues ? Vast numbers of them. In the name of one — Ethyliodate of Triethylrosaniline — you may take apart the compounds (of Ether, acid Radicle, Iodine and third Ether, acid Radicle, red Aniline) of which one Blue color is made. It is theorized as containing a chain of nine molecules of Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Iodine, sixty-one atoms in all, disposed in a corn- Fig. 94. WOULFF'S COLORl METER, FOR INSPECTING ANI LINE DYES. 250 THE FIRl SIDE UNIVERSITY. plex manner. The Blues are catalogued as Mauves, Hoffman's Violets and Blues, Phenyl-Rosanilines, Tolyl-Rosanilines and a great class of secret Blue colors. What are the Anilme Greens? They are classed as the Aldehyde Greens, the Iodide Greens, Iodide of Ethyl Greens and Potassic Chlorate of Ethyl Greens. The wonderful Aldehyde Green was discovered by accident, Cherpin, the chemist, being in search of a good Blue. This Green is chosen for silks. Notice the other colors. Aniline Yellows are little used in dyeing or printing cloths. The celebrated Picric Acid is used. There are several Browns and Maroons. The best Grays are still too costly. Good Blacks are not yet secured, but cotton, silk or wool, may be colored to a shade closely approaching black. In silk and wool dyeing, no mordant is needed. The largest manufactories of these won- derful combinations of molecules are in Germany. What is an Amine — such as you have named? It is a salt produced by the substitution in Ammonia of non- acid Radicles, or sub-molecules, for Hydrogen atoms — the latter are taken out. The Amines are called Compound Ammonias. When the Radicle is acid (j/) the Amine becomes an Amide. What are the Amides ? They are, as you see, related to the Amines as the Aldehydes are related to the Alcohols and the Anhydrides to the Organic Acids. They are the ninth and last group that we must notice of the great phalanx of Organic or Carbon Compounds. Define the term Organic Chemistry. If, in the taking apart of a compound, certain molecules come away together, it is held that they are not a necessary part of the larger molecule to which they clung. That larger molecule must have been organic. That is, made up of groups of atoms rather than of atoms. Thus, although Acetic Acid (of which Vinegar is a diluted state) is made of four atoms of Hydrogen, two atoms of Carbon, and two atoms of Oxygen, but one of its atoms of Hydrogen will come away and give place to an atom CHEMISTRY. 251 of metal: Again, one of the Oxygen atoms will come away with a Chlorine atom. Thus there is left a union of two atoms of Carbon, three atoms of Hydrogen and one atom of Oxygen as the inner or stable molecule. This molecule, CgHgO, is there- fore called Acetyl — that is, it is the sour Radicle of Acetic Acid, and the Acid itself is theorized as a chain of one Hydrogen, one Oxygen, clinging to that Radicle, CgHgO. This is Organic or Structural Chemistry. What is its leading characteristic , more specifically described? Organic Chemistry is the science of Compound Radicles, and is largely made up of treatment of Radicles made of Hydrogen and Carbon. Whas is the great exception ? Cyanogen, a colorless gas composed of Nitrogen and Carbon, called Cyanogen, because it makes blue, discovered by Gay- Lussac, of Paris, in 1815. He isolated the substance, and thereby found the first compound Radicle. This extremely poisonous molecule of Carbon and Nitrogen has a sign of its own — Cy — and unites so greedily with the metals that the metallic Cyanides also have a sign — MCy. For what is Cyanogen most notable ? For its uses in extracting gold from its ores and other sur- roundings- The Metallic Cyanides of Iron and Potassium are very important. Cyanogen and its compounds form a link between Organic and Inorganic Chemistry. Proceed to the other great branch of Chemistry. Of course, there is no other branch of Chemistry after the whole history of Carbon has been given, but the mind con- veniently divides the subject at the point where substances are to be studied without reference to Carbon or to Hydro-Carbons, or to Hydroxlys — that is, as we have shown, Hydrogen and Oxygen in a sour Radicle. What is Nitrogen ? Nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, incondensable gas. that constitutes four-fifths of the air we breathe. Air is not a compound of Nitrogen and Oxygen, but a mixture, like salt and 252 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. tissues. pepper mixed. Nitrogen is necessary to all animal and vegetable It therefore becomes one of the most useful commercial products, and yet it is necessary to obtain it or its useful com- pounds rather from the out- worn processes of nature than from the free air in which it forms the chief Element. The fertilizers which are exported from America each year rapidly approach the ten million dollar generally called Nitrates, thus Fig. 95. A NITROGEN BULB. mark in value. They expressing their origin. are .Fig. 96. APPARATUS FOR QUICK ANALYSIS OF AIR, ETC. What is Nitro-glycerin ? It is the fluid which is soaked into sticks of earth and called CHEMISTRY, 253 dynamite, or other blasting preparations of the kind. It is a Carbon-Oxygen-Hydrogen compound, into whose molecule a Radicle molecule of Nitrogen-Oxy- gen has been introduced. It is made by dropping glycerin into very cold Sulphuric and Nitric Acids mixed. The mixture is put into water, and the Nitro-glycerin set- tles. It is the most effective blasting preparation in general use. Nobel, who invented the means of using it, died at San Remo, Italy^ in December, 1896. What is Ammonia ? It is a pungent gas, the Nitride of Hydrogen. We see it as Aqua Ammoniae, and we smell it in many decomposing substances. It was named at the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, in Libya, where it was made in the camel stables, ages ago, when the god Amen was the deity of the chief city of Egypt. Fig. 97. SCHELLBACHSAPPARA- TUSi■OBMEASURI^'G NITROGEN IN GUN COTTON AND OTHER EXPLOSIVES. Fi^. 98. APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF AMMONIA. 254 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. For what is Ammonia celebrated in Chemistry, aside from its value as a fertilizer ? It is the base of the Amines, which we have described. In :he Ammonia, one atom of Nitrogen remains stable while the chree atoms of Hydrogen are variously played upon by Hydro- Carbon Radicles. In the great Aniline group, the base was a double molecule of Ammonia, toward which a molecule of six Carbons and one Hydrogen approached, whereupon two of the Hydrogens in the Ammonia left their own molecule and saturated into the new comer3 and all fifteen of the atoms, thus organized became one molecule which would now act as a base for all the dyestuffs. How are the Nitrates of Coinnierce prepared? By the boiling of animal tissues, the waste of the slaughter- houses. The product is dried like malt, and sold by the ton. It is deplored by the scientists that the fertility of the United Fig. APPARATUS FOR ANALYZING THE SOIL. States is slowly but surely being sapped by the cities. One of the most eloquent passages of Victor Hugo recounts how Rome first cast Europe, then cast Asia, then cast Africa into her great sewer, and brought on the dark ages. What is Oxygen ? The most important of the Elements in a physical sense, because it is the most abundant. It is the chief part, by weight, in water* It is a fifth of the air. It unites with ali the other CHEMISTRY. 265 Elements, but never Fig. 100. WOULFF'S BOT- TLE, FOR MAKING OXYGEN. Fig. 101. M'Lbod's AIR Gacge, for Meastjrikg Pres- sure DOWN to One Ten Millionth in more than five ways. It was first isolated by Priestly, in 1774. It was called Oxygen, sour-maker^ because it was then believed that all acids must have Oxygen. What is Ozone ? Under the action of Electricity, Oxy- gen contracts in volume, and its mole- cules, instead of holding two atoms, as in a natural state, hold three atoms. This substance is Ozone, which has an unpleasant smell, and may be noted in the open air after a thunder shower. Ozone has, at times, been regarded with favor as a health-giving gas. But pure Ozone has never been isolated. What is Water ? It is a union of two parts of Hydrogen and one part of Oxygen. These are highly expanded gases, while Water is a very substantial liquid. When the two gases are brought together at an ordinary temperature, they do not unite, but the introduction of great sudden heat will cause them to unite with explosion, and the '^ ashes ^' will be water — of course, only a little water, considering the great bulk of the gases that made the Water. When the Water is heated into gas, it has only two-thirds the vol- ume of the previous mixture of two gases. It was at first believed that Water was eight parts Hydrogen and one part Oxygen. For what is Water remarkable ? It is a neutral compound, and yet there are few substances that are not dissolved by it. It is easily boiled, and expands into sixteen hundred volumes as steam. Underpressure, the boiling- 256 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. point is reached at a much lower mark than 212 degrees, and its readiness to serve the engineer in steam-boilers was the cause of so many explosions before its characteristics were understood. It will absorb more heat than any other substance, and there- fore furnishes the standard of heat-units. When a substance will not dissolve in water, it is tasteless. It expands as it gets cold, then contracts, then expands, as ice. It is a pale blue in color. The abundance of Water, and its usefulness in the laboratory, have perhaps made Chemistry as an advanced science possible. Is all Water alike f Yes. Water from any spring, from the ocean, or from the most distant part of the earth may be cleared of its impurities, and readily furnishes the chemist or the druggist with aquapura — pure water in molecules of HgO. The ocean is the prime Fig 102 A DISTILLERY FOR WATER. source. Vapor is constantly rising and the vapor is precipi- tated over the earth. Eight-elevenths of the Water returns to the ocean through rivers. It has a chemical sign beside H^O. It is Aq. What is Hydroge7i ? Hydrogen is a gas. It is the lightest of the Elements, and therefore the stajidard of their weight. It is named Hydrogen, the Water-maker. When Cavendish discovered and isolated it, in 1776, he called it Inflammable Air. It burns in the free state in volcanoes, in the Sun, the Stars and the Nebulae. It is the CHEMISTRY. 257 base of all acids — that is, all acids are salts of Hydrogen, but all acids are desirous to give up their Hydrogen for a metal. We Fig. 103. APPARATUS FOR MEASURING VOLUME OF HYDROGEN. say it is the base of all acids, but we are without an acid with which to make the first salt — the beginning of the system. The acids are innumerable, and there are atoms of Hydrogen in each of them. Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, Sulphur, Cyanogen (NH), Fluorine, and other Elements may take the place of Oxygen, so that Hydrogen has pushed Oxygen out of its place as the ^^acid-maker.'^ We have already shown the importance of the Hydro-Carbon molecules. What are the Halogens ? Chlorine, Fluorine, Bromine and Iodine. (See Salt.) They are the Salt-Producers. Fluorine has not been isolated. Bromine is a red liquid. Iodine is a black, crystalline solid. Chlorine, as we have said, is a green gas. It comes into market in copper cylinders, and under pressure as a liquid. These four Elements are always grouped together^ and where a Radicle will cling to the molecules of one of them, it will cling to all. The metallic crystals are alike. 258 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. For what is Chlorine famous ? It is in table salt. It is in the Gold compound that has been taken as a specific cure by alcoholic invalids all over the world. It is in Chloroform (Formic acid is from red ants) ^ the vv^onder- ful anaesthetic or pain-killer. It is used in making gelatine. It Fig. 104. KAEHLER'S GAS GENERATOR, FOR MAKING CHLORINE. is in Chlorate of Potash, used in matches. The Chlorides of Silver, Sulphur and Zinc are in daily use. Chloride of Lime is bleaching powder. It is a leading disinfectant. Hydrochloric acid, as now used in the arts, is a bye-product of the alkali manufactories. The gas once escaped in the air and blighted surrounding vegetation, but laws were passed to stop this, with the result of compelling.better economies. Our salt, our matches, our clothes, all our paper, our medicines (including Chloral — from Chlorine and Alcohol), some of our foods, and many of our implements and ornaments owe their existence more or less directly to Chlorine. It was isolated by Scheele in 1774. What of Iodine ? It was named from a Greek word for violet-colored, because CHEMISTRY, 259 of the appearance of its vapor. Its chief use commercially is as Methyl-Iodide, in the production of Aniline dyes. The photogra- phers use it with Cadmium^ Potassium and Ammonia (NH3). Iodoform (CHI3) is one of the most odorous chemicals, outdoing Carbolic acid. The Iodides of Potassium, Iron and other metals are well-known medicines. What of Bromine ? It is named from bromoSy *' a bad smell." It was discovered in 1826, by Balard. There are twenty-four grains of Bromine to the gallon of ocean-water. It is prepared from the salt-springs of West Virginia and Pennsylvania by the hundreds of thousands of pounds. Its chief use is in medicine as Bromide of Potassium. The Bromides are taken at the drug-stores by people who feel '* nervous," and with Chloral, have done much to destroy health through unscientific use. Phy- sicians should always be consulted. Is Fluorine abundant ? It is widely diffused, but in small quantities. It exists in sea-water, always in teeth and bones — more in fossil bones than those of present formation. It will corrode any vessel in which it is gathered, and even glass cannot be used. It is related to Oxygen as well as to Chlorine by its effect on other Elements. What is the Sulphur group f Sulphur, Selenium and Tellurium. Their atomic weights are as though two weights of Sulphur had been taken to make Selenium, and two of Selenium to make Tellurium. What is Sulphur ? ,-.105. MACHINE FOR MEAS- r . vellow earth-like solid URiNG VOLUME OF THE ^^ ^^ ^ yeiiow earm iiKe soiia, ELEMENT FLUORiNK. coarse-grained and tasteless. It melts ''W^" ::#^^ iMiyiiilii^^ ;ii!iiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiiBiiiiMiiiiiliia CHEMISTRY. 261 into a thin liquid. At a heat of say 425 degrees Fahren- heit it gets so thick that it will not run, and is dark. At about 900 degrees it boils, producing an orange-colored vapor. It makes various crystals, and, like Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen and the other AUotropic Elements, may be the hiding-place of new Elements yet to be isolated. What is Brimstone? Brimstone is Sulphur. Brimstone is the old name, meaning burning sto7te, because this stone, or stick, set on fire like hard coal, would make a fume, and this fume would bleach cloth or straw, or would kill insects or bacteria in rooms. Animal hair Fi?. 107. APPARATUS FOR FINDING AND MEASURING SULPHUR. has 4 per cent, of this Element. The Albuminoids and all vege- table and animal cells have molecules of Sulphur. Sulphur is the predominating Element in Asafoetida, Mustard, Onions and Garlic. It is present in Eggs. Sicily, California and Louisiana are the chief commercial sources of Brimstone, or Elementary Sulphur. It is mined in tunnels and shafts sometimes 325 feet deep 262 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What does Thio mean ? Sulphur, from the Greek word theion. Sulphur. There are nine kinds of Sulphur Acid, all made of Hydrogen, Sulphur, Oxygen. In all of them two atoms of Hydrogen are used, and from one to five atoms of Sulphur join in the molecule. This presses the chemists for names, and they resort to thio. The nine Sulphur acids take the following names, the molecules with fewest atoms coming first in the list : Hyposulphurous Acid, Sulphurous Acid, Sulphuric Acid, Thiosulphuric Acid, Anhydro- sulphuric Acid, Dithionic (two Sulphur atoms) Acid, Trithionic (three) Acid, Tetrathionic (four) Acid, and Pentathionic (five) Acid. In each of the last four Acids there are six atoms of Oxygen. What are the uses of Sulphur ? The Element itself is largely used to make Sulphuric Acid, and for fifty years the scientists have claimed that the quantity of Sulphuric Acid per capita used by any nation was the best gauge of its advancement in civilization and comfort. Besides Sulphuric Acid, Sulphur is used in gunpowder; in various cements, e^specially for electrical isolation; for the vulcanization (that is, practically, the utilization) of India-rubber ; for the protection of plants threatened by insects ; in the taking of casts, etc. What is Sulphuric Acid used for ? You have its effects in all cloths and papers that have been bleached, in all brushes; in nearly all leathers. You will note its use in Sugar-making. There is no art ihat has not found itself indebted to this compound. It is used in making fertilizers, and in smelting. It has been the efficient agent of the chemist in every laboratory. How does Sulphuric Acid look? It is a dense, colorless, oily liquid known popularly as the Oil of Vitriol. It has no smell, and is nearly twice as heavy as water. Its acid taste is renowned in the adjective vitrioliCy which, in English, is usually taken to mean all that is biting and resentful. CHEMISTRY. 263 Give the uses of other Sulphur compoimds. Sulphuretted Hydrogen is used for tests in the laboratory. The Chloride of Sulphur is used in making sheet rubber. Sul- phurous Acid is a great bleaching and clarifying* agent, it being merely a weaker compound than Sulphuric Acid. Hyposulphite of Soda is used in photography and paper-making. The Sul- phates of Ammonia (Nitrogen), of Potassium, of Sodium, of Lime (Calcium), of Barium (called Barytes), of Magnesium (called Epsom Salts), and of Iron (called Copperas), as well as Gypsum (Calcium), play leading parts in the drama of our com- mercial industries. The Sulphate of Aluminium is the active ingredient in Alum, and makes the size for paper. The beauti- ful blue crystals which you associate with Electricity and all wet batteries, are Sulphate of Copper. This is blue vitriol, and the Electrotyper and all other Electrolyzers use it. In medicine, the Sulphates are often administered with the commonest medi- cines as an aid to their dissolution in the human system, and this is conspicuously true of Quinine, which is a Sulphate. What is Quinine? In the seventeenth century the wife of Count Cinchon, viceroy of Peru, was cured of intermittent fever by the bark of trees growing on the Andes, and took the medicine to Spain. There it was called Peruvian Bark and Jesuits' Bark. From this red bark a white, fleecy powder is made — the Sulphate. The method of obtaining this powder has always been kept as a chemical secret, but improving chemistry has greatly cheapened the ex- pense. The formula of our Quinine shows only one atom of Sulphur in one hundred and nine atoms, and is given as follows : (C,oH3,N,03),.H,SO,-f2H,0. That is to say that two of the combinations named in the parenthesis cling especially together; this double molecule clings very closely to the molecule with the Sulphur atom in it — HgSO^ — and there are also two molecules of water that may come or go, according to the heat, and sometimes the water increases. Quinine, under a doctor's order, is one of the best medicines that man possesses. 264 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Describe Selenium and Tellnriiim. Selenium is AUotropic or changeable, like Sulphur and Car- bon. (See Radiophone.) As a metal it would break like gray- cast iron. It was isolated in 1817 by Berzelius. Tellurium is a silver-white resplendent metal. It was isolated by Muller von Reichenstein in 1782. Both these Elements occur only in rare ores. Selenium was named after the moon and Tellurium after the earth. With Sulphur, as gases, they combine with Hydrogen as HgS, or H^Se, or HgTe, which makes a substance akin to water (H^O). All the rare metals are preserved in naphtha or petroleum. What is Phosphorus ? An Element of a light amber color, semi-transparent when first isolated. It becomes opaque, and looks like whitish wax. Pig. 107>4. MITSCHERLICH'S APPARATUS FOR THE DETERMINATION OP PHOSPHORUS. It is nevfer found pure, and is isolated only after an extended process. It emits a white smoke when exposed to the air, and takes fire at a temperature a little below blood heat. It shines CHEMISTRY. 265 in the dark. It is a virulent poison. It is AUotropic, like Car- bon, Sulphur, etc., and its commonest Allotropic form is known to us as Red Precipitate, which goes back to the whitish wax under the action of heat. It was isolated by Brand, a German alchemist, in 1678, who thought he had now discovered a sub- stance that would ''ennoble" Silver into Gold. But he had done something far more wonderful, by making Matches possible. (See Matches.) How does Nature use Phosphorus ? Always as a salt of Phosphoric Acid, which is H3PO4. These Phosphates are present in most soils, rocks, and river and spring waters. Phosphates are necessary to the life of plants and animals. In plants they are found in the sea. In animals Calcium Phosphate is the main part of the bones, and Phos- phates are an important part of the blood and tissue. How does inan use Phosphorus ? Chiefly in match-making. We also import millions of dollars' worth of phosphates for fertilizers. Phosphorus plays an important part in the manufacture of Iodide of Methyl, for Aniline dyes. Phosphorus paste, or red ointment, is a renowned destroyer of all vermin. It is mixed with flour. Medical men are giving attention to the administration of Hyphosphites — that is, Hypophosphorous Acid (HPHgO^), with a base like Sulphur, Quinine, Strychnine, Opium, etc. Acid Phosphates have become popular as tonics, on the theory that they furnish food that indoor life denies. On all these matters, the advice of a physician is at all times necessary. What is Boron ? A dark brown powder, or also a powder made of brown crys- tals which are nearly as hard as diamonds and as powerful in reflecting light. It is thus Allotropic. What is Borax ? Borax is the biborate of Sodium — NagB^O^. It is used in our households for cleansing purposes. It was once called Tincal, and came to India from Thibet, and thence to the rest of the world. It forms on the bottom of a lake in Dead Man's Land, 266 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. California, and is hauled out of that forsaken country in the largest wagons ever used, drawn by ten teams of mules. This deposit is the best borax that has been found, and can be used by assayers in its crude state. Borax is of special value in the melting and refining of ores, in glass-making and pottery. It is used as a preservative of meats, for detergent soaps and washing compounds, and as a gargle in medicines. Boracic Acid enters into the f?ncy grades of matches, and a fine lacquer for carriages and railway cars is made by the aid of Borate of Manganese. What is Silicon ? The great Element that forms the earth's crust, in rocks and sand. It was isolated by Berzelius in 1823. It is Allotropic, or changeable. It is a dull brown powder, called amorphous (without form) Silicon. It may be converted by heat into a substance like Graphite. It may also be obtained in large, beautiful iron gray needles called adainantine Silicon. Its Oxide is Silica, of which there are four kinds, and three of them, quartz, sand and opal, are well known. Silica is made into glass, paint and soap. Where a metal is added to Silica (sand) the compound becomes a Silicate. Silicon has many of the peculiarities of Carbon. Silica (sand) was considered absolutely non-volatile, until 1896. In that year M. Moissan turned it into a violet colored gas. It is proof against the action of water and ordinary mineral acids. This makes it especially valuable as a material for plaster, cement, pottery, etc. The following atoms 4Si H (OC3Hg)3 form a molecule in a compound which has a par- ticularly long name — Triethylsiliconorthoformate. Here we may espy **Three-ether sour radicle-silicon-straight-red-ant-like." The sign shows two groups of molecules — the first being four mole- cules of Silicon-Hydrogen, the second being three molecules, each having one Oxygen, three Carbons, five Hydrogen atoms. All these are organized as one greater molecule. The sign for the sand at the lake or sea shore is SiOg. There is, of course, a process in nature where Silicon becomes a gelatin, and may pass into the structures of vegetable and animal things, but the process has not yet been discovered. CHEMISTRY, 267 What is the Alkali group of Metals ? Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium, Caesium. These are white metals, which turn to gas only at high temperatures. Lithiuni gives a red color to flame ; Sodium salts an intense yellow ; and Potassium, Rubidium and Caesium a violet. Caesium has not been completely isolated, but is a liquid metal. What is the history of Lithium f It was discovered by Arfvedson in 1817. The metal was suc- cessfully prepared in 1855 by Bunsen. It weighs only six-tenths as much as water and floats in petroleum, where it must be kept, to prevent mixture with Oxygen. The Lithia salts are held in high esteem in mineral waters, and some of these springs have been famous in America for over a century. What are the uses of Sodium ? We have spoken of this Element in the Chapters on Bread, Salt, Soap and elsewhere. It is an abundant substance, but nowhere free. It is prepared commercially in cakes of metal, wrapped in paraffine paper to prevent oxidation, and packed closely in tin boxes. The process of converting salt into Soda is regarded by some chemists as the most valuable and fertile discovery of all times. It was the conception of Le Blanc, who killed himself in a workhouse at Paris. He added chalk to a sulphate and charcoal mixture, and fluxed the whole in crucibles, obtaining the Soda for which the Academy had long before offered a prize. What is Salt made iuto at the Soda factories? Into Chlorate of Soda for Aniline black colors ; into Carbonate of Soda (Soda) into salt-cake for glass and caustic Soda and black ash for soap. Washing Soda (Sal Soda) is made of crystals of Sodium, Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen. In many industrial ways the two great alkalis. Sodium and Potassium, are in close connection. We must not forget the important part that Sodium plays at our Soda fountains, which, in latter days, have risen as the most powerful rivals the dram shops have ever had. By means of the Soda fountain, the list of beverages, medicines and chemicals administered is yearly growing more voluminous. 268 I^^E FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, What is Potassium ? The more abundant and important of the two great alkalis, the other one being Sodium. All vegetables draw up into their fibres far more Potassium than Sodium, Herbs contain a larger percentage than trees. Potassium is a bluish white, soft metal, lighter than water. It is obtained in a compound form, gener- ally with Carbon, Sulphur, Chlorine and Oxygen, by running water through wood ashes and boiling down the lye into potash. This potash, or concentrated lye, may be purified into pearl ash. Wood-burning industries still flourish in Hungary for the sole purpose of making potash. We export many hundreds of thousands of pounds of pot and pearl ash. The commercial name is Potash, and Chlorate, Muriate (Chloride), Nitrate (Saltpetre) and many other forms are imported in great quanti- ties, but not as freely as the Sodas. The greatest Potash industry is at the salt wells of Stassfurt in Germany. What are the chief uses of Potassium ? For soap, for glass, for baking powder, for medicine, as a pre- servative of meats and other perishable products, for bleaching, for photo-engraving, for gunpowder and for fireworks. In soap and glass-making and baking, the connection with Sodium is very close. What will the four metals in this group do that is peculiar ? A pellet of Potassium, etc., thrown upon water at once bursts into a violet flame, and the burning metal floats upon the water without much contact. When the last remnant, through cool- ing, is wet by the water, there is an explosion. It is the Hydro- gen that burns, and the Potassium fumes that give the color. Thus water is actually decomposed. Wliat is Saltpetre ? It is a combination of one atom of Potassium, one of Nitro- gen, and three of Oxygen. These atoms come together on the surface of the earth in India and on the Chilian coast. Saltpetre is used for the making of Nitric Acid by the meat-canners and packers, by the gunpowder-makers, and the manufacturers of fireworks. CHEMISTRY. 269 What is Gunpowder ? Gunpowder is a dry mixture of about seventy-five parts Salt- petre, thirteen parts charcoal, and twelve parts Sulphur. Salt- petre holds three thousand times as much Oxygen as air of the same bulk. Sudden heat liberates this Oxygen, it combines with the Carbon in the Charcoal to make carbonic acid and other gases, while the Potassium in the Saltpetre, having served its purpose, drops back after the explosion, into the residue or ashes. This mixture practically put an end to walled cities, and gave Europe the control of Asia and America. What Potassiums are used in Photography ? The Iodide and the Bromide. The Iodide is the great medicine which eliminates Mercury from the human system, and attacks skin diseases. Potassium is in Prussic Acid, Oxalic acid, the Cream of Tartar of our baking powders; in the Sulphates; in many paints and colors. What are the uses of Chlorate of Potassium ? It is the great agent of the artillerists, the match-makers, and the pyrotechnists or makers of fireworks. The salt is perma- nent when exposed to the air. Mixed with combustibles, it serves as a store of highly condensed Oxygen atoms, and on their liberation and expansion heat must rapidly develop. What is to be further said of Ccesium and Rubidium ? These metals, completing the group, are treated with Potassium in the books. Caesium is remarkable as being the most positive in its Electrical action of all the Elements. Both Caesium and Rubidium were discovered by Kirchoff and Bunsen, in 1860-1, by the Spectroscope. Rubidium and Caesium are separated with the greatest difficulty, and their molecules are present in sea water. Pass now to the Metals of the Alkaline Earths. In this group of the seventy-five or more Elements are Calcium, Strontium and Barium. Of these 3^ou hear much of Calcium and Barium. In Calcimine, Calcine, Calc, Calcareous, and in Barytes, a material for paint, fireworks and adulterants, you may readily place the two Elements. When you see '* red 27() THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. fire/' it is the combustion of crystals formed of one atom of Strontium, two of Sodium and ten of Oxygen. Is Calcium an important Element ? Yes. The people deal with it familiarly as lime in its countless uses, but chiefly as a part of the leading cement of the world, whereby all brick and stone walls are made. It is a leading component of our glassware. Lime is the Oxide of Calcium. Calcium is a light yellow metal, softer than gold, and very ductile. It is one of the chief Elements of the solid earth. These three Elements, like the group that preceded, decompose water, and drive or let off the Hydrogen, but less readily. They burn with the greatest brilliancy when ignited in air. The Calcium light of our boyhood days was the precursor of the Electric light. The Calcium light now bids fair to come back to us, as one of the great factories at Niagara Falls is making Calcium Carbide for Acetylene gas. Strontium is a deeper yellow metal, and Barium is supposed to closely resemble it. What is the Magnesium Group ? Glucinum, Magnesium, Zinc, Cadmium and Mercury. Gluci- num was called Beryllium, because it was discovered in the beryl and emerald. Glucinum is from a Greek word for sweet. How is the Emerald crystal made ? It is theorized as a molecule of three Glucinum and three Oxygen atoms, clinging to a molecule of two Aluminium and three Oxygen atoms, and these cling to a larger molecule of six Silicon and twelve Oxygen atoms, the latter themselves organ- ized. Glucinum is closely related to Zinc and Mercury. It is a white malleable metal. It was isolated in 1798 by Vaquelin. What is Zinc ? A rather hard bluish white metal now well known to the people, but once only known in its Carbonate, called Calamine stone. It was used in the making of brass, and largely for brass jewelry. It was called Spelter, but Pewter was a compound of other metals. The Chinese sent Zinc to India, and thence it reached England. We know it best in the household on account of the ZinC'board under our stoves, the lining of our bath-tubs, CHEMISTRY, 271 our so-called Galvanized wires, which are merely dipped in Zinc, and our hot-water boilers. But it forms one-third of the material for all our pins (with Copper). Zinc is an important part of the shining brass which enters more and more into the handsome trimmings of our doors and windows, our faucets, and the orna- ments of machinery, although Nickel has become a substitute for stove decoration, and in other ways. Zinc has served as the basis of most of the newspaper pictures. It is a good metal for casts. What is White Zinc ? It is the Oxide. This has come into great use as a substitute or adulterant of White Lead, the main pigment of civilization. It does not cover so well as White Lead paint, but it is not poisonous, and does not discolor in the Sulphurous atmosphere of a city. The Zinc we see is not so pure as the Element Zinc, yet there is no great difference. What is Cadmium ? It is an Element usually present with commercial Zinc, but improves the metallic compound. Both Zinc and Cadmium with Magnesium are bluish white metals which will shine in dry air, but in moist air gather the greasy film familiar on the sur- face of Zinc, which is a thin Oxide. What is Magnesium ? It is a metal more like Silver than its fellow-metals. In its Oxide, which we call Magnesia, it is disseminated throughout nature, in earth, rocks and water, forming one of the materials without which life would cease. Pure Magnesium, before the days of the Electric light, was sold in ribbons or wires, for the purpose of furnishing a brilliant light. The wire might be lit in a candle-flame, and would then burn by itself. How do we best know Magnesium ? At the drug-store, for our physicians use it as a leading therapeutic agent. Epsom Salts, Citrate of Magnesia, and other compounds are still used as anti-acids or as purgatives of more or less force, as required. Magnesia has been used largely in dealing with the troubles of infancy. 272 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY What are the important Silicates of Magnesium ? Asbestos and Meerschaum. There are mountain masses of various Silicates. Asbestos, as we see it in our gas-grates, is the name of a group of the Hornblende family of mineral rocks, and usually contains Magnesia, Alumina, Silica and Oxide of Iron. The molecule of Meerschaum is extremely complex, and various theories exist in regard to it. / desire to hioiv more about Asbestos. The greatest mines are in Canada, in the eastern part of Quebec. One twenty-fifth of the rock quarried is Asbestos. The mineral wool is taken to the United States in train loads. The stuff is fed into a stone process grinding mill. After it is ground or crushed, it is separated into long and short fibres. The short fibres go to the pulp mill, where they are ground fine for packing around steam pistons, hot pipes, valves, etc. The lono^ fibres are spun into yarn, like wool. The cloth from this yarn has a soapy or greasy feel. Theatre curtains may be made of this cloth. Asbestos is put in vulcanized rubber and used as an insulator. No acid will act on it, therefore the chemist uses it all the time. What is Mercury ? The last and most important metal of the group we are pass- ing in review. We often call it Quicksilver. The older nations following the Greeks, called it Silver Water, hence its chemical name Hydrargyrum. Our household use of Mercury was once • on our looking-glasses, and is nov/ in our thermometers, and in our Calomel and Blue Pill, our Corrosive Sublimate, and our red paint called Cinnabar. Mercury has been one of the three great sources of red colors for ages, and the Cinnabar (Ver- milion) mines of Spain are the oldest works of the mining order in existence. Calomel is a compound of Mercury and Chlorine. Cinnabar is a union of Sulphur and Mercury. Tin was mixed with Mercury for the backs of mirrors before the Silver process was used. Why do we call it Quicksilver ? Because the Latins named it Live Silver — argcntum vivum. It is a fluid, as you know, of great weight, and its globules, in CHEMISTRY. 273 seeking the lowest place, when they were spilled, acted as if they were alive. Quick was an old English synonym of the word alive. What great Jtses J or Mereury outside of the household can you naine ? Its chief use is probably in extracting Gold at the mines. The vacuum-pumps where glass-bulbs are sealed are worked with Mercury. Fulminate of Mercury is the explosive by which dynamite and other blasts are fired. Good clocks swing Mercury pendulums. There are unnumbered uses in the laboratory. Why are Copper^ Silver and Gold grouped? Because they bear certain relations to the Alkali rnetals, best seen in Silver. These three Elements are the ones that man first held in high esteem, nor does he yet cease to value them highly. What is Copper ? A beautiful red metal, of great Electrical conductivity, of great ductility and tenacity. It is not dissolved by water, and does not oxidize in the air. It was the first metal known to man, and with tin formed the bronze which enabled our race to rise above the Stone Age. The Electric Age has given it an increased value, as the trolley wire and the armature of the Dynamo testify. (See Electricity.) What are its other uses ? Sheets of copper frequently underlie the nickel and silver polish of our household utensils. The tin tea-kettle has a copper fire-bottom, and many stove-vessels have flat copper bottoms. Two-thirds of the inside metal in all our pins is copper, the other third being zinc. The cent in our pockets is copper, and the rnoney of China is largely copper. The gasolier is usually of copper. The blue light at the drug-store is cast by a copper solution in a bottle. The hot-water tank or boiler in the city kitchen is often of copper. But the great and striking use is in the manufactories where liquids are boiled, whether it be sugar- cane juice, beets, malt, corn, starch, — stills, condensers, neu- tralizers, boilers, vacuum-pans, milk-vats — all are shining copper, because of the fair degree of neutrality of the copper molecules. Ships are bottomed with copper-plates. • 18 274 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, What is the Copper Half-tone ? A photograph transferred to a plate of Copper, and also further engraved by hand, which prints with photographic effect. The Copper-plates thus taken of the World's Fair of 1893 ^^<^ its exhibits, might be measured by the square mile. The making of these pictures has lowered the price of some of the magazines, and the people are now offered ideas of the draw- ing and lights of the celebrated paintings of the world, and of city and landscape scenes that were formerly possessed only by travelers. What are the great Copper cJiemicals ? The Acetate of Copper, or Verdigris, is made like white lead. It is used as a pigment, both in water and oil painting and also for dyes. Carbonate of Copper furnishes the paints called Verditer, Bremen Blue and Bremen Green. Sulphate of Copper is Blue Vitriol, which you may see in an Electric battery. It is also used in calico-printing and silver mining. Copper and Arsenic give the mineral greens, and are very poisonous. Black, red and yellow may also be produced easily. It is the Blue Vitriol that the chemists usually choose as a basis from which to secure other Copper Compounds. What is Silver ? ' ■ Silver is a beautiful white metal, harder than Gold, but softer than Copper. It forms the coined money of every-day life in all the nations west of Asia, and is rapidly coming into the same use- fulness there. 'It was known to man and used as money at an early date in the Bronze Age, although for a thousand years it was cut and weighed in balances by the shekel and maneh. In our coins it is alloyed with one-tenth of Copper. It has greatly cheapened in price during the past three decades. Why do we say Silver-plate ? Because the early method of uniting Silver on Copper was by coating an ingot of Copper with Borax and laying an ingot of Silver on top. The two ingots were then heated, and the Borax, as a flux, fused the two metals, and they were then rolled out into sheets of Silver on one side and Copper on the other. The CHEMISTRY. 275 process of Electrolysis, or Electro-plating displaced the old plate-making, and " Silver plate " is not now-a-days necessarily such in fact. Three-fourths of the Silver is used in the house- hold, for spoons, ornaments, watches, etc. What are the Silver ehemieals ? The Silver Haloids (Iodine, Bromine, Chlorine, etc.) are re- markable on account of their sensitiveness to light. Hence Silver is the chief Element in the Photographer's gallery. In- delible ink was first made with Silver. Lunar caustic, hair dyes, and fulminates are made from Silver. How are Looking-Glasscs made? The process was once one in which Quicksilver (Mercury) was the leading material for coating the glass, but Silver has entirely replaced Mercury, and now-a-days there is no menace to health in the factories where mirrors are made. What is Gold? Gold is a yellow metal of great weight, but not hard enough in its pure state for the making of coin. It is composed of fine molecules which cling together with the greatest tenacity known, so that a gold wire may be drawn out to almost incredible length. Gold is impervious to the atmosphere, and can only be turned into vapor with great and continued heat, many scientists having lived and died in the belief that continued fusion did not lessen the volume of gold in the crucible. It may be dissipated, when in gold leaf, by a heavy charge of Electricity. It crystallizes in various forms and colors, and possesses a per- plexing Allotropic character, when its otherwise apparent purity and homogeneity are considered. How it takes its various colors without mixture with the coloring matter has not been theorized. Hence chemists are still in hopes of gold-making discoveries. What is the history of Gold? Gold was not probably known until after the discovery and isolation of Copper, Tin and Iron. It was not used as money, or perhaps even known in the early cities of Shinar, or in the hills at Nineveh. The Egyptians "cupelled " it, as is done to- day. It has been reckoned as the most preciows of posse«sio«« 276 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. for the better part of 5,000 years, and during the last thirty years has been adopted as the standard of value by over half the world's population, following the lead of Great Britain, early in the nineteenth century. The gold standard was fully adopted by Congress and President Harrison in July, 1890, when Silver was bought by the Government at the bullion price in Gold in London, The discovery of new supplies of Gold has not met the new demands, although one of the greatest speculations of modern times has recently gone forward in South African mines, where the Cyanide process has reduced the cost of extraction, and considerable quantities have been found on the Klondike River in Alaska. Hozv do tJie mining experts guess so nearly to the value of gold and silver-bearing roek ? Here is one of their formulas : Let W represent the specific gravity of the specimen in air; A, the same in water; D, the difference in ounces or fractions; B, the known specific gravity of the metal (varying according to circumstances from 15.6 to 19.34); C, the known specific gravity of the gangue (ore, quartz, rock), namely, if SiOg, it equals 2.65. Now, with these capital letters thus defined, WB minus BCD divided by B minus C, equals the ounces in gold in a ton of the gangue. What are the Gold eheniieals ? They are practically all in the Halogens (Iodine, Chlorine. Bromine, etc.), or in their compounds. Gold makes an ex- plosive. The statement of Dr. Keeley, of the little town of Dwight, 111., made about 1888, that by a double Chloride of Gold, injected in the blood of a patient, he could overcome the periodic desire of the subject for alcoholic drink, probablv marked one of the most interesting ethnological episodes in history. A molecule of Potassium and Chlorine, one atom each, may be united to a molecule of Gold and Chlorine, the latter molecule containing three atoms of Chlorine. If the Potassium be taken away, we have left the medicine, or the analogue of tlie secret medicine, which Dr. Keeley administered. Not only did the town of Dwight serve as a sanitarium for hundreds of thousands of patients — coming from the most gifted classes of CHEMISTRY. 377 the people, but branches of the Gold Cure were established in every State, laws we're passed encouraging the Cure, and imitatory hospitals were set up all over the world. What metals compose the Lead Group ? Lead and Thallium. Lead is one of the most important of the Elements, although like Mercury and Copper, it is a poison. Its greatest use is for water pipes, because water, the great dissolvent, makes no inroads on the walls of Lead. Its next great use is for paint, as White Lead— the Carbonate. It is used in glass-making. White Lead is the be-all and end-all of the paint we buy and use. Again, war has made '^the leaden messenger of death ^^ a theme of poets and historians. But though Lead have brought death with its bullets, it has also with its printing-types brought light, and the invention of type- casting machines to take the places of type-setters has only enlarged the uses to which Lead may be put. How is Lead-Pipe made ? It may be rolled by rollers around a core or mandrel ; or it may be squeezed out of an annular hole in a hydrostatic press, as macaroni tubes are made. The latter method is most rapid, and makes a continuous coil. All houses in cities are served with Lead pipe out to the iron water-pipe in the street. What are the principal Lead compoiinds ? In type, Lead, Copper and Antimony. In shot and bullets, Lead and Arsenic. In paint, Lead and Carbon, or Oxygen as in Minium (Red Lead). White Lead is made by Carbonizing sheets of Lead in Vinegar pots under heaps of tan-bark. Lead, as a solder is extremely ancient, and is yet used in stone and Iron work, as the most reliable Element through which protec- tion may be gained against the tooth of time. In cemeteries, we may see that the most enduring tombs have been constructed of polished granite with obtruding seams of Lead. Thus frost can obtain no leverage among the molecules. The tinner's solder is a compound of Tin and Lead. Stereotype plates are made with Lead, Antimony and Bismuth. 278 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What is Litharge? Litharge, as well as the commercial '^ Massicot/^ is the scum of melting good Lead. Out of Litharge the Lead medicines are usually made. Sugar of Lead is a valuable application, with Opium, on skin eruptions of a liery and spreading order, like erysipelas. Lead is mined all over the world. WJiat is Thallium ? It was isolated by Professor Crookes, of the Crookes tubes, in 1862. It looks like Zinc, but is even softer than Lead. It is also heavier than Lead. It exists in small quantity in a rare and wonderful ore called Crooksite, found in Sweden. This ore is formed of Selenium, Copper, Silver and Thallium. In the Spectrum, Thallium shows but a single line. What is Aluminium ? A very light, very hard, steel-like. Silvery metal, found to be the chief constituent with Oxygen, of our common clay. Alumina would be pure clay, without Silica, and pure clay would be the mineral Sapphire. Aluminium has created as much interest as the X Ray. It was once dearer than Gold, and only after the invention of the commercial Dynamo and by Electrical means, could the metal be forced from its seat in the blueclay which we behold on every hand. Works are established at Niagara Falls, and Aluminium increases in use, although the household sees it only in medals, ornaments and knick-knacks. The steel-makers use it in steel. Cash-registers, mine-chains, war vessels and flying machines deal with it. How is Almninium extracted from clay ? A crucible is made of Carbon blocks, with a bottom tap-hole. This crucible is filled with pieces of clay. An enormous Carbon candle or Electrode is lowered into the mass and a current of 14,000 amperes, 30 volts, 1,500,000 watts (see Electricity) is sent from the candle through the crucible. That is, a monster arc light is set up. Chunks of Copper are put in the clay as aiding negative Electrodes. Under this heat the Aluminium separates, and may be tapped out four hundred pounds a day. Poison- ous gases pour from the chimneys, as from the Soda factories. CHEMISTRY. 279 What is Lidiinn ? It is a white, heavy metal, always associated with Zinc, closely allied with Aluminium in nature, discovered as late as 1863. Reich and Richter were searching for Thallium with the spec- troscope when they saw a new Indigo blue line. So they named the Element Indium when they found it, as Indigo gets its name through the Latin languages from India, whence it came. What is the Iro7i Group ? Chromium, Manganese, Iron, Cobalt and Nickel. As you will observe by their names, none of them is new save Chromium. They are closely related. What is Iron ? Our most useful metal. Man and his history are best studied in Ages — the rough Stone Age, the hewn Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, The latter, like the Stone Age, may be divided into two chapters, the invention of the steam engine by Watt marking the last and greatest change in the condition of man. Why is Iron so use fid ? Because it can be fused and welded into innumerable shapes. With tempering or with mere return to ordinary temperature, it becomes an adamant, the strongest of our Elementary sub- stances, and also the tool by which nearly all of them maybe wrought into shape. Our machines are nearly all of Iron, and eighty per cent, of the work of the world is done by Iron arms. Our horses are made of Iron. Our ships are Iron. Our bridges are Iron. At last, our buildings are Iron, and the era when man's constructive toil shall be at end bids soon to dawn. What is Steel? Iron and Carbon with other Elements like Aluminium in some small proportion. In the Bessemer process an astonishing Converter is used — an open mortar or vast cannon out of which a shaft of fiery air is blown from the fused metal inside. In this way a portion of the Carbon is burned out. 280 ^^^ FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY WJmt is the chemical use of Iron ? It is a noble medicine, imparting the red essential to our blood. Some forty or more Iron compounds are used by the physicians. In most of the conditions where the patient is too white, relief should be found in this great tonic, although only through the advice of a physician, as Iron might serve to in- crease heat and inflammation, thus shortening life. Fear of harming the teeth and alarm from the discoloration of ingested matter are exaggerated by the people. What is Chromium ? It is an Allotropic metal, having three Elementary conditions ^a gray powder, shining crystals, and a very hard steel gray metal. It was named from the Greek chroma, color. The English word chrome asserts the presence of Chromium in all the ores called chromes, found in so many parts of the United States. What are the Chromium paints ? Lead Chromate is a great red. The sixth Oxide of Chromium is a valuable green, used on our bank-notes, and in glass-stain- ing. Emerald greens are Hydrates of Chromium. Guignet's Green is a Borate of Chromium. Plessy's Green is a Phosphate of Chromium. It is one of the colors used in pink chinaware. To zvhat other uses is Chromium put? The calico-printers use it, and it bleaches tallow and palm oil. Chromeisen, that is. Chrome-iron, will cut glass. The Bichro- mate is used by photographers, chemists and Electricians. Chromium glue repairs broken glass or porcelain vessels of value, as water will not dissolve it. What is Manganese ? A soft, brittle, grayish white metal, very useful in affording a method of liberating Chlorine from its common compounds. In its union with Potassium, Manganese offers the most chameleon-like phenomena, and was called '^the chameleon mineral " by the ancients. Here we may have an intensely green mass. An acid will turn it intensely purple. An alkali will re- convert it to green. Putin Chlorine, and purple fluid maybe CHEMISTRY. 281 secured, which will make black crystals, with green or blueish hue. Grind them, and the powder is red. A grain of this powder will color all the water of a great vessel. Add an acid to the purple mixture and it becomes pink. WJiat does Per mean ? /'tv^manganate or /^roxide means the greatest number of atoms of Manganese or Oxygen used in any Manganese or Oxy- gen compound. What uses is Manganese put to ? Is is a noted disinfectant, because it oxidizes so many sub- stances, and it is a tool in the laboratory for the oxidization of any Element, and the measure of its complete oxidization. It is a tonic medicine. Where is it found f It usually is in company with Iron, Calcium and Magnesium, and is as widely diffused over the earth as its companions. The deep sea expedition of the ship "ChallengeP^ brought back Man- ganese nodules scraped from the bottom of the ocean. These cover large areas of the ocean's bed. What is Cobalt ? It is a heavy, steel gray metal with a reddish tint, taking a high lustre in polishing. The German name Kobold^ applied to the original mineral, by the miners, signified evil spirit or bad lucky as the Cobalt was often found where Silver ore was desired. For what is Cobalt famous ? In 1540, Scheurer found that the Oxide of Cobalt would color glass, and until then it was supposed to be useless. Where you see a sign-board with a shining-blue background, which sparkles like so many snow crystals, you see the painter's ^;;2^//j-. To make this. Silica and Carbonate of Potassium with Cobalt Oxide are fused into glass, the glass is ground into powder between granite mill-stones, and mixed with paint-vehicles. You note the beauty of such sign-board backgrounds, long after their surroundings have faded, and it is possible that the vitreous Cobalt blue is the only color of its hue that does not rapidly 282 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. change or fade under the influence of light and air. Cobalt is the blue of nearly all porcelain. It was once the main color used for blue wall papers. What is Nickel ? This, like Aluminium, is another of the great metals of our modern life. It is a shining white Element, very heavy, very hard, and rather more impervious to the action of air than Silver. It was isolated by Cronsted in 1751, who named it from goblin-copper — Kupfer-nickel — that is. Old Nick's Copper, or the devil's copper, false in performance of promise. In America, it made the acquaintance of the people in the Eagle Cent of 1857. And yet it was not until 1879 that Fleitman, by adding Magnesium to his molten Nickel, was able to roll it out with Iron in a fused sheet, as Silver and Copper were once rolled. Nickel vessels are thus made in England. But already, in the United States, a decade earlier, our Electrolyzers (see Electro- lysis) had put the Galvanic Battery at work on the lines of Bottcher in 1848, and given to the stoves of our households and stores, the gleaming ornaments that now generally adorn them. Nickel-plate was so popular, that a great railroad undertaking was so named as an advertisement, and the plumbers and house hardware-furnishers at once made the most of the easy Electric union of Nickel with iron and copper. Among the household conveniences that have clearly demonstrated to us the value of Nickel-plate is the *^ student lamp." At the great iron-works, armor-plates for war-vessels are often plated with Nickel. Probably our greatest use of Nickel is on the bicycle. What is the Platinum Gj'oup ? It is composed of Ruthenium, Rhodium, Palladium, Osmium, Iridium and Platinum. . They are all white metals, and are found together, in their native molecules. Osmium is the heaviest of the Elements, and the most difficult to fuse. The international standard of length, for the measurement of the earth, adopted in 1883, is wrought of an alloy of Platinum, Iridium, Rhodium, Ruthenium and Iron. This is supposed to give a metal bar that will change the least possible amount CHEMISTRY, 283 under the ordinarily varying temperatures. All these metals make good points for gold pens. How are these Metals obtained? From a rare ore called Polyxene. There is usually a trace of Platinum in native Gold. It was the early workers in Platinum, like Wollastori, who in time determined the presence in Plati- num ore of the other heavy metals. Platinum was one of the discoveries of the Spanish sailors who came to America. What are the uses of Platmiim ? Russia coined money of Platinum, but was forced to recall the coinage, because of its fluctuating value. Liebig said that without Platinum crucibles, the -composition of most minerals Fig. 108. PLATINUM APPARATUS FOR ASSAYING PRECIOUS METALS. could not have been ascertained. Sulphuric Acid, the agent of civilization, is made most economically in a Platinum still, which costs a fortune. Every time you read by an incandescent (bulb) light, you are indebted to Platinum, for it is only by means of Platinum wire that the glass bulb can be kept from breaking. The union of Platinum and Cyanogen (NH) is interesting to Electricians and other scientists on account of its fluorescence. (See X Rays.) Platinum is still very costly. What is the Tin Grozip ? The Elements called Titanium, Zirconium and Tin form this family. Of the uses of Zirconium we shall speak in treating the Crium group, anon. 284 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What is the history of Tin ? Here we again approach one of the metals that is more ancient than the written or even the traditionary history of mankind. The metal that today serves the housewife so perfectly, protecting her iron utensils from the action of air and acids, was also the earliest means of enabling man to throw away his stone axe and knife. When Copper was found at Cypress, Tin was brought from Cornwall to mix with it into bronze. We must admire the courage of the Phoenician mer- chants who, before the days of Ulysses, sailed out of the Pilla-s of Hercules, where now Gibraltar stands, and crossed the stormy Bay of Biscay into the cold northern land to obtain the shining metal, then called White Lead. Doubtless it was the bronze axe that made Egypt mistress of the world. Descj'ibe the Element Tin. It is a white metal, bright and silvery, although there is a slight oxidation in the air which, however, may be easily removed. It is slightly elastic and sonorous. It is very light and fuses at a comparatively low temperature. Few metals are se well known and so much used as Tin^ and yet few are so seldom seen in any but the filmy form of tin-plate, so-called, on our pans and kitchen vessels, or as tin-foil wrapping our chocolates, tobaccos, etc. How is Tin obtained? It is in an ore called Tin-stone or Cassiterite, the native Oxide of Tin. It is believed that in ancient times the inhabit- ants of the British Isles washed the stones from the bottoms of their creeks, and traded them for the glass and dyed cloths of the Phoenicians. Pick-axes made of the horns of animals are found in these tin-works. Diodorus of Sicily states that the barbarians carried their Tin-stones in little carts -at low water to barter with the merchants. Were Tin mines dug later ? Yes, and to great distances under the sea. The Duke of Cornwall for centuries derived a revenue from the product of all the Tin mines. The Prince of Wales is Duke of Cornwall, CHEMISTRY. 285 and now draws a pension of about $80,000 a year in lieu of the tax that would be paid to him from the stamping of Tin ingots. There are Tin mines in various parts of the world — Malaysia, Australia and South America. The Tin-stone* is crushed, melted, fluxed and poured into blocks, ingots, pigs, etc. Hozv is the Tin put on our zuasJi-basins and milk-pans ? By simple immersion, after the proper preparation, of the sheet-iron article that is to be coated with Tin. Our pins are boiled in Tin for four hours. The affinity of the Tin with the Iron molecules is so great that henceforward the utensil is practically Tin, and in this way the cost of the rarer of the two metals is economized. No other metallic composition for daily use, in which food may be prepared or fluids boiled, has found favor in America, though many kinds have been introduced. What is the clieniical value of lin ? Very great. Solutions and Salts of Tin are widely used at the calico works as mordants, to set and beautify colors and promote the various processes. By the use of Tin compounds it has become possible to multiply the weight of silk ; to give black silk the mietallic weight and lustre demanded by women ; to give a heavy face to calico ; to use the aniline colors mixed with mordants, without the dye-vat, and practically to revolu- tionize the entire art of printing cloth. (See Calico.) Oxide of Tin gives a milky color to glazes in pottery, and has been used by the potters for thousands of vears. How is Tin-foil made ? By rolling the ingots into thin sheets. These sheets are cut into squares and built into blocks, to be pounded with wooden mallets like gold leaf. The leaf that is put on the back of mirrors is made of Tin, Copper and Mercury. Speculum metal, for telescopes and spectroscopes, is made of Copper and Tin. What vastly important use do ive make of Tin ? We use it for our cans, and the term '"canned goods'' offers one of the defining marks of our civilization. These cans are made in millions at nearly all of our large cities. 286 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Describe a Tin Can-Manufactory. Plates of bluish sheet-iron, 14x20 inches, arrive from the rolling-mills and go to the store-room ; thence on trucks to the cleansing room. Here a vat of dilute Sulphuric Acid steams and fills the room with mist. The plates are washed in the sour water until they turn gray — their true color. Then they are washed in hot water. Now they go wet and steaming to hot rollers, which drive off the moisture. Other rollers and brushes daub the plates with stearin, an oil flux, which is to make the molten Tin adhere. Now the greased plate goes on a band through a vat holding 5,000 pounds of molten Tin. On its way from the Tin bath the Tin pjate, now shining like a silver mirror, passes on bands through a bath of palm oil. This is to prevent cracking and blistering. The oily plate now falls into a bin of bran, which revolves, and the bran absorbs the unneeded oil. The Tin for this factory comes in seventy-five pound ingots from Australia. How are the Tin cans made f In die presses that move when girls touch a foot-clutch. The working tables of the machines are tilted. The cover of a baking-powder can is cut, shaped and letters embossed in its metal, all by one movement of the foot. A girl can make 10,000 covers in a day. The piece of Tin for the sides of the can is cut between steel blade-wheels, and the bent strip is crimped to- gether ; the bottom-piece is stamped and clamped on the bent, side-piece, and the whole operation is done in a few seconds, without much manipulation. The covers are put on the cans by hand. These are dry boxes for powders. How is the soldering done ? As the cans for liquids come from the presses, they are placed sidewise on a sloping rack, many feet long. At the lower edge of this rack is a gutter of molten solder, so that as the can is rolled along its lower edge is immersed in the metal. At the end they are reversed, carried back to the starting-point, and rolled along the other end up. In the testing-machine they are immersed in water, and must send out no bubbles or they leak — as we saw 10 the Tomato-Cannery. (See Fruits.) In another CHEMISTRY. 287 department cans are painted, and advertisements or labels are stenciled on them. One thousand people may be employed, and a million cans a day made. What becomes of the Tin scraps ? They are baled, taken to the foundry and melted into weights for window-sash. What may be said of Tin Cans ? They are the most numerous, best and cheapest utensils man has ever made, but their use is accompanied with the most astonishing waste, in all instances where they must be cut open in order to empty them. At present they cover the open lots of cities with unsightly refuse, and even to gather them and melt them into sash-weights does not seem to be feasible. What is the Arsenic Group of Elements ? It is composed of Vanadium, Arsenic, Niobium, Antimony, Tantalum and Bismuth. Of these only Arsenic, Antimony and Bismuth especially interest the public. Nitro- gen and Phosphorus, but for their overwhelm- ing importance, would also be described in this group. Vanadium, Niobium and Tantalum are gray or black powders. What is Arsenic ? Fisr. 109. MARSHS The best known of our poisons, and a determTntng source of green paint and colors. The Ele- ARSENic. ment, Arsenic, was not isolated until the eighteenth century, but Orpiment, the yellow Sulphide of Arsenic, was known to the Greeks, What commerce calls White Arsenic is Arsenious Acid. The Element itself is a highly brittle steel-gray metal. It is mixed with lead in the making of shot, and is used in aniline dyes. The pyrotechnists use it in making Indian white fire. In dyeing, calico-printing, wall- paper staining and medicine it still has a place, /\.s a medicine, in a highly diluted form, Arsenic improves the action of the skin, but imparts an unhealthy white look to the complexion. Arsenic is useful in glass-making, and furnishes many alloys for the improvement of Lead and Steel, With Capper it makes 288 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY the most brilliant of greens, doubly poisonous, and the public usually regards a bright green color, not made by foliage, as a sign of the presence of deadly substances. In the middle ages poisoning flourished, and the Medicis and Borgias have a sombre chapter in history with their poisoned gloves and flowers. What is Antimony ? A very important metal that enters into many alloys, but principally our printing-types, our Britannia-ware, our Babbitt anti-friction metal for the axles of our great wheels, for stereo- type plates, and for gun-metal. This Element (called Stibium by the ancients), is popularly said to have its modern name. Antimony, that is, anti-moine, anti-monk, from the story that it was administered to the occupants of a monastery as a valuable medicine and killed them all. It is a poison that acts slowly on the human system, if carefully administered, rendering the detection of the crime in former days difficult. But with modern Chemistry, that danger has passed. Antimony comes to the metal works in grayish pigs, and our Western States produce it in good quantities. It is a color for glass-making. Antimony is used in the manufacture of black lead pencils. Did the Asiatic women tise it? Yes. The '^tutty," for their eyes, was made of Antimony, and gave a lustre to those organs. Jezebel painted her eyes with this metal, probably, and the Bible often speaks of the practice, which is continued to the present day. Has it any use in medicine ? Tartar Emetic is made of Potassium, Antimony, etc. There are many other drugs, caustics and plasters of Antimony. It is in fact a valuable remedial agent. What is Bismnth ? It is , a hard, brittle crystalline metal, closely associated with silver and gold ores, and once credited with giving a blue color, because it had not been separated from Cobalt. It was first used as an alloy in solder, and is a component of that useful CHEMISTRY. 289 substance. Its alloys, in other instances, are uncommonly fusible, and it is possible to mix several fairly hard metals with it so that the amalgan will melt if put in boiling water. Wooden figures may be silvered with Bismuth, and other lustres are made of it. A little Bismuth enters into many popular alloys, like Britannia ware. It is a stomach medicine. The potters use Bismuth to make the gilt braid adhere to porcelain, and as a flux it is valuable. ^^ Pearl white," '* pearl powder," and other cosmetics of this order, are usually the subnitrate of Bismuth. What IS the Tungsten Group ? Molybdenum, Tungsten and Uranium. These rare metals are valuable to the steel-makers, glass-makers and porcelain- workers, and if Radiance and Fluorescence advance as a part of our conveniences, they will become well known. One of the Sodium compounds of Uranium, out of which Uranium glass is made, is now manufactured on a large scale — $40,000 worth a year at one establishment. Edison found that Tungsten was the best substance to be used on the screens of his Fluoroscopes, for the observation of the effects of the X Ray, and for the Radiant Lamp. What is your last Group of Elements ? The Cerium Group. These are found in minerals like Cerite, and are especially notable because of recent improvements in our methods of burning common illuminating gas. The names of these Elements are Lanthanum, Cerium, Didymium, Yttrium, Erbium and Thorium. Still newer Elements called Neodymium and Praseodymium are added. What was Welsbach's discovery ? Dr. Auer von Welsbach prepared a hood for the common gas-flame. Through the incandescence of this hood he produced four times as much light as the gas jet formerly radiated. The hood was made of the salts of rare Elements. A cotton hood was soaked in solutions of the salts and the cotton burned away, leaving a white substance that could be heated to incandescence and maintained at that temperature without disintegration. But the substances, which were the Elements named in the 19 290 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. group we are now reviewing, together with Zirconium, were so rare, that the Welsbach invention had no commercial value until deposits were found in Henderson County, North Car- olina, and elsewhere, and the manufacture of the hoods became a valuable monopoly. The discovery made an era of good times in North Carolina, where the farmers began washing out *' Menacite " ore and selling it at prices that might be paid for gold washings. The Welsbach light is a step forward toward the solution of the problems and mystery of Radiation. For what is the Ceritnn Group notable ? It is the field of discovery in which the Spectroscope is con- stantly marking new Elements. We will name some of the many that have not been fully entered in our Table of Elements, be- cause only their existence is suggested : Terbium, discovered by Thalen ; Samarium, by Marignac ; Holmium, by Soret; Thulium, by Soret; Scandium, by Thalen; Gadolinium, by Marignac. The latter is supposed to be several new Elements. / have heard that some of the metals are more precious or costly than Gold. Is that so ? Yes, for many years Gallium, a metal that will melt if exposed only to the heat of the human hand, cost about $200 an ounce, or ten times as much as Gold. Thorium, which closely resem- bles Palladium (a far cheaper metal), was sold at |r6o per ounce; Vanadium was sold at $48; the greenish-gray Rubidium cost $88; Tantalum and Calcium, $80; Indium and Didymium, $72; Lithium, $64; Erbium, $62; Ruthenium, $44; Cerium, Strontium and Rhodium, $40 each; Barium, $32; Boron, $25. The following of these metals, if kept in lump form, are usually preserved in kerosene : Indium, Lithium, Strontium and Barium; while Gallium, Thorium, Vanadium, Rubidium, Cal- cium, Didymium, Erbium and Ruthenium are usually produced as powders. Have I noiv heard the names of a sufficient number of the Elements ? Ves. Any other substance which you will be likely to hear of is made of two or more of these Elements. You have here CHEMISTRY, 291 the basis of all that is generally known. .By becoming familiar with the table which is to follow, and committing to memory the symbols of the chief Elements — particularly those, like Kolium, for Potassium, that are unfortunately represented by foreign names — you will be able to instantly read and understand formulas, and decipher the most essential features of physi- cians' prescriptions. What is the use of this knowledge ? The age in which we live presses the necessity of such knowl- edge upon us. We see the enormous glucose factory, and not till then do we consider the gulf that lies between that vast establishment and the fine-strung theory of the chemist — yet without that theory there could be no commercial investment of millions in the grinding of corn and the boiling of fnash. We see the trolley, the beautiful silks and wall-papers, the cooling- rooms, the ice-manufactories, the telephone, celluloid, Welsbach light, incandescent electric light, photo-engravure, beet-sugar — these and the like of these — and it is no longer respectable or fashionable to know absolutely nothing of the main chemical triumphs that have resulted in so much good to us. When great popular interest shall turn to Chemistry, the advancement of civilization will be still more rapid. What is the meaning of the different kinds of letters used in the table ? The SMALL CAPITALS are used to name the Elements that lead in householj importance. The least important are printed in italic. What is told in the Table ? (i) The name of the Element; (2) its Symbol, which, when standing alone in a formula, means that 07ie atom is used of that Element; (3) the atomic weight in atoms of Hydrogen; (4) the Specific Heat, in fractions of a water unit. 2^2 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY Tabi,e of the Ei^ements. Specific Heat in Names of the Elemeut:>. Sign. Atomic Weitiht in Atoms fractions of of Hydrogen. •A Water Unit. Aluminium - Al 27-3 *.2I4 Antimony - Sb (Stibium) 122 .0508 Arsenic - As 74-9 .0814 Argon Barium . - - "*Ba" 136.8' Bismuth Bi 207.5 .0308 Boron - B II .5 Bromine Br 79-75 .0843 Cadmium Cd III. 6 ^.0567 Caesium Cs 132.7 Calcium Ca 39-9 * 170 Carbon C 11.97 -4589 Cerium - - - Ce 141 *o447 Chlorine - CI 35-36 Chromium . - Cr 52.4 *.IOI Cobalt Co 58.6 *.io7 Copper - Cu (Cuprum) 63-3 .*.o952 Decipium % - Dp 171 Didymium Di 147 *.o456 Erbium Er 170-5 Fluorine - - - F 19.1 Gadoliiiium Gallium - Germanium "Ge" 72.3 Glucifium. t - G 9-3 ^.64 Gold - Au (Aurum) 196.2 -.0324 Helium - Holmium - Hydrogen "*h" I Indium In .113-4 ^.0570 Iodine - I 126.53 .0541 Iridium Ir 196.7 ^.0326 Iron Fe (Ferrum) 55-9 *.ii4 Lanthanum La - 13^ ^.0448 Lead Pb (Plumbum) 206.4 •0316 Lithium Li 7.01 *.94o8 Magnesium Mg 23-94 ^.250 Manganese - Mn 54-8 *.I22 Mercury - Hg (Hydrargurum) 199.8 .0317 Molybdenum Mo 95-8 .0722 Mosandrium \ Neodymiuni , ^ . . . Nickel - "Ni" 58.6 *.io9 Niobiu7n Nb 94 Nitrogen ' - N 14.01 Osmiutn Os 198.6 .0311 Oxygen - O 15-96 Palladium - Pd 106.2 *-0593 Phosphorus - P 30.96 ''.174 CHEMISTRY. 203 TaBI^K Oi<^ THE ElvEMENTS. — C(?////«Z/^<'/, Names of the Elements. Si-n. Atomic Weight in Atoms Specific Heat in fractions of of Hydrogen.- a Water Unit. Platinum Pt 196.7 *.0324 Potassium K (Kalium) 39-4 *i66 Praseodymium - Rhodhim **Ro* 104. 1 *.0588 Rubidium - Rb 85.2 Ruthenium - Ru 103.5 *.o6ii Samarium - Sm 150 Scandium Sc 44 Se/enium - Se 79 .0745 Silicon - Si 28 .2029 Silver Ag (Argentum) 107.66 *o57o Sodium . - - Na (Natrium) 23 *.293 Strontium - Sr 872 Sulphur S 31-98 .171 Ta?italuni • Ta 182 Tellurium Te 128 .0474 Terbium Thallium, • '^^' 203.64 *.0335 Thorium Th 178.5 Thulium / Tin - - - "Sn" (Stannum) 1 1*7*. 8* .0562 Tttaniu^n Ti 48 Tungsten - W (Wolfram) 184 .0334 Uranium U 180 Vanadium - V 51.2 Ytterbium, 17-3 Yttrium ■"y"* 89.5 Zinc - - - Zn 64.9 .0955 Zirco7iium - Zr 90 * Where an asterisk precedes the Specific Heat of an Element, the Atomic Weight was computed from the Specific Heat, it being impossible to weigh the gas. t Also c.'iUed Beryllium. X Decipium is thought by some to be the same as Holmium. § Mosandrium is thought by some to be a mixture of Gadolinium and Terbium. rs r^.^ '1 Fig. 111. SUGAR, FROM CANE TO HOGSHEAD. ^^ Suaar, Etc. ^//rt:/ /i" Sugar f (See Chemistry.) It is a differing but peculiar combination of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. These are three of the fourphysical necessities of the life-movement. Our most suitable food will therefore abound in Sugar — as in bread and milk. The fourth substance (not present in Sugar) is nitrogen, which we obtain largely in air, meat and cheese. Whence do our table Sugar and our table sweets come ? From sugar cane, beets, sorghum, palms, corn, grapes, maple- trees, honey and other substances — principally from sugar-cane and beets. By far the greater part of our Sugar is imported largely from the West Indies. The Government has at times offered a bounty to the Sugar producers of Louisiana, and whether or not this bounty should be paid, or the import taxes on Sugar be abolished, has been a question of national politics at several elections. What is Sugar Cane ? It is a plant much like corn, but rising to a height sometimes of twenty feet. It grew originally in the far East, and must have a hot, moist climate, thereby differing from corn. It was brought to Europe by the Moors, who called it the honey-bearini;- Indian reed, and started plantations in Spain and Sicily. The Spanish sailors took the plant to the Azores, Madeiras, Canaries and Cape Verd Islands, and onward to the West Indies and Brazil. Spain and Portugal long enjoyed the Sugar trade of the world. 295 296 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Where did the Ancients get Sngar ? They probably used honey. At least there are many classical recipes extant showing that honey was used in cooking. There Fig. 112. SUGAR CANE AFLOAT. are about fifty references to honey in the Bible, but Isaiah also refers to Sugar-cane (chapter 43). Honey served for Sugar in the middle ages, as our libraries show. It was understood that the first Sugar refinery of the western world was established at Venice. When loaf-Sugar was brought to England, it was u^ed in making presents to Kings and great personages. The sale of loaf-Sugar has now been abandoned in commerce. How is Sugar classified? In two chemical families— the Saccharoses and the Glucoses. Early in the nineteenth century Gay-Lussac determined that the molecules of a Saccharose were each made of twelve atoms of carbon, twenty-two atoms of hydrogen and eleven atoms of oxygen. Later, Dumas and other chemists assumed that Glu- cose was composed of molecules made of six atoms of carbon, with twelve atoms of hydrogen and six atoms of oxygen. It is understood that with the addition of sulphur and nitrogen the German chemists have produced compounds a thousand times sweeter than Saccharose. Has chemical knowledge prospered? Yes. Under the influence of commercial necessity, the nature SUGAR, ETC. 297 of Sugar, the philosophy of crystallization— that is, how mole- cules form together in one of their solid states — and other secrets of nature, have been vigilantly studied. What are the sources of our commercial Sugar ? First, from Sugar-Cane ; next, from Sugar-Beets; next, from starch; next, from maple-trees. Then come sorghum cane, palm trees, grapes and other inconsequential products. Cajt S?(gar be made artificially by the Chemists ? Generally speaking, no. From a theoretical point of view, there is much to be learned. Foreign atoms cling tenaciously to the molecules of Sugar naturally produced, and only the costly processes of filtration or solution by water will separate the good from the bad. If the scientists could themselves com- pound a Sugar molecule, the price of Sugar could be cheapened indefinitely. Describe Sjigar-making from caite? The long canes go to the crushing rollers on a feed belt. Some- times the head-stocks of the top-roller have a hydraulic accumu- lator or ^^ spring," which regulates the pressure and guards against the dangers of an uneven feed. There are different arrangements of rollers, but generally a top, a cane and a megass or bagasse roller make the first set. The top-roller is midway above the other two. After the cane enters between the top and the cane rollers it is sent upward by a trash-turner into the bite between the top and the megass rollers. In Lousiana another pair of rollers lies beyond. When the trash or bagasse comes from the last set of rollers it may be burned under the boilers after a little drying. What becomes of t lie juice ? This green, sticky liquid goes in troughs to a strainer, and thence to a vat. Fermentation begins at once. To remove or neutralize the acids, milk of lime (lime and water) may be added and heat applied, or the juice may be passed through the fumes of burning sulphur. Phosphoric acid is sometimes used. 298 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY Describe the lime process. The juice goes into clarifiers, that is, iron kettles holding five hundred gallons. Milk of lime is added to the warm juice, and the heat is further raised to less than two hundred and twelve degrees, A thick scum rises, and thus v/hat is called the defeca- tion of the juice is effected. In the new system, there are series Ff^. 113. APPARATUS FOR MEASURING CALCUIM Ilv SUGAR. of four clarifying cauldrons, heated by steam coils The scum is composed of thickened albuminoids, lime and other sub- stances. What is the Sacchrameter ? It is a gravity-tube, which may be set afloat in the boiling cane juice. .By specific gravity the density of the Sugar-juice maybe gauged on the scale that projects out of the liquid. These sacchrameters are used at each cauldron. (See Milk.) The scum is made into rum. SUGAR, ETC. 299 What is the Vacnnui-Pan ? It is the vessel into which the clarified juice flows. It is a vacuum, but not a pan, for the vessel is spherical, >vith copper steam coils in the bottom. A glass window permits the liquid to be seen, and electric lights make the interior still more plainly visible. An air-pump and condenser remove the air, and the juice boils with less heat than two hundred and twelve degrees and with more agitation than in the open air. When the mole- cules of Sugar begin to form into crystals, the charge is dumped into the mixer. WJiat is the JMixer ? It is a long trough, in which a shaft revolves. On the shaft are steel arms that play in the Sugar, beating the crystals apart, and bringing them near other molecules still unattached. When the grain or crystal is of the right size it goes to the centrifrugal. What is the centifriigal machine ? The principle is the same as in the cream-separator and the flour mill." A kettle-shaped vessel in which the wet sugar is placed, revolves twelve hundred times a minute. Its sides are Fig 114 CENTRIFUGAL SUGAR MACHINES. lined with brass gauze. The thin parts of the Sugar are heaviest, and they fly upward to the gauze, and outward in the form of molasses. Remaining in the kettle is dry, white Sugar, which 300 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. is the sweet Coffee A of our tables. It is a better Sugar in many respects, but does not compete with the popular granulated Sugar of the great refineries. Describe the Sugar' Refineries. Hogsheads of Muscovado (word from the same root as Mis- chief)y meaning unripe or unfit Sugar together with molasses, arrive in vast quantities. The material goes to the top floor, where it is dissolved in water and boiled in pans or ''blow-ups" C 115. DUBOSC-SOLIEL'S Al'l'ARATlS FOR COLOR ANALYSIS OF SUGAR. with Steam coils. From these pans or "blow-ups" the sirup passes through from fifty to two hundred cloth filters heated by steam. These hot bags retain many impurities, but do not remove the yellow color. Now the real refining begins. SUGAR, ETC. 301 Describe the Filters. They are iron cylinders fifty feet high, resembling the genera- tors in the Vinegar Factory. They are filled with animal char- coal, or bone black. After traveling through fifty feet of bone black, the sirup comes out in molecules free of all substances, except carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in the Saccharose propor- tions. The sirup may now be treated as it was at the cane mill, or it may be run into innumerable small molds standing in rows. Its crystals are larger, have a his:her glaze, possess greater adhesive power among themselves, and the Sugar may be cut into small blocks of various shapes and dimensions, or crushed into separate crystals that thereafter make no attempt to cohere, and show but little affinity for water and none at all for alcohol. How is Granulated Sugar made? To make it, Coffee A Sugar is dried in a revolving cylinder. Hozij is Pulverized Sugar made? Dry Sugar is ground in stone buhrs or steel rollers, and sifted like flour. What has cJiea^pened the price of Sugar? First, the use of steam pipes for heating. Second, the use of the vacuum-method, which saves fuel and hastens the action. Third, the bone-black filters. Lastly, the most important im- provement was the use of the centrifugal machine, which reduced the time for refining soft Sugars from two weeks to a day, and enormously reduced the cost. Is the refining interest a large one ? Yes. One company has a capital stock of f too,ooo,ooo, and pays dividends on this sum at the rate of as high as twelve per cent, per annum. One of the establishments of this company — the largest refinery in the world — covers five city blocks on the East River, in Brooklyn. How is cofnpetitio7t carried on against this Company ? By means of importation from foreign countries, where a bounty is practically paid through the rebate of internal taxes. Is Sugar adulterated ? The chemist will naturally strive to add the free elements of 302 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. air to carbon, and to give to Sugar bulk with the least expen- diture of sweetness. Sugar betraying alkali, ammonia or sulphur Fig. i: APPARATUS FOR FINDI^"G THE ALKALINITY OF SUGAR. by its taste or smell — particularly the latter — should be re- jected. In the vast field of carbon compounds, where molecules are often nearly alike, the eye, the nose and the tongue are as cunning as the most learned chemist. What is Dijfusion, or Dialysis ? This is the method by which the Sugar molecules are taken from beets, and Sugar-cane may be treated in the same manner. We will suppose a thin curtain, like the wall of the vegetable cell. Now, if two liquids of a different degree of density are separated by this wall, they will diffuse through the wall and establish an equilibrium of solution. This is a form of Dialysis. If a cell full of Sugar juice holding twelve per cent, of Sugar be placed near an equal quantity of water, the two chambers would soon hold six per cent, of Sugar. Put the six per cent, solution SUGAR, ETC. 303 near another twelve per cent, solution, and all would become nine per cent. Again, and the outside solution would rise to 10.5 per cent, or within 1.5 of the full capacity. On this theory all the Beet Sugar is made. Apply the Dijftision theory. Tall, upright cylinders will be filled with clean sliced roots. The contents of each will weigh two or three tons. Eight of these cylinders stand in a series, while two or four others are out of service^ getting ready to take places in the active series. Pure water flows into cylinder No. i, which has been longest in operation, and has the least Sugar remaining in the cells of the beets. When No. i is practically exhausted of Saccharose, it is disconnected and No. 2 becomes No. i, while the fresh cylinder becomes No. 8. The water goes from cylinder to cylinder, acquiring sweetness as it goes. Before it is urged into the last cylinder it is heated, and passes under pressure among the fresh beets, becoming thick and rich with sugar — in fact, the water that comes from No. 8 is fifty per cent. Sugar, and is free of the nitrogen, fibrine, sulphur, potash, sodium and calcium that are the especial results of any crushing or macerating process. When Sugar-cane is diffused, the stalks must be cut into slices, and, as fermentation is rapid, there are many difficulties. But no Sugar-juice yet secured is in molecules of Sugar and water. Other atoms are always present, showing obstinate affinity, and the beet Sugar molecules are more difficult than the cane molecules. The Germans have usually been forced to use the expensive " charcoal *' filter even in the raw' stage, thus making two filterings of this kind. The other parts of the pro- cess are such as we have already described, except that carbonic acid and barytes are also used for clarifying. Did the German method serve as an example ? Yes, Great factories were established in California, Nebraska, Utah and Virginia, and the product of thousands of acres is turned into Sugar. Millions of capital are employed in these institutions. A ton of beets furnishes two hundred and eighty pounds of pure Sugar. 304 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Describe a typical Ainerica7i Factory. Mills and sheds closely connected surround a tall chimney. A field is filled with large boxes or trenches, into which the farmers shovel their wagon-loads of beets. The large trench or box, is bottomed with loose boards, and under the boards is a cemented or paved flume for running water. When the beets Fis. Ill SZOMBATHY'S APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING THE SUGAR IN BEETS. are not wanted, they are covered with straw or soil, in silo fashion. The problem of correct preservation has not yet been solved, as there is danger both from sweating and freezing. The beets now lie in the upper trench as they came from the farm. Of course some soil adheres to them. SUGAR, ETC. 305 What happens next ? Warm waste water is let into the under-ditch or flume, and this lifts the loose boards. The beets fall down and go toward the factory. At the factory they fall into buckets on the rim of a wheel and are carried into the washing-augur, which revolves in an iron trough. As the beets are forced along they become clean. At the end of the trough they fall into buckets and ascend to the top of the building, drying as they go. Arriving at the top, the beets fall into an automatic weigher, which tips at half a ton, registers and drops its half ton into the slicer. Describe the Slicer. It is on the floor just above the diffusion battery, which is itself copied after the system of iron cylinders described on the previous page. The slicer is a large revolving disk, on which are knives of curious shape. These revolve under the mass of beets and cut them into flakes three-sixteenths of an inch thick. In our factories the battery of diffusers stands in a circle, so that a revolving chute from the slicer can fill any one of the cylinders. The beet juice that comes from the last of the diffusers is chocolate-colored. What becomes of the slices ? They are dropped' from cylinder No. i into augur presses and reduced to pulp. The pulp, partly dried, is sold for cattle-feed. What is Molasses ? - It is the residue of Sugar molecules that refuse to arrange themselves in crystals. It is not without crystals, and they may be secured by further treatment, which usually is carried on for two or three processes after the first yield of Sugar. But the Sugar molecule has various properties. A ray of light sent through a molecule that will crystallize turns the ray one way, and this is called dextrine or right Sugar. A ray through another molecule turns it to the left — called Icevo-rotatory Sugar (from Iceva, Latin for the left hand^ as dextera is the right Jiand). The left-handed Sugar is also called invert Sugar. Glucose is Isevo-rotatory. Cane Sugar yields both dextrose and 306 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY Icsvulose. Sugar is tested by making it into a solution with Fig. 119. APPARATUS FOR THE EXACT ANALYSIS OF SIRUPS AND MOLASSES. water and viewing it with the polariscope. The light, as we have said, is polarized differently. What is Polarization ? We can best answer by asking you to hold your right hand before a mirror. You will recognize it as your left hand. Something has happened to the rays of light that went from your hand to the mirror and now come out again. They invert, or turn your right hand into a left hand. They have changed I ^m Fig. 120. THE POLARISCOPE. SUGAR, ETC. 307 the poles of direction. By the varying action of the Sugar molecules on a ray of light in a similar way, the quality of the Sugar in the solution of Sugar and water is determined, as certain molecules produce the best Sugar, and certain other molecules the poorest, etc. And as we have said, the vast financial interests involved have encouraged chemical research. The Dutch set the standards that are in use as to the quantity of Sugar solution, angle of light, etc. Is there a dijfereiice between Molasses and Sirup ? Yes. The residue from the first making of Sugar is called Molasses. The residue from the refineries is Sirup. The '^golden drips ^' or Sirup is Invert Sugar separated from all foreign substances, and is probably composed of molecules con- taining six carbons, twelve hydrogens and six oxygens — that is, Glucose — and other molecules containing twelve carbons, twenty-two hydrogens and eleven oxygens — that is Saccha- rose. But these molecules refuse to immediately coalesce into crystals. Describe the Sugar Crystal? You may study it in any piece of rock candy, where you will see the form which pure Saccharose must assume. The crystal is called a monoclinic — that is, it has one intersection, and that inclines. It is not hygroscopic — that is, it will not attract moisture to its surface, like glass. It is scientifically called a rhomboidal prism, but it may be more clearly described as a nearly square tabular formation with sloping edges. A deep groove (the "intersection") divides it in two parts. If broken in the dark the hard crystal will give a bluish flash. What is the product of a Sugar Beet Factory? It may be thirty tons a day or more. The operation is usually continuous, running night and day and Sundays. There is a laboratory for chemical tests. Whether it be crystallized Sugar, Sugar juice, or beets that are to be tested, the article is reduced to a solution in water, clarified if necessary, and submitted to the Polariscope, to find in what direction and at what angle a ray of light is turned by the molecules in the solution. Cattle- feed, ashes, coke, limestone, coal — all things used or made in 308 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. the factory — are undergoing daily and repeated tests, to ascer- tain their molecular condition, and therefore their true value. What Beet is used? The Beta inaritima, a mangold, or mangel-wurzel. The success of the diffusion process has dealt a blow to the cane plantations of the tropics, and it is not impossible that the United States may eventually produce all the Sugar which is consumed within the national borders. What is Maple Sugar ? It is an American product, which was made by the Indians before Columbus discovered America. It is known by a peculiar taste, generally liked by Arnericans, but disliked in Europe. It is the residue of boiled sap from the Sugar maple — acer saccharininn. This sap is very weak in Sugar, and over 97 per cent, of water must be evaporated. The process is still primitive, although vast quantities of Sugar, estimated at over fifty million pounds, are annually made. It is possible that with refining and filtration, the pure crystal of Saccharose could be obtained, but this would destroy the essential characteristic of Maple Sugar, and damage the market. Describe a Sugar Bicsh or Camp. The trees are tapped with one spout, driven in on the sunny side. Snow is still on the ground. The sap runs best while the sun shines. Wooden troughs stand under the trees to catch the sap, and big iron kettles are hung over roaring forest fires that burn all night, frequently with merry-making. From the deep kettles the sirup passes to pans, and thence to tubs, where sediment may setile, particularly the malate of lime, called by the farmers "Sugar-sand." Malic acid is the essential principle of apples. After settling, the sirup goes again to pans, and soon after it boils it is ready to granulate. It is now poured into moulds and on cooling, has formed a compact body. What is Maple Simp ? It may be made by leaving the original water in the product, or by adding the proper quantity to the Sugar. The latter way saves freight. Naturally, the compounding of maple sirup in SUGAR, ETC 309 the large cities has led to the introduction of adulteratives, until the people have come to regard city sirup as certain to contain Glucose. But reliable dealers — that is, merchants of recognized commercial standing — are especially' averse to these unfair practices. What is Glucose? Glucose, once called Glycose, is one of the two Sugars. It has six atoms of carbon, twelve of hydrogen and six of oxygen in each molecule. In its commercial form it has not been permitted to crystallize, and is a thick, glassy, light-colored sirup. If it has been crystallized, it goes under the name of '* Grape Sugar.^' Enormous factories, twelve stories high, covering wide areas of ground, are devoted to its manufacture. What is Glucose good for f It is one of the most serviceable substitutes ever discovered by the adulterators, hence the unfavorable notoriety which it has obtained. But it is in itself a valuable though inferior Sugar. It serves equally well with Sugar as a preservative, hence may take the place of Saccharose in all preserves of fruit. Its use in candy is objectionable, but all the cheaper grades of candy are probably thus made. One of its principal uses is as common alcohol, into which it may be easily converted. This alcohol may be put in wine, beer, other liquors, or it may be oxidized into vinegar, as we have seen. What is Glucose made from ? From starch. The starch is made from corn, and we have described the process under the head of Corn. But after the grinding of the corn-mash and the separation of the germs and the gluten, the remaining starch goes with water to the con- verters. The converter is a great closed copper boiler, into which steam pipes lead. These steam pipes are perforated, so that the live steam is injected into the starch-water at a pressure of forty pounds. About twenty-five pounds of muriatic or sul- phuric acid are added for one thousand pounds of Glucose. The heating occupies about an hour. The starch has now been con- verted into Glucose. 310 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What is the supposed molecule of Starch ? It is formed of thirty-six atoms of carbon, sixty-two atoms of hydrogen, and thirty-one atoms of oxygen. To this molecule there cling twelve molecules of water, each molecule of water having two atoms of Hydrogen and one of Oxygen. The heat and the acid have disrupted the starch molecules, and they have formed into the easiest combinations, which are or seem to be Sugar combinations, the water molecules joining the water in the solution and leaving the carbon atoms. The acid molecules are still present in the solution. What is a Neutralizer ? The neutralizing tank receives the Glucose sirup out of the converter. If muriatic acid were used in the converter, then soda is now added. Muriatic acid was named from sea salt before it was known that chlorine gas was its principal part. It is hydrochloric acid, and has a wonderful affinity for sodium or its compounds. (See Salt.) The soda therefore seizes all the hydrochloric-acid molecules. If sulphuric acid were used in the converters, marble-dust is added and the calcium molecules in the marble-dust attack the sulphur molecules. These mole- cules are now to be strained away through canvas bags, as in the sugar refineries, or in filter-presses. The Glucose comes out as " bag liquor " or '' press liquor," according to the process. It is still yellow-colored, and has many atoms of sulphur, calcium, potash, sodium and other undesired Elements clinging to its molecules. It still is in a solution of 70 per cent, water. It now goes on the bone charcoal filters, which are not half so high as those in the big sugar refineries. The fluid perco- lates through twenty feet of bone dust, and comes out ^' light liquor." Is it now boiled? Yes, in vacuum-kettles, like cane juice. A system of three kettles is in use, called a triple-effect, which utilizes steam that once went to waste. After it leaves the triple kettles it is 60 per cent. Sugar. SUGAR, ETC. 311 UUUi a JUICE 790 GALLS, ^ f ^^Sj;>j_ JUICE 561 GALLS sa CONDENSER , Fig, 120. TRIPLE EFFECT EVAPORATION. Is J,here another filtration? Yes. '^ Light liquor " is not commercially pure enough. It must again percolate through the charred bone. After this the sirup goes to the final pans, and comes off as 41, 42, 43, 44 Glucose, according to its gravity. As an adulterant it is desired in its thinnest grade. Suppose it be concentrated and crystallized? It is then Grape Sugar, which is used by the brewers and wine- sophisticators. Grape Sugar may also be mixed with cane Sugar. As Glucose is made from starch, it follows that in countries where starch is produced cheaper from potatoes than from corn, as in Germany, potato-starch furnishes the material. Is Sugar made from Milk ? Yes. The Swiss dairies secure Sugar as a bye-product in the manufacture of cheese. It passes into the whey, and is ex- tracted by evaporation and crystallization. The molecule is a Saccharose molecule with one water molecule clinging to it. This makes milk Sugar less sweet than Saccharose. A solution of milk Sugar and water does not soon become sirupy. The homeopathists use milk Sugar by preference as a vehicle in which to administer their dry medicines, and the small pills of all kinds that have become so familiar have usually been com- pounded in Swiss Sugar. 312 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What is SorgJium ? Sorghum was called Guinea corn and Chinese Sugar-cane. It is a millet. Along in the '50's it was believed that Sorghum would be generally cultivated in America, and the civil war encouraged widespread attempts on the part of the northern farmers to produce molasses from this plant. It very closely resembles corn, and grows easily in all corn countries. But Sorghum molasses was not liked by the people, and the product became less after the civil war ended, and the price of better Sugar and sirup fell to a peace basis. What is Rock Candy ? It is a collection of the crystals of Saccharose. It is used by the ton in the making of patent medicines, by liquor dealers and by druggists. It once was a popular confection. Only the best granulated refined Sugar will serve the Rock Candy manufacturer's purpose. Four or five barrels of the Sugar are emptied into a closed copper boiler, jacketed with steam pipes, and a thick sirup is made in a half hour. This sirup is poured into copper-pots, which are twice as wide at top as at bottom. Describe these crystallizijig-pots. Across the interior of the pots cotton cords are strung in goodly number, all the way up. The cords run through holes in the sides of the pot, and the holes are battened with plaster- of-paris, which holds the cords and stops all leakage. The pots each contain five gallons of sirup. They now go to the hot house, to stand on shelves for three days. The hot house is kept at 160 degrees above zero. The crystals form on the strings and on the sides of the pot, and finally they form a crust on the surface of the sirup. Is any Sir tip left ? Yes. The sirup is drained off and sold at the soda fountains, saloons and drug-stores. It is Simple Sirup. After the sirup is drained away, the candy is washed with water and dried in a temperature of 70 degrees. In drying, the pot stands upside down over a trough. When the candy is fully glazed, the plaster-of-paris is removed from the outside, the strings drop SUGAR, ETC. 313 down, the pot is struck smartly with a mallet, and the candy falls in a mass on the packing board. It is now weighed and packed for market in five and forty pound boxes. Is Rock Candy colored? Yes. Carmine is added in red rock, and this is the only rock candy that is not pure Saccharose. Yellow rock is colored with burnt sugar. The manufacture of the coloring matter is a disagreeable and unhealthy operation, owing to the smoke. The workmenwear respirators. What is Caramel? The word is corrupted from the Latin for honey-cane (canna inellis). Sugar becomes caramel at 400 degrees of heat — that is, it burns. Burnt sugar was needed for coloring, in rock candy^ for brandy, etc. About 1865, the word began to be used in America for a confection that was midway between a hard or granulated candy and a sirup. Caramels, as we know them, are made by boiling cream or concentrated milk, sugar and cho'colate, and it is chocolate rather than burnt Sugar that gives the dark caramels their characteristic color. The mass is poured on a marble slab, cut in small squares, and wrapped by girls. An expert girl can wrap eight thousand caramels in parafiine paper in a day. How are small Candies molded? In corn starch. Corn starch is packed in" shallow boxes. A press holding many dies descends on the starch and leaves the rows of molds. One factory may use twenty-five thousand of these boxes. The cream candy is run into the molds. Even the soft Marshmallows are thus cast. Starch is used at all stages, also as a powder to facilitate manipulation. The starch molds holding their candies, go to the *' starch-buck,^' which breaks away the mold, lets the starch through vibrating sieves, carries the candies past brushes, and leaves them free of starch. How are Gum- Drops made ? They may be cast from Glucose and starch. Such are the cheapest. They are made from pure Sugar and gum arable. These are costly. After coming from the ^'^ starch-buck, '^ both 314 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. kinds are rolled in granulated Sugar. This gives them their rough appearance. How are Lozenges made ? Candy of this description is stamped out of cold sugar, and all other forms are made by boiling in water, or other fluid mix- tures. Of course, other material, such as flour, starch, or even terra alba, may be mixed with the flour. The taste will usually determine the value of a candy lozenge. A rubber stamp is inked with cochineal, and a motto may be imprinted on the lozenge after it is made. How are small Polished Candies made ? They may or may not have a nut or seed inside. The Sugar may be deposited on the nut or seed by crystallization, or by dipping. When the candies are of the right size, they are placed in a copper pan which revolves rapidly. The centrifrugal motion polishes and rounds the pieces. How is Chocolate used? It may be ground on the premises, or bought in ten-pound cakes from the chocolate factories which we have described. (See Coffee, etc.) The cream candy, cast in a corn-starch mold, may be dipped by machinery in a bath of chocolate and hot water, and carried on an endless belt through a long drying room. Or a girl may have before her a small kettle of hot choco- late, tilted on a steam coil. She places a candy on a wire spoon and dips it in the chocolate. The wet chocolate-drop is then placed on an oil-cloth in the drying frame. A girl sometimes dips three thousand drops in a day. How is the costly ''• French Candy'' made ? The best pulverized Sugar is used. Almonds and filberts are ground into paste. The paste may be mixed with cold Sugar. Pure cream may be used in the hot Sugar solution. A core of nut-paste may be dipped to the needed size, and the final dip- pings may be in colored solutions of various hues. Cochineal is added for the reds ; indigo for the blues ; gamboge and flowers for the yellows ; and green leaves from spinach and other vege- SUGAR, ETC. 315 tables, for the greens. The darker colors are usually chocolates and burnt sugars. Hozv arc Cocoa-Nuts used? They enter the factory whole. The meat is extracted, cut up and boiled in a kettle with rotating dashers. Sugar is added. After cooking, like candy, the mass is rolled on a marble slab and made into small biscuits. These are browned in an oven. The mass may be molded and then cut up in strips. This candy is highly nutritious, but difficult to preserve in good condition. What three cardinal things may be named in the Universe ? Motion (Light and Heat), Matter and Life. All these are different, yet Motion and Life are somewhat alike in nature. Whereifi does Life differ from Motion ? Life is a Motion that is eccentric, jerky or suspended. It has no regularity or period. If we see a speck of Life in a drop of water, it may go here or there, or it may stand still. Of what is that Speck composed? Beside the Life it has, it is an untheorized compound of car- bon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, like other carbon com- pounds whose molecules are as yet too complicated in structure to adjust to any theory of formation yet offered. When this compoimd moves with Life what is it called? Bioplasm. When it is dead, it is Protoplasm. The chemists cannot make it. It is the chemical result of other living pro- cesses. What surroundings are necessary to this Bioplasm ? Light, Heat, Electricity, moisture, etc. All may be present, however, and death may still result. What does natnre do with Bioplasm ? In greater or less quantities it forms the vegetable and animal growths of the world. It may exist alone in one small, original mass, frequently doubling, or it may exist with millions of simi- lar masses, and all in association with hard or soft structure formed from the masses of its forerunners or fellows. 316 LIFE. . 317 What does the microscope show ? The commonest and easiest sight, and the most instructive, is secured by obtaining water under a green scum in a pond and putting it in the '^aquarium" of the microscope. An animal called a Rotifer^ with a bell-shaped body or mouth and long tail, will come into the field of the glass and fasten his long and sometimes spiral tail on the trunk of the twig — the scum-matter. Then he will start wheels of hair (cilia) going around his mouth and a vortex of water will suck monads or smaller animals into his paunch. The scene is marvelous, and offers to the mind some estimation of the small division into which the molecules of water must themselves be carried. The Rotifer divides into two animals. What is his body made of? Apparently a glass or mica-like substance. The gizzard or stomach may be a green color, from the scum-matter. This animal will swallow another Rotifer by error, and throw it out at once. In his early and glass-like state, this animal is a hydro- carbon compound, endowed with Life. Name a still lower form of matter in which Life acts. In the Amoeba. This is a small, jelly-like Bioplasm, which does not retain the same shape for two successive minutes. It obtains its food by flowing around it; lays hold of its food with- out jnembers, swallows without a mouth, digests without a stomach. It moves without muscles. The separation of any fragment of this jelly originates another independent Living creature. What is seen iit Frog' s blood ? Movement of white blood cells that follow the characteristics of the Amoeba. They seek holes in the blood-vessels, wander through and fasten upon the tissues, either to feed, or be fed to, the cells that they reach. Or the cell may seek a structure, and become a part of that structure, such as bone, hair, or nail, when it ceases to have Life. Animals usually consume plants; yet there are plants that eat animals. 318 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Summarize, then, your remarks on Life. If molecules of chlorine and sodium come together under cer- tain conditions, there is agitation, condensation, perhaps explo- sion, and salt results. These new molecules undoubtedly remain in a state of movement, but it is of a stated kind. Again, we may compose a hydro-carbon compound that will resemble Pro- toplasm. Its molecules move, but with law. Now, a simi- larly-appearing hydro-carbon compound called an Amoeba moves, but without law. It may move in opposition to heat and cold, or with them. The molecular movement of Living bodies can not, at present, be theorized. That fact is Life. ►J<>X*X''X^*r WciZ Bicycle. f^^r^i ^rX^fTTn For what is this machine remarkable ? For the appeal it has made to all classes. Priests, Bishops, Judges, ministers, Governors, women and little children have alike utilized it. Since the introduction of the sewing-machine, in the '50's, there has not been an invention that was so readily accepted by all the people. What has been the result ? A machine that is said by mechanicians to be the most perfect adjustment to varying and difficult conditions that has ever been attained by human ingenuity. The Bicyle of to-day shows the best results of a larger volume of invention than any other mechanical device. What are its merits ? The tire takes the greatest practical portion of the jar. The spokes have the principle of the Ferris Wheel — that is, the wheel is a continuous bridge, hanging by the little wires, that are never required to do duty in holding anything 2^^. The axles all bear on steel balls, thus meeting the smallest friction. The machine has been reduced in height fifty per cent., with increase of speed, thus adding to safety. The chain or gearing gives a leverage, and also enables the rider to sit between the wheels, where the seat is easiest. The weight of the machine has been placed where it best suits the natural pace and momentum of the rider, and a Bicycle may be as light or as heavy as is desired. 319 320 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What is the Drop Forging ? This is the piece of steel at every angle in the Bicycle truss, which bears the chief part of the strain, making it feasible to use tubes rather than bars in the rest of the frame. How many Drop Forgings are tised? From nine to seventeen, usually the latter number. The entire lot of adjuncts to the frame, excepting the steel tubes — the forks, hubs, cranks, axles, heads, posts, etc., are forged, not molded. How do the Drop Forgings come to the Bicycle Factory ? As solid chunks' of steel. Take the main frame head, for instance. It is a very heavy steel billet, but it has been ham- mered into the exterior shape demanded as the corner-piece of the frame, where the greatest strain will bear. The Bicycle- maker puts it into a drill and bores out the holes which he requires for the entrance of the tubes. How is tJie Forging itself made ? Oil furnaces stand in rows, each one with a forge-hammer before it. A hard steel die or steel mold has been made, half of which is on the anvil^ and the other half is on the lower side of the forge hammer. The workman sticks his steel bar in the furnace and heats it to a lemon color. Then he places it on the lower half of the die, touches the releasing lever with his foot, and a hauimer weighing from four hundred to thirteen hundred pounds falls. The hammer then works until stopped. The upper part of the die tries to close on the lower part, and gradually the piece takes the shape needed, and becomes all the more strong from the forging. After the forming die, there come the finishing and trimming dies. The sinking or making of all the dies required in the Bicyle business itself represents a mountain of labor. Is the frame the heaviest part of a Bicycle? No, it is the lightest — that is, it does not weigh over one-fifth of the whole mass. The wheels weigh the most, because of the comparatively large mass of hubs, wires and tires. The wires are so numerous and each usually so small, that ecorromy of weight cannot be practised on them singly. THE BICYCLE, 321 WJiat parts of the Bicycle have furnished opportunity for separate indicstries ? There are steel mills for tubing, forging works., rubber tire works, works for wooden tires, spokes, saddles, lamps, chains and balls. A good Bicycle factory may wisely purchase all these adjuncts. What remains to do? The vast and unintermitting labor of drilling the forgings, brazing the frames, nickel-plating the forgings, enameling the tubes, stringing and hanging the wheels — and so on. What is this latter part called? Assembling, The tubes are crushed or pressed at the ends, and brazed into the forgings with borax and pewter at little charcoal forges. The frame, after hours of filing and testing, goes to the enameler who corks the open holes and dips it into the enamel. It is then baked in a large annealing oven and afterward striped by the painter. How are the Sprocket-Wheels made? They come in steel disks. These are clamped together into a cylinder and the teeth of say, twenty, are cut at once. When a steel forging has taken the nickel-plate it is held against rapidly revolving cotton fibres, where its final polish is com- municated to it. A factory which drills its forgings, enamels its tubes, plates its fittings, hangs its wheels and assembles its Bicycles, will need ten thousand feet of floor space. Hoiv are the Rubber Tires made ? The general subject of India Rubber is treated in a separate chapter of this volume, and may be consulted. The molds in which the rubber tires are vulcanized are expensive, and yet must change with new styles and inventions. Much rubber is blistered in vulcanization. The process at se\reral of the great tire factories is nearly as follows: The raw rubber is washed and ground or flattened into a thin sheet. The water is then thoroughly dried out, a slow process. The rubber is cut up and mixed with naphtha and sulphur, forming a thick paste. This SI 322 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY paste is now spread on sheets of linen by machinery, and the linen with its rubber is passed over hot rollers, to remove the naphtha, as it has done its work by liquifying the rubber. The linen sheets are next cut into strips about eight inches wide, and the rubber is taken from the linen. The rubber is now ready for the molds, in which it is to be vulcanized (that is, sulphurized). The molds are subjected to a heat of two hundred and eighty degrees for an hour or two, after which, the rubber having become a sulphur compound, is no longer susceptible to ordinary changes of heat or cold. If the rubber is too damp it blisters, and it is ruined, for naphtha will not dissolve it after vulcanization. A large portion of the common expense of manufacture is due to the misfortunes of blistering. The process throughout is one requiring experience, vigilance and great skill. How are the Wheels hung? By experts who put each wheel in a position to observe its balance. The little steel balls are set in a box that surrounds the axle, the rubber tire is put on the wooden rim, and the steel wires are screwed up. The tube in the rubber tire offers the gauge of perfect equilibrium, and a wheel does not leave the workman's hands until it meets the following requirements: The tube is placed ai 90 degrees on the rim of the wheel. Then the wheel is left to itself. The wheel swings back like a pen- dulum, but when it shall stop the tube must be exactly at the bottom of the wheel. Until this result is accomplished, the spokes must be re-arranged. .^.^ Soap. ^>^^/ is Soap ? A washing substance compounded of (the chemical product of) a fat and an alkali. There are two great alkalis — sodium and potassium. A soda and a fat make hard Soap ; a potash and a fat make soft Soap. There are six other Elements — cal- cium, strontium, barium, lithium, rubidium and caesium that are alkaline. Lime (oxide of calcium) long figured as a material in Soap. What is the history of Soap ? The Yford' sapo, Latin for Soap, was borrowed from the Ger- mans by the Romans. Pliny, in his Roman Encyclopedia called *' Natural History" (28 : 12), says that Soap is a Gaulish inven- tion, made of fat and ashes, — the best of beechwood ashes and goat^s fat, of two kinds, thick and soft. The plant stricthion, lye, and bolar earths were also used as substitutes for Soap in wa|hing. The Gauls used their Soap as a pomatum (on the hair). All this from Pliny. Beckman, in his '^ History of Inven- tions," notes that quicklime was added to the northern Soaps. Du Cange, in his *' Glossary/' at the word Lascivitim^ says the barbers had a peculiar Soap, so called, from which came the word lather. But we have in Anglo Saxon, leadhor for iiitre (saltpetre) and wyrt (wort) for yeast, and lather was thus nitre- yeast. 323 324 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What may we deduce regarding Soap from a general read- ing of history ? We may readily believe that a prepared Soap would be a product of cold climes, where the human skin would least readily cleanse itself by perspiration. Inasmuch as all that is needed for cleansing is the lye (alkali), man could scour himself with lime or clay, or mix the ashes of his pot (hence potash) with the water in which he bathed his hands. At the sea-shore he would burn seaweeds, or on the natron-beds he would gather nitre (saltpetre) for embalming purposes, and thus learn its cleansing virtue. Borax would bring about the same knowledge, and borax often lies on the surface of the earth. When we put an alkali on a greasy cloth, the alkali at once combines with the grease and forms Soap. When the housewife buys borax instead of Soap at the grocery, she dispenses with the unneeded fat that otherwise must gather in her catch-basin or elsewhere on her premises. Why, then, is fat put into the alkalis ? Because there has not yet been invented a better plan of handling the alkalis in a dilute form. Even borax is abandoned because its use results in sore hands, while the modern Soaps are so made that they are a benefit to the skin — or, at least, they leave the skin as soft as it was. The?i Sodittm and Potassium are the active principles of modern Soap ? Yes. We have treated these great alkaline Elements with sufficient care in the chapters on Salt (for sodium) and Chemistry. They enter into our salt, glass, chinaware, Soap and all the bleachings of our textile fabrics. With chlorine and sulphur we have a group of four Elements outside of the four Life-Elements (carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen) that cannot command too much of our study and attention, as they stand for, civilization and comfort. Where does the Soap of our JiouseJiold mainly come from ? The alkali in it comes from the ocean in the shape of salt. From the salt is made the caustic soda that American manufac- SOAP. 325 Uners use. It is produced in England and sliii)i)ed to the American cities in iron drums holding about six hundred pounds each. Our Soap is made at the great cities, and the Soap- makers fit the amount of soda closely to the p'articular region wherein it is to be used. Where the water is hard, more caustic soda is put in the Soap. If a Soap does not sell in a certain region, it is considered that it has not been adjusted to local conditions, and a study of those conditions is undertaken. How is ordinary hard Soap made at these factories ? The kettle is three stories high, hned with steam coils. It may hold 280,000 pounds of Soap. If a man fall in this kettle of boiling Soap, only the metal frames of the buttons on his clothes are found. The rest of him has been turned into Soap. In the chapter on Butter we showed that oleomargarine oil was pressed from cakes of tallow. The cakes that were left come to the Soap factory in the form of stearme, and there is some, tallow. All the fat for the common Soaps comes from the slaughtering-houses or stock-yards. Barrels of good resin are put in, for yellow Soaps. The tallow and stearine are melted out of their barrels by hot blasts of steam. The caustic soda is dissolved in separate steam-vats fifteen feet in diameter and twenty feet deep. This soda-lye, tallow and resin mav now be supposed to be boiling in the monster kettle. What happens after the Soap has cooked ? Strong brine (salt and water) is let in, and this floats the thick Soap on top. Then water alone is added. Both of these operations must be in the hands of an expert. The Soap is now on top, while glycerine, salt and unused lye lie at the bottom. These are all to be saved, the glycerine being sold to dynamite- makers. Now the warm kettle is left alone for several days. Some of the Soap is then drawn off by a pipe into a crutching- machine, holding say twelve hundred pounds, where it is beaten and churned. Here carbonate of soda is added, to the amount indicated by the climate to which the Soap is going. The carbonate whitens the mass, which is as soft as thick pudding. 326 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Where does the Soap go, out of the crtitching-mac hine? On the floor below a pipe opens out of the crutching-machine. A man with a car on which is an iron box, or mold, with re- movable sides, receives a box-full of the Soap — a mass say four and a half feet long, three and a half feet high, and fifteen inches wide. It is a quivering jelly, which hardens in a few days. How is the Soap cut into bars ? The sides of the iron box knock down, and the big cake of hard Soap is placed on a moving platform. This platform travels between upright posts. Across between the posts are strung sharp steel wires or knives, as far apart as the width of a bar of Soap. The wires cut the big cake in slabs, and the slabs are cut into bars by other wires. The bars go to the drying- room, where fans operate. How are the bars of Soap packed? By boys. There may be seventy boys in a room, each with a stamping machine. The name of the Soap and the name of the manufacturer may be stamped on each bar. The bar is wrapped, and a box is filled with the wrapped bars. A smart boy can prepare 7,000 bars in a day. The factory may turn out 5,000 boxes in a day. This Soap may be ^'loaded''' with *'body'' — kao-lin, coarser silica, chalk, starch and even molasses. It is probable that a Soap which enjoys a big run has little mere '^body^' in it, as city waste-water pipes and hard city water are likely to make loaded Soaps unwelcome aids in the wash. How are the small cakes of roundish toilet Soap made? By a much longer operation after reaching the hard stage. The materials, too, for the fats are cocoanut oil from Ceylon, palm-kernel oil from Madagascar, palm oil from. Africa, peanut oil and cotton seed oil. There is no resin. There is likely to be some *' loading,^' except where the toilet Soap is so plain and cheap as to have become a necessity rather than a refinement. The hard bar of toilet Soap is sliced fine and left to dry out. The dry slices are ground with pigments and perfumes, rolled and re-ground. Two hundred pounds of slicings will take SOAP. 327 a quart of the tincture used as perfumery. There will be only two ounces of pigments, so one need not fear the color in Soaps. Tar may be added to the shavings for tar Soap — as any 'Moading^'of oat meal, silica, or chalk may gd in. Or medi- cines may be added, where the Soap is to be used to cure skin diseases. In this case, the admixture may be with carbolic acid, petroleum, borax, camphor, chlorine compounds, iodine, mer- cury compounds, sulphur or tannin. For the taxidermists an Arsenic Soap is made with lime. The Soap having been ground a sufficient number of times, it is molded by pressure, by being forced, like lead or dough, through a hole. The cylindrical or roundish sticks that result are about four feet long. From these are molded the little cakes that go six in a box to market. The French make these Soaps so finely that their best cakes cost over a dollar each, and may be used for years as perfumery be- fore actual consumption. While the American makes of toilet Soap are not to be thus used as perfumatories, it may still be said that we are served with a simple, cheap, white hand-Soap that is more delicate in perfume and at the same time more use- ful in the wash than the product of any other nation. From these justly popular brands of Soap not the slightest trace of rancidity remains on the person after their use. How is Castile Soap made ? From the ashes of sea-weed (soda) and olive oil. When a man has a child born to him, he is informed that the baby can be washed with nothing but Castile Soap. This popular faith is as strong to-day as in the times when our grandmothers set up the leach, and made lye with ashes and lime for soft Soap. Our old brown soft Soap would doubtless have been a little too much for the baby. Hoiv is ti'ansparent Soap made ? The Soap shavings are dissolved in alcohol. The alcohol is partly distilled off. The residue is a jelly, like a fruit-juice. This is cast or cut into little bars, and becomes the beautiful Yankee Shaving Soap, which once was so much in demand. What makes certain brands of hard Soap float in water? The fact that the Soap weighs exactly as much as water — a 328 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, cubic inch of the Soap displaces a cubic inch of water. All Soap floats in the cauldron and leaves beneath it a residue of various compounds, as has been said. But the water mixed with potash into lye is nearly half again as heavy as distilled water, so it would support very heavy Soap. If we call the weight of water i,ooo, then we find the weight of sodium to be. 972 ; potassium, 973; tallow, 942; beeswax, 956; resin, 1,100; chalk, 2,784; gypsum, 2,280; other white earths, above 2,200; strong lye of either soda or potash, 1,500 ; olive oil, 915 ; whale oil. 923 ; butter, 942. Soap, to float, must have ingredients that weigh no more than 1,000 altogether, and the fact that it floats argues that it carries very little ^^ body " such as the earthy sub- stances that are sometimes used as fillers. If 942 ounces of tallow were boiled in a solution of 6 per cent, caustic potash and water that weighed 1,058 ounces, the result must be a compound no heavier than water, and it must float in water. Whatever portion of alkali remains in the water below, when the Soap is drawn off, lightens the Soap just so much, and the lye may be so much the stronger than 6 per cent, at the beginning of the process. By experiment, it will be seen that the lightest Soaps are kept at the exact balance of 1,000, and do no more than float, while ice weighs only 930, and emerges from the water. '^^.^pi^ p .^^IP^^#I i '•#'^<^^^^a ■ i^^s^M ^.^l&Ji^E ' "^^>-^^^^3 a .'^^m ^^i^sfeS^ =^ >i<^4^>ii\ anb 1beat. W/iat do we know about Light ? Our theories grow more and more faulty as the experimenters advance in the actual treatment of Light. The Spectroscope is able to divide a small line of light into 140,000 cross-bars of light and darkness in each inch of the sun's spectrum, and this division may evidently go on to infinity ; and, beside that, dark- ness may mean only darkness by comparison with greater light. Again, there are several kinds of rays that are not seen at all — making heat at the red end, making chemical change at the blue end of the spectrum. Then, still again, the X Rays exist. Red, green and blue are seemingly degrees of speed in the action of .Light. (See Spectroscope.) Is all this new ? All this is old, except the X Rays. You will find the following sentence from '^Chambers' Encyclopedia" (article, Spectrum), printed in 1872, of especial interest since Dr. Roentgen's dis- covery : '^ What we can see is not the whole spectrum, but a mere fraction of it, for, beyond the red end, there are invisible rays, recognized at once by their heating powers ; and beyond the violet there are are invisible rays, more powerful than the visible in producing chemical changes, as on a photographic plate ; these can be changed into visible rays by fluorescent substances." What is Light? An exhibition of Force acting on Matter. We have a fair idea of Matter, and a fair idea of Force. There still remains in LIGHT AND HE A T. 33 1 nature a thing, called Life (see Life), that is a closer union of Force and Matter than Light. What was the invention of Chassagne ? He produced photographs in . the colors of nature. He immersed a gelatine plate in a colorless solution of unrevealed character. On the gelatine plate a photographic negative was taken in the ordinary manner, and treated as any other negative would be treated. From this negative a photograph was printed on sensitized paper that had been treated with the colorless secret solution. So far there is no color-work. But the print has acquired the power to select the proper colors from color- solutions or dyes into which it is now dipped. There are three of these dippings, in three dyes — red, yellow and blue. Colors as difficult of production as mother-of-pearl and irridescent glass are thus secured on the paper print by the mere selective agency of tlie print. What was dojie by the printers? Wonderful imitations on paper of porcelain, rugs, carpets, oil- cloths and other colored articles of merchandise were secured by somewhat similar means — the printer putting his paper to press on half-tone photographic cuts or pictures in three colors of ink — red, white and yellow. Even a black was well simulated. The selective action of the colors was astonishing, and suggested the need of entirely new theories of the laws of Light and the ideas of color. What is a Stereoscope ? It is an instrument which takes advantage of the fact that the two eyes of a human being form different images of objects within certain distances. Euclid made the first optical demon- stration of this kind. Wheatstone and Brewster brought the Stereoscope to the form usually seen in parlors, where each eye looks through a refracting prism, and pictured weeds or trees in a field stand out in a photograph, as if the photograph were a real field. What did this lead to ? The Magic Lantern was developed into a Stereopticon, and stereopticon pictures, much enlarged, were thrown upon a screen. LIGHT AND HE A T. 333 With the invention of the Kinetoscope, its passing pictures were placed in a Stereopticon (See Kinetoscope) and the wonderful reproductions of the Queen^s Jubilee, the Czar's Coronation, the Corbett-Fitzsimmons encounter, the German military maneu- vers, and other stirring scenes, were exhibited to the people under the names of Vitascope, Cinematographe, Ediscope, etc. The Edison Kinetoscope is a box holding the pictures, into which the spectator peers, beholding only miniature scenes, that move with extreme and unnatural rapidity. What is Heat ? Heat is that thing which follows or causes certain activities of the molecules into which the Elements and their compounds are divided. If you take the temperature of your hand for a thermometer, then anything in which the molecules are revofving or meeting more rapidly than the molecules in your hand are revolving — that thing is warm or hot ; if less rapidly, that thing is cool or cold. How is Heat conducted ? Either by radiation through the air and through bodies in straight lines, or by means of conduction, in any direction from warmer to colder mediums. A radiant heat is a greater exhibition of energy. It may pass through a medium without heating the medium. The degree of energy is measured by the length of the wave sent across matter. If a radiant body send out waves that are each longer than eight hundred and twelve millionths of a millimeter — But tell me ivJiat a inilliineter is ? A centimeter is over Ihree-eighths of an inch. A millimeter is one-tenth of this three-eighths of an inch. Divide this one- tenth into millionths, and if the wave is longer than 812 of these millionths, the eye cannot see the light, although the ther- mometer will make a record. At 812 the light is red; at 500, bright green ; at 400, a feeble violet and the thermometer ceases to act, but the photographic plate has long shown increasing agitation ; at 200 the eye sees no light again, but the photo- graphic plate shows chemical change due to the battering of molecules. 334 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Is Heat the same as Motion f Under this theory, yes. All molecules are moving all the time. In solid bodies, as in gold, the path of the molecule is narrow. In fluids, the molecule moves through the entire ex- tent of the fluid, meeting, clashing, rebounding, etc. In gases, the molecules move with highest velocities. Thus all gases must contain the greatest amount of Heat, liquids next and solids last. What zuas Pepper s Ghost ? Prof. Pepper, an English lecturer, visited America late in the 70's and exhibited many remarkable optical phenomena, one of which is referred to at the close of our chapter on Electricity. In another experiment, which is illustrated at the head of this chapter. Prof. Pepper was able to project the reflection of a young woman as a ghost upon the stage. She walked about the stage, walked through the Professor, and he accompanied the scene with a somewhat dramatic monologue. Pepper^s Ghost created a popular sensation, and the lectures were largely attended in A.merica. Why should we deal with Light and Heat in this chapter ? Because of our daily needs, at home and abroad. Our source of Light and Heat, the sun, is shut away from us for many hours each day. We therefore set forces at work, or liberate forces that agitate molecules of matter until our needs are supplied. What is our best artificial Light ? So far, Electricity furnishes it, and we have described, in the chapter on Electricity, the manner in which the two common forms of Electric Light are furnished to the people. What is the conmionest Light? That produced by burning a wick whose lower end is immersed in Kerosene. Lamps for this purpose have been produced of every size and form, and stoves, both for heating and cooking, have long been in use. Great difficulty has arisen in overcoming the tendency of the lamp or stove to give off an odor. LIGHT AND HE A T. 335 Where does Kerosene eome from ? It is refined from Petroleum, or rock oil, which flows or is pumped from wells sunk in various parts of the earth's surface, from Japan eastward at least to Indiana. The word Kerosene is also wax-ene, for Keros in Greek, means wax. What is Petroleum ? It is one stage in a series of untheorized chemical changes in hydro-carbon molecules. Naphtha may be found flowing out of the earth, a clear, limpid fluid. On reaching and mixing with Fig. 123. TAGLIABUE'S APPARATUS FOR TESTING COAL OIL. air, it grows thicker, and is Petroleum. Further exposure and contamination turn it into mineral tar. As it hardens it becomes asphalt or bitumen. There is no bitumen in what the miners call bituminous coal. Where was Petroleum discovered in America ? On Oil Creek, a tributary of Allegheny River, in Western Pennsylvania. A man named Blake was the discoverer in 1859. The great oil excitement and speculation did not come until war-time, and the first person enriched — called '^Coal Oil Johnny, '^ made a sensation with his easily-gotten money. Cities rose and fell, and there are places now devoid of inhabitants, 336 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. where once were hotels, telegraph offices, daily papers and *' opera-houses/' In those days, the wells spouted crude oil. Fig. 123K. DIAGRAM OF A STELL RIG FOR DRILLING OIL WELLS. A. Upright plan. B, Ground plan. 1, Derrick Frame. 2, Crown pulley. 3, Sand pump pulley. 4, Derrick girt. 5, Braces', 6, Ladder. 7, Bailer. 8, Walking beam. 9 Headache post. 10, Bull wheels. - 11, Baud wheels. 12, Sand reel. 13, Ropes connecting ■with steam engine, 14, Top of well. 15, Sand line. 16, Bull rope. and it ran to waste. But no gas wells had been found. The oil region gradually extended westward into Ohio. What filially followed the discovery of Oil Wells? The largest monopoly of trade in oil or, any other substance, that the world has seen. In 1870, the oil firm of ,Rockefeller, LIGHT AND HE A T. 337 Andrews & Flagler, at Cleveland, formed the Standard Oil Company. This parent organization finally headed the Standard Oil Trust. In 1895, the ownership of the American fields and the Russian fields on the Caspian Sea at the Caucasus Mountains, were consolidated. A great refinery was established at Whiting, Indiana, near Chicago, and hundreds of vast tanks, like gas- holders, may be seen there as railway passengers from the East go to the western cities. The Standard Oil interests are perhaps the largest property ever held in ownership by private citizens in the history of the world. How does the Crude Oil get to Whiting? Principally by a pipe that runs through Indiana. The pipe empties into the great oil-holders, where it is *^ tanked" — that is, the water separates from it — about two per cent. How is Petroleum refined 2 It goes to a boiler with a still attachment. About twelve thousand gallons are thus treated at a time. Live steam is injected, and a vapor of gasoline and naphtha rises into a worm and is condensed into liquids, to be further refined, the naphtha becoming benzine. About eighty-five per cent, of oil is left. This goes to another still, where it is mixed with a solution of a sodium compound and heated. Over half of the oil goes through the worm, and is condensed as crude illuminating oil. How is the Crude Oil refined? Four ounces of sulphuric acid to the gallon of oil are added, and the mass is agitated for half an hour. A tarry residue has then* precipitated with the acid. The oil is passed through water, to wash it clean of sulphur; two per cent, of a sodium compound is again put in, agitated, and the oil again passed through water. The oil is then pumped into a fire still and distilled in a last solution of sodium compound. The oil that comes from the worm is now snow white, and is barreled in glue barrels or shipped in five gallon cans. The by-products are themselves refined, if necessary. Name these by-products of Petroleum. About fifty-four per cent, of illuminating oil for your lamp 338 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. was secured ; there will be seventeen per cent, of fine machinery oils ; fifteen per cent, of naphtha (three grades) ; two per cent, of gasoline ; two per cent, of paraffine wax; and a loss of about ten per cent. What great feat was accomplished with Crude Oil? The largest battery of steam boilers ever set up in the world was heated by burning sprayed crude oil at the Chicago Fair of 1893. Steam for 27,000 horse-power of machinery was furnished without smoke or soot from the chimneys, leaving the buildings of the World's Fair white and clean, and Us atmosphere pure. What artificial Light did the Kerosene Lamp immediately displace ? The old '^Spirit Lamp," in which amphene was burned. The wick came up through two tubes, which had hoods, that must be put on the tubes when the Lamp was out of use. What was used before the Spirit Lamp ? The Candle, variously made, which was an improvement of the ancient Oil Lamp, in which a loose wick hung over the edge, or spout or ^^beak," of an open vessel. Candles were made of tallow, in tin or zinc molds, in nearly every rural American household as late as i860. What had the Cities done, in the meantime, to light themselves ? They had set up gas-works, piped their streets and houses, and furnished an artificial Light that still holds its ground on account of economy, safety and convenience. In some ways, such as out-door illumination, the Electric Arc-Light has suc- ceeded, at the expense of the gas companies. Was Gas known to the Ancients ? Yes. The gas-wells at Baku, on the Caspian Sea, were burn- ing when Thothmes IIL pushed the power of Egypt to that quarter, early in the history of civilization. The Chinese have had gas-wells, with pipes of bamboo, for ages. How did Gas-Making begirt in Engla?id f There had been a burning well at Wigan, which set the LIGHT AND HE A T. 339 philosophers to the making of theories. Finally, they distilled gas from coal, and Clayton, late in the seventeenth century (about 1688), read his paper before the Royal Society. He had filled a bladder with gas. In his paper he saidf '^ I kept this spirit in bladders a considerable time, and endeavored several ways to condense it, but in vain; and when I had a mind to divert strangers or friends, I have frequently taken one of these bladders and pricked a hole therein with a pin, and compressing gently the bladder near the flame of a candle till it once took fire, it would then continue flaming until all the spirit was compressed out of the bladder, which was the more surprising because no one could discern any difference in appearance between these bladders and those filled with common air.^' What may we deduce from this extract ? That the English race was slow in paying at.Lention to the results of the chemical researches of the Arabian and Latin races, for here we have a definite record that the ^^inflammable air" (about 1688) was a novelty to all the English scientists. Probably there was no book in England that dealt with the learning of the alchemists. But did not the English make the first practical use of this knowledge of Gas? Yes. Murdoch erected Gas-works in Cornwall, in 1792. Bir^ ingham and other cities were lighted early in the nineteenth century. Moscow did not obtain commercial Gas until 1866. Describe the mode^^n Gas-Works. The most notable construction is the Gas-holder. This is the reservoir for the supply. It is a vast tank upside down. Its sides are in water^ and as the Gas enters, the tank's top rises up, sometimes with telescopic sections, enlarging as it rises. At dark the tank towers high, and sinks as the Gas escapes all night into the service pipes. There may be several Gas-holders, according to the consumption in the area covered by the Company. But the holders are made very large, and often there is but one. What is the Gas Retort? It is one of the ovens set over the fire. A furnace has four 340 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, Fig. 124. APPARATUS FOR ILLUSTRATING THE MANUFACTURE OF ILLUMINATING GAS. brick tubes or ovens, usually flat on the bottom and circular overhead. In these tubes, nine feet long, the coal is baked or roasted until it gives off all its vapor. What is Coke? It is the coal after it has been thus baked. Where does the Vapor or Gas go? It rises in an ascension pipe leading out of each retort. The ascension pipes unite above and pass in a tortuous way over a hydraulic main or trench of water, into which tar and other heavy matters drop. This main runs to the tar-well. As the Gas passes away from the fire and presses forward to get out, the pushing from behind is cut away as much as possible, in order to obtain a better quality with more time for chemical action. What is the Scrubber ? This is a purifier for the purpose of removing ammonia com- pounds. The object is to give the ammonia the widest oppor- tunity to meet water, with which it has a remarkable affinity, and to give the hydrogen and carbon, where united, as little water as possible. A strong ammonia water is desired as a by- LIGHT AND HE A T. 341 product. The scrubber is a double coke filter. The Gas goes up one side and comes down the other, while sprays of weak ammonia water trickle down, attracting the amnionia molecules in the Gas that goes by. What is the Purifier ? It may be a set of trays on which lime, or chemicals (the oxide of iron) are exposed. The Gas passes over these trays, and the lime attracts the impurities — carbonic acid and sulphur. The Fig. 70. A. CWURETING Chambir C.CORl Ch(\H8CR KHof Ar Chambir' G. Gas Fixing CM/\MBE.n R. THERMfll STORft&L 5. 5uPtRMEATf R /\ Fig. 125. THE ROSE-HASTINGS COAL-GAS APPARATUS. cleansing apparatus often adds components to the Gas. What is the course y from Coal to Gas ? Soft Coal goes into the ovens or retorts. The Gas rises into the condensers and the tar runs out. From this tar, with other chemicals, the aniline dyes are made. The Gas goes to the scrubber, to the exhauster (which stops the pressure), to the purifier, to the meter, to the Gas-holder. 342 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Hozv does the House-Meter work ? If it is a dry meter, which is probable, the pipe from the street enters the first or bottom of two leather bellows or measures. This bellows rises until it opens a valve in the upper bellows, when it collapses, and the upper bellows fills. Then the process begins once more. The bellows as it collapses, moves a steel arm. This arm is on a vertical shaft that starts a train of wheels. Every five bellowsfuls make two cubic feet of gas, and the wheel represented by the top hand on the outside dial of the meter makes one revolution. The top hand is called the test hand, and it should stand still all day, or your meter records the escape of Gas. Fix. 126. APPARATUS FOR GAS ANALYSIS. How 7iearly a c citrate is this Meter ? It may run fifteen per cent, fast or slow. The cities have LIGHT AND HEAT. 343 inspection-departments, and if a householder believes his 'meter is fast, he may deposit a fee — say I2.50 — and his meter must then be taken to the city hall by the Gas Company. If it be fast, his fee is returned to him, a rebate is collected from the Gas Company, covering several months past, and a correct meter is put in his house. But, if his meter prove to be slow, his fee is not returned, nor is his slow meter. Meters are tested with air, at the pressure of Gas. We illustrate the apparatus for the inspection and testing of the Gas itself. Describe the Pints ch Light. By means of this device railway and street cars are illuminated. The system was invented by Julius Pintsch, of Berlin, who made a Gas from Petroleum that could be compressed like air, with- out condensation into a permanent liquid. City Gas, from coal, cannot be thus stored. Gas works for making Pintsch Gas are established in all the large cities of the world. The process is not unlike that already described, the only great difference lying in the use of oil instead of coal. After the vapor rises from the retort, it is cleansed of tar, sulphur, and the heavy hydro-car- bons in the same way, the last purifier being oxide of iron. It is put into the Gas-mains under a pressure of fifteen atmos- pheres, and these mains lead to the depots whence the passenger trains take their departure. Under each passenger car that has Pintsch Gas Light is a long cylinder, like the air-brake cham- bers. This is charged from the Compressed-Gas pipe. On the way from the cylinder to the car-lamp, the Gas is expanded until the pressure is only a few ounces to the square inch. Thus we ride in a railv/ay car that is lighted by Gas, and the Gas never or rarely gives out during the journey, however long. About seventy railway companies use the Pintsch system. It has also been applied to cable street cars. What great thing followed the finding of Gas Wells ? About 1884, the city of Pittsburg, the largest producer of iron, steel and glass in the United States, succeeded in using gas from the wells for all of the manufacturing purposes save the iron smelting, and the pall of smoke that had covered the city passed away. The Gas-field extended rapidly westward into 344 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Ohio and Indiana. The greatest excitement and speculation attended the discovery of the supplies of Gas under Findlay, O. Pipes were laid to Toledo and further on to Detroit, where many thousand residences were served with Fuel Gas the first year. Indianapolis, Ind., was thus heated for several years before the pipes reached Chicago. At Chicago, the pipes were carried only into the south side of the city. The effect on the price of coal was to cheapen it, but the Gas-wells failed to keep up their pressure, and at the same time the price of coal advanced. But the fact that so many persons in five States were long served with fuel from the interior of the earth, must remain one of the most striking episodes of history. What is Coal? It is a fossil fuel — largely carbon — the result of baking or roasting forests, or forest-growth under coverings of clay and water with great heat, such as the internal fires of the earth. The wood, grass, leaves and some earthy metals are compressed into a formless mass, usually black. It is said that there are in certain parts of the world evidences of the growth of thirty forests on top of one another, forming that many strata or layers of Coal. There are two kinds of Coal? Yes, hard and soft. The hard Coal is called Anthracite, from the Greek name for Coal. The soft is called Bituminous, but there is no Bitumen (Asphalt) in it. When we burn Coaly what Elements remain unbtirned in the ashes ? Mainly sand, clay, iron and lime, being silicon, aluminium, iron oxide and calcium. There are small quantities of mag- nesium, potassium, sulphur and phosphorus, with hydrogen. What become of the Ashes of a great city ? They are solid, incompressible, and gradually lift the site. They are the main item in the debris of cities. Ancient cities are found to have accumulated as much as eighty feet of earth in this manner. The centre of Chicago is now ten feet higher than the site on which Fort Dearborn was built. The pavement LIGHT AND HE A T. 345 of the time of the great fire, lies about eighteen inches below the present streets. Where is the Anthracite Coal found f There are two basins in Pennsylvania. Other parts of the world furnish it, and it is called ^^ Stone Coal" in Great Britain. When Coal is broken for household use, the English call it ''Coals." The French and other Latin races call it Carbon — the French say Charbon de terre, that is, Carbon of the earth. Hard Coal is practically quarried. Soft Coal is tunneled for, and dug out of the earth with much more discomfort. Anthracite was not thought to be combustible at first? No. As late as 1812, of nine wagons of Anthracite Coal hauled to Philadelphia, only two could be sold at cost of trans- portation. The rest was given away, with difficulty. The per- sons who bought the Coal could not set it on fire, and threatened prosecution on criminal charges. This was one hundred years after the making of bar iron in America, It is now regarded as the best solid fuel that has been discovered. The ownership of the Anthracite mines, together with the high esteem in which the fuel is held, has given rise to a fuel monopoly. The failure of the Gas-wells has strengthened the monopoly. What is a Coal-Breaker ? It is a terraced building in the Anthracite region. It rises over the mouth of a Coal-mine, and its lowest terrace is a shed for the loading of railway cars. It takes its name from the machine by which Coal is broken into the various sizes of " egg»" " range," " chestnut " and *' pea." Where is this Breaking Machine f At the top of the building. The car of Coal rises from the shaft with a miner's metal check hanging to it. The weigh-boss credits the miner with the amount in the car. The car is dumped on a slanting screen with bars wide apart. Under the screen is an iron platform, which receives the screened Coal. This platform also slants, so that the Coal works out from under the screen. Here men with picks examine the big pieces of coal, to find slate, and knock it off. The platform gradually 346 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY slides the Coal into a hopper. Underneath are the rolls with steel teeth — the breakers. With disagreeable noise, the teeth crunch the Coal and send the broken pieces in a chute to the revolving screen or separator. This separator throws the various sizes into their own chutes. But there is slate in the Coal, and, while it goes down the chutes, boys in rows, under the sharp watch of a superintendent, pick the pieces of slate out of the Coal. They grow very expert in eye and touch. The refuse picked out is called culm, and this rises in mountains outside the breakers. The process of breaking, rebreaking, picking and washing, varies with necessity or inclination, but in a mine of good Coal is usually as simple as has been described. What is the Mine Shaft f A four-sectioned well, in which the ascending and descending cars occupy two parts, the ventilating shaft a third part, and an escape-shaft the fourth part. The cages go up and down 2,000 feet a minute. What a,re the Gang- Ways ? These are the tunnels leading from the shaft to the places where the miners are at work. Rails are laid in the gang-ways, and the Coal-cars run on these rails. The gang-ways are well- timbered. What are the Air- Ways ? These are separate tunnels running parallel Vv^ith the gang- ways, by which air is sucked from the furthermost chamber of the mine. The gang-ways connect by cross-cuts with the air- ways. Describe the ventilation of a Mine. The Anthracite miner' has the advantage of plenty of Coal, with *^ pockets" sometimes sixty feet deep. But gas and 'Mamps" are his menace. To make the mine safe, a circulation of air must be maintained. At the top of the ventilating shaft, an exhaust-fan sucks air out of the ventilating tunnels. The fresh air goes down the car shaft and into the gang-ways. It follows that all cross-cuts must have doors. The boys who open LIGHT AND HEAT. 347 and close these doors are called '* door-tenders'^ and " trappers." The trappers in Scotland used to work eighteen hours a day. What is the '^Breast " in the Coal-mine ? The '' breast " or ^^ face " of the Coal is the open part of the vein, against which the miner works. He drills holes in the Coal, as if it were rock, puts in dynamite cartridges, makes the blast, and then sets the " laborer '^ or helper filling the car. The driver carries out the Coal, a mule pulling the car. Siippose the Coal-vei^i slants downward? The gangway from the shaft then approaches this slanting vein. The miner makes achute upward at the slant of the vein, exposing its face. He then works in this chute, and the Coal tumbles downward to the car in the gang-way. When the vein has been worked up to the old level, the main shaft of the mine is sunk still lower, and another gangway goes out still further under the descending vein. What is the ordej' of learning the trade of Coal-mining? As a boy, the m.iner picks slate. Then he goes into the mine and tends door. Then he drives cars. Then he becomes a " laborer, '' helping the miner. At last, he drills the holes and fires the shot. How does Soft Coal Mining differ? The miners of say^ Illinois, have only thin veins, and cannot use dynamite satisfactorily. There is more danger from cave- ins. There are no chambers, and the miner must often stoop over. Water is a constant menace. In soft Coal mines, there are no pillars left. In Pennsylvania it is said that 40 per cent, of the Coal is thus used for support. Hoiv much Anthracite is in sight ? The experts vary in their estimates. From ten to twenty- five billion tons are said to remain. The output is forty million tons. The Anthracite Basin covers 475 square miles. No soft Coal is present. No Anthracite Coal is found in the regions of soft Coal, which extend nearly all over the rest of the United States. The Anthracite vein is not less than three feet thick. It may swell to sixty feet. It dips to 3,000 feet below the surface of the earth. 348 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, How is a Coal Field placed, geologically ? First, there may be a bed of clay, filled with fossils that were once the roots of large trees. Then comes the vein of Coal. On top of this lies the roof, a slatey clay, with leaves, stems, fruits, shells, pebbles and all the sediment that would gather at the bottom of water. Sometimes trees are imbedded in the lower clay, while their trunks run through the coal vein. Describe the celebrated cliff on the Bay of Fundy, iit Nova Scotia f Here the water has laid bare the side of a cliff hundreds of feet high on the southern shore. The layers of the cliff are thus exposed, and they are composed of Coal, clay, grit and shale. Erect trees, in fossil state, are seen on the face of the cliff, and series of these stand, one above the other, actually showing the growth and destruction of one forest after another. What has happened to Coal geologically ? Study of the carboniferous strata of the earth leads us to believe that a soil was made ; a forest of fern-trees and ever- greens grew ; water and mud destroyed it, or killed it ; heat or fermentation with pressure condensed the vegetation into Coal ; the surface of the earth was again heaved above water ; a forest grew ; and so on some thirty times. The climate was hot, everywhere. This is the history of the carboniferous era. How much of the heat and pressure was from the inner fires of the earth, how much was chemical foment and top weight, are variously theorized. What Animal Life existed in the Carbon forests f Not much, for the reason that the earth was still in groups of islands. There were many fishes, snails and small shell-fish. There were no birds. A sort of crocodile lived, and amphibious creatures like the lizards were numerous. Of the ferns and pines about three hundred and thirty species are found in the true Coal-veins of Great Britian. The very last stratum of earth, now making, only shows about two hundred and twenty species. Five lower formations, all above the Coal, are com- paratively poor in vegetable growth. LIGHT AND HE A T. 349 What do the Irish peat-bogs shoiu ? Submerged trees are found, which have been dyed black with iron compounds. The wood is sound and h^rd, and can be used as timber. The next stage toward Coal, is when the peat or the tree turns to lignite, or brown Coal, soft, easily split, burning to a large residue of white ash. Jet is a product of lignite, and is very light. Soft Coal is the next stage. Anthra- cite is the coal which, under pressure has been '' cupelled " in the hottest fires, or heated the most chemically, with no opportunity of reaching the air. What other Fuel do zve possess ? The Wood that has not been turned to Coal, or Gas, or Oil. This was once the chief fuel of the Eastern States. Where the forests were to be cleared, the pioneers could not wait, and even burned the logs in great piles, with enormous waste. Wood makes a hot but smoky fire. What is Charcoal ? Charred Wood. Great pyramids are built of cut Wood, and these pyramids are covered with earth. The pile is then set on fire, and burns with insufficient air, turning the heap to Char- coal. Charcoal is the great fuel in hot countries like Mexico. It is used in carbonizing iron into steel. It is a powerful disin- fectant. It is used in making gunpowder. Wherever heat without smoke is required, as in tailors' irons, etc.. Charcoal is used. It is always for sale at city wood-yards. Does Electricity furnish Heat? Yes. There are Electric Kitchens at the pure food fairs, and we have in the chapter on Electricity, noted the practical appli- cation of Electric heat to the warming of railway cars. tTi>TftTi>TiJ'i ^ IFce. )i^ ^^^^S*J* TJr- -"^sf^ -^^sr- -^^sf^ TSc- -^^sf^ T!^ Water, from which half the heat has been taken. The molecules, in arranging themselves anew, lose a part of their weight, gain in size, and float on the water, with a portion of the Ice mass projecting from the water. As this portion is small, when one sees a gigantic iceberg in the water, he may- calculate the mass that is submerged, as the floating Ice in our pitcher is the same sort of an iceberg, on a smaller scale. How do we make use of Ice ? We inclose it in a box or chamber, and it rapidly absorbs heat from the air, reducing the temperature to a point at which decay in other things is arrested. In order to melt, Ice must absorb the exact amount of heat that the water lost when it froze. Agassiz has written the most interesting of essays on the, physical process by which a block of Ice melts, and how the globule of water forces its way through the block of Ice. How do we tLSually obtain our Ice ? Great houses are constructed at the borders of our small lakes, and blocks of Ice are cut and piled in layers of sawdust. The machinery for storing and unloading, yearly improves. This Ice is carried to the cities in train-loads, and this is the product that is loaded into the refrigerator cars that now form so large a part of our freight rolling stock. Why did Ice-making begin as an industry ? Because in very warm climates the natural Ice melted in long 350 ICE. 351 transit by rail. Again, even in cold climates, the Ice-harvesters leagued together and put prices to a point that justified a chemical product. Artificial Ice has the advantages of purity and solidity, the latter quality making it moVe efficient as an absorbant of heat. How did the Artificial or Chemical Refrigeration begin f The packing-houses of the north found that they could econo- mize by building a cold room in which pipes filled with brine absorbed heat. Here the temperature was more equable, the air was dryer, and the labor of carrying Ice and washing it was omitted. What ivas the principle of making Ice? \i Ice takes up heat, some other substance could be found that would take up heat faster. In this way water could be frozen by having this substance absorb heat from the water. Hundreds of such substances were at once suggested, but commercially, ammonia, a gas compressed to liquid, was accepted. Describe an Ice Factory. The plant includes heavy machinery — steam boiler, engines, pumps, condensers, pipes and tanks, but the process is simple. The freezing apparatus is a tank of salt-water, which itself does not freeze. Through this brine run pipes carrying ammonia, which is expanding rapidly into gas, and withdrawing heat from the brine as it goes through the pipes that are submerged in the brine. So the Brine gets very cold ? Yes. At zero and below it does not freeze. But closed cans holding pure water, freeze when put in the brine. How large is the Brine Tank ? About fifty feet long, twenty feet wide and four feet deep. It sets in the floor, and is covered when the cans are freezing. Cans, holding distilled water, are set in rows across the tank, and are not allovv^ed.to rest on the bottom of the tank. These cans usually measure forty-four by twenty-two by eleven inches in size. They are filled with great care, so as to exclude 352 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. bubbles of air. The tank is covered up. The ammonia-pipes run through the brine between each row of cans. The water in the can freezes solidly in less than three days. Hoiv is the Can of Ice handled? A traveling crane lifts the can, tilts it upside down, carries it to an inclined plane, and sets it under a stream of warm water. The Ice slides out of the warm can, and down the incline to the ice-house. A restaurant-keeper can have his lobster or fish hung in the can before it is frozen, and it comes out surrounded by pure Ice. Fig. 127. ICE-MAKING MACHINE. ICE. 353 Now for the Ice MacJiinery f This is the engine or pump which keeps the ammonia in circulation. One stroke of the piston sucks in a quantity of ammonia as a gas ; the same,stroke- presses another cylinder-full into a liquid. This liquid has suddenly lost a vast amount of heat under pressure. Now turn the liquid into the pipes that go through the brine and it will expand into a gas again, but not until it has absorbed all the heat that it lost. This heat it can get nowhere but in the brine, and the brine must get what it can out of the water-cans, and the water in the cans freezes. The brine is usually kept at eighteen degrees below zero. When the ammonia has expanded into gas again, it is ready to go back in the circuit to the piston, which gives it another squeeze. Mechanical power may be aided by cold condensation of the gas. What establishments must have freezing plants of this order ? All breweries, packing-houses, cold-storage warehouses for fruit, meat, etc. Great hotels and kitchens may be thus served. Pleasure-houses can be cooled. There are large store-rooms in the great cities where the hoar-frost seldom or never leaves the pipes that surround the room, and even covers the ceiling and walls with its crystals. Do the timnelers use this system ? Yes. The ammonia pump may be set at the mouth of the shaft, and brine pipes may be sent into the tunnel. Pipes may be driven into quicksand and the entire cylinder will freeze so that it may be cut out like rock. A difficult quicksand pit in the four-mile water tunnel at Chicago was thus mined. Fig. 128. COTTON, PROM FIELD TO FACTORY. Clothes, Etc. iiTnTtTita Where do our Clothes, our Bedding, and our Carpets, Curtains a7id Ha 7ig ings co m e from ? They are made from Linen, Woolen, Cotton and Silk. On each of these materials and the processes of using them, great libraries exist. Fi^. 129. PRE-HISTORIC FLAX CLOTH, FROM A LAKE DWELLING. With what did Man first Clothe himself? With the skins of beasts. From these skins it might be that Woolen garments evolved. But Linen (flax) Cloth is found as a relic of the stone age, and is therefore prehistoric. Cotton Cloth is found in the graveyards of Ancon, in Peru, which are pre-historic. What is probably our oldest tradition on this subject ? Lenormant states that the Jerusalem Talmud attributes the 355 356 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. making of Cloth to Naamah, the daughter of Lamech, and sister of Tubal-Cain. Thus the Hebrews held to a tradition that the great, great, great, great, great grand-daughter of Adam first spun the Wool of the flocks and wove the thread into Cloth. All our industrial arts are attributed to the family of Cain, the murderer, to which Naamah (meaning pleasa?it) belonged. What is Silk? Silk is the gummy, fibrous exudation of a worm, and resembles hair and horn in its chemical structure — that is, it is made of the protoplasm Elements — hydrogen, oxygen,^ nitrogen, and carbon (See Life and Chemistry). The process of turning the exuda- Fig. 130. SILK FIBRES ON THE MICROSCOPIC SLIDE. tions of the silk-worm into Cloth was a secret of the Chinese for ages. In China, the word for Silk was See. The western nations called it Seer. Accordingly, they called China the Land of Silk, or Seres. The Greeks said Sericon for Silk, the Romans, Sericum, and the French Soie, (probably from Soi, the native name in Corea). For ages, the Europeans wore Silk without knowing what it was made of, the belief being general that the Cloth came directly from the mulberry tree. In the time of Henry VIII, of England, if a man's wife wore a Silk gown, he must furnish a war-horse for the King. CLOTHES, ETC, 357 Hozv docs the Worm produce Silk f By making a cocoon in which to lie until nature transforms the worm into a moth. Silk could be made from all cocoons of all insects of that order, and from the exudations of all insects that construct webs or spin "gossamer." The Silk-making insect of commerce is the bombyx fnori, a mulberry-feeding moth. The worm, before it becomes a moth, and at its birth, begins eating mulberry leaves, and consumes double its v/eight daily. In five weeks it has grown three inches long, but only slightly larger in girth than a lead-pencil. Hozv does the Worm, make the Cocoon ? Ic ejects the gum called Silk from two tubes near its mouth. The two lines join as soon as they touch each other and form the natural strand, sticking together because they are wet. The line ad- heres to the branch which it first touched, and the worm then either turns over and over, or VvHth its very flexible mouth or proboscis, throws the line in a circle, forming the walls of the cocoon. Gradually a chamber is made, with the worm inside still turning over and over, and gradually squeezing its body into smaller compass. It seems to be nearly dead when irs work is ended. Does the Moth hatch out ? No. At the end of about the eighth day, the worm is killed by the Silk-makers, be- cause, in issuing from its habitation, the moth would injure the cocoon. The Silk- makers expose the cocoons to steady sunshine or other heat, and the worm dies. Is the Cocoon all merchantable Silk ? Yes. A part of it will be reeled off into first-class goods. The remainder will be carded into spun Silk, an inferior grade. There are four thousand yards of SILK -SE- CRETING A PPA- RATUS IN THE WORM. 358 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY the double line. Of this length not more than seven hundred Fig. 133. APPARATUS FOR STIFLING THE SILK WORM. yards are likely to come off on the reel. The rest is too fine or sticky to be handled by reeling. How are the Cocoons reeled ? From six to ten of the cocoons are put in a basin of hot soft water. With a whisk broom or similar implement, they are submerged, and the end of the thread sticks to the broom. All the ends of the cocoons are collected, passed together through a guide-eye, and tied to the bar of a large reel that is placed far enough away to assure, the drying of the filaments in passing through the air. The French call the reeling-establishments "filatures." The reel is slowly turned and the operator watches the water, to see that all the cocoons keep bobbing, as otherwise he would have no knowledge that a thread had broken in the strand. An expert can reel five ounces in ten hours. When a single thread breaks it is mended by sticking the ends together. If the entire strand break, a knot must be made. When enough CLOTHES, ETC. 369 Silk has been reeled to make a skein, it is removed from the reel, dried, and 'packed in ^^ books" of from five to ten pounds. These books are packed into bales of one hundred and thirty- three and one-third pounds. This is raw Silk. ^ The rest of the cocoon is shipped as waste Silk. Hoiv much of this Silk material comes to America ? It is not unusual for our Silk manufacturers to import three hundred thousand or four hundred thousand pounds of cocoons, eight million pounds of reeled Silk (at three or four dollars a pound), and a million pounds of waste. What is done with the raw Silk? It is now in skeins of thread in which there are from six to ten filaments. The skeins are soaked in warm soap-suds, and then hung on a reel which is called a swift. From the swift the Silk goes on a bobbin that moves as a boy winds his kite-string, so that the Silk travels the long way of the bobbin. This imparts some lustre to the thread. Next is the first spinning-frame, where the thread gets the first twist it has received. The worm made a double thread; the reeler made a thread from six to ten of these double threads. Now ii is finished, because otherwise, in the Cleaning all these filaments might come apart and make fioss. The spindle that twists the thread revolves at a speed of ten thousand revolutions a minute. What is all this Silk process called? It is called '^throwing," and the operators are known as " throwsters. '' Next the thread is cleaned by running from one bobbin to another, through a slit that will scrape off any lump or nib. Now the raw Silk thread is ready to be doubled, or made stronger and larger. Imagine now that the bobbins of Silk are Silk cocoons, and that the reeling begin anew, save that the reel is another bobbin, for the thread is dry and does not need a reel. As each thread leaves its bobbin to join the cable, it passes thiough a ^^faller," which falls down and stops the machine if its thread breaks. Now the doubled or tripled thread is twisted on a spinning-frame, and as it leaves the frame, is wound again on flying bobbins. The Silk-throwster is at liberty to vary his filaments, strands and twists, to please his own ideas of either 360 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. worth or trade, and an ordinary three-cord sewing silk thread may be composed of nearly two hundred of the original Silk- worm filaments. It is now ready for the dyer. What peculiarity has Silk? It is a remarkable absorbant of water, and will take up from Fig. 131. CONDITIONING APPARATUS. CLOTHES, ETC. 301 twenty to thirty per cent, without feeling darnp. As it is sold by the pound, its '^ condition ^^ is ascertained at *^ conditioning houses/* which issue certificates of condition to accompany the goods. The Silk is dried and weighed. What is the Serigraph ? An ingenious American invention, now used all over the world, by which the grade of a Silk thread is graphically registered. The Silk is wound from one reel to another, but the second reel is three percent, larger and thus stretches or strains the thread. The thread goes over an agate hook that is fastened to a pendu- lum. The movement of the pendulum indicates the strain on the thread, guides a pencil on a revolving cylinder of paper, and by wave-lines traces the history of the thread as it went by. By comparing these records^ the comparative qualities of various threads become accurately known before they are subjected to wear of any other kind. Does the raw Silk shine ? No. Up to this point it is dull in color and harsh to the touch. It must be '' scoured '^ — that is, nearly boiled and then bleached. A coating of gum covers the true fibre and this is to be removed, leaving the light to play between the original, single filaments that came from each side of the worm's mouth or spinneret. (See Interference, in chapter on Spectroscope.) About three hundred pounds of thrown Silk are put in two hundred gallons of hot water, with sixty pounds of powdered soap. Here the hanks hang on rods and are turned in the soap-suds. Another '^ boil- ing^' in a linen bag, with less soap in the water follows, when the hanks are whirled dry in a centrifugal machine. (See Sugar, also Milk.) If the Silk is to be white, it now goes in a closed chamber, where it remains in the fum.es of sulphurous acid. After bleaching, it is washed in cold water. From twenty-five to thirty-one per cent, in weight has been lost. / should like to know about Mourning Crape. This most peculiar product of the loom is woven from Silk that has not been scoured. The black dye and the gum unite in holding the light. The waves are given to the material after 362 ^^^ FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. both spinning and weaving, by various processes that are jealously kept secret, often by means of finishing by one secret method, in one town, what was begun by another secret method in another town. The word crape is the same as crisp. The light falling into the little furrows of black, is almost completely swallowed up, and thus black crape becomes probably the black- est thing we have. The effect on the visual senses is so notable that many persons are at once deeply depressed by the mere sight of black crape. What remarkable thing followed in the progress of Dyei^ig Silks? The manufacturers desired to get back in weight what was lost by scouring. The readiness of Silk to unite with chemicals opened a wide field for this enterprise, and at last the dyers have been able to so use the metal or Element, tin, as to add forty ounces to the pound of scoured Silk, one hundred and twenty ounces to the pound of Silk dyed in the gum, or unsecured (called souples), and one hundred and fifty to spun (waste) Silk. This practice began with the metallic '^ heavy black Silk" which the housewife dons on great days, and ended with the white Silk handkerchiefs, which twenty years ago were so soft and to-day are so greatly changed in feel. / hear of Artificial Silk, Yes. It is but logical that the chemists, having a pure carbon compound (see Chemistry) to deal with, should proceed to satis- factory results. In the chapter on Compressed Air, we have noted the means by which artificial Silk-like filaments are pro- jected from small tubes. Dr. Lehner, one of the many experi- menters, obtained a cellulose solution free of explosive nitre and sufficiently viscous (or ropy) to be drawn out in filaments as fine as the Silk worm's. These are gathered and reeled into thread, the thread into yarn, and the yarn is woven into cloth. The mulberry forests and worm-hatcheries, with their problems of climate and disease, are omitted, and old rags, wood-pulp, and acids take their place. What is the quality of this Artificial Silk? About sixty to seventy per cent, as good as the best, real CLOTHES, ETC, 363 scoured Silk woven stuffs. An English conditioning official cer- tifies, first, that it is artificial; that it is about seventy per cent, as strong and flexible as real silk; that it is much eyener in texture; that it takes the dye with perfect brilliancy and evenness, and that this applies to all shades of color. What was the Mulberry speculation ? About 1837, four of the New England States were giving bounties on American-made Silk, and Congress debated the sub- ject of national aid. In 1838, mulberry trees sold for ten dollars each. In 1839, the trees sold at three cents each, and most of the nurseries were abandoned. The Silk industry languished for many years thereafter, while the French producers remained masters of the situation. What are the peculiarities of the Silk Worm ? The common bombyx inori has been in the hands of man for many thousand years, and, under this domestication, has become an obedient but unhealthy creature. After hatching, it asks only for food and a place in which to wind its cocoon. But this subserviency to the will of man has made it the easy prey of parasites, and at times the existence of all the French worms has been threatened. It Vv^as one of the triumphs of Dr. Pasteur, of Paris, that he discovered the cause and the possible preven- tion of the greatest danger that ever confronted the manufac- turers of the Mediterranean countries. There are very many Silk-worms other than the bombyx inori. but less than ten kinds have been successfully bred for commerce. What is Satin ? Satin is, first of all, a Silk fabric, because of the sheen of the Silk filaments. If a scoured thread be laid across the light, it will shine at its best. In a loom the threads are crossed, as the splints are crossed in a basket. If we take four yards of carpet a yard wide, there are threads four yards long, running the long way. This is the warp. The threads running across the car- pet are the woof or weft. The weaver calls the whole carpet the web. Of course, it is the short threads that are put through the long ones — that is, shuttles carry the woof across the carpet. Suppose, instead of carpet, we are weaving Satin. Our effort CLOTHES, ETC, 365 now will be to keep the warp on the under side, and let long stretches of the woof^Vw^^ in the light, without letting the warp cross them and break the light. To do this, only every seven- teenth warp-thread is raised — that is, as the woof-shuttle goes through the warp-threads while they are spread apart for that passage, 940 warp threads will be below and only about 60 above — only just enough to hold the woof in place. But a different warp-thread rises for this upper service every time. At the edge of the Satin, called the selvedge, where strength is necessary, you may see the regular weaving. In Satin, the light effects, from precisely the same material, are astonishingly different. Satin dresses and linings have two advantages over all other Cloths. They do not harbor dust, and they offer little friction. Did all the Chinese once use Silk ? Probably. Ancient history shows that the garment was held as an article of great value. The Chinese wore the garments of their ancestors, generation on generation. How ge7ierally was Silk worn in Europe ? About the middle of the fourteenth century, one thousand nobles of Genoa walked in a public procession, all clad in Silken robes. Our theatres, in their plays of the ancien regime (time of Louis XV. or earlier) show the costumes of the upper classes. Beside coat and vest of Silk, the culottes, or breeches, were also of Silk, usually white. The peasants, who wore longer cover- ings on their legs, were thus sans (without) culottes,. They grew proud of the designation, and with the French Revolution there disappeared the Silken wear which had distinguished the upper classes. What Silken Garment has attracted public notice in recent times ? The skirt of the female dancer. In the skirt dance, the volum- inous folds of a silken fabric are displayed by movements of the hands, and stereoscopic pictures are often thrown on the moving disk of silk which surrounds the dancer. It is not uncommon to employ 500 yards of silk in a single skirt, which does not then 366 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY appear '* tuU " on the wearer. To develop this fabric toward the full possibilities of the silken fibre, for theatrical purposes, has been the study of managers, and even Mr. Edison's talent and advice- have been sought. It is said of the women of the Greek island of Cos, that they clothed themselves in silken garments that were of almost incredible thinness. It is believed that the Chinese weavers will be set at work on fabrics for skirt- dancers that will be made from the original filament as it leaves the silk-worm^s mouth, but scoured of one-quarter of its weight. In this way a thousand yards of ''Cloth '^ might weigh but a few ounces. How old is tJie Loom ? The loom for plain weaving is represented in the Egyptian monumental paintings and on Greek vases. We have, in Records of the Past, vol. 3, p. 151, the following, where the poet bewails the misery of the "little laborer:^' "The weaver, inside the Fig. lo7. LOOM 500 YEARS B. C, SHOWING BEAM, WITH THREADS HANGING OPEN— FROM A GREEK VASE— PENELOPE. houses, is more wretched than a woman ; his knees are at the place of his heart ; he has not tasted the air. Should he have CLOTHES, ETC. 367 done but a little in a day, of his weaving, he is dragged as a lily in a pool. He gives bread to the porter at the door that he may be allowed to see the light/^ This poem may be 5,000 years old. How did the Loom evolve ? The frame first held only the warp, which possibly hung be- tween two trees. Then it was placed vertically before the weaver on a frame, and the Turks still prefer to make their often beau- tiful and always valuable and durable woolen fabrics in this manner. A Turkish weaver stitching with needlefuls of his Fig. 137J^. TURKISH WOMEN WEAVING RUGS. various zvoofs on a frame of zvarp, has long been a familiar spectacle, fu/nishing an instructive method of advertising in the city store windows of America. Mention an ancient reference to Weaving. In the Book of Job: ^^ My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle" — chapter 7, verse 6. This is the Protestant version. The Catholic version reads, probably with more accuracy : " My 368 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, days have passed more swiftly than the web is cut by the weaver/' The Desert of Gobi or Jobi, and the Lake of Lob in Turkestanese Asia, are possibly connected with Job. We may attribute almost the highest antiquity to the Book of Job. How recently did the Loom leave the houses of the people and retire to the factories ? Many of our fathers and all our grandfathers can recall the time when every hamlet, however small, possessed at least one LOOM OF AN EAST INDIAN, STILL IN USE. loom, where rag carpet was woven. But, since 1840, the Cloths used by the people have usually been made far from home, and all wise, industrious and frugal inhabitants have found life much more easy and comfortable. For what inventions in Cloth-Making were the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries famous ? In 1745, John Kay invented the fly shuttle, whereby, when the warp, was spread apart into the "shed," the shuttle shot across, leaving a trail of woof behind. In Napoleon's time, Jacquard invented his wonderful cards, whereby a loom could work on a beautiful pattern as rapidly as on plain Cloth. CLOTHES, ETC. 369 Fig. 139. POWER LOOM. Tell me about the Jacqitard Loom. First, the ordinary loom must be more carefully described, but, in a few words, the principle of Jacquard's loom was a chain of pasteboard cards, each with holes in different places. Certain rods would be let through these holes, and other rods would be held back or down. This principle has been applied to the mechanical musical organs that to-day excite so much admiration, and the telegraphers have at last taken advantage of the same idea in the scheme of automatic telegraphic trans- mission that we have described in the chapter. Electricity. What are the 7nain parts of an ordinary^ ancient Loom ? 1. There must be two rollers — the warp beam, on which the warp threads are reeled, and the cloth-beam, on which the finished cloth is received. 2. There must be two heddles or healds, which we may liken to combs, merely to show that the warp threads pass by them, as a comb allows hair to pass by its teeth. Suppose every second hair were fastened to a tooth of the comb, and there were two combs, similarly established, then, if one comb were raised, a ''shed " would be formed, through which a thread or 24 370 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, cross-hair could be carried. The heddle is not a comb, because it is closed at bottom and top, and its slats or threads each has Fig. 140. HAND LOOM. a hole or eye for the warp to pass through. A treadle or lever raises or lowers either heddle, and now one may rise while the other sinks or stands still, and vice versa. 3. There must be a reed, a comb — a thing like the heddles, but with a warp between every tooth. Attached to this comb is a ** way," on which the shuttle, holding and paying out the woof can slide. After the throw, or pick, or slide has been made, and the shuttle has landed on the other side — always with a click — the reed is pulled toward the weaver and the new thread is beaten or battened up against the other woof-threads that have been thrown across before. Thus, every cross-thread of every piece of Cloth or carpet represents not only the careful process of making the thread itself (as we have shown in Silk), but as it passed across in the loom, the machine was stopped while tlie thread was pounded up against its fellows, and the Cloth made firm. Are all modern Looms noisy, and why ? Yes, because the shuttle bearing the spool of thread must be CLOTHES, ETC, 371 thrown across through the shed. The shuttle in your sewing machine at home makes the same noisy journey. More force must be used than is needed for the bare journey, and the noise is nature^s notification of the change of motion into heat or other forms of action. Also, the shuttles must be changed, and as they must always be free, so that they can be thrown, with only a trail of thread hanging or paying out behind, they rattle and make extra noise. Machinery Hall, at the World's Fair of 1893, had a noisy section, whose very rumpus seemed to gather sight- seers, who for hours watched the ribbons, Cloths and souvenir Silk book-marks or badges come from the Jacquard looms. Probably the first Jacquard loom ever seen in the West was exhibited in the Inter-State Exposition at Chicago in 1875. Proceed to these Jacquard Cards. It is unnecessary to give the precise action of these cards, for they are simplified each decade ; but, by their use, every thread of warp may be separately lifted ; although, where a picture on a badge has been studied, certain recurring combinations of warp can be lifted together in a "leash." But let us suppose a score of music — " Home, Sweet Home^' — is being portrayed on the badge, and the blue thread is to pass across so that it will show on the surface of the badge in all the letters of the title. Then, in practice, all the warp threads that are to hold down blue woof threads will be raised at once, and all these warp threads will hang on one rod that goes up into one hole of the pasteboard card that at the moment stops over the loom. For a small badge a very long chain of cards, nearly all differ- ently punched with holes, is necessary, nor is the attendant arrangement of colored threads on shuttles, to be thrown at the opportune moment, less complex. The Jacquard loom, clicking out its always beautiful pictures, with the finest Silks and most brilliant fixed colors, justly challenges the astonishment and admiration of all who see it, or see its products. The pattern- makers, who compose new combinations and make successful chains of pattern-cards, necessarily command high rewards, according to their ingenuity. 372 ^^^ FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. How was Velvet, or Velvet Carpet first made? There were two warps, one for the velvet (the pile warp), which was much longer than the plain warp. That is, there were two warp-beams or cylinders to roll the warps on, and one cloth beam to hold the finished velvet. At say every third shoot or pick of the woof across, a shed was made of the upper or velvet warp and a wire with a groove running its upper length was put across instead oi the woof. This wire raised up a row of loops ; then two more regular shoots were made and another wire was put in. When the wires were needed for use again, a knife called a trivet was run along, following the groove in the wire, and the loops were cut, forming the pile which we see in velvet. In Brussells carpet and '* Terry velvet '^ the loops were left uncut. A double-web plush may be woven by running two warp-beams or cylinders in connection with the velvet warp- beam. Thus the weaver has a cloth-web above and below. By attaching the velvet warp, which may of course be a double or triple untwisted thread — three threads — from one web to the other, the two Cloths thus woven are attached to each other by the threads of the velvet warp — no wire being used. Now the two Cloths can be cut apart or split, and there is a velvet-pile left on what was the inside of each Cloth. But we shall return to the subject of carpet-weaving anon. How are Chinchillas and other heavy overcoatings made ? The chinchilla is a small rabbit-like rodent of South America, whose fur is used by the natives for wool, and prized by other countries for muffs, etc. To secure the appearance of fur on the loom, the yarns may be soft and large, there may be several warps, and several woofs, and the cutting of the loops may be done with knives that leave a furrow behind. Every warp-beam or cylinder gives employment to two heddles that lift half and depress half the warp-ends or threads. If there are two warp- beams, there must be four heddles, and with heavy yarn, four heddles will produce a very heavy double-cloth or overcoating. The process of milling and felting, yet to be described, also play a most important part in the appearance of heavy and costly Cloths. CLOTHES, ETC. 373 Then Weaving is not the only way to make Cloth ? No. Cloth may be felted or matted together, as in hats. It may be looped from one thread, as in knit goods ; or, it maybe braided, where the warp is looped together without any woof — as in our bindings. How is Gauze woven ? It is a species of braid, but has also a woof thread. In front of the two heddles or warp-lifters of an ordinary loom is another heddle called a doup. This little heddle catches every second warp-end, and twists or turns it, say, to the left, one thread's width. The result, after the reed has battened up the woof on the web, is as follows : A shed has been formed ; the woof has shot through ; the top warp has gone down, looped under the bottom warp, and immediately risen again, instead of remaining to form the bottom part of the next shed. By this loop, the woofs are held further apart, and gauze is the result. In most sorts of mesh-work, the starch is the principal thing. The house- ^wife washes her lace window curtains, starches them heavily, and dries them on stretchers, thus demonstrating the power of the stiff threads to hold the mesh of the lace in place. The fisherman spreads his net. The variations of Weaving must be infinite in number. Yes. With a heddle for each warp-thread, attainable in the Jacquard loom ; with devices that change the shuttle as often as need be, supplying a different woof each time ; with varia- tions of material for upper and under sides ; with even the ordinary number of heddles for double Cloths, the variations to be attained on the surface of the texture are innumerable, thus giving to the weaver not only a school of patience, but a field of invention. The lace machines, by hanging warp and woof from the same beam, still further enlarge the varieties of mesh that may be woven. What is Cotton ? . It is a downy substance, usually white, which surrounds the seeds and bursts from the seed-capsule of a low mullein or mallow-like herb — in America the Gossypium, Barbadeuse. The culture of this plant supplanted the culture of indigo in America 374 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. early in the nineteenth century ; and, since 1850, the common- wealths that border the Ocean and Gulf have been known as Fig. 141. THE COTTON FIBRE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE. Cotton States, and nine million bales, each weighing 500 pounds; have come to be considered a fair annual crop. What is the history of Cotton ? Herodotus, in his description of India, 400 B. C, says the people ^^ possess a kind of plant, which, instead of fruit, pro- duces wool, of a finer and better quality than that of the sheep ; of this the Indians make their Clothes." Columbus found Cot- ton growing in America, and it was better than the Indian Cotton. Dr. Livingstone found Cotton growing wild in Africa. Cotton was grown in the southern parts of ancient Egypt, but Linen was the material favored by the priests. In ancient Mexico, the down of Cotton and the fur of chinchillas, etc., were woven together. In Peru, the mummies of the pre-historic age were wrapped in Cotton. All the ancient world, except China — that is, Mexico, Egypt and India — had Cotton Cloths that were dyed with indigo. Was not Cotton known in China ? It seems not. Arabian travelers of the ninth century, A. D. recount that every one in China was clothed in Silk. The CLOTHES, ETC. 375 Tartars introduced Cotton, and now a blue Cotton shirt is the outer garment of every Chinaman who is not rich or powerful. What did the Spanish Moors do for civilization ? They transplanted the Cotton plant, rice, sugar-cane and the Silk-worm from the east to Spain in the tenth century, and Cotton was woven for sail-cloth and other purposes where weight and coarseness were required. But the Christians refused to learn at once of the Moslems, and it was long after the Crusades that ^' Cotton wooP^ was used by the weavers of Northern countries. What obstacle was in the way of using '' Cotton- WooV f It was full of seeds. These were picked out slowly, until an American — Eli Whitney — while on a visit to a Southern friend, noted the need of a machine to get rid of the seeds, and by introducing saws that played between the wires of a fine grating, pulled away the wool while the grating held back the seeds — thus making the celebrated Cotton-gin, the gin being a corrup- tion of engine. Were the Cotton-Seeds valuable ? They were then thought to be worse than valueless. But, with time, Cotton-seed oil and cake have come to be products of enormous value. In years of corn famine (as in 1895), ^^^ ^se of oil-cake for animal-feed was widespread, and, at the great packing-houses, both butter and lard are mixed with the oil, and thus find a ready market under various trade names that reveal the presence of the Cotton seed oil. For animal-feed, the oil- cake is pressed after the seeds have been hulled or decorticated. We are unable to name any other plentiful substance, once so lightly esteemed, that has assumed so much importance as Cotton-seed in the commercial world. All Cotton must be spun into yarn ? Yes. On investigation, you will find that spinning is the lead- ing branch of the trade of cloth-making. Spinners develop the rarest skill and receive high wages. Spinning machinery is most complicated and difficult to manage and tend (or tent^ This brings the spindle before us. Next to the ax, knife and bowl, 376 1^^ FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. and before the needle, comes the spindle as an implement of mankind. It was originally as it is to-day. Next, it was made with a hook or notch (like the crochet-needle) in its point. Then in the centre was hung a round stone for a wheel or balance. The fibre to be spun was caught by the notch ; the left hand receded with the bunch of fibre or wool ; the right hand rolled the stone on the knee; the spindle revolved; the yarn twisted ; the two hands then wound the made yarn on the spindle, and thus the measure of yarn called *^ the spindle '' was first established. The famous Cotton muslins of India are made from yarn that is spun on a bamboo spindle no thicker than a darning-needle, weighted with a pellet of clay. The fabrics thus composed, are so light that they are not improperly named '^ woven air." In the remote regions of Scotland and Europe as well as in Asia, the hand spindle has never been displaced. What improvements have been made on the Spindle ? None. To make a yarn from a body of short fibres, the sub- stance must still be drawn off or toward a revolving point. To operate the spindle, however, four things have been accom- plished. First, it has been made to revolve faster and more continuously, as in the spinning-wheel ; second, the drawing- out of the fibre has been given into hands (rollers) of iron ; third, flyers have been added ; fourth, inasmuch as the same wheel might drive more than one spindle, great numbers of spindles have been joined in one machine. What, then, is so wonderful about Cotton mamifacturing that it has lojig taken the labor of weaving out of our house- holds? It is the union of a number of machines that not only spin the yarn, but prepare the fibre for rapid spinning. What machines precede the real Spindle? 1. The opener; 2. The scutcher and lap machine; 3. The carding engine; 4. The combing machine; 5. The drawing frame; 6. The slubbing frame ; 7. The intermediate and roving frames. CLOTHES, ETC, 377 What arc the real Spindles called? Frames, or jennies and mules. The throstle frame of spindles spins coarse warps. The self-acting mule, the hand-mule, the doubling frame and the mule doublers and twirlers make both coarse and fine yarns. Define some of these terms. To card, is to comb, as you would card a horse. To card Cotton, Wool, Silk, Flax or Hair, lays its fibres parallel and brings away some dirt or foreign substance, if there be any in the fibres. To scutch and lap is to beat, blow, clean and, in Cotton to produce Cotton batting or bat. Mule is German for Mzll. Roving and stubbing both mean a drawing out and a slight twisting at the same time. Throstle is the name of a spinning machine where the spindles revolve on a stationary base, while on a ;;^2^/^(mill), the spindles themselves may revolve on a mov- able base. For the result is the same whether the fibre move away from the spindle, or vice versa. Describe briefly the Cotton process that precedes the real Spindles. The Cotton, seedless, from the bale, goes into the opener, which blows, beats and passes it to the lapper, which flattens it Fig. 142. THREE-CYLINDER COTTON OPENER, BEATER AND LAP MACHINE. 378 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. CLOTHES, ETC, 37d and prepares it for the scutcher^ another beater and purifier. These are large steel machines, with shafts rapidly revolving by steam-power. The Cotton in laps now goes into the carding e7igi7ie, another large steel machine, which has ^a toothed cylin- der, with smaller toothed cylinders revolving the other way. After passage through this process the Cotton, now an airy fleece, enters the cojjibmg machine, passes into a funnel which narrows it, through rollers that flatten it, and coils as '^slivers" into a can that awaits it. The can of slivers is now taken to the drawing-frame. Describe the Drawing- Frame for Cotton. By passage between four sets of small rollers, each set revolv- ing about six times faster than the set behind it, the slivers of Cotton-fleece are drawn out to a considerable length. The lower in each set is fluted lengthwise and the upper one is covered with leather, to enable it to hold well to the Cotton. Many slivers are fed into the drawing-frame at once, and the mess comes from the machine about twelve hundred times longer than it entered. Where does the sliver of Cotton now go f To the slubbing or twisting machine, which has a preliminary spindle, and a bobbin to receive the slightly twisted sliver. The slubber has three sets of rollers or stretchers. Great numbers of original slivers are now in the sliver that is stretched and slightly twisted in the slubbing frame. From the bobbins of the slubber the twisted sliver goes to the stretching rollers of the intermediate-frame . Here the slivers are again doubled. As these frames come, each has more spindles. We now arrive at the roving (twisting) frame, merely another and last set of the roller-stretchers, with seldom less than one hundred spindles. When the sliver or rove is on the bobbins from these spindles, it is ready for spmning in fact. It must be understood that different spinners may use a different series of stretching-appa- ratus. They may combine the rollers in fewer or separate them into a greater number of machines. 380 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY . CLOTHES, ETC. 381 What state is the Cotton now in f It is a fine, fleecy, roving, or slightly twisted string, incapable of bearing much strain, useless as warp, but if furt^her elongated, it might be used as woof {ov weft). It now goes either to Ark- wright's throstle-, or to Hargreave's jenny — or to combinations of the two machines. What was Hargreave's Jenny ? He saw a spinning-wheel fall over. The fly-wheel was going rapidly, and the spindle standing vertically continued to whirl, while the flax continued to twist off its point. So he set up a row of eight spindles, turned them all by one wheel, and with a long holder, drew flax away from them all at once. This he called a spinning-jenny, j'V/z;/;/ being the word for a little engine. The spinners, believing his jenny with its eighty spindles (as afterward enlarged) would starve them, mobbed him. With this jenny, only woof \YdiS prepared. The warp was always of Linen threads* What did Arkwright do f He made the throstle^ and all the roller machines called frames that have been here mentioned. He called it spinning by roll- ers. He grasped the idea of elongation in this manner while seeing a bar of iron stretch out while passing through the roll- ers, and obtained the same effect by having two sets of rollers, the forward ones going faster than the rear ones. In this way the Cotton was stretched out. Now, if we mount a stretching set of these pairs of rollers on a frame, set before them a row of bobbins, and take off each of the bobbins and end of the pre- pared Cotton — the sliver yOr the roving — then we will be stretch- ing many yarns at once. We may now lead the yarn down to the point of a spindle which is whirling with great rapidity. Here by the action of flyers, or little arms which go around with the spindle near its point, carrying the thread with them, the thread is twisted and pulled toward the bobbin, which sur- rounds the spindle, and the bobbin is made to evolve by a passing belt of cloth that rubs against it. With this throstle, 382 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. CLOTHES, ETC. 383 384 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. nearly all ordinary warps are made, but it is not used for fine threads. Of course, the throstle was mobbed worse than the jenny. Suppose our roving go to the mule-jenny instead of the throstle? The mule is a return to the Hargreaves idea of pulling the yarn off the very point of the spindle. Arkwright's rollers are used and are stationary. A moving carriage, holding a great number of spindles travels away for two yards from a set of Ark- wright's t hr st I e-roW.&x'i,, The carriage goes much faster than the roving comes from the rollers. The spinner watches each yarn with a skill that can only be obtained in years of service, and when the carriage is far enough out, the rollers stop while the carriage comes back — as in a single-cylinder printing-press or a saw-mill. Whether this muleb^ hand- tented or self-acting, it makes the hardest and finest yarns. Was the English Government jealous of the possession of these 7nachines? Yes. None were exportable, nor could a spinner, or one acquainted with the throstle, mules, or carding engine emigrate, even to America. All out-going baggage and mail was searched for models and plans, and a model was actually seized in a trunk at a custom house. Nevertheless, the secret reached America at an early date. Now there are vast Cotton mills, both in China and Mexico. The actual secrecy of all the trades is, even to-day, a matter worthy of observation. What were the benefits of the mule jenny ? From a pound of Cotton the spinners had obtained two hun- dred and one thousand six hundred feet of yarn, or eighty hanks of eight hundred and forty yards each. By Crompton's mulejemiy it was possible to spin a pound of the same Cotton into eight hundred and eighty-two thousand feet of yarn, or three, hundred and fifty hanks of eight hundred and forty yards each. What is our Sewing. thread? Usually a cable of six cords of yarn. It may be three, four or CLOTHES, ETC. 385 25 386 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. six cord- It is numbered according to the twists these cords get to the inch when they are put together. The thread-twister has usually purchased his yarn from the spinner, scoured it. reeled it like silk from the cocoon, doubled it into two-cord, twisted the two-cord, then tripped the two-cord twist and twisted that. It is then bleached, like Silk and starched. The CLOTHES, ETC, 387 spools are made by machinery. At the World's Fair, there were exhibited machines that did really all the work of getting the thread on the consumer's spool, and labeling it for market. Why was Cotton Thread made so strong f Originally, because the shuttle or hook of the sewing machine gave the ancient thread a strain that it would not bear, Thusthe machines make for themselves an infinitude of labor. Where did oicr woode7i spools originate ? The Glasgow and Paisley thread-makers — J. and P. Coats operated at Paisley — took ash and birch, dried it and cut it into cross sections called blocks. Coats invented a blocking machine. With these blocks -self-acting lathes can be used, and the spools can be made as fast as they are needed. What is Cotton crochet-thread? It is only unstarched Cotton six-cord thread, as you may observe by taking it apart. The yarn was not stretched out in the roving, but the fibre was very fine. The 'soft rovi^ig has been twisted, then doubled and then the double has been tripled. This makes a beautiful cord, much like Silk, and chemically not greatly at variance with Silk. We are now back to the Looms. Is not our cheap Lace wove7i on the Loom ? Yes. On a loom. The bobbin-net or Nottingham lace was in- vented in England, and had no prototype in India. The lace loom as first operated at Nottingham, England and Calais, France, bears but little resemblance to our old-time looms. The beam or cylinder that holds the web of finished lace is above the reed, and both the warp and woof threads are fastened to it at the beginning. The woof threads swing like a pendulum. The Jacquard cards are used to give the pattern on the lace. When lace was first woven by the knitting process, and the gimp-thread worked patterns on top of the net, the gimp-thread jumped from one pattern to another, leaving a trail of gimp-thread. This was cut away by children. Lace which answers every purpose of decoration is made on the machines at less th«.n one-twentieth 388 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY ^-^^^^ /f?\'^' ;^, Fi^. 150. A LAC-E MAKER AT WORK. CLOTHES, ETC. 389 of the very low prices paid for pillow-lace. Of course, the quality of the material may be the same. Has Loom-Makmg prospered in America? Yes. At the World's Fair the exhibits were very fine. Rib- bons were made in solid colors ; twelve Jacquard looms were run with one set of cards. Looms were run with paper cards, iron roller cards and iron bar and peg cards. A loom company at Worcester, Mass., manufactures power looms for worsted, wool- ens, dress goods, flannels, blankets, jeans, ginghams, upholstery, draperies, shawls, jute carpets, ingrain carpets, silks, velvets, satins, burlap, jute bags, ribbons, suspenders, bindings, etc. A branch of this house at Dobcross, Eng., has made over ten thousand looms for foreign use. What are the chief uses of Cotton Cloth ? For the underwear and bedding of the people. In temperate climates, the outer summer-wear of the women is chiefly woven of Cotton warp and woof. The white shirts of the Caucasian race are nearly all Cotton, But in very hot climates, white Cotton becomes the main wearing apparel, as it has the minimum of receiving capacity for the heat leveled at it by the sun. If, therefore, we consider the shirts, underskirts, sheets, pillow- cases, comforters (as we call these in America), calicos, muslins, cambrics, Canton flannels, etc., that go to make up the wardrobe of the human race, not to speak of the Cotton warp that underlies so much of our Woolen wear and carpets, we shall see that the Cotton-silk, bursting from its seed-pod, is one of the most import- ant things with which civilized man deals. Its manipulation and sale have sensibly altered the habits and relations of the human race. What is Calico ? It was first a printed cotton cloth brought from Calicut. This was an Indian city, once called Calicoda, because the first mon- arch gave to a chief a sword and all the land around the temple from which a cock's crowing could be heard — Calicoda meaning cock-crowing. In England, Calico still applies to white Cotton. In France, printed calico is called (cloth) Indienne, and in Italy, 390 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Indiana cloth. In the United States, Calico is Cotton cloth printed in colors with inks or dyes. To what may Calico printing be likened ? To the printing of daily journals from rolls of paper. From 1865 until the 70's, when the ten-cylinder Hoe press was in vogue, the similarity was striking, although in those days a roll of paper was not used. In a Calico-press, there may be eighteen little cylinders surrounding the big one. The little cylinders are of copper and the part of the Calico-pattern that each cylinder is to impress has been graven in the copper with acids, or by pres- sure from a steel cylinder. These cylinders form an expensive feature of the plant of a great mill. The color or dye is served to the cylinder from a trough, and the cylinder is scraped by a doctor (conductor). The roll or web of cloth goes through this press as a roll of newspaper or wall-paper would go. What are the preliminaries of making Calico ? The cloth must be singed— the down must be burned off by passage over a hot plate, or it may be cut off with rapidly-acting knives. It must be bleached, boiled, washed, then again bleached, boiled, washed, etc. It then goes between heavy rollers and is '' calendared." It is now ready for the press (machine) and the dyes and mordants. What is a Mordant ? ' Mordere, in Latin, means to bite. A mordant like tin in the dye-house and in chemistry, is a compound whose molecules have the same affinity for the carbon-compound called the Cotton fibre that they have for the carbon-compound called the dye- stuff, thus making the three molecules into one molecule that cannot be easily broken up. What is the modern process of printing Calico ? By means of the aniline dyes (see Chemistry), the mordant may be mixed in the same dye-box with the color, and the two go on the cloth under the same cylinder. Thus, where aniline colors are used, the cloth comes off the press, where it has been entirely printed with dyes that were each mixed with mor- dants. It then enters a long steaming oven, travels slowly to a CLOTHES, ETC. 391 roller, folds back to another roller, then forward over another, and then down into a wagon that is ready to receive it and be let out of the chamber. One chamber will steam twenty-five thou- sand yards a day. The steam drives all the piolecules of the cloth dye and mordant into permanent union. How are the pigments or painters' colors fastened to the Calico ? An albumen is mixed with the insoluble powders that painters use. This goes on the cloth, and when the cloth is steamed, the albumen coagulates and itself becomes insoluble. The albumen adheres to both the fibre and the powder, and the clofh is in reality painted, like the front of a house. As the steam process has displaced nearly all other methods, we need not describe the old dye-vats, madder styles, padding styles, resist styles and discharge styles. Hoiv is the steamed Calico finished? It must be stretched in breadth, chlored (with chlorine), starched, dried, dampened, calendared, and plaited into a book for market. Book is from beech-board in German, which denotes the board around which the bolt is wound. Many of these pro- cesses are the same for white goods, Calicos, muslins and other goods. Weight and gloss are given to the face of the cloth. Describe some of these processes for finishing Calico. After passage through the stretching-machines the cloth goes to the chloring machine, where the under one of two rollers dips into chlorine water and wets the printed calicOj which then enters a steam chest, where the action of the chlorine is instantly arrested. This momentary bleaching has brightened the white ground, without dimming the colors. Now the cloth goes through rollers and over hot copper cylinders. How is the Calico starched? By a device very similar to the chloring machine. The lower roller dips into boiled starch, ^%%, or a like mixture, and carries the mixture up to the cloth. This goes up into another pair of rollers and gets well saturated. The cloth is dried again on hot cylinders, and dampened for the final calendaring, or pres- 392 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. sure between cylinders. The plaiting machine may fold the Calico around the board. The books are pressed under a hydraulic machine. It is said that the Calico works use forty million eggs a year. What is Wool ? Wool is the hair of an animal. It differs from the fibre of Cotton or Silk in its mechanical structure, having small out- jutting hairs, and it is for this reason that it can be felted, as the little hair-twigs catch with one another. And the natural felting, more or less, of all Woolen cloths is the characteristic which marks them apart from Silk, Cotton and Flax goods. The Fig. 151. THE WOOLEN FIBRE, UNDER THE MICROSCOPE. sheep, goat, llama and other animals furnish our Wool, but mainly the sheep. The Wool is washed, scrubbed, bleached, oiled, scribbled and treated like Silk, Cotton and Flax. Wool is warmer than Cotton, stronger, and will absorb more moisture. In cold climates it is used in cloth for undergarments covering the entire person except the extremities, and on account of the protection it affords from incoming heats, many men prefer to wear it in the very hot weather of northern climates. What is the Wool Scribbler ? The scribbler or scribbling card, with its similar engines, is a CLOTHES, ETC. 393 complex series of delicate and expensive machinery. Around a large cylinder with many teeth, revolve in different directions. msssssmT smippdi fO.1 Figs. 152, 153, 154. THE WOOL SCRIBBLER AND DL\GRAMS. as many as twelve small toothed cylinders. The Wool goes into this machine and is torn in ten thousand ways. Two or three of these engines transform the Wool into a round sliver, that can be handled on the spinning jenny. 394 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Is there much to be done after Woolen Cloth leaves the Loom ? The greater part of the labor remains. As it leaves the loom the cloth is called '* roughers." It is full of oil and size, and it must be ''fulled" or ''milled/^ Soaking with hot soap-suds, Fig. 156. WOOLEN CLOTH OPEN WIDTH SCOURING MACHINE. the cloth goes through rollers until it shrinks and felts, some- times to half its original length and breadth. It is now washed, dried and stretched, and is ready to take the nap. What are Broadcloth, Doeskins and Meltons ? They are highly milled Woolen Cloths with a nap, and this nap is produced in a way that will interest the student of practical affairs. An herb called the teasel bears little hooks on- its seed-pod. The manufacturer binds these teasels on a large drum, thus making a card with tiny, weak little hooks. This drum he revolves over the soft Woolen Cloth. The hooks* catch the Woolen fibre and draw it out so it will hide the warp and woof. The hook is nearly always weaker than the fibre. The cloth is then pressed, and offers a less shining surface than satin. All substitutes for teasels are given the same name by the weavers. Teasels have been grown by speculators, and the crop is separated into kings, middlings and scrubs. This Cloth has been worn by the English-speaking men as '' best clothes " more than any other, but its use grows less general of late years. For state occasions, for dress-coats, for ministers and other professional men, Woolen Cloth with a fine nap continues to be held in the utmost estimation. CLOTHES, ETC. 395 What are Woolen '' Stuffs " ? They are all sorts of cloth that have not been operated on to make a nap. Rather, they may have been singed, sheared, soaked, scoured and pressed, leaving the texture in plain sight. Of this order are serges, repps, merinos, delaines, tartans, camlets, says, etc. All the plain furniture coverings are of this order. Cropping (shearing) is now done by a machine. Name some other Woolen goods. Cassimeres are the chief materials of men's business wear. Cassimere was once Kerseymere. It is a twilled cloth, where the woof passes over one and under two warps, the pattern changing each time so as to make diagonal lines. This cloth is more flexible than plain cloth of the same material, hence its popularity. Flannels and blankets are loosely woven cloths from yarn that is itself loosely spun. Such cloths are not milled, nor must the housewife subject them to milling or felting processes by washing them in hot soap-suds without restretching. But classify tlie Woolen ClotJis more thoroughly. First the milled and fulled cloths that are felted, napped and pressed — broadcloths, meltons, doeskins, beavers and friezes. Second, the cloths that are milled and cropped bare, with no desire to felt them — these are the great body of men's wearing apparel — tweeds, diagonals, silk mixtures, men's worsted. Third, the " stuffs." Fourth, the hosiery knittings. Fifth, the carpets. Sixth, the blankets, flannels, shawls, etc. Seventh, mixtures with hair and ** grasses," etc. What is the peculiarity of Worsted? In worsted cloth the Wool is carded or scribbled from a long staple or hair. These hairs are laid in paralled lines. They are then twisted very hard into yarn and woven into cloth in a twill pattern. The chance to felt is very small. This cloth resists wear, but has the disadvantage of so throwing the light as to give the appearance of being outworn long before the texture is really harmed by service. When the inventors secure a worsted cloth that will not shine in streaks, the ideal wearing cloth will have been attained. 396 I^HE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY ' What are the essentials of Carpet- Weaving ? The starching of the threads and the looping and printing or dyeing of the upper warp. Through the introduction of a sub- stitution of the textile grasses and shoddy, the price of carpets for offices and households has been rapidly cheapened. Within the last twenty years the best fabrics of this order have been within the reach of all households. The oriental rugs have also been imitated and hawked from door to door. The Turks themselves have established magazines for the sale of their beautifully-dyed, soft long-wearing Wools, and the people have all shared the benefits of the progress in this line of the arts and its commerce. What was our old-time Ingrain Carpet? It was the Kidderminster or Scotch Carpet. It was made of two and later of three webs laced togther. This Carpet can be woven with the Jacquard cards. It is liked by many house- wives because it ca'n be turned, mended, etc., and is a yard wide. But its use is not economical. The warp is worsted- spun ; the woof is a softer twist. What was Brussells Carpet ? A much heavier web, only twenty-seven inches wide, with a linen under-warp and woof, supporting .rows of worsted loops. Vast numbers of hanging bobbins were used for the worsted warp, and the Jacquard cards operated on these threads, as in a lace machine. The loops were made over a round wire, and left uncut. What was Moquette or Wilton Carpet f The same fabric, with the worsted or softer Woolen warp loops cut after the wire was drawn out, or by drawing the sharp wire out. How did the Tapestry Carpets change all this ? Whytock invented a process oi printing the yarn for the loops^ so that after it was woven it would make a figure in the loops of the carpet. Threads miles in length were colored by steps of half an inch or less. The upper warp was now put on the beam as of yore, and the Jacquard cards (at $350 a pattern) were CLOTHES, ETC. 397 no longer needed. In this way, tapestry Brussells Carpet came to be sold three times as cheaply as before. Of course, the loops could be cut to make the velvet Carpets of different names. What is the patent Axminster Carpet? This is the rnodern velvet Carpet, with unstarched, Turkish- like pile, that has entered our best rooms, to the exclusion of even the handsomest Brussells carpets. It was invented by Templeton, of Glasgow, and we will attempt, at least, to give the main principles of the process. It is, briefly, to hasten the methods of the Turk. A web of double chenille (soft Wool yarn) is first woven ; this is cut into strips, and these strips then become fringes, to be set upright in the second web that is now woven. The carpet itself becomes a soft brush. The figure is composed by using pile or wisps of the brush or velvet that have different colors. Hozv is the Axminster pattern secured? On paper, and in the exact colors to be followed by the chenille-weaver, the design of the carpet is painted. This paper design is ruled off into tiny squares, for exact measure- ment, and cut into longitudinal strips, which guide the chenille- weaver in the use of his yarns. By means of this guide, when the chenille web is cut into pieces, in order to prepare it to become the cross-thread or "cross-brush" in the upper part of the second weaving, the ends of the upward-sticking brush of chenille yarns form the flower or figure. In fact, the old velvet Carpet loops are turned over or reversed ; they are put closer together ; they are not starched. Finally, the Turkey-carpet weaver is rapidly imitated, and his carpet is acknowledged to be the best. What infltie7iccs on the health have affected the Carpet-trade. It is seen that the velvet Carpet, particularly, should not be fastened to the floor, or in the corners of the room, owing to its capacity for dust, and the facility with which it sets dust free into the air. Hard floors, with rugs that can be easily shaken are accordingly taking the place of carpeted rooms, notwith- standing the sense of bareness, and the almost dangerous 398 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. smoothness, of such surfaces. The advance in the knowledge of microbes has given an impetus to this hygienic movement. How is Felt manufactuj^ed f Laps or plaits of carded Wool, from the scribbling engines are laid on top of one another. The laps are very thin, and the upper and lower ones are usually of Wool or fur that is finer or more rare than the inner laps. The compound lap now passes between rollers, the upper roller solid and heavy, the lower one hollow and steam-heated. Water is supplied by partial immer- sion. The upper roller oscillates to aid the felting. It is probable that ancient man washed the oil out of Wool with alkaline earths or ashes and then trod the Wool on a hard place till it felted. The Wool weaver oils his yarns to keep them from felting while he weaves. There is a wide modern use of Felt — for horse-blankets, carriage robes, printed carpets, boiler-covers, piano-covers, table-covers, etc. Broadcloth, etc., is largely felted after weaving. How are our round Felt Hats made ? The Felt may be a mixture of wool, beaver, otter, rabbit and other hairs or furs. The Wool is manipulated on a rapidly- revolving hollow metallic cone. This cone has holes in its sides, and within it, a draught of air is sucked in by an exhaust-fan. Thus the Wool is sucked on and held to the cylinder. In this way a comparatively enormous hat is made. It is then bathed in sulphuric acid and otherwise shrunken in size. This is the *^ hat-body.''^ It then goes to the dye-house. It is stiffened with shellac and alcohol. Hat bodies are made in the East and shipped to hat-finishers in the West. The finisher puts the felt cone on a wooden block, steams it constantly, varnishes it, irons it, scrubs it, wires the brim, binds it and puts the band on. The result is a head-covering which is worn by nearly all classes. For the soft hat there is no stiffening and far less molding in steam. How is this steam applied to the Hat ? The hat-finisher has a "steam-forge." In the middle of his table is a grating from which rises a geyser of steam. This Steam is caught in a great funnel overhead. The hat on its CLOTHES, ETC. 309 mold must be often held in the steam. This makes the work- room a hot, damp and disagreeable place. It is said that a hat- finisher can be known by the peculiar callosities wl;ich the block makes on the back of his left hand. What other interesting thing is to be said of Felt ? A vast number of yellow people, inhabiting Central Asia, keep their women busy making Felt. How is Plush for Silk Hats made f It is woven with an upper warp-beam of very soft reeled Silk. This upper warp is looped up far higher than is usual for the velvet style of weaving, and the loop has no sizing or stiffening. The under warp and the woof threads may be of inferior Silk or of Cotton. When the loops are cut they are dressed all in one direction, pressed and made ready for market. Lyons is the centre of this manufacture. The tall Silk hat continues to be the head-covering for Europeans and Americans on state occasions, and is also worn by professional men. Silk plush displaced beaver plush and fur. Fig. 157. MIXING WILLEY FOR SHODDY, 400 '^HE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What is Shoddy ? Shoddy is the restoration of Woolen rags and cloth to a fibrous form, and a re-weaving of the goods into new cloth. Or the shoddy lap may be mixed with new slivers or rovings for the weighting of new goods. It is a business of rag-picking, old- clothes buying, sorting, washing, etc. Cotton is charred out of the mass by the action of sulphuric acid. The shredding cylinder has eleven thousand teeth. When this scribbler is done with a rag, even the yarn that formed the web has been torn into its original parts. More shoddy-fibre is made in the United States than anywhere else. It was first 'heard of here in the times of the civil war. It is essentially an economy, and makes the cheap Woolen suits of the day possible. It is said, with what truth we know not, that 2,500,000 persons in the United States are connected with the manufacture of shoddy-fibre, shoddy cloth and shoddy garments. What 'astonishing difference remains between the manufac- ture of Clothes for Men ajid Women? Clothes for men are kept ready-made, and tailors also thrive as a class, while the outer garments of women are still made at home, without the advantages to be derived from steam-power and a division of labor. The fashions of women's dresses undergo constant change, while men usually wear out their# clothing. The supply of ready-made Cotton goods for women, however, has made great progress. What is Linen ? Cloth made from the fibres of Flax. This shining white cloth is used for the table, for the fronts of shirts, for collars, and for cuffs. Cotton sheets have supplanted the use of Linen in our bedding. The spinning and weaving of Linen yarn was one of the earliest of man's arts. Linen was long needed as the warp of all goods that carried a Cotton woof, as the Cotton yarn could not be spun strong enough. Of late years. Cotton has come to serve in nearly all the places of Linen, and even in goods sold as pure Linen, inner surfaces of Cotton are imposed on the buyer. CLOTHES, ETC. 401 Fig. 158. A, FLAX PLANT; 5, FLOWER; C, FRUIT. What did the Nineteenth Century bring about ? The Linen industry was driven to the wall by Cotton, and it flourishes (or languishes) now only in Russia, Ireland and Cen- tral Europe, where the modern mill and its agents have not yet conquered. Linen has become a luxury, like Silk in China. Thus, in two parts of the earth, it has been found that the people could clothe themselves satisfactorily at far smaller expense. How is Flax prepared ? It is pulled out of the ground. Its seeds are especially valuable as furnishing an oil which is the best vehicle in which to carry white lead for paint, but here, also, Cotton seed oil has come forward to take the place of linseed oil. The Flax is immersed in ponds, and retted (rotted) ; it is spread in the meadows to bleach ; it is beaten ; it is scutched or split ; it is heckled (carded) ; it is spun into yarn ; it is bleached as white as snow in the sun, or by acids ; it is woven. The same spinning wheel 26 CLOTHES, ETC. 403 can be used for Flax and for Wool, but the Irish housewife or maiden would rather spin Wool than Flax. Why is Lineal stronger than Cotton ? The Cotton fibre is a minute tube of cellulose. The Linen fibre is a solid, containing the earthy elements like silicon and magnesium. The Linen fibre is long ; the Cotton fibre is short. The Linen fibre is wood ; the Cotton fibre is a pure carbon compound. How is Oil-Cloth made? A piece of Oil-Cloth twenty-four feet wide has originally come off a loom that had a warp-beam that wide. The Cloth woven was made of Hemp and Flax yarns, and the shuttle was thrown across by a man on each side. A hundred yards of this canvas, rolled up in one piece, might weigh 600 pounds. What comes of this bale of Canvas ? It goes to the manufactory. Here it is cut in pieces from sixty to one hundred feet long — for we are describing the making of a large piece, for the floor of a lecture-room or public hall. The pieces are taken to the frame-room. Here upright frames stand together, like shelves in a great library, and before each frame is a series of four platforms or scaffoldings, connected by stairs or ladders. On the frame, the canvas can be stretched by screws exactly as if it were to become an ordinary oil painting. The back of the canvas is washed with size and rubbed with pumice- stone. When this is dry, a layer of thick paint is spread with a long steel trowel on the back of the canvas. Ten days later a second layer of trowel color is laid on. This completes what will be the under side of your Oil-Cloth. What is done on the other side of the Canvas? The size goes on, the pumice-stone is used, the trowel color is laid on ; it is then rubbed with pumice-stone, and two more layers and rubbings follow. Now a fourth coat of paint is applied with brush, and this is the background of your Oil- Cloth. Two or three months have now elapsed. How is the Oil-Cloth printed? With wooden blocks, by hand, as was the case with Calico in 404 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. the old days. The Oil-Cloth passes over a large table. The printer inks his blocks as you do your rubber stamps— on cushions. The printer strikes the block a blow with a mallet, as a printer takes a hurried proof of type. The block is about eighteen inches square. A second printer follows with a different color and block, and a third, until the pattern is complete. Why does not the Oil- Cloth break ? Primarily, because the size has protected the inner cloth- fib.res from the earthen matters of the paint. The oil also acts on the earths, to render them somewhat pliable. What are our household uses of Oil-Cloth ? We put it under the zinc on which our stove stands, to increase our security against fire. We put Oil-Cloth in the vestibules of our houses, where snow melts, in bath-rooms, where water may reach the floor, in strips on stairways, at water-sinks and around kitchen ranges. Very handsom.e small stove-patterns are now common and cheap, as machinery can be used in their fabrica- tion. The Oil-Cloth interest in America reaches many millions of dollars. The foreign Oil-Cloths emit a far more disagreeable odor than our own manufacture. How long has Oil-Cloth bee7i made? In the l^ondon Mercurius Politicus, No. 606 (February, 1660), is the following advertisement : " Upon Ludgate Hill, at the Sun and Rainbow, dwelleth one Richard Bailey, who maketh- Oyl-Cloth the German way ; and is also very skillful in the art of Oyling of Linen Cloth, or Taffeta of Wooling of either; so as to make it impenetrable, that no wet or weather can enter." What is Linoletun ? A floor-cloth, invented by Walton, of England, by which ground cork and linseed oil are applied to jute canvas. Lin- seed oil is oxidized or aired and thickened until it can be cast into bricks ; cork is ground ; the two substances are pressed upon or into Jute Cloth between rollers that are steam-heated. This cloth has the advantage of being more soft or noiseless than Oil-Cloth. CLOTHES, ETC. 405 What is Lincrusta- Walton f It is Linoleum, on the top of which molded Linoleum material in various colors has been superposed or embossed. Thus colored, tile-like patterns can be cast and affixed to the sub- stratum, or any raised and bronze-like arabesquerie can be 'managed. The richest wall decorations of recent times have thus been secured. A story is told of a New York candy-seller who decorated his store with the costliest embossed patterns of Lincrusta-Walton, at an expense of many thousand dollars. The store became a ** lion " on Broadway, and the landlord, hopeful of gain, rented the place to a rival candy seller who would pay twice the rent. What was his chagrin, however, on entering the store the next time, to find it tastefully decorated with wall paper that had cost only ten cents a roll ! Is Straw woven f Yes. The manufacture of hats for men, and formerly of bonnets for women, has given to this industry a leading place in commerce. In all countries, the men don straw hats in the summer. The fields of Tuscany long produced the best straw that could be found for bonnets — hence the once famous Leg- horn hat, made of wheaten stems. The true Panama hat is made from the leaves of the screw pine. Massachusetts long had the straw hat trade of America. In the old days, the straw hat was always soft and pliable. It is now nearly always very stiff with starch or sizing. What are the " Textile Grasses f " Beside flax, the very important ones (so-called) are hemp, jute, manilla, sisal grass, Tampico fibre, flag and coir yarn from the husk of the cocoa-nut. What great manufactures arise out of these materials ? Our Oil-Cloths, mats, coarse twines, clothes-lines and sail rope, matting for summer carpets, chair-bottomings, grain bags and covering for cotton bales. As there are sometimes ten million bales of cotton, this alone makes an enormous industry. Accordingly, as fine Linen fabrics have become rare, coarse hemp and jute webs have increased, until now the looms and 406 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY spindles of these factories are counted with pride by the census- takers. The bagging and baling of a vast country like the Fig. 160. THE JUTE PLANT. United States promise to increase. Our coffee and chocolate also comes to us in bags. The bottoms of all our fine carpets are nearly always of hemp or jute. What is to he said finally of the Textile Arts ? The wide expanse of the Cotton States was given to the cul- tivation of the Cotton fibre. The cards were placed on a cylin- der. The spindle was set on end and flying arms given to its point. Stretching rollers were added, each doing the work of many hands. Steam power was used to propel the loom. The Jacquard cards were attached to lift and depress the warp. Two or more warp beams were used. Revolving shuttle-boxes supplied different shuttles. The various lace machines were made, weaving many kinds of mesh. The felting, napping and shearing of thick cloths began. The use of the textile grasses CLOTHES, ETC. 407 for the underside of carpets was found to be prudent. The methods of the Turk were put into mechanical operation for velvet carpets. The secrets of chemistry were ex;posed, and the hydro-carbon colors triumphed over all. Cloth was printed as if it were paper, and as rapidly. Until at the present day the infinite fancy of man for different forms has been pleased, and no single catalogue contains the names of all the products of the loom. •ffnbia IRubber. 'mm What is India Rubber ? As we know it, India Rubber is a tree-gum or milk, mixed with sulphur and pigments, molded and steamed or dry- heated in a tight chest or vulcanizer. A quarter of sulphur, three-quarters of gum and 270 degrees of heat make a soft, elastic substance. A half each of sulphur and gum with 370 degrees of heat continued six times longer, make ebonite or gutta percha. Many minor chemicals are added by various manufacturers. The process was called " vulcanization^' by Goodyear. What is the gum called India Rubber ? A remarkable union of atoms of carbon and hydrogen alone, by which a unique compound is obtained. This compound is the most elastic of substances and at the same time among the most impervious to air and water. But it was for centuries so sticky and unstable, that it could not be used for clothing, etc. The life of Charles Goodyear, an American, was devoted to the experiments which resulted in the every-day use of India Rub- ber and Gutta Percha by the people. What is Gutta Percha f Gutta is the Malay word for gum^ and percha is the tree the gum comes from. But there are many trees that yield the milky gum that we make into India Rubber, and we use the word Gutta Percha to mean India Rubber that has been vulcanized until it is perfectly hard, and capable of carrying a high finish. 408 INDIA RUBBER. 409 Fig. 161. THE INDIA RUBBER PLANT. How do we find ourselves indebted to the use of India Rubber ? When we telephone, we use gutta percha. When it rains or is muddy, we encase our shoes in rubbers or overshoes, or hunt- ing-boots. At our desks we are in constant need of a rubber eraser (from which need, indeed, the rubber takes its name), and rubber bands are daily coming into more general use for the wrapping of articles that are not to remain long in their wrap- pers. There is rubber in nearly every pair of suspenders, whether for child or man. The garden hose is of rubber. Wrapped around the bicycle wheel that hose becomes a rubber tire, while the horseman and the horseless wagons are both inclined to accept the rubber tire as a part of their future. Our water-bottles, syringes, door-listings, mats, piano-covers, wet- weather coats, gossamers, knife-handles and combs are often of rubber or gutta percha. Rubber stamps do a great deal of printing, especially of dates. What natural objections to manufactured India Rubber arise ? Its sulphurous odor offends the sense of smell, nor does this 410 1HE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. fault disappear from Gutta Percha itself. Its capability of ex- cluding water and air carries with it the incapability of letting air or water out, so that the feet are never wholly comfortable while encased in rubbers. It is noticed that heavy arctic over- shoes, if covered on top with cloth that will allow the passage of air and the absorption of moisture from within, will heat the feet less, or will keep them dryer than thin rubbers that entirely cover the shoe. Foreign chemical treatment of rubber is even less successful than our own. Several sections of the German Imperial Exhibit in the Manufactures' Building at the World's Fair were carpeted with a rubber cloth that was offensively odorous, and remained so all summer. Within thirty years the flexibility of rubber under cold has been increased. Th^ ponchos of the Union soldier, in 1861, were of rubber. These would freeze stiff on a wintry day. What is Caoutchouc ? It is the South American word for India Rubber. It is pronounced A'(9^-chook. But American ears have refused to receive it as a common word. Rubber is yielded by trees that grow in a belt five hundred miles wide on each side of the equa- tor, all round the globe. The best comes from Para and Ceara in South America ; the next best from Mozambique and Mada- gascar. It is grown in West Africa, Malaysia, the West Indies, Central America and Australia. We import in the neighborhood of twenty million dollars' worth of unmanufactured rubber each year. When pure, rubber is odorless, nearly white, and nearly as heavy as water. In what form does Rubber reach America ? The people at Para burn oily palm nuts in a bottle or vase. Then dipping a certain instrument, say a stick with a clay mold on it, into the milk, they dry the layer of milk in the white smoke of the palm nuts as it rises out of the vase. Then another layer is dipped, and so on. About five pounds can be prepared in an hour. The *' biscuit " is then cut away from the mold, or griddle, or stick, and sent to New York or Boston, where it commands the highest price that is paid. In other places, the natives let the milk dry on the tree, pull the gum off in strings. INDIA RUBBER. 411 or roll it in balls. Some natives prepare thin sheets or disks of the rubber, not two feet in diameter. It also comes in ''negrohead/' *' knuckles," ''thimbles," ''tongue," "cake/' " liver, ^' "junk,*' and other sailor and tradenames. The best Madagascar is pink in color. How are these pieces of Rubber manufactured into the articles we use? They are not melted over a fire and molded, as we might sup- pose. Where molding is necessary, solvents are used. After soaking in hot water, the pieces are cut into slices by hand, and then washed between wet grooved rollers. Solid impurities are crushed and washed away. As the rubber pieces stick together when they touch, the rollers send out finally an irregular porous sheet, which is hung up to dry or dried in trays. What is the Rubber Masticator f It is an apparatus consisting of an outer iron cylinder ; inside a roller with corrugated surface revolves. The roller may be tilted irregularly in the cylinder. The rubber goes into the ring-like hole that is open and gets kneaded into a mass that can be pressed into solid blocks or bricks. What is done with the blocks of Rubber f They are fed to a wet knife that makes two thousand cuts a minute, and thus the blocks are sliced into sheets. What is Vulcanization ? To vulcanize rubber, it must be chemically incorporated with sulphur — each molecule of rubber must have admitted an atom of sulphur. The sheet of rubber can be dipped into melted sulphur, and then submitted to the action of high-pressure steam. Cannot Sulphur be mixed with the washed Rubber ? Yes. Sulphur to one-tenth of the weight of the rubber may be added, together with any one of such pigments as vermilion, oxide of chromium, ultramarine, antimony, lampblack, arsenic, or oxide of zinc, and even whiting and barium sulphate may be added. After this mixture is masticated, it molds more readily, or can be rolled into the sheets that are needed for clothes and 412 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. for elastic bands, for desk or loom. If the mass is to be made hard, various substances may be added. With tar and with magnesia, gutta percha may be made. How is Rubber Hose made ? It can be forced through annular holes, like lead pipe or macaroni. Or textile hose can be saturated with a solution of rubber. How is Rubber made solvent or liquid for the time being? With chloroform, ethers, alcohols, coal products and carbon- sulphur compounds. Rubber can be thus dissolved until it will filter through paper, and when dried, leave films of exqui- site tenuity. A treatise on the ordinary commercial rubber compounds would be an extended treatise on chemistry, as many of the Elements are Used, and in many ways. How is a Rubber Ball made ? Mixed rubber is softened by heat, when it becomes like clay. A hinged metal mold of a ball, tinned inside and greased, is opened and its surface is covered with a layer of rubber, kneaded in. A little carbonate of ammonia is inclosed in the mold as it is shut, and the mold, is without any core. The mold is now put in dry steam at a high temperature for an hour. The air and the carbonate exert great pressure on the inside of the rubber, forcing its outer surface against the face of the mold and making it smooth. The two hemispheres of rubber are also welded together, and nearly all rubber toys show the seam left where the mold came together. The operation is not unlike the molding of a lamp-chimney by a glass-blower — air acts as a core to the mold. How are Rubber threads woven in suspenders and braid? The block of rubber may be vulcanized in ^^ spread sheets." The sheets may be cut into fine threads — many thousand yards to the pound. These threads are always stretched on the loom until they have little elasticity left. After the weaving, a hot iron is pressed on the cloth, when the rubber resumes its elasti- city and springs back, wrinkling the web, or pressing its woof more closely together. INDIA RUBBER, 413 What has science accomplished with Rubber, of late ? It is found that fine woolen and silken fabrics may be treated with mixtures of rubber, the gum being entirely hidden from view, with no embarrassing weight added to the garment. In this way, overcoats and women^s cloaks are made that are not to be discovered as rain-shedding vesture. But it is also true that several of the woolen webs, such as Irish frieze, felt together so firmly that rain will not go through them. These woolens are, however, much thicker than the rubber cloths. If two thin pieces of cloth are painted with a solution of rubber, their sur- faces can be easily fastened together by a touch of sulphur chemicals and passage through hot rollers. How are Arctic Overshoes made? The cloth overshoe, with its woolen lining, is first made. A mixture of low quality rubber with heavy pigments, always black, is now carefully spread on the lower parts of the shoe that are to be covered with rubber. After the building-up on the sole is deemed sufficiently thick, the last is fastened into the mold which is to give the grating and form to the sole, and the mold is put into a dry oven. The East has this trade. How are ^^ spread sheets'' for Yarn and Gossamers made? A sheet of cloth is coated with paste, glue and molasses. On this a solution of sulphuretted rubber is spread. If a double layer be needed, two cloths are spread and then joined. Now the cloth is vulcanized by steam heat. The hot vapor softens the paste, glue and molasses, and the cloth can be peeled away. This sheet can be cut into square thread, or used for water- proofs, etc. How is my Black Comb made ? This, and all the electrical gutta percha articles are the products of over-vulcanization with a high ratio of sulphur. Tar also gives a black and ebonite effect. The rubber is usually kneaded with the sulphur, softened with fluids so it can be molded, and then kept in the vulcanizer from six to eight hours. Gutta percha vessels are useful to the chemist. 414 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. How is the red Rubber cast for False Teeth made ? It is gutta percha, highly colored by cochineal. The dentists of the United States carried on an extended litigation with the Goodyear interests over the right to vulcanize their own work in their own laboratories. What remarkable biographical narrative is connected with tKe history of India Rubber i7i America ? The story of the life and trials of Charles Goodyear, who died in i860. He was described, in the midst of his unhappiness, as follows. *' If you see a man with an India-Rubber coat on, India-Rubber shoes, an India-Rubber cap and in his pocket an India-Rubber purse, with not a cent in it, that is Goodyear." All his early rubbers, if made in winter, would melt in summer, with the most abhorrent odor, rendering burial necessary. If made in summer, they would freeze in winter. A hired man named Hayward discovered that ordinary sulphur was the proper chemical agent, and Goodyear discovered the action of heat by dropping some of his sulphuretted rubber on a hot stove. '^ Try to sleep ! " his wife said to him. ** Sleep ! " he cried, *^ how can I sleep, while twenty human beings are drown- ing every hour, and I am the man that can save them ?" How do we get the word Mackintosh ? In 1842, Goodyear sent specimens of his work to Charles Mackintosh & Co., of England, and opened negotiations. One of the partners of this firm, named Hancock, patented, in England, in 1844, a process of vulcanization, but five weeks after Goodyear's patent had been publicly described, according to the laws of France. Both the English and French courts decided against Goodyear's claims, and he died insolvent. Two years before his death, the United States Commissioner of Patents thus spoke of the losses of Goodyear: '^No inventor, probably, has ever been so harassed, so trampled upon, so plundered by that sordid and licentious class of infringers known in the parlance of the world, with no exaggeration of phrase, as ' pirates.^ Their spoliation of his rights has unques- tionably amounted to millions.'' INDIA RUBBER. 415 Why did Goodyear say " Vulcanize ? " Vulcan was the god of fire in mythology. Volcano is the same word, and volcanos are noted for their sulphurous out- pourings. Vulcan was at his sulphurous forge under the earth, when the volcano was in a state of eruption. Few modern commercial verbs have been chosen with as much scholarly skill. A, meebles anb pirn, ^ mm //— one was the white earth found near the mountain of Kao-lin^ whence its name. The other clay \^SiS pe-ttcn-stey and it is not yet known what that is. How they prepared their famous, rather ugly, blue color is not exactly known. A great lake, three hundred miles in circuit, furnished the only water with which the potters could make their best Chinaware. The same workmen and clays produced inferior Chinaware with the water of other places. No stranger was permitted to visit the borders of this lake, which had probably deposited the sand called Kao-lin. Who was Marco Polo ? A Venetian historian, who traveled in Asia five hundred and fifty years ago. Following is his passage on Porcelain: *' Of the City of Tin-gui there is nothing further to be observed than that cups or bowls and dishes of Porcelain-ware are there manufac- tured. The process was explained to be as follows : They collect a certain kind of earth, as it were, from a mine, and laying it in a great heap, suffer it to be exposed to the wind, the rain and the sun, for thirty or forty years, during which time it is never disturbed. By this it becomes refined and fit for being wrought into the vessels above mentioned. Such colors as may be thought proper are then laid on, and the ware is afterward baked in ovens or furnaces. Those persons, therefore, who cause the earth to be dug, collect it for their children and grand-children." What does the Chemist find in a Chinese Plate of the finest kind? Silicon, aluminium, potassium, iron, oxygen, and a trace of magnesium. That is, pure sand (of granite), pure clay and potash are the main ingredients, at the ratio respectively of about seventy, twenty and sixty. Copper and cobalt were both used in the blue. (See Chemistry.) What is Kao-lin f Granite or other igneous rock has been decomposed by water. 442 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY The quartz and mica have fallen to the bottom of the stream. The fine silicate of alumina and potash has stayed in the water longer, settling into Kao-lin wherever there was a pool. At the bottom of this pool beds of Kao-lin formed. Kao-lin is the hydrated (watered) silicate of alumina. Its atoms are theorized as follows : Molecule i — two atoms of aluminium and three of oxye^en ; (this is closely united to) Molecules 2 and 3 — each one atom of silicon and two of oxygen ; Molecules 4 and 5 — each a molecule of water; the whole molecule giving the following formula: AI3 03.2Si024-2H20. In firing, the water goes out. This white earth was sifted and pulverized until it became as fine as flour. How did the Chinese prepare their Slip for the Glaze? With especial care. This slip was Kao-lin with a potash or soda in it, so that the soda or potash would melt in the fire. The slip was mixed thin and gradually dried to a doughy con- sistence. Then it was kneaded and trodden under bare feet. Any vegetable substance would burn out, leaving a pore or fault in the glaze, therefore, the Chinese place the stock in a damp place, where it may ferment and decompose. This occupies years, the Chinese believe, and the father leaves his son stock enough to last a life-time. How were the Blue Pictures put on ? By a set of artists, each making a different part of the picture, owing to the influences of caste and unionism in the trades. When the Chinese began to paint pictures to please the Europeans, the effects were still more grotesque, as all the bad features of the bad European engravings which furnished the original copies were faithfully reproduced. Describe^ briefly, the e^ttire Chinese Process ? With a quantity of the Kao-lin the Chinese potter ''throws " his vessel on the wheel, using such molds as may be useful, and such hard instruments as will shorten his labors. The article is then set to dry. The painters now apply their blue figures and landscape. The slip fluid is now blown on with a pipe, as the Chinaman loves to spray things, or the article is dipped. As we CHINA. have shown, it is with the fineness and purity of this slip that the Chinaman charges his famous patience. He has ground and ground in water the heritage left him by the ancestor whose Fig. 166. PORCELAIN— THE DIPPING ROOM. memory he so religiously reveres. The new vessel, painted and varnished with slipy is now packed in a clay box called a sagger in English countries, and the saggers are piled up in the kiln. The surrounding of clay in the sagger keeps off the smoke of the 444 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. firing. The firing goes on for over a day, and the cooling also goes forward slowly. Now, if the cup is good, it may be gilded. A band of gold leaf may be laid on the upper outer edge, on sizing, and the cup must be fired a second time, but in a more open kiln with less heat. After the cup comes out, the metal band must be polished with a hard s,tone instrument. Painting may be done over the glaze, and much of the early porcelain that came from China was thus '^improved" by French paint- ers, greatly reducing its present value to collectors. What were the medieval Western Potters doing ? They were making vases and ornamental articles. Famous potteries existed on the Balearic Isles, where Majolica ware made its fame. Sand from the bottom of a river was used, making a red ground work. Sand and cream of tartar or wine lees were made into glass (enamel), and the glass might be whitened with tin oxides. To decorate the article, the enamel could be cut through until red lines appeared. But how did our fine, white, useftd dishes get westward from China f About 1700, John Schnorr, a wealthy iron-master, riding near Clue, found a 'remarkably fine, white earth in the road, and determined to use it and sell it for hair-powder, instead of flour. It happened that an alchemist named Botticher or Bottiger used this hair powder about 1700, and detected its earthen character. He accordingly made a crucible out of it, and to his astonish- ment, the crucible turned into Chinese Porcelain. As all Europe had long been on the lookout for the solution of the Chinese mystery, it may easily be conjectured that the Elector (King) of Saxony, listened v/ith pleasure to the revelations of Botticher. The Elector himself took an oath of secrecy. A fortress was built at Meissen, near Dresden, with portcullis and drawbridge. " Dumb Till Death " was inscribed in all the workshops, and a penalty of imprisonment for life v/as denounced against any per- son who might tell the tale. The white earth was brought from Clue in sealed packages under misleading names, and real China- ware — the first of the famous Dresden China — began to come out of the fortress. At the World's Fair of 1893, the Royal Saxon CHINA. 445 potteries exhibited their manufactures, but their art seemed to have developed into the making of artificial flowers rather than table ware. The great Porcelain Porch, in the Imperial German Exhibit, outdid the famous Porcelain tower of Man-King in China. Did BotticJier's secret escape ? Yes. The Emperor of Austria finally founded a factory at Vienna, but it never succeeded fully. To start it, a workman escaped from the prison-like works at the castle of Meissen about ten years after the first Porcelain was made. The Vien- nese royal pottery ran, however, till 1864. When did the King of France start his Porcelain Factory ? In 1753, when a semi-private factory at Vincennes was removed to the- town of Sevres, in the suburbs of Paris. The French chemists actually prepared an artificial Kao-lin, and' used it for Fig. 167. GILDING THE PORCELAIN, 446 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. the biscuit until the German secret came out and French Kao-lin was found, in 1770. How was the Sevres Kao-lin made f White sand, 60 ; nitre, 22 ; salt, 7.2 ; alum, 3.6 ; soda, 3.6 ; gypsum, 3.6. This compound was roasted at a high tempera- ture, then ground to a fine powder, and washed with boiling water. To nine parts of this mixture, or frit, two parts of chalk, and one of a pipe-clay were added. This mixture was again ground, and passed through silk sieves. It was mixed for molding with water and soap or size, and in this condition was operated on by the potter. How does the Sevres Potter proceed f If making a set of plates or saucers, he takes the potter's wheel, exactly as the later Egyptians did, and turns it with his feet. A mold of a plate is set on the wheel. For illustration, let us (incorrectly) suppose it be a plate exactly like the one he is to produce on the wheel. The mold, then, is turned bottom upward. On the bottom of the mold, he spreads a very thin layer of Kao-lin, and as the wheel revolves, he smooths, levels and marks the Kao-lin with a steel template, or gauge. All the while, he dips his hands in the slip at his side, and holds a sponge wet with slip to the surface he has made. The template enables hini to make the circular ring and the basin or mesa that is inside the ring. Of course, the mold can- not be an actual plate, turned upside down, for that would mold a ring in the new plate. So we see the potter turns or lathes the bottoms of our plates, and molds the upper sides of them. There are about two hundred and fifty potters and painters at Sevres, and they call their slip '^barbotine.'^ The painters are all artists of unusual ability. What is done with the dry Sevres plate ? It is put on a wheel or lathe and smoothed with sand-paper. A teacup gets its handle at this stage. The little handle is cast in a moid which comes in pieces like a glass mold. The little handle is affixed to the bowl with some of the slip now used as a *'lute'' or solder. The modeler now takes the vessel or plate CHINA. 447 and corrects any distortions that he may detect, working with modeler's tools. Groups of small statuary are cast or molded to this stage. Describe the Kilns at Sevres. An oven that bakes China or Pottery of any kind, should let «.*i»'- -/ '.,<»,*ite«3t;* '*>>;??. J Fig. 168. PORCELAIN-BISCUIT SCOURING. the fire through its bottom — it burns rather than bakes. The kilns at Sevres have four stories with three ovens, and all the 448 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. floors of these three ovens are perforated. The fire of coke or white wood is in the lower story. Our '^raw^' plate and cup go in the top oven, where the heat is least. But the raw articles are placed in porcelain jars or boxes {saggers), and the boxes are piled high in the ovens. The lower ovens are filled with articles that are further along in the process. There are windows of talc (a magnesium mineral — soap-stone), through which the potters observe the effects of the firing, and there are means for taking out samples. The fire is kept up for about thirty-six hours, and the ovens cool for nearly a week. Our plate and cup are now biscuit. Describe the Sevres Pate-sur-pate decoration. If the painter now take the biscuit and tint it a certain hue, and then paint on the tint with the white outer porcelain glaze, which we have not yet arrived at, he will give an additional and cameo-like ornamentation to his work. The pate-sur-pate {paste-on-paste — that is, Kao-lin on Kao-lin) must precede the glaze. Describe the Sevres Glaze. Felspar and quartz crystals have been ground into powder v/ith water. The pure silica (silicon and oxygen) is mixed with water. The plate and cup are dipped until they have acquired a coating of the white sand. (silica) and dried. The vessels now go in a kiln where they occupy the lower oven, with a heat of over 3,300 degrees. The white sand melts, and getting its alkali out of the biscuit underneath, forms a glaze. What colors does the Sevres painter put on top of the glaze ? Painting over the glaze permits the use of a great range of metallic colors. The blues are from cobalt, the turquoise color from copper, and the violets from manganese. Different pig- ments will endure varying degrees of heat, so that those which require the hottest fire must be put on first, and there are three such fires — the grand fire, the half-fire and the muffle fire. Haw is the Sevres Gold put on f A chemical solution of gold is made, and the metal precipi- tates under the firing, and is then burnished. This must be in CHINA. 449 a special kiln, with the hottest fire, therefore the first of the painter's fires. Many of the finest potteries of the world, as in Belgium, have gold paper edging that is laid on the plate and burned away, or may come away soft. This method has greatly beautified the golden decorations of our Royal Worcester and Limoges plates, cups and saucers. What are the Sevres Painter s difficulties ? His colors change in firing. His vessel must undergo at least six firings, and where it needs correction, must be fired a seventh time, with risk each time of destroying all the work that has gone before. Where do the French and Belgian Potters obtain their Kao-lin f From Limousin, France, and Cornwall, England. The Corn- wall clay merchants proceed as follows : The decomposed felspar of granite is found as a stone and broken up, and laid in running water. The fine clay that is wanted floats with the water, while the quartz and mica sink. The water runs to a pool, where the white clay settles. The pool is drawn off, and the clay is dug out in blocks and dried. It is then ground into an impalpable powder. The powder is mixed with water into a dough, which is beaten and kneaded and sifted, like slip. How is the Flint prepared, which is often mixed with the Kao-lin ? This probably represents iho. pe-tun-ste of the Chinese. The flints are "burned in a kiln, and thrown red-hot into cold water. They are then ground into fine powder. This powder, mixed with Kao-lin in water, is dried. In the flint there is or once was much vegetable matter. After the kneading, the mixture must be cured by time, as the Chinese do it. Slip is made out of this compound of flint and silica, with possibly an alkali and a metal that is not acid. How do the Japanese make such thin cups ? They dip the mold in a thin solution of the Kao-lin, until a film has gathered of sufficient thickness to stand alone after firing. Their clays are never of the whitest kind. 29 450 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY What is the Cloisonne ware? The Japanese, after the first firing, make a tracery out of brass or copper. This they affix to the clay vessel, so that the brass projects in lines. Then the enamel is laid in between the lines until the surface is just level, with the brass lines showing. How do the inoderjt English and American Potteries differ from Sevres? Very little. Mainly in the mechanical application of the decorations. Let us suppose a plate is to h^ printed. The design is engraved on a copper plate. The pigment (paint) is ground fine and mixed with a very sticky gum in oil. The pattern is printed, in this oily ink, on tissue paper. If the pattern is for the edge of a plate, it has a lace fringe on the inner edge and is printed on a strip of paper. The strip is applied to the biscuit or clay, face downward, and the scallopy edge of the lace enables the operator to conceal the -curves in his strip of paper. Centre-pieces, of course, give no trouble The paper is washed off with water, and the plate is baked, to burn out the oil in the color. The glaze goes on top of this. Collectors abhor the mechanical decorations, because they can be dupli- • cated so easily, but many of our handsomest golden decorations betray the aid of the lace-paper. Painting under the glaze both softens the effect, and makes the colors as lasting as the plate. Did America furnish a7ty fine clay ? Yes. The early English potters like Wedgev/ood obtained ''unaker"" from our land. Kao-lin has been found in many of the Eastern States and in Nebraska. The calico-bleachers and the wall-paper printers use it. The first American bed of Kao- lin was found at Monkton, Addison County, Vt., in 1810. In 1819, Dr. Mead found Kao-lin in New York. In 1827, it was found near Pittsburg and a pottery established. A bed in Chester County, Pa., was the foundation of the American Porcelain Company, under Tucker and Hemphill. What did the World's Fair bri The exhibits of Belgium showed cups and saucers and dinner sets of the most admirable translucence and coloration. The CHINA. 451 Republic of France exhibited the vast blue Sevres vases owned by the nation. The English dinner plates were somewhat heavy, but their golden decorations were possibly the finest. The Japanese pottery was the finest in weight, and far the cheapest ware ever seen. Of the vases, the French, Saxon, Spanish and Japanese competed. For elegance, possibly the French excelled ; in prolixity of decoration, the Saxons led ; in patience, the Japanese. The large vase, as we see it, is philosophically a variation of the oil and wine vat and coffin of Asia into an article of pure ornamentation in the Western nations. If that be true, its existence as a probable product of future ages is threatened. What are the modern colors which the Chemist produces for the painters of Porcelaiji ? The oxides of cobalt, iron and chromium give the stablest colors for painting under the glaze, with great heats. All hues can be produced over the glaze, where they wear off. But all must be mixed with a flux, and carbonates of soda and potash, oxide of lead, borax, nitre, etc., are so used in the pigments. Oxide of zinc is used with the other colors to modify their shades and tints. For blue and gray, up to black, oxides of cobalt. Antimony and lead give yellow. Oxides of copper give deep red, or brilliant blues and greens, according to the atoms of oxygen. Oxide of chromium produces a soft green. Manganese gives violet, and even black. Gold gives a fine ruby red. Uranium offers a rich orange. The oxides of iron pro- duce all sorts of reds, yellows and browns. Thus, Chemistry plays as important a part in the beautifying of our table-ware as in the decoration of our cloths and our walls. What are Tiles ? Thin bricks that were formerly used for the roofs of houses and for pavements. The palace of the Tuilleries at Paris, occupied a site that was once a tile-yard. We use tiles for man- tels and fire-places, and sometimes for fancy pavements. How did the ancient brick differ from the modern one ? The ancient brick was a quadrangular plate. It was about ten 452 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY, inches long, eight inches wide, and only two inches thick. Its edge was often enameled with brilliant color, even at Nineveh and Babylon. Do we use Enameled Bricks ? Yes. A white enamel is put on the edges of bricks for the walls of courts, and for the lower parts of the walls of corridors in great buildings. Do we use Mosaic Pavements ? Very largely. It is said that there are 50,000,000 small pieces of baked clay in the Pompeiian mosaic floors of the main Audi- torium Building at Chicago. The pavement thus laid is more durable than the tile mosaics that were formerly used. What is Terra Cotta ? These words are Italian for baked clay. In our language, Terra Cotta embraces all that class of brick manufactures used to cover brick walls, and to surround iron columns. An increas- ing quantity of this brick-ware is used for partitions. It is cast with two flues in each piece, and is capable of withstanding great heat while the air is passing through the flues. It is nearly as difficult to thoroughly heat clay as water. ^ batches. ^ //A6E 531 - 20 413 - 292 381 32 287-292 272 111 109 477 otc 488 511 4C7 233 293 229 459, - 135 117 - 128 122 269-292 -• 123 73 - 29 130 - 302 ?03. etc. - 197 517 - 102 64 68 67 - 156 46 53^ INDEX OF CONTENTS. Block Signals - - - Bicycle, Chapter on - Bigelow's Demonstration Big Dipper, The Bioplasm . - - - Biscuit (China) Bismuth _ _ - - Bitumen - - - - Bode's Law Borax _ _ - - Borchers, Dr. - - - Borden, Gail, and Condensed Milk Boron, Description oi' - Bradley - - - Brazil Nut - . - Bread Brick Tea as Money Bricks with Straw, Why Broadcloth - - - Bromine - - - Brott System of Railway Brush's Arc Light - Brussells Carpets Buckwheat - - - - Buda-Pesth Buffalo's Electric System Bulbs of Glass, Why Thev Burglar-Proof Safes Spoil Burnham, Prof. Butter, Its History Butterine Factory Butternut pADMIUM Csesium PAGE 106 319 36 496 310 488 344 - 476 265 79 145 265-292 - 528 171 113, etc. 190 - 438 394 259-292 - 80 51 - 396' 126 :\Iade 245 90 - 535 131-137 142 - 169 - 271-292 Calcium Calculus, Explanation of Calendar, The Calico - Calker Camellia Camembert Cheese - Candies, Polished Candies, Small Candle, The Candy, French Candy, Rock Caoutchouc - Capacity Caramel Caraway Carbon Carbon Coinpounds Car Cleaner - 269-292 a Simple 524 - 467 389, etc. - 109 - 188 - - - 139 - 314 313 - 338 314 - 312 - 410 - ' 21 313 - 178 - 240-292 239 - 109 I»AGB Carpets . - . . opg^ etc. Carpet Weaving ... . 395 Castile Soap ■32': Catalysis - - - . - - 19 Cathode 97 Catsup Factories 200 Centrifugal Machines for Siiuar - 299 Cerite ------- 289 Cerium - - - - - 289-292 Charcoal 349 Chassagne's Photographs . Cheese Cheese Grotto in Baden Chemical Equations Chemical Formulas Chemical Tools .... Chemistry, Chapter on Chemistry, Organic . Chemistry, Its Usefulness . Cherry ..... Cheshire Cheese Press Chestnut China and Pottery, Chapter on Chinaware in China Chinchillas Chinese All Wore Silk Once Chlorine Chlorine Accumulator Chlorine Apparatus Chocolate Chow-Chow . Chromium . Cinnamon Citron .... Citrus Family Clairaut Clamond Generator Cloth'Scouring . Clothes, Chapter on Cloves .... Club House Cheese "* Coal .... Coal Breakers Coal Dump . Coal Geology Coal Mining Cobalt Cocoa .... Cocoa Butter .* Cocoa Butterine Cocoa Nuts Cocoa Nuts in Candy Cocoons, Reeling . 1 331 137, etc. . 136 . , 237 . 237 244 225, etc. 250 . 291 153 . 140 436, etc. 372 257, 292 71 . 231 192, 314 . 200 176 166 158 530 79 394 174 . 141 344, etc. . 345 110 . 348 345, etc. 281, 292 144. 192 . 194 144 . 167 315 INDEX OF CONTENTS. 539 PAQK Coffee 181, 373 etc. Copper 292 ;itive Ffoiis< Coke .... Colbert . Color Analysis ol" Siiptii Colortype Printino: Combs, Black Comets Commutator Compressed Air Compressed Air Locom Compressed Air Power Condensed Milk Condensers Controller . Copernicus Corn .... Corn Canning Corn Oil Corn Oil Cake Cornell, Ezra Cotton 373, etc.; History Machinery . Cotton Fibres Cotton, Illustration Cotton Seeds Cotton Yarn . Coulomb, C. A. de Coulomb, The Unit of Qiiaiitit.\ Cowboys Crackers Cranberries Cream Separator . Creamery Crochet Thread Crookes Prof. Crystals Crystal Measuring: Crystal, The Word Cucumbers, Bottlin Currants Cut Glass Cyanogen . ■Q'ALEMBERT Dalton, John Dates Davies'Bulb Davy, Sir H. . De Brie Cheese . Decipium Dentrecolles, Pere Dextrine Dialysis 340 . 535 300 . 381 413 102. 509, 506 105, etc. 109 . 107 145 . 43 . 517 117, etc. . 164 118 . 118 23 374; The Vast 377 374 294 375 375 21 21 198 127 165 133 132 234 424 199 164 426 251 . 530 229 148,164 100 . 45 139 . 292 Diamonds Made . Didyraium . Diffraction Diffusion Theory, Su":} Dish, The First Drawing Frame Drop Forging Du Halde . Dynamo . " Theory of Multipolar Dynamo PAGK . 241 289, 293 . 216 302 . 437 379 . 320 439 . 29, 32 . 34 37, 48. 56 304 51 - 52 100 - 513 17 19 21 28, 45 77. 90 - 239 49 - 41 76 - 57 46 - 72 ■C* ARTH, The - - - - - 466 Eclipses ----- 502 Edison's Carbon Telephone Transmit- ter - - _ - _ - - 69 Edison's Kineto-Phonographic Theatre 82 Edison's Incandescent Light Its Manufacture Edison's X Ray Lamp Egyptian Astronomy - Electricity - - - - Origin of the Word Law of Congress Speed - - - - War Electricity in Chemistry Electrid Arc Light Electric Bridge Electric Fan - - - . Electric Fountain Electric Heaters Electric Launch - Electric Log Electric Measurement - - 21, 4'i Electric Meters - - Electric Theatre - Electric Ventilator - , Electric Weed Killer - Electrocution Electrolysis . Electro-Magnet . Electrotyping Electro Metallurgy . Electro Motive Force Electro-Plating , Elements, Table of . Elements, The Elements That Are Mo Than Gold Elements That Are Metal Emerald, The ..... 270 Enamel ....... 438 English Cheeses .... 140 56 , 21, 47 88 291,292 . 225, 292 Precious 540 INDEX OF CONTENTS. English Walnut . . . 171 Equinoxes, Precession of . 492 Erbium ...... 289, 292 Ethereal Salts, The . 247 Etheric Theory . . , . . 18 Ethers, The . . . 246 Encke's Comet . . . . . 509 Euler . 530 Exciting . . . . . . 36 pALSE FACES Farad.The Unity of Capacit . 435 y 21 Faraday, Michael . 21 Felt . 398 Felt Hats . 398 Ferris Wheel . ' . . 319 Field, Cyrus . 23 Filters for Sugar 301 Fire Starting . . . . . 454 Flax Cloth, Pre-historic . . 355 Flax Plant . 401 Flax Spinners .... . 402 Floating Soaps . . . . . 328 Flour, How Made 114 Fluorescence . . . . 95 Flourine ..... 259, 292 Fluoroscope . 99 Force, Theory of . . . 20 Formulas, Chemical , . 237 Franklin's Pane 44 Fraunhofer's Lines . 216 Frijoles ..... . 130 Frog's Blood .... . 317 pADOLINIUM . . . ^ Galileo 290, 292 . 522 Gallium ..... 290,292 Galvani . 45 Gas Flash Lighter , 88 Gas Making .... 338. etc. Gas Meter 342 Gases, Weighing .... . 230 Gauze ...... 373 Gaj'-Lussac , 296 Geber, The Arabian Astronoint^r . - 516 Geissler Tube .... . 96 Generators for Vinegar . 204 Germanium . . . . . . 292 Gerry, Elbridge 75 Ginger . 173 Glass, Chapter on 421, etc. Glass As a Chemical Com pound . 422 Glass Molds .... 423 Glaze on Pottery Glucinum ..... Glucoses Glucose Factory, Description of Gluten .... Gold ...... Gold, Description of Gold Chemicals Gold Cure Goodyear, Charles Gooseberry . ... Graham Bread, Origin of Name Grapes Gravitation .... Gray, Prof Gray's Telephone Grove, W. R. . , . . . Gum Drops .... Gunpowder Gutta Purcha .... Gymuote PAGE , 437 292 296, 309 309 118 292 275, etc. 276 276 414 157 526 47, 64, 73 65 17, 19 313 77 UAEMOSCOPE, The 218 Halides, The Acid - - - 247 Halley - - . . _ . -528 Halogens, The . - - - - 257 Hazel Nut ------ 170 Heat _-_... 333 Helium 219, 292 Henry, The unit of induction - 21 Henry, Prof. Joseph - - - - 21 Herschel ._---. 529 Herschel's Illustration - _ - 485 Hickory nut 170 Hipparchus 514 History of Astronomy - - 512, etc. Holmium --..-. 290, 292 Hominy 118 Horseradish - - - - - - 173 Howe, Elias 418 Hydrogen 256, 292 Hydro carbons .... - 245 TCE, Chapter on 350 Ice Factory . - - - - 351 Ide, Meaning of this word-ending - 231 India Rubber, Chapter on - - 408 Indium 279,292 Induction 21 •' Defined 29 Ingrain Carpets - . = - - 396 Interference - - - - - - 216 Iodine 257, 2f 2 INDEX OF CONTENTS. 541 PAGE Iridium 282,292 Iron 292 " Description of - - - - 279 " Group, The - - - 277, etc. TABLOCHKOFF Candle ... 49 J Jacquard .... 368, etc. Jenny, Hargreaves' .... 384 Jews, How they kill their Beeves . 197 Johnston, John 535 Joule, Dr. J. P. . . . . 17, 21 Joule, The unit of work ... 21 Jupiter, The Planet . . . .479 Moons .... 479 Jute 405 T^A0-L;N . . • . . 439,441 •^ Kay, John 368 Kelvin, Lord . • . \. . 86 Keraraler 75 Kepler 518 Kepler's Laws .... 519, etc. Kerosene . . . ... . 334 Ketones, The 246 Kinetoscope .... 81, 333 Kumyss 146 T ^VULOSE Sugar . . . .305 ■^Lace-making .... 388 Lanthanum 289.292 LaPlace 530 Lead ....'.. 292 " Compounds .... 277 " Group 277, etc " Pipe 277 Lemon 160 L'.! Pontois, Leon, Prof. ... 90 Leverrier 484. 532 Life, Chapter on (See tabled' couteuts in front) 316 Light and Heat, Chapter on . 330, etc. Lime, The 162 Lime, Process in sugar making . 298 Liucrusta-Walton . . . • 405 Liebeg,Prof 224 Linen 400, etc. Lines of Force 31 Linoleum 404 Litharge .278 Lithium 267, 292 Locofocos 455 Looking glasses 275 PAGE Loom, The .... . 366, etc. Turkish loom . . . ' . 367 Indian loom . . 368 Power loom .... . 269 Old-time loom . . 370 Why looms are noisy 370 Lace-weaving . . . 387 Carpets . . • , . . 396 Lozenges . . , . . . 314 Ley den Jar 44 TVTACARONI ^^^ Mace . 125 : 175 Mackintosh, The word . . . 414 Magnesium 292 " Group, The . 270 Magnet ..... . 30, 45 Magnetic Field . 31 Malt 203 Manganese .... . . 280 Manilla 405 Map-making .... . . 90 Marco Polo 441 Marconi's Discovery . . 102 Marignao . 290 Mars, The planet . . . 474 Matches, Chapter on 453, etc. History .... . . 453 Maxim's Electric Meter . 63 Meats . ' . . 196, etc. " Trust, The . 198 Mecanique Celeste . . • . 530 Melons 165 Melting Point . 227 Meltons . 394 Menacite ..... . 290 Mercury . , . . . . 292 " De>;cription of . 272, etc. Mercury, The Planet . 463 Meteors . . 503 Meters, Electric . 62 Middlings Purifier . 115 Milk ...... 130, etc. Millet ..... . 122 Mill Explosions 115 Millimeter .... . . 333 Mince Meat Factory . . 178 Mining Experts' Formula . . 276 Minus ...... :9, 43, 50 Mixer, for susar . . 299 Moissan, M. Henri 242 Molasses . 305 Molec,ular Theory . 233 Molecular ^Veight Apparatus . . 232 542 INDEX OF CONTENTS. Molybdeuium Moon, The Moquette Carpets Mordant . Morse, Prof. S. F. B, Morse's Telegraph Mosaic Pavements Mosandrinm . Motor, Electricj . " Negro's " Modern Type Motor-cycles . Mourning Crape . Mourning Pius Mulberry Speculation Mule, Self-Actiug . Multiplex Telegraphy Multipolar Magnet Mustard Mill Explosions Napier and His Logarithms Nebulae . Nectarine .... Needles and Pins, Chapter on Negative Elements , Neodymium .... Neptune, the Planet, Date of covery . . . - Neutral Newton, Sir Isaac Niagara, chaining of Nicetas ..... Nickel . • . . Niobium .... Nitrates of Commerce, The Nitrogen Nitrogen, description of . Nitro-glycerine North Star, The . . . • Nutmegs and Mace PAGE 289, 292 . 470 396 23 22 452 292 38 39 40 73 361 4!9 363 385 26 173 . 115 523 . 494 156 . 418 236 . 289, 292 its d[<- 483 . 143 458. 523, etc. 83, etc. . 514 282, 292 . 291 252 . 292 251. etc. ;o:i QATS .... Ocean Cable How the Messages are read Ocean Cable, how laid Ohm, G. S Ohm, the Unit of Resistance Ohm's Law . . , . Oilcloth Oil refining .... Oil wells Oleomargarine . Orange J9H 119 23 24 24 21 21 47 406 etc. 333 142 158 Organic Acids . Organic Chemistry Organo-metallic Bodies, The Orion .... Osmium .... Oxygen, meaning of the word Oxygen and Nitrogen . Oxygen, description of Oxygen .... Ozone .... pAINTING Machine Palladium Paper, Chapter on " History of " How cut . How Water-mark " How Glazed " How Hand-made Papier-mache Paradox Parhelia, or Mock Suns Parmesan Cheesf? Paste in Chinaware nuil> Pate-sur-pate Peach .... " Canning . Peanut .... Pears . . Pecan . . . - Pepper .... Pepper. Prof. Pepper's Ghost . Permauganese. Petroleum . Pf-tuu-ste Photographic Cheuiis^.ry Phosphorus Phosphorescence Piazzi .... Pickles, Vinegar, etc. Pickle Factories . Pineapple Pins Pintsch Light Pistachio Nut Plante's Storage Buttery Platinum Platinum Group, The Plum _ - - - Plus - - Plush _ - - - Pneumatic Tubes PAOE 246 . 239 247 . 532 783, 292 226 . 231 254 2o5 282, 292 429, etc. 429 433 433 433 433 434 490 462 139 438 448 151 152 150 171 172 . 91 329, 334 . 281 335 441.449 ^99 264, 292 95 . 529 199, etc. . 199 166 418, etc. 343 171 393 282 - 164 19, 43, 50 - 399 106 INDEX OF CONTENTS. 543 PAGE Polariscope 306 Polarized Light 61 Pomegranate 197 Popp, Victor ----- 107 Porcelain, Origin of the word - - 439 Portland Vase, The - - - - 428 Positive Elements - - - . 230 Potassium, Character ol - :i68, 324, 293 Potassium Chlorate - - - - 269 Potentials - 43 Potter's Wheel, The - - - - 438 Pottery, Chapter on - - - - 437 Pottery in Europe _ - - - 444 Pottery, its Chemistry - - - 451 Praseodymium - - . 289, 293 Precession of the Equinoxes - - 499 Printing Calico 391 Protoplasm ------ 315 Proctor 533 Prune - 164 Ptolemy, the Astronomer - - 515 Pythagoras 513 QUANTITY ..... 21 Quinine, Its molecule . . .263 ■OADICLES 238 Radiometer ..... 97 Rainbow ...... 95 Raisins 158 Raspberry ------ 156 Reckenzaun - 73 Refrangibility 215 Resistance - - - - 21, 47, 49 Rhodium ----- 282,293 Rice, Planting 112 " Plant ------ 119 " Transplanting - - - 121 " Mill ------ 124 Rock Drills ------ 108 Roentgen, Dr., - - - - 93, etc. Portrait of - - 94 Rogers' Synchronous Wheel - - 27 Rosse, Lord ----- 533 Rotifer, The - - - - - - 317 Roving-Frame - - - - - 382 Rubber Tires 321 Rubber Weaving - - - - 412 Rubidium 269, 193 Ruhmkorff . . - _ - 96 Ruthenium ----- 282,293 Rye 118 PAGE CACCHROMETER, The Saccharoses 296 Safety-pins 419 Safety Match, The - - - - 456 Sage 123, 178 Saggers - - . - - - . 443 Salt 207 9tc, Salt Grotto ------ 203 Saltpetre 268 Samarium 290,293 satin - - - - - - - 366 Saturn, the Planet - - - - 480 Saturn's Moons - - . - _ 482 Saturn's Rings ----- 481 Savory 178 Scandium 290, 293 Schmierkase - 139 Schweizerkase - - - - _ 139 Search-light 59, etc Seasons, The ----- 468 Selenium - . - - 259, 264, 293 Serigiaph, The, for Silk - - - 361 Sevres Gold 484 Sevres, its History - - - . 445 Pottery at - . _ . 446 Sheep, how butchered - - - 197 Shoddy 399 Show-lights 53 Silicon, description of - - - - 266 Silk, artificial 362 Silk, conditioning . - . _ 350 Silk-worms ----- 354, 357 Silk Fibres 356 Silicon, - . - - 273, etc., 293 Silver Plate _ - - - - 274 Silk Worm Rearing Establishment - 364 Sirup '307 Sisal 405 Skirt-dancers 365 Slip - - - - - - - - 438 Slubbing-Frame 360 Soap-making 324 Soap, Chapter on - - - 323, etc. " history 323 Soda - 267,324 Sodium 218,267,293 Soft Coal - - - - - - 347 Soil-analysis 254 Solenoid 62 Soret - - - - - - - 290 Sorghum 312 Soxhlets' Milk Apparatus - - - 134 Spark Condenser - - - . 217 Specific Gravity - - - - 229, 230 544 INDEX OF CONTENTS. PAGE Specific Heat 235 Specific Heat of the Elements - 292, 293 Spectral Apparatus - - - - 215 Spectral Analysis - - - - _ 219 Spectroscope, The - - - 213 etc. Spectrum 214 Spices ------ 172 etc. Spindle, The - Spirit Lamps Star-Study Stars, in Space - " Double Stars Stanford Starch - - . - S:eel . . - - Stereoscope Stereopticon Sterilized Milk Stocl; Ticker Stockyards at Chica^'o Stone Crocks Storage Battery Straw . . . , Strawberry Sirawboard ... Street Cables . Strontium Sugar and Alcohol Sugar Cane, its History . Sugar, Chapter on Sugar, iMaking from Cane Sugar, Refineries . Sugar, Granulated Sugar, Pulverized Sugar, Adulterations Sugar Crystals Sugar, Maple Sugar from Milk . Sulphur Sulphur Group, The Sulphur, description ol Sulphuric Acid Sulphur Compounds . Sun's Spectrum Sun, The Suu-Spots Swine, How Slaughtered Switch .... Symbols Symbols of all the Elements 'pABLE OF THE ELEMENTS Tantalum .... 376 - 219 487 - 495 534 125, 310 - 279 . 331 332 . 146 26 196, 198 438 71 405 . 1.54 435 269, 293 . 246 295 295, etc. 300 301 301 301 307 311 293 . 259 260, etc. . 262 263 218 461 463 Tapioca 54 236 292, 293 292 . 293 123 PAGE Tapestry Carpets . . . .396 Tartar emetic 288 Tea . 187, etc. Telautograph .... 73, etc. Telectroscope, The ... 90, etc. Telephone . . . . 64, etc. Telephone, long distance ... 71 Telephone newspaper at Buda Pesth 70 Tellurium . ... 259. 264, 293 Terbium 290, 293 Terra Cotta 452 Tesla . . . -. .93, 101 Tesla, Nicola . .... 86 Tesla's Oscillator , . . .78 Textile Grasses, The ... 405 Thales 513 Thallium .... 277, 278, 293 Theatre, Electric effects, how produced 57 Theatrophone at Paris ... 70 Thermo Electricity .... 79 Thermometer, Chemical . . 242 Thio 262 Thorium ..... 289, 293 Thread-making . . . . 384, etc. Throttle, The 383 Thulium . . : . . 290, 293 Thyme 178 Tin 293 Tin Group, The .... 283 Tin, its history etc. .... 284 '' its vast importance . • . 284 Tin foil ...... 285 Tin cans .286 Tin scrap ...... 287 Tin in silk . . - . . .362 Tinder 454 Titanium 283, 293 Tomato 162 Toma.to-canning, The process . . 162 Transparent soap .... 327 Triple- effect 311 Trolley cars . . . . 38, 46 Trolley train 42 Trolley-wires ..... 41 Tungsten 293 Tungsten Group, The . . . .5^9 Tutty ....... 287 Tycho Brohe 518 TTLUGHBegh ..... 517 ^ Uranium . . . . .289,293 Uranus * 482 Ursa Major 497 INDEX OF CONTENTS. 545 239 -yACUUM-PAN, For Sugar . Valency Vauadium 293 Velvet .372 Velvet Carpets 372 Venus, The Planet . . .464 Vesuvius, Mount .... 260 Vienna Bread ..... 116 Vinegar . ... . . . 201 Vitriol ....... 262 Volt, The Unit of Electro-Motive Force . . . . . . 21, 48 Volta . . . ... . .45 " ■^Alessandro .... 21 Voltaic Pile ...... 45 Vulcanizing Rubber . ... 411 TIT-ALL-PAPER .... 434 Walnut ..... 169 Watson 534 Watt, James ..... 21 Watt, The unit of power . . 21 Water, description of . . . 255 Weaving in the Bible . . . 368 Weslsbach Light, The ... 289 Westinghouse Air Brake . . 105 Whortleberry 156 PAQK Window glass .... 425 Wintergreen berries ... 167 Wire glass 428 Wool 392, etc. Wool-fibres 392 Wood pulp 430 Wool Scribbler 393 Wood Pulp, Silk . . . , 110 Woolen Staffs ..... 395 Word-endings in Chemistry . . 240 Work, ....... 21 Worsteds 395 Writing-paper. How Ruled . . 434 V RAY 93, etc. yEAST . . . . . .115 Yerkes 5^5 Yttrium 289,293 7INC . . . . . . 270,293 '^ Zinc, White ..... 271 Zipernowsky's Arc Light . . 50 Zodiac, The ..... 486 Zirconium . . . . 283,293 NOV 30 1S0O