Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924076055684 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 1924 076 055 684 .IOHN McGOVEEN. The Fireside University Modern Invention Discovery Industry and Art... FOR^- Home Circle / StUdy and Entertainment. WITH COMPLETE INDEXES. By JOHN McGOVERN. Author of " History of Grain and the Grain. Trade? " History of Money Banking, Stocks and Bonds" " The Empire of Information" " The Golden Censer? " Toiler's Diadem," Etc. Chicago : UNION PUBLISHING HOUSB. REVISED EDITION. tl Mq- ty oil &$$?^ "fj PUBLISHED BY The Union Publishing Souse, GHIGASO. "s^ ^m^ JCCliiV^ o - i *"^UBLISfteRS r ~pReFftCe. The author of The Fireside 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 30 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 gives us but a single illustration of what has happened on every side of us. The nickel-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 other such 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... ELECTRICITY. 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, Electro-Magnets, The Magnetic Field, Armature, Commu- tator.— The Sun, the Chief Magnet.— All About the Trolley Cays. — 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. — Rhumkorff. — Edison's Fluoroscope. — Davis' Bulb. — The Blind. — Edison's X Ray Lamp. — Tesla's Alternating Cur- rents. — Comets. — Marconi. — Bell's Radiophone 93 Vl CONTENTS. COMPRESSED AIR. iase. 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 BREAD, 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 BUTTER, CHEESE, 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. — Chiei 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 oi 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 SPICES. Pepper, Mustard, Horseradish, Ginger. — The , Clove, Nutmeg and Mace, — Cinnamon. — Allspice. — Caraway. — Herbs. — How Mince Meat is Manufactured 172 CONTENTS. Vll COFFEE, TEA, ETC. page. Coffee, Its History and Culture.— Its Effects.— Tea, Its Culture in China and Elsewhere. — A Great Subject. — Brick Tea. — Choco- late, Another Great Trade. — Complete Description 181 MEAT, ETC. The Union Stockyards at Chicago. — Description of the Slaughter- houses. — The Rabbi as a Butcher. — Cowboys 196 PICKLES, VINEGAR, ETC. The Great Pickle Factories at Pittsburg, Pa. — What Is Vinegar? — Theory of Acids. — How Vinegar is Made in Great Vinegar Factories 199 SALT. 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 THE SPECTROSCOPE. 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 • CHEMISTRY. 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 zVand ous, at the Ends of Words.— Importance of Carbon. — Allotropy. — 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, Vlli CONTENTS. CHEMISTRY.— Cont'd. ease 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 Csesium 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 I,IFE- Life, Motion and Matter. — Bioplasm. — Protoplasm. — The Micro- scope. — The Amoeba. — A Great Subject 316 THE BICYCLE- 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 WGHT AND HEAT. 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 CLOTHES. Antiquity of Cloth-Making. — Silk, the Worm, the Cocoon, tht 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. — La:e. 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 Stubbing 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. ; Classificationj-Worsteds. Catpet- 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 RUBBER. Its Nature. — Gutta Percha. — Uses of Rubber. — Caoutchouc. — Raw Material. — The Masticator. — Vulcanization. — Hose. — Balls. — Wo ven-Goods. — O vershoes. — CI othes . — Combs. — False Teeth. — Goodyear and Mackintosh 408 X CONTENTS. NEEDLES 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 GLASS. 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 PAPER. Its Nature, Uses and History. — Papyrus. — Wood Pulp from Spruce 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 MATCHES. 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. — Sua 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. Frontispiece. Page. Electricity. Scene in Metropolitan Power-House aI y Morse's First Telegraph 22 Apparatus for Ocean Messages by Wire 24 Diagram of the Above Apparatus 2 r The Rogers' Typewriter Preparing Tape 27 1 View of Type Arms 27 2 Type Magnified , 2 7 Transmitting the Dispatch 28 Windlass Plunge Carbon-Zinc Battery for Gold, Silver, Nickel-Plat- ing, Electric Light, Etc ( 2g First Brush Arc Dynamo, 1877 , 16- Light, 2,000 Candle Power, Brush Arc Dynamo, Used Fourteen Years 33 Diagram to Illustrate the Theory of the Brush Dynamo 34 Armature, Commutator and Pulley End r a 25 Armature, Core and Commutator a ,, A Multipolar (Many Poles) Dynamo 37 Negro's First Electric Motor 39 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 50 The Brush Light 5I Stages in the Making of Incandescent Lamps g 2 Electric Fountain 58 The Search Light and its Electric Arc Light 60 Maxim's Meter , 63 Bell's Second Telephone 64 Gray's Telephone 65 Bell's Receiver ip . g 7 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 101 Edison's X Ray Damp 101 Bell's Radiophone 102 Bell's Selenium Cell. 103 The E.uhmkorft 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 — 1 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 Wollaston'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 WoulfFs 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 WoulfFs Bottle for Hydrogen 255 McLeod's Air Gauge for Measuring Air Pressure Down to Ten- milliouths of the Atmosphere 255 A Distillery for "Water 256 Apparatus for Measuring the Volume of Hydrogen 257 Koehler'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. pass. 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 c 352 Clothes, 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 4° 2 The Jute Plant 406 India Rubber. The India Rubber Plant 409 xvi table of illustrations. Glass. pagb. Fashioning Glass Shades 4 22 Molding Common Tumblers 423 China. The Potter 43 6 The Slip House. 44° The Dipping Room , 443 Gilding the Porcelain 445 Porcelain — Biscuit Scouring ." 447 Matches. Starting Fire 454 Astronomy. Sir Isaac Newton 45^ Parhelia,' or Mock Suns 462 Orbit of the Earth 466 The Aspects of Mars 474 The Constellation Orion .- r 532 y 4 -| I *■ :: : ■ *Uf lib. > " :■ .*°L :■■■ Fig. 18. SCENE IN THE METROPOLITAN ELEVATED POWER HOUSK, CHICAGO, ILL. 800 and 1500 Kilowatt Direct-Driven Railway Generators. Electricity tes^eieieieieieieieie >Tj .Ti.Ti.Tu Ti ff%atf « Electricity ? It is believed to be one of the many demonstrations of what may plainly be called physical force. What are the other leading demonstrations 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 doctrine 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 common with all classes of the people? As early as 1870. Will you describe Electricity as Grove described it f " 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 invisible, 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 with the scientist 1 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 f It may be that each molecule revolves in its own orbit or vortex. Certain forces may make the atoms go round one way and other forces may reverse the motion. What other action may take place W<* __ &***i£ ^ Breab, Etc. j£. ^teieieieieieieieieteieKxeiC" 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 grain, 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 com, on the same principle. In reading the foreign press and dispatches, and the Bible, it must be remembered that corn 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 flour ? 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 modem 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 stays 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 mill 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 sixty 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 it 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 Vienna Bread? We may group as "Vienna" or "French Bread" all 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 gas. Is there anything peculiar about a baker's brick oven f 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 in 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 Ug THE FIRESiDE UNIVERSITY. Mexico, and may almost be called the standard of value thet,, for nearly all mining enterprises depend for their cost on tne yield of corn in Mexico during the period in which the labor is done. What is hominy ? 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 corn-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 gluten, 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 ? 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 « > CD K 5 cp W a is M BREAD, ETC. 119 distillation of whiskey, and this brand of liquor is held in high esteem by druggists. Is any other grain 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 sativa — possi- bly the wheat of 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 f Rice is raised (as we raise wheat and corn) in China, Pig. 51. THE RICE PLANT. T ,. T „ , „ India, Japan, Ceylon, Egypt, 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. liEt .--■'. BREAD, ETC, 121 What peculiarities has Rice as a food f It exceeds all 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 Fig. 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 aqd Norway. In those countries the cakes and por- ridges to be made from these grains are sought and relished from labit 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 FIRESILE 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 t 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 f •' 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 mSBm BREAD, ETC. 125 easily made, as the masses or granules require skillful treatment or they will remain "heavy to the taste. What are Spaghetti and Vermicelli t 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 any 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 Bucliwcisen, 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. DIGESTOR FOE 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 *he 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 ? 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 1851. 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 are 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. |Tj (Tfl-TiiTi tTi What 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 lungailments. What 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 Tenderers. 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 Fig.56. KOENIG'S APPA- ratus foe distin- protection, because the small grocer cannot guishing maegae- afford to take out an oleomargarine license INE FROM BUTTEB. , „. , >, ° for selling substitute butter. 131 132 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Fig. 57. CHEESE GROTTO AT BERTRICK, BADEN. BUTTER, CHEESE, ETC. 133 What great change in Butter-making has come? 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 f 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 regions 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 holdingfourhundred 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 a pound 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 I 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- ed a closed glass tube with iron or mercury and let it stand upright in 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 103 1, and grade the space between the two lines into thirty-one equal parts. This tube would then be a lactometer. If the milk Fig. 59. SOXHLET'S APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING PAT IN 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 ceni. 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. What is Professor Babcock's sulphuric acid centrifugal machine f 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, ^M'^^^^^0M^ the y wil1 sta Y witn 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 pail, 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 it* value as a butter-producer. Fig. 60. BABCOCK'S MILK TESTING APPARATUS. w w t» 2 a M >- H w s t- 1 Ir 1 W M a o BUTTER, CHEESE, ETC. 137 What is the history of Butter ? The word butter is very old, but the method of making it has varied. The word comes from the Greek Bous, ox, cow, and turos, 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 butyrum. 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. 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, caseus 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 Pig.61. AMAGAT-JEAN'S O L E O - REFRACTRO- SCOPE FOR TESTING OILS AND BUTTER. 138 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. cheese-grinder, which mixes, beats and sifts the substance. What is it now f 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. What foreign 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 in tin foil. It is not successfully imitated in America. What is Edam cheese ? It is usually the red sphere you see in the grocery. Tt 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 selebrity 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 acconnt, but we rarely see the latter. Lim- burger is sold in tin foil. What are De Brie and Camcmbert ? 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 fairjy 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 Ss\_J Fig. 62. A CHESHIRE CHEESE 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 drains 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 American 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 liquor ? 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 ? 01eomargarine,.generally called butterine. A Parisian chemist 14 2 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, was 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 clanfiers, 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, CHEESE, ETC. 143 a yellowish cast, upholding the chemists' claim that it contains th*e 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 spread. 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 oleomargirine 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 remainder of 20 per cent f 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 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. in the churn-room. Near by are a]] 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 ? 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 leady 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 adulteration f 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 floor, which is heated to one hundred and thirty degrees. The eft H S o s s H B K g o s a H c H a M B o B o o BUTTER, CHEESE, ETC. 145 buiter 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 done 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 product becomes a substitute for lard, and its makers claim for it many advantages over the fat of swine for cooking purposes. What is Condensed Milk? 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 Yor^ 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 off into the sugar- 9 146 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 requiesa 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 the 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 f 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. 14 7 skin of the entire hind-quarter of a horse. The yeast used is kor, the sediment from a previous brewing. The bottle must be frequently shaken. In twenty-four hours the fermentation is complete, and the young ''Kumyss" is made. It is called saumal. 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. Is America zvell 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 you 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, Rarnbo, 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. 150 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What followed the failure of vines in France f The culture of apples, and the use by the French of cider as 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 f 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 on 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. What 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 FIRES WE 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 are Peaches used? 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 forflavor. The Peach pie, made all the year round, is as staple as the apple pie at the city restaurants and lunch counters, and the consumption is enormous. Are 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 always 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 t 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 f 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 t 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 fruit, 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 1 54 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 price, 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 t 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 made f 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 fo-r hoops, just as a cooper would do, 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 called 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 t It is also called the Huckleberry. The Blueberry grows on tall shrubs in marshes. The Huckleberry 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 t Concord and Catawba ? 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 f 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 f 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 Hesperdium. 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 gioves of America ? 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, f 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 grown 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 f 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 Jill 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 Narunjee. The Span- iards made this Naranja, and the Arabs Naranj. In the Western tongues the n fell away. The Italians called it Arancia. The Romans had called it the apple of Media, but it was Latinized Aurantium, which agreed well with its golden color. The Romance languages made it Arangi, and the English Norange, clinging to the Persian word. But like other words in English beginning with a consonant, the article an 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 ameliorant of 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 f Two or three million boxes are imported each year. Their value is 84,000,000 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 ? 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 the 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 ii r 62 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 esculentum, 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 Tomatoes. 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 wiih 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. Describe 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 164 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY completes the job by fixmg 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 Gut 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 1 They may be called Asiatic Plums. They grow on the Date Palm, a typical tree of the tropics. The Date is rich iu sugar and gum, and is a leading ariicle of food in Barbary, Arabia, and Persia. 4 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 drawers, 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. What are Cranberries f 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 packed 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 Citron f 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 sus^ar. 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 other 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 Punica, implying that it once came from Carthage. ■A H H CO a P5 fa C a o #*5M* sieiefeieieieieieieieieieief^K WA#£ iy £/££ leading Nut 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 pean-ut 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 English Walnut f 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 .nore cleanly. It 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 1 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, wlrich colors Pistachio ice cream. IK*** ***** ***** Spices, Etc 'nTnTftTiJl ***** 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 Malaysia. 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 172 Fig. 64. THE PEPPER PLANT. SPICES, ETC. 113 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 I, 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 f 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. 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 Fig. 65. Chinese ginger price has cheapened in late years, and plant. t h e demand for it has increased. How is Ginger prepared for the kitchen ? 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 clavus, 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 n. 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. Cloves 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 nux 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 use 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 lit \ \if§i i f Fig. 60. 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 momitn Zcylauicum is the name of the small tree from which the bark we use, is gathered. Cinnamon bark is 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 ? 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 Cinnamon ? 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 Havor 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 ? 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. All 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-Meat 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 SP/CES, 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 a 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 cooks. :,: , ' : 7;> :"#?'; Fig. 67. THE COFFEE MAEKET OF PAQEE-ALAM, MALAYSIA. *JT Coffee, £ea, lEtc. ***** t ■.TATj-TitTj lT,,T.iT/iT; .T. 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, coffea Arabica and coffea Qccidentalis, 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 name 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 f 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 J av an 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. What is the history 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- Fig. 68. THE COFFEE PLANT AND ITS PAKTS. 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 f A bright red berry, resembling a cherry, with a pulpy body and iwo 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 coffee-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 2 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 CEYLON. 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 egg, 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 any 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 coffee," 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 you name an American authority on Coffee f 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, one 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, that 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 maybe likened to wheat in that regard. It is cul- tivated in Japan as far north as thirty-nine decrees 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 pluckfdf By hand. The Tea of each leaf has a name. The little leaf on the tip of the shoot is flowery pekoe (from 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 siaou-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 bbhea, COFFEE, TEA, ETC. 189 (from wu-i, the mountains in Fuh-keen). These shoots will come out four times a year. The rnost fragrant picking is the first, in April, which is hyson (f rom yu-tsien, before the rains, or from Tu-chun, 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 f They are Chinese appellations, sbmetimes translated, but usually merely imitated in sound. 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 coasting 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 scented 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 only of the tender est 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 cm thus enter the pekoe. Does adulteration 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. What commercial brands of Tea arc 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 the history of Tea ? Strangely enough, Marco Polo, our first historian or observer of Chinese ways, does not mention Tea. In China, the name is Cha, but the Amoy dialect has it Tee, whence English merchants got the name which survived, although it was first known at London as Cha 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 of 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 the Portuguese 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 Mercurius Politicus: "That excellent and by all Physitians approved China Drink, called by the Chineans Tcha, by 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- drill king 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 goo'd 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 ? The best grows in Venezuela, and is shipped from Caraccas. All the tropical countries produce the tree. How is the Cocoa Bean secured ? 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. Ml Christmas crop. The workman, armed with a long pole, on which is a knife, shears, or a prong, selects only 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 f 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 ? 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. 13 194 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Are the nibs ground? Yes. They are fed into a hopper and travel to the mill on uic 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 wrapped 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 ol soap. The American factories cannot supply the demand, and over 2,000 tons are imported each year. What is Cocoa ? 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, whereafter 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 01 ten 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 which meant food for the gods, from the Greek Theos, god, and bromos, food. Do Americans 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. ****■!< SIS *'Jf*** fSDeat Btc. ***** ***** What changes have taken place in the production 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. D&xter 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 uniformed 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, cat 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 animal's 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. Thj 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 1 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. |T pickles, Dineoar.Etc.^ ^•i«ioIipi( 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 in 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 cucumbers 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. Thebottle 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? 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 esteem. Cauliflower is the leading dr 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, 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 cf this wonderful liquid. Vinegar, as a word means sour or sharp wine, and comes from llg. 71. TWITCHELL'S APPARATUS FOE DETERMINING THE STRENGTH OF VrNEGAR. 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 the 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, mod rately 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 f 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" in 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. ,.' .: ..:": .-■-*■: Jfc i ■a?: Hi* '1*1* I" 1 !* *?IrS* Salt. &ie»efeje*eieie»eiejeie«eieKSK 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 our 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 ior 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 arc 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 ? They are the deposits of former seas, for all the land has been under water, 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 Sodium 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. Agajn, that movement is as much a SAL T. 209 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 hirn 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. ItsChlorine 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 bur soap factories import nearly 100,000,000 pounds a year. It all comes from Salt. What is its greatest use t 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. SoLir evaporation at Cape Cod, Mass., and Key West, Fla., has flourished for a century. What of the interior States f 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 of the woiks. Each cauldron will boil one hundred SALT, 211 gallons of brine. By the process of the manufacturers, 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 and 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 ? Such a history is of course as old as tnac 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 modem 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 Gabellet 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. ***** ***** ^^5ieK5iei©ieieieieieieiei©!|^ ***** ^. ,„ __ , ij**ii(* ***9 Zhc Specttoecope- 'sieieieieieieieieieieieieiei^i lTfTT jlT . lTj iTj J^Aatf iy *^ f ten millionth volumes as steam. Under pressure, the boiling- op Atmosphere. , r ' ' ° 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 ? 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 aqua pur a — pure water in molecules of H 2 0. 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„0. It is Aq. What is Hydrogen ? Hydrogen is a gas. It is the lightest of the Elements, and therefore the standard 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 aii acids are desirous to give up their Hydrogen for a metal. We Fig. 103. APPARATUS FOR MEASURING VOLUME OP 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, lr 258 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. For what is Chlorine famous? It is in table salt. It is in the Gold compound that has beer* taken as a specific cure by alcoholic invalids all over the world. It is in Chloroform (Formic acid is from red ants), the wonder- ful anaesthetic or pain-killer. It is used in making gelatine. It Kg. 104. KAEHLEE'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-color e<% because "HEMISTRY. 359 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 (NH S ). Iodoform (CHI 3 ) 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 bromos, "a bad smell." Tt 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 ? Sulphur, Selenium and Tellurium. Their atomic weights are as though two weights of Sulphur had been taken to make Selenium, and two of Seleniu,m to make Tellurium. What is Sulphur t F S G M volome F0 R k M th S E " is a yellow earth-like solid,' element fluorine. coarse-grained and tasteless. It melts 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 Allotropic 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 stone, 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 pal Fig. 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 Asafcetida, 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, especially 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 that 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 vitriolic, which, in English, is usually taken to mean all that is biting and resentful. CHEMISTRY. 263 Give the uses of other Sulphur compounds. 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 20 H 24 N 8 O s ) 2 .H s SO 4 +2H a O. 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 — H s S0 4 — 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 Tellurium. Selenium is Allotropic 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 H S S, or H 2 Se, or H 2 Te, which makes a substance akin to water (H 2 0). 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. Fig. 107J4. MITSCHEELICH'S APPARATUS FOR THE DETERMINATION OF PHOSPHORUS. It is never 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 Allotropic, 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 t Always as a salt of Phosphoric Acid, which is H a P0 4 . 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 man 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 (HPH 2 2 ), 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 f 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 Rorax ? Borax is the biborate of Sodium — Na 2 B 4 0,. 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 fancy 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 adamantine 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 (OC 3 H B ) 8 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 Ca'rbons, five Hydrogen atoms. All these are organized as one greater molecule. The sign for the sand at the lake or sea shore is SiO a . 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. 367 What is the Alkali group of Metals ? Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium, Caesium. These are white metals, which turn to gas only at high temperatures. Lithium 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 ? 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 tlie uses of Sodium 1 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 befort offered a prize. What is Salt made into 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 Sod-a (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 THE 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 f 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 f 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. What is Saltpetre f 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 f 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 C cesium and Rubidium ? These metals, completingthegroup, 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 you 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 %% 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. 2?1 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. I desire to know 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 lone: 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 ali 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 now 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 wc call it Quicksilver ? Because the Latins named it Live Silver — argentum vivuui. 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 uses for Mercury outside of the household can you name f 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 metals, 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 money 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- tralizes, 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 f 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 anc * 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 chemicals ? 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. Itis 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 f 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 o*f 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 chemicals ? 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- Glasses 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 precious of possessions 276 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. for the better part of 5,000 years, and during the last fhirty 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. How do the mining experts guess so nearly to the value of gold and silver -bearing rock ? 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 SiO a , 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 chemicals? 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, probably 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 the 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. 277 the people, but branches of the Gold Cure were established in every State, laws were passed encouraging the Cure, and imitatory hospitals were set up all over the world. What metals compose the Lead Group t 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 compounds ? 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 fiery and spreading order, like erysipelas. Lead is mined all over the world. What is Thallium f 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 f 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 Aluminium 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. 2?9' What is Indium ? 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 ihrough the Latin languages from India, whence it came. What is the Iron 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 useful f 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 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY What 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 f 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 what 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 f 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. What does Per mean ? .Permanganate or peroxide 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? 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 "Challenger" 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 luck, as the Cobalt was often found where Silver ore was desired. For what is Cobalt famous f 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 smalts. 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 Group? 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 metais 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 Wollaston, 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 Platinum ? 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 Group ? 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. Describe 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 or 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. How is the Tin put on our wash-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 chemical value of 1 in f 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 metallic 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 we 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 plate, 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 edo-e 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 in the Tomato-Cannery. (See Fruits.) In another CHEMISTRY. 28'* 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 ? Fif». io9. marsh's The best known of our poisons, and a determining 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. As 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 Copper 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 use 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 Emetie 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 Bismuth ? 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 f 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 Cerium 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. I have heard that some of the metals are more precious or costly than Gold. Is that so f 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 $160 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 now heard the names of a sufficient number of the Elements ? Yes. Any other substance which you will be likely to hear of is made of two or more of these Elements. Yo>' 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 Kalium, 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 mash. 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 f The small capitals are used to name the Elements that lead in household 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 one atom, is used of that Element; (3) the atomic weight in atoms of Hydrogen; (4) the Specific Heat, in fractions of a water unit. 292 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY Table of the Elements. Specific Heat in Names of the Elements. Sign. Atomic Weight 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 11 •5 Bromine Br 79-75 .0843 Cadmium Cd Hi. 6 *.o567 Caesium Cs 132.7 Calcium Ca 39-9 *.I70 Carbon C 11.97 • 4589 Cerium - Ce 141 *-°447 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 ".0456 Erbium Er 170.5 Fluorine - F 19.1 Gadolinium Gallium ... Germanium Ge 72-3 Glucinum f - ^ G 9-3 *64 Gold - Au (Aurum) 196.2 *.0324 Helium - Holmium - Hydrogen H 1 Indium In "3-4 *.o57o Iodine , I 126.53 •0541 Iridium Ir 196.7 *.o326 Iron Fe (Ferrum) 55-9 *,ii4 Lanthanum La 139 *.0448 Lead Pb (Plumbum) 206.4 •0316 Lithium Li 7.01 *94o8 Magnesium Mg 23-94 *.25o Manganese - Mn 54-8 *.I22 Mercury - - - Molybdenum Hg (Hydrargurum 199.8 •03I7 Mo 95-8 .0722 Mosandrium \ Neodymium Nickel - Ni 58.6 *.iog Niobium Nb 94 Nitrogen N 14.01 Osmium Os 198.6 .0311 Oxygen - 15.96 Palladium - Pd 106.2 *°593 Phosphorus - P 30.96 *.i74 CHEMISTRY. 293 Table of the Elements.— Continued. Names of the Elements. Sign. Atomic Weight of Hydroj in Atoms Specific Heat in fractions of jen. a Water Unit. Platinum Pt . 196.7 *.0324 Potassium K (Kalium) 39-4 *.i66 Praseodymium - Rhodium Ro 104. 1 *.0588 Rubidium - Rb 85.2 Ruthenium - Ru i°3- 5 *.o6n Samarium - Sm 150 Scandium Sc 44 Selenium - Se 79 .0745 Silicon - Si 28 .2029 Silver Ag (Argentum) (Natrium) 107.66 *.057o Sodium - Na 23 *- 2 93 Strontium - Sr 87.2 Sulphur S 3I-98 .171 Tantalum ■ Ta 182 Tellurium Te 128 .0474 Terbium Thallium Tl 203.64 *-°335 Thorium Th 178.5 Thulium Tin Sn (Stannum) 117.8 .0562 Titanium 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 Zirconium - 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 called Beryllium. t Decipium is thought by some to be the same as Holmium. \ Mosandrium is thought by some to be a mixture of Gadolinium and Terbium. |^=See note concerning new Element on page 223. Flfr 111. SUGAR, FEOM CANE TO HOGSHEAD. Sugar, Etc. J^ "~S — jo*^H-^K ■ fi r -^--^-"•fib-^Sr-^r — isr — ftf — «r — ttr-T^ til lT a T" *. T j .T* ..T...T What is Sugar ? (See Chemistry.) It is a differing but peculiar combination of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. These are three of the four physical 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-bearing 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 Sugar ? 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 used 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 PASTEUR IN HIS LABORATORY. 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. Can Sugar be made artificially by the Chemists f 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 Sugar-making from cane ? 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 the 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 what is called the defeca- tion of the juice is effected. In the new system, there are series Ffg. 113. APPARATUS FOR MEASURING CALCDIM IN SUGAK. of four clarifying cauldrons, heated by steam coils. The scum is composed of thickened albuminoids, lime and other sub- stances. What is the Sacchrameter f It is a gravity-tube, which may be set afloat in the boiling cane juice. By specific gravity the density of the Sugar-juice may be 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 Vacuum-Pan t It is the vessel into which the clarified juice flows. It is a vacuum, but not a pan, for the vessel is spherical, with 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. What is the Mixer t 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 centifrugal 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 SUGAE 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), 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" Fig. 115. DDBOSG-SOLIEL'S APPARATUS FOE 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 higher 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. How is Pulverized Sugar made ? Dry Sugar is ground in stone buhrs or steel rollers, and sifted like flour. What has cheapened 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 $100,000,000, 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 competition 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. 116. APPARATUS FOE FINDING 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 Diffusion, 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 Diffusion 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. 1, which has been longest in operation, and has the least Sugar remaining in the cells of the beets. When No. 1 is practically exhausted of Saccharose, it is disconnected and No. 2 becomes No. 1, 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 American 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 Fig. 117. SZOMBATHY'S APPARATUS FOB 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 hand). The left-handed Sugar is also called invert Sugar. Glucose is laevo-rotatory. Cane Sugar yields both dextrose and 20 336 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY Icevulose. Sugar is tested by making it into a solution with Fig. 119. APPARATUS FOE THE EXACT ANALYSIS OP SIRUPS AND MOLASSES. water and viewing it with the polariscope. The light, as we have said, is polarized differently. What is Polarization f 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 Fig. 120. THE POLARISCOPE. H o a w g H O o O *i t< O o I— I •z o > 3 o s N F G 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 difference 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 usedf The Beta maritima, 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 Americans, but disliked in Europe. It is the residue of boiled sap from the Sugar maple — acer saccharinum. 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 Bush 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 settle, 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 Sirup f 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 ? 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. 3 10 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What is the supposed molecule of Starch f 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 f 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 " ligh.- 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 Pig, 120. TRIPLE EFFECT EVAPORATION. Is there 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 f 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 homeopathisrs 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 Sorghum ? 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 crystallizing-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 Sirup 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 it a disagreeable and unhealthy operation, owing to the smoke. The workmen wear respirators. What is Caramel? The word is corrupted from the Latin for honey-cane (canna mellis). 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 chocolate, 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 paraffine 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 arabic. 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 b^th 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 place's 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. How are 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. . Ti .Tn.Ti.Tj .Tj .Tj i_T..TjiT , l T, 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. Wherein 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 compound 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 nature 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. 318 LIFE. 317 What does the microscope show t 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 members, 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 in 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 Bi- oplasm. 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. Zbe Bicycle. J? iw wA«£ w 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 f 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 up. 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 f 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 Forging s are used? 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 the 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 hammer 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 economy of weight cannot be practised on them singly. THE BICYCLE. 321 What parts of the Bicycle have furnished opportunity for separate industries f 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 f 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 t 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. How are the Rubber Tires made f 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 several 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 21 3^2 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 Juing? 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 at 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. M^i/yT? 1 Soap. . _j^aeiei6ieieieieieieK What 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 word 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 struthion, lye, and bolar earths were also used as substitutes for Soap in washing. 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 Lascivium, says the barbers had a peculiar Soap, so called, from which came the word lather. But we have in Anglo Saxon, leadhor for nitre (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 f 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. Then Sodium 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 houscliold mainly come from ? The alkali in it comes from the ocean in the shape of salt. From the s?lt is made the caustic soda that American manufac- SOAP. 325 turers use. It is produced in England and shipped 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 particular 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, lined 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 stearine, 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 crutching-machine? 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 f 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 "loading" of oat meal, silica, or chalk may go 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 f 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. How is transparent Soap made f 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 1,000, 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. I* j^ SLigbt anblbeat. What ^/ M O CLOTHES, ETC. 361 twenty to thirty per cent, without feeling damp. 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 t 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 strainon 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 fumes of sulphurous acid. After bleaching, it is washed in cold water. From twenty-five to thirty»one per cent, in weight has been lost. I 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 THE 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 Dyeing 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 unscoured (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. I 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 evener 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 mori 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 was 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 mori, 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 shine 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 generally was Silk worn in Europe f 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 " full " 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 the 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. vm. LOOM 500 YEARS B. C, SUOWING 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 v 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. VSl%. TURKISH WOMEN WEAVING RUGS. various woofs on a frame of warp, has long been a familiar spectacle, furnishing 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 Fig. 138. LOOM OF AN EAST INDIAN, STILL IN DSE. 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 f 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. 1 CLOTHES, ETC. 369 Pig. 139. POWER LOOM. Tell me about the Jacquard 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 main parts of an ordinary, ancient Loom ? i. 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 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 the 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 shutties, 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 1HE 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 of 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 arc 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 may be 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 t 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 wool" was used by the weavers of Northern countries. ■ What obstacle -was in the way of using "Cotton- Wool" 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 t 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), the use 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 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. and before the needle, comes the spindle as an implementof 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 manufacturing that it has long 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 f i. 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 are 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 twiners 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 Mill. 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 mule (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 tapper, which flattens it Fig. 142. THREE-CYLINDEK COTTON OPENEE, BEATER AND LAP MACHINE. 378 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. life,. J CLOTHES, ETC. 379 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 engine, 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 combing 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 ? To the stubbing 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 spinning 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? It is a fine, fleecy, roving, or slightly twisted string, incapable of bearing much strain, useless as warp, but if further elongated, it might be used as woof {or 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, jenny 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 was prepared. The warp was always of Linen threads. What did Arkwright do ? 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 bobbing, and take off each of the bobbins and end of the pre- pared Cotton — the sliver, or 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 throstle-xoW&xs,. 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 mule be \&Xi.&.-tented or self-acting, it makes the hardest and finest yarns. Was the English Government jealous of the possession of these machines? 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 mule-jenny 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. 385 386 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. 38? 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 t Originally, because the shuttle or hook of the sewing machine gave the ancient thread a strain that it would not bear. Thus the machines make for themselves an infinitude of labor. Where did our wooden 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 roving 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 woven on the Loom f 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 than one-twentieth 38.. THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY "••^^■vi^. *^> V. ^>1iv. mfiBm Fig. 150. A LACK 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-Making prospered in America t 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 t 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 f 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 1 865 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 f 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 molecules of the cloth dye and mordant into permanent union. How are the pigmetits 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 cloth 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. How 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 calico, 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, egg, 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, Figs. 153, 153, 154. THE WOOL SCRIBBLER AND DIAGRAMS. 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 f 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" f 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 the Woolen Cloths 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 THE 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 can 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 f A much heavier web, only twenty-seven inches wide, with a iinen 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. t What was Moquette or Wilton Carpet ? 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 of printing the yam 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 modern 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. How 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 vel-vet 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 influences 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 manufactured ? 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. Hoiv is this steam applied to the Hat f 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. 399 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 which the block makes on the back of his left hand. What other interesting thing is to be said of Felt f A vast number of yellow people, inhabiting Central Asia, keep their women busy making Felt. How is Plush for Silk Hats made? 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 THE 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 and Women f 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 Pig. 158. A, FLAX PLANT; B, FLOWER; C, FRUIT. What did i 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, wliere 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 Linen 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- fibres 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 handsome 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 beeit made? In the London 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 Linoleum ? 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 ? 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? 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 f 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 be 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 exposed, 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. 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 THE 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. Theponchos of the Union soldier, in 1861, were of rubber. These would ^freeze stiff on a wintry day. What is Caoutchouc f It is the South American word for India Rubber. It is pronounced iTTj.T j . T. .T. .Ti.T^TaT,^ What is Glass t A hard and brittle substance, through which the light easily passes. Heat, on the other .hand, is held back, or obstructed. Thus Glass is melted only at a high temperature. It has a remarkably smooth surface, which will be roughened only by ages of exposure to water, and no acid except the sour com- pounds of Fluorine eats into it. It thus furnishes us with our Glass windows, our. bottles, and our best apparatus for artificial light What is Glass, chemically ? Glass is a compound in which there must be three ingredients : i. A sour compound of either silicon or boron ; 2. An oxygen compound of either potassium or sodium (or both). 3. (For transparent Glass.) An oxygen compound of one of the follow- ing Elements: Calcium, lead, barium, strontium, magnesium, aluminium, zinc, or thallium. (For colored Glass): Iron, manga- nese, copper, chromium, uranium, cobalt, arsenic, or gold. In brief, Glass is a silicate or borate of at least two metals, and one of these metals must be an alkali. The molecule of Glass may be theorized, in the most simple manner, as three oxygen mole- cules, each one holding a molecule respectively of sodium (or potassium), of calcium, and of silicon (or boron) — that is, soda (or potash), lime and sand (or borax, which also has soda in it). (See Chemistry.) 121 422 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. What is required for Glass-making? A very great heat, and as most Glass articles are small, the Glass furnace is often divided into small pots or compartments. Siemens and Stevenson invented tank furnaces, to do away with the little pots, but each plan has its advocates. Usually, a Glass factory — as at the World's Fair of 1893 — is a tent-like structure, in which the tall chimney is the centre-pole. Fig. 162. FASHIONING GLASS SHADES. How is this Glass bowl made f A man gathers molten Glass on a rod and holds it over the GLASS. 423 mold; the pressman clips off the hot metal with shears; the mass drops into the mold ; the mold is shut and pressed and the bowl is taken out, still red hot. It can now be further heated, wrought with a block of wood, and is cooled in a temper- ing oven. How are the molds made ? They are of iron, jointed in many places, so that they can be opened without breaking the Glass. When a vase or pitcher is smaller at the top than some part of its interior, it has been wrought with the wooden block ; or, it has been molded another way. Fig. 163. MOLDING COMMON TUMBLERS. How can Glass be molded in any other way t The rod, or Blowing Tube, which gathered the "metal" in the pot, may have been hollow. The blower, a man usually of enormous lung-power, by gathering a pound or so at a time, 424 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. and making many dips, may finally have a heavy load on the end of his tube. He may now place this mass in a mold which nas no core, and by mere lung-power, blowing into the mass, may force its outer sides into every crevice of the mold. How are the letters and figures made that we see on goblets, druggists' bottles, etc. These designs are engraved, with great art, into the sides of the metal molds. As these have been cast, polished and hinged at great expense, the artist must make no mistaken move with his chisel. Complicated designs sometimes require months of labor in the engraver's hands. The cost of the molds for a table set is from $2,000 to $4,000. What is the " Gluhey" ? It is a hot oven or sub-furnace. Here the rough surface of the Glass, due to contact with the iron mold, js again fused and made brilliant, but at the expense both of the perfect shape of the mold and the delicacy of the engraver's tracery. Hence, the engraving in the mold must be a "working" or practicable design. What is the Leer f The tempering oven, a long structure, hotter at one end than at the other. The Glassware goes slowly through, and by this course of cooling is made tough. What makes Glass milky er untransparentf Inner crystallization, or crystallization on the surface. Good Glass is as free of crystals as lampblack. But there are crystal- line substances, like quartz, that are transparent. Where does the word "Crystal" come from ? From the Greek word for ice. The English people have seem- ingly attached it to Glass, but Glass is not a crystalline body — it is amorphous — that is, without form. Why do we say "Flint Glass " ? Flint was once ground to produce the sand, and lead was zised instead of lime. Lead Glass is much more tough and CLASS. 425 brilliant than lime or window Glass, and is used for lamp chim- neys and goblets. Is there any difference between Soda and Potash Glass f Yes. Soda Glass is the greener of the two. The green that we see in thick Glass, is probably the green gas, chlorine, that tints the water of the sea. How is our Window Glass made f The "metal" is at a great heat in the pots. The gatherer takes his long rod, puts a mask on his face, dips his rod in the metal, takes it out, rolls it over, dips it again, and may gather as much as twenty-five pounds of Glass on the end of the rod. With this he runs to the Blower, a Hercules, who stands over a long, narrow pit. Over the pit, the Blower swings this mass of white-hot metal, which lengthens out into a pear-shape. Then the Blower forces air from his mouth into the interior of the mass, and it begins to form a great bubble. But blowing into it cools it rapidly, and the gatherer must put it into a " glory-hole," where it still retains its bubble-like form, and now tends to stretch out, as the Blower again swings it over the pit. At last, when it has become very large, the Blower is through with it, and must rest to get ready for the next "blow." How does the Blower get back his rod t The great bubble or bottle is laid on a wooden horse, and the touch of a cold iron breaks off the rod. The round bottom end of the bubble is cut off by the same means. It is now a very hot Glass cylinder, nearly as flexible as leather. A touch of the cold iron on the cylinder lengthwise splits the glass open. How is the Window Glass flattened t The flattening-stone is made of warm fire-clay. A workman with a block of wood for a " flat-iron," opens the cylinder and smoothes it down as if it were a linen fabric. It is now annealed and cut into sheets of the proper size, and it is ready for market. How are our great Glass windows made ? Very fine sand, lime and potash are used. The "metal" is heated in a great open pot, which is swung away from the fur- 426 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. nace on a crane, and poured on a smooth metal surface that must be larger than the plate of Glass to be made. The mass is now " ironed " by rolling over it an iron roller fifteen feet long and three feet in diameter. When the Glass is thin enough, it looks milky, and can be used for skylights. For windows, it must be ground or polished. How is the Plate Glass ground ? On a revolving table. It lies on a bed of plaster of paris, and a grinding engine, using sand, takes off forty per cent, of its thickness. It is finished with emery and rouge. These finishing processes add the notable element of cost that attaches to Plate Glass. What makes Cut Glass so expensive f Because a workman has ground every pyramidal point on the outside of the Glass dish, while a boy has kept the wheel wet and supplied emery. The labor of a month may be lost by an accident at the last moment. The process is as simple as the grinding of an ax. Why is Cut Glass valued so highly ? Because of the extraordinary reflection of light that comes from its pyramids. While Glass has not the refracting power of the diamond, yet by multiplication, the weaker Glass facets combine to give a powerful effect on the eye. But the eye needs some training to observe this effect. Can Glass be spun f Yes. It is reeled like silk into skeins and these skeins can be woven into all kinds of fabrics, such as woman's dresses, hat- trimmings, badges, ribbons, etc. Hundreds of these fabrics were exhibited at the World's Fair. For use in show-windows, where dust ruins the ordinary textiles, doubtless Glass goods of this order will assume a certain value. Their danger to the health of the people, through the countless particles of Glass that break off, cannot be overstated. What makes Bohemian and similar Glass dishes so expensive t The costly metals, like gold and uranium, are mixed in the melt. The Glass is stretched into wire, and the wire is manipu- GLASS. 427 lated into dishes. Where gold is used, the actual metal employed assures a high cost. These delicate and beautiful dishes serve badly for ices or hot water, as, by their fabrication, they can never be adjusted to sudden changes of heat and cold. It follows that the housewife should always wash her own wire-spun Glassware^ and use it only for fruits and sauces of the normal temperature of the room. The finest and best wire- spun gold Glass dish is likely to break in two at the touch of ice cream on its surface. What new thing has been done with Glass ? The iron grating necessary for the protection of Glass sky- lights in depots and buildings is now cast in the interior of the Glass. By this means, the danger of falling Glass in large pieces is averted; the life of the skylight is lengthened, and the life of the wire netting is made co-existent with that of the Glass. In the absence of such an invention, thousands of dollars of damage was done by hail at the Manufactures' Building of the World's Fair. How is this Wire Glass made ? The mass of Glass is poured on the table. A steam-heated roller irons it flat. The wire netting is laid on the rolled sheet. A roller with deep corrugations, on the points of which the wire netting would fit, now rolls over the Glass, punching the wire far down into the mass, and leaving it ribbed. A smooth roller now rolls the Glass smooth, so that the wire is buried in the plate. Heat and cold must break this glass, but it is still strong, and of course no large pieces can fall. This Glass is offered to jewelers as a protection for their windows. Great works for the manufacture of this Glass were built at Tacony, Pa., and at St. Louis, Mo. At the former place an eight-pot Siemens regen- erative furnace melts ten tons of Glass a day. The architects, however, hope to abandon the use of Glass in skylights, and the inventors are offering wire nettings with amber-like fillings, the leading compound being linseed oil. This is called "Trans- lucent Fabric." How did the people become familiar with Glass-blowing ? Through the Bohemian Glass-Blowers. For many years 428 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY these workmen traveled through America, working before spectators who paid an admission fee. With the aid of a blow- pipe, the great heat needed was obtained, and white and colored glasses were fused together into various shapes, mainly for ornament. The transparency of these vari-colored objects made them look like fruit-juices, and appealed as well to the sense of taste as to that of sight. The objects made up in the beauty of their materials, what they lacked in artistic structure, although they sometimes attained both grace and beauty. Tell me about the Portland Vase f It was found in the tomb of the Roman Emperor Alexander Severus, who died, A. D., 235. The vase was made in the follow- ing way : A bubble of white glass was formed on the blower's tube ; this bubble was dipped in transparent blue, and the twice- dipped tube was again put in the white. Thus, the modeler had a vase whose walls were of three layers. The outer white was now taken off, so that the background of the sculpture was in blue, showing white behind it. The trees and other pictures stood out in white on the blue-white background. The British Museum placed this vase where all could see it, and a drunken man wantonly dashed it in a thousand pieces, and was severely punished for his act. Mr. Doubleday mended the vase with wonderful skill. Wedgewood thought the glass-workers and sculptors of his day could make $50,000 in the time they would be required to give to such a vase. It was about thirteen inches high. ^ IDaper. A.T.T-..T..T. A thin tissue, composed of vegetable fibres, resulting from their deposition on wire-cloth while suspended in water. Paper is very rarely made of animal fibres. What is its use f On Paper man records his history, for transmission to future ages. By means of Paper the daily doings of the Old World and New World people are immediately known to one another. Where does the word Paper come from ? From Papyrus, the inner stalk of the lotus. This plant, now called Berd, in Egypt, is more rare there than in America. Papyrus rolls were made in large quantities at Byblos, hence the word Bible, for book. A treatise many thousand years old, written on papyrus, was found in the tombs of the fifth dynasty of Egypt. The book is now in the National Library at Paris. Archeologists disagree to the extent of two thousand five hundred years as to its probable age, as vast spaces exist in Egyptian history of which there are no monuments remaining. / have seen the lotus-stalk. I do not understand how Paper could be made from it. The long reed was slit lengthwise, and several of the peels were flattened out. Muddy water from the Nile or paste was spread on the layers. Then strips were laid transversely on the first layer. Then the mass was put in a press. Then the sheet was beaten with a mallet. Then it was polished with a shell, 429 430 7 HE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. and rubbed with oil of cedar. The Romans used this paper as late as the third century, and had many names for the various makes and sizes — including Emporetica for wrapping-Paper. Pliny treats the matter in his third book, and Volume Five of the French Academy of Inscriptions contains Caylus' disserta- tion on the subject. Where does our style of Paper come from ? From Asia. It was made from cotton, silk and linen. The oldest manuscripts of the dark ages are written on Paper that came from Asia, mainly from Damascus. Beside charta Damas- cenes, it was called charta xylina, and several other names repre- senting cotton. What makes our modern newspapers so cheap ? The fabrication of Paper from wood-pulp, a process made necessary or convenient during the scarcity of cotton at the North in our civil war of 1861-5. Is the wood pulp process a rapid one? It is. As a test, Mr. Menzel, at his factory, in Elsenthal, Austria (for the process has spread abroad), on the 17th of April, 1896, felled three trees in the presence of a notary at 7:35 o'clock in the morning. These trees were carried to the factory, cut in pieces twelve inches long, decorticated (peeled) and split. The split wood rose on elevators to the five defibrators of the works, where the pieces were ground or rubbed into pulp and the pulp was sent to the vat to be mixed with its chemicals. The pulp then began its journey over the hot rollers of the paper machine, and the first finished sheet appeared at 9:34 o'clock of the same morning. The experimenters, accompanied by the notary, then took a few of the sheets of the Paper to a printing office, two and a half miles away, and at 10 o'clock a copy of the printed paper was in the hands of the party, so that a standing tree was converted into a newspaper in two hours and twenty-five minutes, and it was the belief of Mr. Menzel that he could shorten this interval by twenty minutes. What wood is used ? The spruce trees of Northern Michigan and similar timber regions furnish the wood, and the logs are cut and boomed down PAPER. 431 the rivers after the ordinary lumberman's fashion. ' The wood- pulp mill has its boom on the river. It may make Paper, or it may make "lap" — a term, as you see, borrowed from the spin- ners. (See Clothes.) Lap is preoared pulp, ready to be used in Paper mills at a distance. Describe the process of making Wood Pulp. The log is sawed into short lengths, and the bark is taken off by a kind of veneering machine. The Michigan grinder does not split the log. It is -held against wide grindstones by hydraulic pressure, and water is poured on the stone to prevent fire from friction. The pulp falls from the grindstone through a screen, and a pump forces it through a collender, leaving it a liquid. It is now pumped on the " wet machine." Here it is spread on felt, and the water is nearly all pressed out of it. It is now lap. Layers of these laps are made in bundles and shipped to the Paper mill. Can Paper be made entirely of this wood Pulp ? No. The grinder has cut the fibre too short, and the pulp is good only for " body." Fibre must be added. Describe the Sulphite fibre. Pieces of wood are boiled with sulphur in a "digester." In this way the wood is disintegrated by separating the long fibres, leaving them strong enough for the purpose to which they are destined. What is "Half-stock f" Wood pulp and the sulphite above described are mixed together in an oblong tub called the engine. A sizing of resin- ous soap, starch or alum may be added to give the fibre more value. To make the paper white, either a fine red or blue pig- ment is to be added, usually a blue. It is now ready for the tank that is to carry it toward the Paper machine. What is the Paper Machine f A tank of half-stock supplies a long series of wire-screen, driers, ten or more large steam heated cylinders, and a dozen small hot iron rollers or ironers called calendars. It is said that the largest or longest machine in the world is a Paper 432 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY machine now running at Niagara by power from the Falls. The flowing stream of white liquid gradually sinks through the wire screen and the vegetable fibres, with their sizing, cling together as they are left on the screen. They are continually pressed until they become thin enough and dry enough to roll on the great "spool" that goes to the newspaper office. The Foudri- nier apparatus may be divided into three great parts, beside the tank and sand-trap, where the "milk" flows. First, the wire- screen, with felt under it, and then with sucking cylinders under it, so that the water not only runs through the sieve, but is also sucked out with vacuum pumps ; second, the big hot cylinders, heated with steam ; third, the little hot cylinders, or calendars, that iron and smooth the paper. Is this cheap Paper used for Books? Yes. Nearly all the paper-covered novels are thus made, and there is a tendency among the makers of the cheap magazines to intersperse among the sheets of fine paper on which pictures are displayed, sheets of the better order of wood-pulp paper on which only text is printed. How are rags turned into Paper ? They are carefully sorted, beaten in a machine, boiled in caustic soda for half a day, picked again by women, and put with water in the breaking engines. Wheels armed with knives play into other knives, chloride of lime is added, and a whitish pulp is gradually made. This is run off into stone chests, where it grows whiter, and after twenty-four hours is pressed to take away the most of the lime. It now goes to the beating engine. What is the Beating Ei^gine ? It is a second breaking engine, with finer knives. Water is again added, and with it the earths that are to be loaded on the Paper, if it is to have a high glaze for printing. The machine goes for from four to six hours. China clay and pearl white were the earliest loads. It is now ready for sizing and coloring. What is a super-calendar or plate Paper ? Where paper is to have a glaze of either gelatin or earth on its surface or surfaces, it must be submerged in a bath after it is PAPER. 433 made, and must pass over another set of rollers. In some mills, it seems, these drying machines extend to a series of more than two hundred rollers. The plate Papers, with a coating of polished clay on a light rag Paper inside, now carry the modern half-tone photographic engraving to perfection with the least weight, the greatest beauty and the smallest expense ; and the sizers seem to put a velvet polish of almost metallic hardness on thinner and thinner stock. How is Paper cut ? The modern newspaper saves the mill man the expense of cutting, but nearly all book work on sized Paper is printed from sheets, by the ream. The cutting machines at the Paper mills hang four (or more) spools on one cutting machine, reel the four together on one cylinder and cut the four sheets at once. How is Paper water-marked f The figures or letters you see in some Papers when you hold them to the light, are stamped in by a "dandy" roller while the milk is passing across the perforated sucking rollers in the early part of the journey through the long Foudrinier machine. What is hand-made Paper ? A man dips a sieve i-n the milk or half-stock. Lifting it, he has a sediment of fibre. This he tips over on a board, and then irons it between rollers. If his sieve have figures woven in it, there will be a water-mark in his paper. Hand-made Paper nowadays is possibly an affectation. What makes the glaze on Writing Paper f After the Paper leaves the first machine — whether it be the Foudrinier rollers or a hand-sieve, it is dried or aired, if neces- sary, and then it is passed through a bath of nearly thick or strong gelatin. As it leaves the bath, it goes through press- rollers to wring off the extra gelatin. Now it is slowly dried at 80 degrees, and calendared between hot rollers, or it can be pressed or rolled between sheets of polished metal. In American calendaring machines, one of the rollers in each set may be of compressed paper or cotton. 37 434 7 HE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Does the Paper Machine rule my Writing Paper ? No. The rulings on writing Paper and on blank books are made by drawing the Paper in sheets under ranks of small hair brushes or pencils in a ruling machine. The ink used is very- thin and weak in tone, nearly always a very light blue. The Paper travels on a moving belt or bed, under the line of brushes, that drags or lies on the Paper. To what great uses, beside the transmission of information, is Paper putt For decoration, for casting, and for wrapping. The coloring and printing of wall-Paper and the casting of Paper into forms for walls and ceilings has altered the methods of house-building. Is Wall-Paper old ? Yes. It is a Chinese device. But it was not until late in the eighteenth century that Paper could be made in long strips. Printing with wooden blocks has been but slowly displaced by machinery in England. In America, our wall-Paper has long been cheap and beautiful. With its borders, friezes, centre- pieces and mantel-backings, it has given a field for the art and skill of the paper-hanger. Dark papers should only be hung where the light is very strong. Metallic backgrounds will be found to endure. What are the methods of making Wall Paper t The white stock is made on narrow metal cores, in rolls, weighing, say, two hundred and fifty pounds. This goes to the wall-paper factory where it is dyed and printed, nearly always by machinery, on engraved cylinders. The metal core goes back to the paper mill. The wall-paper factories of the West have flourished, even outside of the trusts, and have done a cash business. What great thing did Papier Mac he do ? This paste of Paper stock, because it could be pounded with a brush into the face of a form of newspaper types, enabled the publishers to run a number of presses at once. In the old days, two days at least were required for electrotypinga form. The papier PAPER. 435 mache process was at last reduced, by a jteam drier, to a few minutes. In New York city, a journal has thus been able to duplicate its presses until it has printed and circulated 750,000 copies, each copy having five parts or press-works, in one day. The papier mache matrix is only a thin sheet of paper, after all. It is bent as it is put in the mold, so that the type metal plate cast from it has the curve of the press cylinder. What else is papier mache used for ? Lead-pencils, " straws " for beverages, car-wheels, cigar- boxes, buckets, shoes, rims for bicycles, stage furniture and architectural decorations. Where are false faces made f Largely in Paris. Labor costs too much in America. Models are made in clay, and from these molds' are taken. Sheets of wet Paper are wrought into the sinuosities of the mold, the mold is dried, and the mask is painted by different painters. It is all hand-work. Vast numbers are imported to America. What is Straw-Board? It takes the place of what was once called paste-board. Its manufacture created an interest so great that the American Strawboard Company was organized, and for decades its shares have been a speculative property on the exchanges of the large cities. The use of straw-board for boxes, packing (especially of eggs), transmission of fragile flat articles in the mails, and for other purposes, is a characteristic of modern life. Paper of any make can be run through paste, doubled and pressed into any requisite degree of thickness or solidity. Roofs can thus be made. Paste-board and papier mache are but little different in their make-up. Card-board, of course, must have a veneer of better Paper. 436 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Fig. 164. THE POTTER. What was Man's first Disk f Probably a sea-shell, beautifully lined with mother-of-pearl. This glaze Man has not yet been able to transfer from the shell to his most costly porcelains. The early dishes of inland men were flat stones, and then stone bowls, gradually worn out in the centre by the grinding of grain. What People first made White Dishes? The Chinese, who closely guarded their methods. It was only in the eighteenth century that the Kings of Europe were able to make similar wares. What is the difference between Glass and Pottery? Glass is dealt with while in a melted state. Pottery is molded and only half turned to glass, under the subsequent action of heat. But Pottery is the most lasting of man's handiworks. What is a Glaze on Pottery ? A coating, usually of glass. The common white earthen- ware dinner plate was molded in clay and then dipped in the glaze. Then it was fired in the kiln or perforated oven. What is a Flower-pot ? It is simply baked clay, porous and without gloss. It is like a brick. One of the signs in the Zodiac — the Twins — stands for the month Sivan — meaning the making of bricks, the foundation of the city, and the Fratricide, or brother-enemies, like Cain and Abel, and Romulus and Remus 137 438 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. Why did the Egyptians put straw in their bricks ? The straw burned out in firing, leaving the brick still more porous. Thus it was lighter, and would hold more water, making it cooler in houses. Where there were no rocks, as in Mesopotamia, brick-making must flourish. But the oldest brick structures, as at Sakkarah, in Egypt, contain fragments of older clay dishes. In 1896, a society of Philadelphians, digging at Nippur, found a vase nearly ten feet high, and they believed it to be of a date more than 4,000 B. C. What device was used in making these Dishes ? The potter's wheel. By setting a wheel so that it would go round horizontally, and making an axle or pole that would hold a sufficient amount of clay, the clay could be whirled rapidly, and the potter, with his thumb for chisel, could give a symmet- rical outer form to his vessel. Later, the wheel would be put where the feet of the potter could turn it. Both these forms of potter's wheel are shown in the pictures of the Egyptian tombs. The poetic simile "like clay in the hands of the potter," used in the Bible, comes out of Egypt, where the god Phtah, it was believed, made the mundane egg on the potter's wheel. What are our Stone Crocks made from .? First, the clay is largely silicon. The glaze may be of salt, or a lead glass. What is it that makes China or Porcelain ? The whiteness, hardness and fineness of the earths or sands used by the potter. Deposits of these white earths must be found before a pottery can make good wares. Define some of the commonest terms used by the Potters ? The paste or body is the "clay" used in molding the vessel on the wheel. Biscuit is clay only once baked, with no glaze— a misleading term, as it means twice cooked. Slip is a thin mix- ture of " clay '' and water, into which the molded article may be dipped, or with which it may be ornamented before firing. All our China consists of a body and a slip. Enamel is a glaze that has been made opaque, usually by tin oxides. All glazes, as such, are to be considered transparent, whether colored or plain. CHINA. 439 There are ancient Greek paintings of a potter applying colored stripes to the clay on his wheel by means of a stick or brush, the wheel whirling meanwhile. Were the Ancient Potters expert in molding? Yes. They possibly developed the number of patterns far beyond the use of modern molders. Their forms were both delicate and beautiful in archaic times. Greek sculpture, at a later date, lent its triumphs to the potter's art. What finally resulted, touching our homes here in America? The potter's art was gradually turned toward the ennobling of our common table ware. First, a cup and saucer, a plate, or a mug, of dainty design and excellent workmanship entered our homes at Christmas-time. Then whole tea sets of golden- rimmed China were possessed, for state occasions. At last, the China offered to the common people is of a kind that would have excited the envy of Kings a few centuries ago, and only the question of care enters into the problem of owning such utensils. What did our great-grandfathers eat on ? Usually on silver or pewter plate. A few of the people had sets of the rude, blue China, made by the Dutch, in imitation of the Chinese ware How did the Western nations learn of the Chinese Pottery ? Pere Dentrecolles, a missionary, gives the first European's account, in Du Halde's Description of the Chinese Empire. Father Du Halde was secretary of the Jesuit Society that sent out the missionaries. I am curious to know about this Chinese art as it was practised at home. The first porcelain furnace on record was in the province of Keang-Si, the same province that now leads in the manufacture. The felspar clay called Kao-lin by the Chinese was called porce- lain by the Spaniards, after the porcellana shell. The shell was named f rom porcella, Spanish for little hog. Du Halde did not believe that the Chinese words for their blue and white substances could be translated. 440 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. CHINA. 441 What did Father Dentrecolles see ? At the city of King-te-Ching (near Mount Kao-lin) there were three thousand ovens in operation, with great multitudes of work- men. The Chinese used two "clays" in each dish — one was the white earth found near the mountain of Kao-lin, whence its name. The other clay was pe-tun-st'e, 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 ? 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 oxygen ; (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: Al 2 3 .2SiO a +2H s O. 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 entire 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 Pig. 166. PORCELAIN— THE DIPPING ROOM. memory he so religiously reveres. The new vessel, painted and varnished with slip, 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 stone 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, useful 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 with 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 was 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. 4 45 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 Botticher'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-lik'e 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 ? I" 1 753, 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? 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 him 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 sidRoe's place. Each farmer, however, is curious to know how far the railroad is from his place. The farmers begin a series of measurements. The farmer nearest Roe's place finds the rail- road to run four miles back of his place; the next farmer finds it seven, the next eleven, the next eighteen, the next thirty-one, the next fifty-four, the next ninety-t vo, the next one hundred and fifty-one, the last taken, two hundred and thirty-eight. Now as each station gets further away from the wagon-road, let us suppose that the farmers set down the figures, to see if they can guess what the distance will be from the next farmer's place. It seems a very puzzling operation : 4 7 ii 18 31 54 92 151 238 But there may be a law guiding the increase of these numbers. Let us suppose the railroad to be the path of a Planet, and the wagon road the direction it would have taken but for the attrac- tion of another body at the side of its path. Let us proceed to note the differences between these numbers, and then again the differences between the differences : Differences from the nine farms 4 7 11 18 31 54 92 151 238 First differences 3 4 7 13 23 38 59 87 Second differences 1 3 6 10 15 21 28 Third differences 2 3 4 5 6 7 Here we have arrived at a demonstration that the railroad is moving off under the guidance of a perfectly-adjusted law. We can now go down to the tenth farmer, twenty miles below and tell him that his third difference is 8 ; that 8 and 28 make his second difference 36, that 36 and 87 make his first difference 123, 526 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY and that 123 and 238"must be his distance from the railroad, or 361 miles. This device is called a calculus of known differences, and is here applied to a case where the real distance of the rail- road could be ascertained at enough points to determine that it increased regularly. It is here shown as giving the reader a faint idea of the nature of a calculus, for there are several kinds — differential calculus and integral calculus having rendered the solution of problems in curves possible where no solution could be attained without their aid. Of course, if the railroad were turning a circle, like the Moon, it is easy to see that some farmer down the road would travel ahead forever without coming to the railroad, and that the little calculus here shown would be of no value. The honor of inventing these schemes for getting the exact measure of infinitesimal additions to a certain quantity by inferences drawn from inferences, belongs to two men, and furnished an exact parallel to the remarkable doubling of the discovery of Neptune by Adams and Leverrier. Both Newton and Leibnitz found independently the principle of fixing the amount added at each instant to the force of two unequal bodies moving toward each other, or like problems. This fact is now settled definitely, although there has been as much acrimony engendered concerning the invention of the calculi as afterward was brought forth by the wonderful coincidence in the success- ful efforts of Adams and Leverrier. How was the Law of Universal Gravitation found f The character of the mathematical labor upon which Newton now engaged was almost unprecedented in mathematics, and he was intensely disappointed to find, at the end of his figuring, which had occupied him several years, that, if the Moon were drawn round the Earth by any such attraction, that attraction would have to be about one-sixth greater than the Earth could really exert upon the Moon, according to the hypothesis. Thus was his theory — so harmonious and admirable to the mind — crush- ed by its own conclusions. Shortly after he had abandoned his problem, a philisopher named Picard, greatly corrected the human knowledge of the diameter of the Earth, and Newton, still tenaciously clinging to his hopes, cast up the amount of the ASTRONOMY. 527 Earth's attraction on the basis of her altered size, and, as the gleam of truth shot out ahead of the slower progress of his figures, he was so overpowered with the importance of his demonstration, that he fainted, and was compelled to call in a friend to complete the details of the solution. The proof of the truth of his discovery lay in an immediate application of the new law to the Planets, and, thus fortified, the philosopher dared to speak to Dr. Halley, the second Royal Astronomer, who immediately recognized and promulgated the law of Uni- versal Gravitation, as follows: " " Every particle of matter in the Universe attracts every other particle with a force proportional to the quantity of matter contained in each, and decreasing inversely as the squares of their distances." Now, everybody can read and understand the foregoing until we get to the "decreasing inversely," etc. As has been said far back, a pail of water is counted for what it weighs on the ground. At four thousand miles from the surface of the Earth that same pail of water weighs — let us see : It is then eight thousand miles from the pail of water to the centre of the Earth, the pail of water is twice as far away irom the center as it was on the ground, and the weight of the pail has "decreased inversely" according to the square of the distance. The distance is two times the distance at the ground; the "square of the distance" is two times two, and the pail's weight has decreased " inversely " — outside-in ; therefore, instead of the pail being four times as heavy, it is four times lighter, or weighs just one-quarter as much up four thou- sand miles in the air as it did at the surface of the Earth. The same law fails to operate on entering the Earth, because there- upon all the particles of matter "above" the pail of water begin to pull backward, detracting from the pulling power of the whole Earth. So, also, the Moon is sixty times further from the terrestrial centre than the ground, sixty times sixty makes thirty-six hundred, therefore, the Moon is attracted to the Earth only one-thirty-six hundredth as forcibly as it would be at the surface of the Earth. By this law, if we imagined a hypothet- ical station in space without any weight of its own, and if we ourselves weighed nothing, we could throw two apples down " ,r vto space at any distance apart (they would not fall) and 528 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. the two apples would slowly begin to revolve around each other until they finally came together. With this law discov- ered, Astronomy became perfect. No Planet had any motion that was not influenced by other bodies. The theory of Uni- versal Gravitation, as it is the central and fundamental law of Astronomy and of Nature (beir.g at least half and perhaps the whole of the phenomena of motion), has received the severest examination and the most frequent vindication of all Nature's canons, and a great portion of the labor accomplished by Astronomers since Newton's time has been the completion of all the details and consequences of his law. It is a cant of our customs and manners to-day, that an exception proves the rule. A single exception to Universal Gravitation would pluck from it every vestige of its authority in the mind of man, and relegate it to the company of the experimental theories which it had sup- planted. Newton demonstrated the necessity of a wabble in the motion of the Earth from her moving seas and shifting shape; and the precession of the equinoxes was found to be that wabble. He determined that the orbits of Comets should be reckoned up, and his friend, Dr. Halley, computed a seventy-six year tourist of that kind. He made hundreds of inferior but remarkable dis- coveries, and finally died on Monday, March 27, 1727, the delight of his species for all time. What did Halley and Bradley do ? Of Dr. Halley's principal achievement you already know. He also was the first to utilize the transits of the inside Planets for the purpose of ascertaining the distance of the Sun. Succeeding Dr. Halley as Royal Astronomer of England, came Bradley. This justly distinguished scientist was among the first to attempt practically, and with chances of success, the measurement of the Stars. Directing his observations to a certain Star he obtained a parallax, or change of position, by views from different stand- points; but finally, while in quest of a different object, discovered the nineteen-year wabble of the Earth, called nutation, and the aberration of light, which completely dissipated what little parallax he had obtained. The aberration of light is caused by the atmosphere carrying a ray of light along a little before it pierces all the way through to the ground. The atmosphere is ASTRONOMY. 629 movingrapidly with the Earth. It makes a slight advance while the ray is traveling from the upper portion of the air to the bottom. As happens in refraction, the eye follows the ray up out of the atmosphere, and the Star is jogged over two-thirds of a minute of arc. This must always be accounted for in placing a Star, and the Star reckoned as being where our deluded senses refuse to acknowledge it to be. When the cannon flashes at a distance, we must believe that the report sounds at that moment, although the sound comes to us long after the light. The principle is not the same, but there is a likeness in the illusion. In the case of aberration, the light, swift as it is, cannot dart entirely through our atmosphere until the Earth has moved along a little. Who was Herschel ? Sir William Herschel, born in Hanover, in 1768, settled at Bath, England, and there added to the possibilities of Astron- omy the wonders of the Star-depths, compared with which the motions and laws of the Solar System are but as prefatory matters to introduce the subject and fix the attention of the investigator. In scanning the heavens with the largest telescope which had been perfected at that date, he discovered the Planet Uranus, the Star immediately becoming enlarged in the field of his glass and arresting his gaze. He afterward found the Moons of Uranus, saw the belts of Saturn, and became satisfied that there were several rings around the Planet. Rising above the affairs of the Sun and his progeny, he determined that the whole Solar System is moving toward the constellation Hercules. This is still inculcated as correct doctrine by the greatest of observers. While attracted by the marvels unfolded before his eyes, Herschel discovered that not only were the Stars frequently double and triple, but they were of differing colors and varying intensity. (See Spectroscope). Who was Piazzi ? Piazzi, the discoverer of the first Asteroid, lived at Palermo, Italy, and was born in 1746. He completed a catalogue of six thousand seven hundred and forty-eight Stars, a monument 530 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. of devotion to his science, and the fountain of unalloyed adml ration among all the Astronomers of his age. Speak of the French Mathematicians. The same generation produced three of the most remarkable figurers the world has ever seen — Clairaut, D'Alembert and Euler. To them was the labor apportioned to set a Solar Sys- tem going and control its innumerable motions by the simple law Newton had left to the world. This triumph of math- ematics — although it put Gravitation to the very rack, so to speak, and for a time, by an error which all three of these great scholars fell into, appeared to place Newton back among the guessers who had guessed wrong — finally crowned the Newton- ian Ordinance of the Heavens with everlasting dignity, and confirmed it as the most important effort of human genius. Who was LaPlace f LaGrange and LaPlace were competitors for the undivided intellectual honors of their time, each knowing no rival save the other, and each feeling the plaudits of this narrow world, if divided and shared with the other, insufficient to compensate his merit. They lived in the exciting era of civil revolution and Napoleonic adventure, and both received high honors during their careers. With these men, the shape of every planetary path in space was as familiarly in the mind as is the map-con- figuration of Iowa with a bright schoolboy of that state. With them the most intricate system of figuring then known, the dif- ferential calculus, became rude and imperfect, and accordingly was raised to perfection as an instrument to demonstrate the laws of motion and the inevitable action of moving bodies, if their numbers, weight and starting-places be fixed. Of the two, La Place, perhaps, gained the most enduring renown by his work called the "Mecanique Celeste,'' which is the French way of say- ing Heavenly Mechanics. After the lapse of several hundred years, Englishmen have fallen in the habit of putting a letter j on such words as "metaphysics," "dynamics," etc. They are, however, still single words in "number." Thus, you would say "Physics is so-and-so," and not "Physics are." The French have never made any alteration in such words, and use them ail ASTRONOMY. 531 as we use "logic," "music" and "arithmetic/' which are precisely alike in their original shape in the Greek. This word "mechan- ics" means the law of motion. The "Mecanique Celeste" is the greatest work on Astronomy ever published, but would have little value for the unscientific reader. It makes five great vol- umes, and is divided into sixteen "books," The French, with many other nations, use the word "book" differently from our common employment of the term. It does not mean, ordinarily, so great a quantity of reading matter, and is more like a "book in the Bible," as we say, although Bible itself means "book." The reader may perhaps form a fair notion of the con- tents of the "Mecanique Celeste" by scanning the titles of the "books," where every one of the subjects is treated with- out abridgement, and with all the cabalistic letters and marks adopted by mathematicians, i. TheGeneral Laws of Equil- ibrium and Motion. 2. The Law of Universal Gravitation and the - Motion of the Centers of Gravity of the. Celestial Bodies. 3. The Figures of the Celestial Bodies. 4. The Oscillation of the Sea and Atmosphere. 5. The Rotation of the Celestial Bodies. 6. Particular Theories of the Planets. 7. Theory of the Moon. 8. Theory of the Satellites of Jupiter Saturn and Uranus. 9. Theory of Comets. 10. Miscellanea, Refraction, etc. 11. Figure and Rotation of the Earth. 12. Attraction and Repulsion of the Spheres and the Statics and Dynamics of Elastic Fluids. 13. Oscillation of Fluids Cover- ing Planets. 14. Precession, Libration and the Rings of Saturn. 15. Supplement to the Book on Universal Gravitation. 16. Further Views Concerning the Satellites. This work is probably imperishable as the term is ordinarily used, and, although like other monuments of human wisdom it may receive, as already has happened, the explanatory attention of learned and clear-speaking editors and annotators, still there will always stand the original text for the satisfaction of him who loves to read the original words of the Master. Who was Arago ? Arago, who died in 1853, after an eventful life, is celebrated for the advancement which science received at his hands through his measurements of the Earth and the Planets, his 532 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY. investigations into the nature of light, and his discovery of the generation of electricity in the spinning of the Earth. The history of Arago is a most interesting and romantic recital. The exploits of his early life, growing out of his attempts to measure the circle described by the Earth's surface on a line from north to south, would fill a volume by themselves. When did Leverrier die ? Leverrier died in 1876. The Astronomical discovery which has made him famous, has been talked about in the paragraph concerning the Planet Neptune. Pig. 174. ORION. ASTRONOMY. 533 Who was Rosse ? In April, 1842, the Earl of Rosse, an Englishman, erected at Parsonstown, not far from Dublin in Ireland, the largest telescope known up to that date. This instrument cost one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The metal reflector, or mirror, in this telescope, weighed three tons, and was annealed (gradually heated and cooled) sixteen weeks in order to prevent the least cracking or warping of the great mass of metal. There is no rainbow wanted in a great telescope, and yet " all the trouble in the world " has to be lavished on the instrument to avoid that appearance, and this mirror or reflector is one of the principal devices to that end. With the twelve-ton telescope thus constructed, the mist in the Milky way, the double Stars, the surface of the Moon, and the Nebula were gazed upon with new emotions, and the limitless character of the Universe impressed upon the beholder. Lord Rosse died in 1867. Tele- scopes were later made by Alvan Clark, of Boston, and by Ger- man and French opticians, much larger in magnifying power than that of Lord Rosse. An invention by Newton which made the use of silvered glass possible in place of the enormous mass of metal previously required for a reflector, led to the practicable enlarge- ment of the telescope. There is little doubt that men will, one of these days, bring the Moon within a few miles of the Earth, and settle all questions as to its utter desolation and sepulchral absence of life. Who was Proctor ? Perhaps the best known Astronomer in our times was Richard A. Proctor, of England. His thorough learning in Astronomy and its attendant studies was conceded, and his efforts to get the sublime phenomena of the science in full view of the people met with success. In 1873 and 1874, he lectured in the principal cities of America, presenting magic lantern pictures of the heavenly bodies as seen in the largest telescopes at the most favorable times, and reducing the troublesome operation of getting "a good look" at Jupiter, Mars, the Moon, the Sun's spots, and, above all, the Nebulae, to a luxury. Mr. Proctor's efforts in mapping the Stars stamped him as an indefatigable 534 THE FIRESIDE UNIVERSITY worker for the real advancement of human inquiry. He had taken his residence in America, at St. Joseph, Mo., when he suddenly died, and was mourned as the one man who had done most to educate the people in Astronomy. He wrote the great article on Astronomy in the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, He died of yellow fever while in New York, Sep- tember, 12, 1888, All his books are interesting to the general reader. Where are the leading Observatories ? Millions upon millions of dollars have been expended upon the science of Astronomy, and its present demands upon the productive capacity of the people are extraordinary. Obser- vatories have been erected in all parts of the world, fully equipped with the appliances necessary. Probably the most celebrated structure of this kind is at Greenwich, near London under the supervision of Mr. Airy, the Astronomer Royal of England, a man of great attainments and ripe with many years of experience. Six observers and six computers assist him in his eminent labors. Mr. Adams, the co-discoverer of Neptune, was stationed at the Cambridge Observatory, in England. There are great observatories at Oxford, England and Edinburg, Scotland. On the Cape of Good Hope is one of the first-class observatories of the world. Another is situated at Madras, in India. In France, learned Astronomers nightly labor in the observatories of Paris, Marseilles, Nismes and Toulouse; in Germany, at Berlin, Gottingen, Dantzic, Konigsberg and Bonn; in Russia, at Pulkowa and Dorpat; in Italy, at Florence, Naples and Milan; in Austria, at Pola, and in the United States, at Washington (where the Moon of Mars was discovered), at Ann Arbor (where Professor Watson, an Astronomer of world wide fame, now of Madison, Wis., found so many Asteroids, and did the heaviest labors undertaken in America, outside of Washing- ton), at Cambridge, Mass, and at all the principal colleges in the country. Leland Stanford, one of the men who made a vast fortune out of the Pacific Roads, lost an only son, and endowed a University in California with more money than had ever before been given away. The Lick Telascope is a part of this gift. ASTRONOMY. 535 Charles T. Yerkes gave a great Telescope to the Chicago Uni- versity, and the empty tube with its mountings, was one of the great sights at the World's Fair of 1893. The vast instrument stood in the Street of Nations in the Manufactures Building. The observatory for the Yerkes Telescope is at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and the ground was donated by John Johnston, Jr. Chicago possessed a large telescope for many years, and with this, Professor Burnham carried on studies of double stars that have made him famous throughout Europe. At Chicago, the useful labor of fully explaining extraordinary celestial events to the people through the daily press, with diagrams and local computation of time, was successfully carried on for years by Elias Colbert, an Astronomer possessed of great knowledge, exact mathematical skill, and unceasing industry. What is the present aspect of Astronomical science? Marvelous advances in photography, chemistry and spectro- scopy have set the Astronomers busy with proper computation and correction, rather than with new discoveries or problems. The improvement of the spectroscope is the most important Astronomical feat. The discovery of Mars' Moons was the last of our heavenly surprises. THE END. INDEX OF CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE ACCUMULATOR Accumulators 71 Arago - 531 43, 44 Arc, Voltaic - 20 Acids - - - 201 Arctic Overshoes 413 Acid6, Organic - 246 Argon - 292 Adams 334 A rkwright - 381 Air • 227 Armature 32 Air-analysis 252 Arsenic, Description 287-292 Air L brake - 105 Arsenic Group, The 287 Air-compressor 107 Asbestos 272 Air-gun 110 Ash-dump 111 Air-pump - 243 Asphalt-refiner 109 Airy 534 Asteroids, The 477 Alcohols 245 Astronomy, Chapter on 459, etc Alden Process of Drying Fruit 150 Astronomical Distances 488 Aldehydes, The 246 Astronomical Measurements 511 Alkali - 128 Atmosphere, The 467 Alkali Metals,The - 267, ef3. Atomic Theory - 233 Alkaline Earths, The 269 Atomic Weight of the Elements 292, 293 Allotropio • - 241 Avogadro's Hypothesis - 229 Allspice - - 177 Axminister Carpets 397 Almond - no Alexandria - 514 QABCOCK'S Milk Tester 135 Aluminium - - 278-292 Baker's Oven 117 American Pottery - 450 Baking Powder, How Made 128 Amber 19 Banana, The 122 Ampere, Andre - - 21 Barium 269-292 Ampere, the Unit of Current 21 Barley 123 Amides, The - 250 Barney. General 73 Amines, The - 248 Battery, A Modern 29 Ammonia Apparatus 248 Beans 130 Ammonia 248 Beet Sugar 302 " Description of - 253 Beet Sugar Factory 303, etc. Amoeba, The - 317 Beeves, How Killed 197 Aniline 248 Begh, TJlugh 517 Aniline Dyes, The - 219, etc. Bell's Radiophone - 102 Anode 97 Bell's Seoond Telephone 64 Anhydrides, The 247 Bell's Telephone Mouth-Piece 68 Anthracite 345 Bell's Telephone Receiver 67 Antimony 288-292 Blackberry - 156 Apples 149, do. Blackpool, Eng, 46 Apricots 153 Blake's Telephone Transmitter 68 INDEX OF CONTENTS. PAGE Block Signals - - 106 Bicycle, Chapter on - 319 Bigelow's Demonstration 36 Big Dipper, The - 496 Bioplasm - 316 Biscuit (China) - - 438 Bismuth - - 288-292 Bitumen - 344 Bode's Law - - 476 Borax - - - 265 Borchers, Dr. - - - - 79 Borden, Gail, and Condensed Milk 145 Boron, Description of ■ 265-292 Bradley - - 528 Brazil Nut - - - 171 Bread - - 113, etc. Brick Tea as Money 190 Bricks with Straw, Why - 438 Broadcloth - - 394 Bromine - 259-292 Brott System of Railway - 80 Brush's Arc Light 51 grussells Carpets - - 396 Buckwheat - - 126 Buda-Pesth 46 Buffalo's Electric System - 87 Bulbs of Glass, Why They are Made 245 Burglar-Proof Safes Spoiled - 90 Burnham, Prof. - 535 Butter, Its History - - 131-137 Butterine Factory 142 Butternut - - 169 pADMITJM Caesium Calcium - Calculus, Explanation of a Simplf Calendar, The Calico - Calker Camellia Camembert Chee6e - Candies, Polished Candies, Small Candle, The Candy, French Candy, Bock Caoutchouc Capaoity Caramel Caraway Carbon Carbon Compounds Car Cleaner 271-292 269-292 269-292 524 - 467 IB9, etc. - 109 - 188 139 - 314 313 - 338 314 - 312 410 21 313 178 240-292 239 - 109 PAGB Carpets - - . 296, etc. Carpet Weaving - - 396 Castile Soap - 32! Catalysis - 19 Cathode - - - - - 97 Catsup Factories ----- 200 Centrifugal Machines for Sugar - 299 Cerite - - 289 Cerium - 289-292 Charcoal 349 Chassagne's Photographs . . : 331 Cheese 137, etc. Cheese Grotto in Baden . . . 136 Chemical Equations . . . 237 Chemical Formulas .... 237 Chemical Tools 244 Chemistry, Chapter on . . 225, etc. Chemistry, Organic .... 250 Chemistry, Its Usefulness . . . 291 Cherry 153 Cheshire Cheese Press . . . 140 Chestnut 169 China and Pottery, Chapter on 436, etc. Chinaware in China . . 439 Chinchillas 372 Chinese All Wore Silk Once . . 365 Chlorine 257, 292 Chlorine Accumulator ... 71 Chlorine Apparatus . . . .231 Chocolate 192,314 Chow-Chow 200 Chromium 280,292 Cinnamon 176 Citron 166 Citrus Family 158 Clairaut 530 Clamond Generator .... 79 Cloth Scouring 394 Clothes, Chapter on ... 355 Cloves 174 Club House Cheese . . . .141 Coal 344, etc. Coal Breakers 345 Coal Dump 110 Coal Geology 348 Coal Mining .... 345, etc. Cobalt 281,292 Cocoa : 144, 192 Cocoa Butter 194 Cocoa Butterine .... 144 Cocoa Nuts 167 Cocoa Nuts in Candy ... 315 Cocoons, Reeling 358 INDEX OF CONTENTS. PAGE Coffee 181, 273 etc. Copper 292 Coke 340 Colbert 535 Color Analysis ol Sugar ... 300 Colortype Printing . . . .331 Combs, Black 413 Comets . . . . ■ . 102, 509, 506 Commutator ..... 35 Compressed Air .... 105, etc. Compressed Air Looomotive . . 109 Compressed Air Power House . . 107 Condensed Milk .... 145 Condensers 43 Controller 38 Copernicus 517 Corn 117, etc. Corn Canning 164 Corn Oil 118 Corn Oil Cake 118 Cornell, Ezra 23 Cotton 373, etc; History 374; The Vast Machinery 377 Cotton Fibres 374 Cotton, Illustration .... 294 Cotton Seeds 375 Cotton Yarn 375 Coulomb, C. A. de . . . . 21 Coulomb, The Unit of Quantity . 21 Cowboys ...... 198 Crackers . . , **. . .127 Cranberries 165 Cream Separator 133 Creamery 132 Crochet Thread 387 Crookes Prof 97 Crystals 233 Crystal Measuring . . . .234 Crystal, The Word .... 424 Cucumbers, Bottling .... 199 Currants 164 Cut Glass 426 Cyanogen 251 TVALEMBERT . . . .530 Dalton, John .... 229 Dates 148, 164 Davies'Bulb 100 Davy, Sir H 45 De Brie Cheese 139 Deolpium 292 Dentreoolles, Pere .... 439 Dextrine 304 Dialysis 302 PAGE Diamonds Made ., ... 241 Didymium 289, 292 Diffraction 216 Diffusion Theory, Sugar ... 302 Dish, The First 437 Drawing Frame .... 379 Drop Forging 320 Du Halde . .... 439 Dynamo 29, 32 " Theory of .... 34 Multipolar Dynamo . . 37, 48, 56 •pARTH, The - - - 466 Eclipses ..- - 502 Edison's Carbon Telephone Transmit- Edison's Kineto-Phonographic Theatre 82 Edison's Incandescent Light 51 Its Manufacture 52 Edison's X Ray Lamp 100 Egyptian Astronomy 513 Electricity 17 Origin of the Word 19 Law of Congress 21 Speed 28, 45 War 77, 90 Electricity in Chemistry 239 Electric Arc Light 49 Electric Bridge ... 41 Electrio Fan 76 Electric Fountain . - - - 57 Electric Heaters 46 Electric Launch - 72 Electric Log ... 78 Electric Measurement 21, 47 Electric Meters - 62 Electrio Theatre ... - 56 Electric Ventilator - 76 Electric Weed Killer ... - 86 . 18 Electro-Magnet . 31 Electro Metallurgy . 89 Electro Motive Force . 21, 47 88 Elements, Table of . . . 291,292 Elements, The .... 225,292 Elements That Are More Preoious Elements That Are Metals . 239 Emerald, The 270 English Cheeses . 140 INDEX OF CONTENTS. PAGE English Walnut in Equinoxes, Preoesslon of . . 492 Erbium ...... 289,292 Ethereal Salts, The .... 247 Etherio Theory 18 Ethers, The 246 Encke's Comet 509 Euler 530 Exciting 36 pALSE FACES .... 435 Farad, The Unity of Capacity 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-historio ... 355 Flax Plant 401 Flax Spinners 402 Floating Soaps 328 Flour, How Made . . . . 114 Fluorescenoe 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 p ADOLINITJM . . . 290,292 °^ Galileo 522 Gallium 290,292 Galvani 45 Gas Flash Lighter .... 88 Gas Making .... 338, etc. Gas Meter ... 342 Gases, Weighing 230 Gauze 373 Gay-Lussac .... , 296 Geber, The Arabian Astronomer . 516 Geissler Tube 96 Generators for Vinegar ... 204 Germanium 292 Gerry, Elbridge .... 75 Ginger 173 Glass, Chapter on . . . 421, etc. Glass As a Chemical Compound . 422 Glass Molds 423 Glaze on Pottery . 437 292 296,309 Glucose Factory, Description of 309 Gluten .... . H8 Gold . . . . 292 Gold, Description of . . 275, etc. Gold Chemicals 276 Goodyear, Charles 414 Gooseberry .... . 166 Graham Bread, Origin of Name 129 Gravitation 526 Gray's Telephone 65 Grove, W. R. . 17,19 313 408 J_r AEMOSCOPE, The Halides, The Acid - 218 247 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 Hipparcnus - - 514 History of Astronomy - - 512, etc. Holmium - - 290, 292 Hominy 118 Horseradish - 173 Howe, Elias ^ 418 Hydrogen ..... 356, 292 Hydro carbons .... 245 TCE, Chapter on Ice Factory . - "350 351 Ide, Meaning of this word-ending - 231 India Rubber, Chapter on 408 379, 292 Induction .... 21 " Defined - 29 Ingrain Carpets - 396 Interference 216 Iodine 357,292 INDEX OF CONTENTS. Iridium ... Iron ... " Description of " Group, The PAGB 288, 292 292 - 279 277, etc. TABLOCHKOFF Candle ... 49 J Jaequard .... 368, etc. Jenny, Hargreaves' .... 384 Jews, How they kill their Beeves . 197 Johnston, John 536 Joule, Dr. J. P 17,21 Joule, The unit of work ... 21 Jupiter, The Planet . . . .479 " Moons .... 479 Jute 405 T£AO-LIN . . • . . 439,441 Kay, John 368 Kelvin, Lord . • . . . 86 Kemraler 75 Kepler 518 Kepler's Laws .... 519, etc. Kerosene 334 Ketones, The 246 Kinetoscope .... 81, 333 Kumyss 146 T ^EVULOSE Sugar . . . .305 Lace-making .... 388 Lanthanum 289, 292 LaPlace 530 Lead ....... 292 " Compounds .... 277 " Group 277, etc '• Pipe 277 Lemon 160. Le Pontois, Leon, Prof. ... 90 Leverrier 484, 532 Life, Chapter on (See table of contents in front) 316 Light and Heat, Chapter on . 330, etc. Lime, The 162 Lime, Process in sugar making . 298 Lincrusta-Walton . 405 Liebeg,Prof 224 Linen 400, etc. Lines of Force 31 Linoleum 404 Litharge 278 Lithium .... 267, 292 Locofocos 455 Looking glasses .... 275 FAQB Loom, The . 366, etc. Turkish loom . . 367 Why looms are noisy . 370 Carpets , 396 Mackintosh, The word . . 414 " Group, The . 270 Malt Marconi's- Discovery . . 102 Matches, Chapter on 453, etc. Maxim's Eleotric Meter . 63 Meats . 196, etc. " Trust, The 198 Mecanique Celeste . 530 Melons 165 Melting Point . 227 Mercury . , . 292 " Description of . 272, etc. Mercury, The Planet 463 Meters, Eleotric . 62 Middlings Purifier . 115 Milk . . . 130, etc. Millet Mill Explosions 115 Mince Meat Factory . 178 Mining Experts' Formula , . 276 19, 43, 50 Mixer, for sugar . . 299 Moissan, M. Henri 212 Molecular Theory 233 Molecular Weight Apparatus . . 232 INDEX OF CONTENTS. Molybdanlum Moon, The . Moquette Carpets Mordant , • Morse, Prof. S. F. B Morse's Telegraph Mosaic Pavements Mosandrium . Motor, Electric . " Negro's " Modern Type Motor-cycles . Mourning Crape . Mourning Pins Mulberry Speculation Mule, Self-Acting . Multiplex Telegraphy Multipolar Magnet Mustard .... Mill Explosions Napier and His Logarithms Nebulas Nectarine .... Needles and Pins, Chapter on Negative Elements . Neodymium .... Neptune, the Planet, Date of oovery . . . - Neutral . . . . , Newton, Sir Isaac . Niagara, chaining of Nioetas Nickel .... Niobium .... Nitrates of Commerce, The Nitrogen Nitrogen, description of . Nitro-glycerine North Star, The . Nutmegs and Mace 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 PASS 289, 292 . 470 396 . 390 23 . 22 452 39 40 73 361 419 363 . 58 173 . 115 523 . 494 156 . 41s 236 . 289, 292 its dis- 483 . 143 458, 523, etc. 83, etc. . 514 282, 292 . 294 252 . 292 251, etc. . 252 175 119 24 . 24 21 . 21 47 . 406 337, etc. . 333 131, 142 . 158 Organic Acids . Organic Chemistry Organo-metalllc 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-marked " How Glazed " How HaDd-made Papier-mache Paradox Parhelia, or Mock Suns Parmesan Cheese . . Paste in Chinaware makin, Pate-sur-pate Pea'ch .... " Canning -. Peanut .... Pears Pecan . Pepper Pepper, Prof. Pepper's Ghost . . . Permanganese. . . Petroleum .... Pe-tun-ste Photographic Chemistry . Phosphorus Phosphorescence Piazzi .... Pickles, Vinegar, etc. Pickle Factories . Pineapple .... Pins ... Pintsch Light Pistachio Nut Plante's Storage Battery . Platinum Platinum Group, The Plum Plus - ... Plush - - Pneumatic Tubes FAG-B 246 . 239 247 . 532 783, 292 226 231 254 292 2i5 109 282, 292 429, etc. 43* 433 433 433 434 490 462 139 448 151 152 169 150 171 172 91 329, 334 441, 449 is99 264, 292 95 . 529 199, etc. . 199 166 418, etc. 343 171 72 282 - 164 19, 43, 50 106 INDEX OF CONTENTS. PAGE PolnrlBCopB 306 Polarized Light - 61 Pomegranate - - 197 Popp, "Victor - - - 107 Porcelain, Origin of the word • 439 Portland Vase, The - 428 Positive Elements - . 230 Potassium, Character of 268, 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 TTADICLES 238 Radiometer 97 Rainbow , 95 Baisins 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-Pramt - - - 382 Rubber Tires .... 821 Rubber Weaving - - - 412 Rubidium - - • 269, 193 Ruhmkorff - 96 Ruthenium - 282,293 Rye 118 C ACCHROMETER, The Saccharoses . 296 Safety-pins . 419 Safety Match, The - 456 Sage - 123, 178 Saggers . 443 Salt'. 207 etc, 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 25! , 264,293 Serigiaph, The, for Silk 361 Sevres Gold - 484 Sevres, its History 445 " Pottery at 416 Sheep, how butchered . 197 Shoddy 399 Show-lights 53 Silicon, description of - 266 Silk, artificial 362 Silk, conditioning 360 Silk-worms - . 354,357 Silk Fibres .... - 356 Silicon, 273, etc., 293 Silver Plate 274 Silk Worm Rearing Establishmen t 364 Sirup 307 Sisal 405 Skirt-dancers - 365 Slip . - 438 Slubbing-Fra.ne - 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 . 62 290 Sorghum - 812 Soxhlets' Milk Apparatus - - 134 Spark Condenser • 217 Speoiflo Gravity ... - 229,230 INDEX OP CONTENTS. PAQE 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 376 Spirit Lamps 338 Star-Study 219 Stars, in Space 487 " Double Stars 495 Stanford 534 Starch 125, 310 Steel - 279 331 Stockyards at Chicago 196, 198 Stone Crocks 438 Storage Battery ... . 71 269, 293 Sugar and Alcohol . 246 Sugar Cane, its History . 295 Sugar, Chapter on 295, etc. Sugar, Making from Cane 297 Sugar, Granulated 301 Sugar, Pulverized . 301 Sugar, Adulterations 301 Sulphur 293 Sulphur Group, The . 259 Sulphur, description of . 260, etc. Sulphuric Acid ... * . 262 Sulphur Compounds . 263 Swine, How Slaughtered . 196 236 Symbols of all the Elements 292, 293 "■TABLE OP THE ELEMENTS 292 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 88 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 Tomato-cauniug, The process . . 162 Transparent soap .... 327 Triple- effect ..... 311 Trolley cars 38, 46 Trolley train 42 Trolley-wires 41 Tungsten 293 Tungsten Group, The .... &89 Tutty 287 Tycho Brohe 618 TTLTJGHBegh ..... 517 Dranium 289, 293 Uranus '482 Ursa Major 497 INDEX OF CONTENTS. •y'ACUUM-PAN, For Sugar Valency . Vanadium . Velvet . Velvet Carpets Venus, The Planet Vesuvius, Mount Vienna Bread Vinegar Vitriol . Volt, The Unit of Electro Force Volta " Alessaudro Voltaic Pile . Vulcanizing Ruhher . PAGE 299 239 293 . S72 372 464 260 . 116 201 -Motive 21,48 . 45 21 . 45 411 T1TALL-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 PAGE 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 Stuffs 395 Word-endings in Chemistry- . . 240 Work- '21 Worsteds 395 Writing-paper. How Ruled . . 434 V RAY 93, etc. yKAST 115 Yerkes 535 Yttrium 289,293 7 INC 270,293 Zinc, White 271 Zipernowsky's Arc Light . . 50 Zodiac, The 486 Zirconium .... 283, 293