WAX, MINERAL, or Ozocerite, is a solid, of a brown colour, of various shades, translucent, and fusible like bees’ wax; slightly bituminous to the smell, of a foliated texture, a conchoidal fracture, but wanting tenacity, so that it can be pulverized in a mortar. Its specific gravity varies from 0·900 to 0·953. Candles have been made of it in Moldavia, which give a tolerable light. It occurs at the foot of the Carpathians near Slanik, beneath a bed of bituminous slate-clay, in masses of from 80 to 100 pounds weight. Layers of brown amber are found in the neighbourhood. It is associated with variegated sandstone, rock salt, and beds of coal (lignite?). It is analogous to hatchetine. Something similar has been discovered in a trouble at Urpeth colliery, near Newcastle, 60 fathoms beneath the surface. Ozocerite consists of different hydro-carburetted compounds associated together; the whole being composed, ultimately, of—hydrogen 14, carbon 86, very nearly.

WEAVING (Tissage, Fr.; Weberei, Germ.); is performed by the implement called loom in English, mÉtier À tisser in French, and weberstuhl in German. The process of warping must always precede weaving. Its object is to arrange all the longitudinal threads, which are to form the chain of the web, alongside of each other in one parallel plane. Such a number of bobbins, filled with yarn, must therefore be taken as will furnish the quantity required for the length of the intended piece of cloth. One-sixth of that number of bobbins is usually mounted at once in the warp mill, being set loosely in a horizontal direction upon wire skewers, or spindles, in a square frame, so that they may revolve, and give off the yarn freely. The warper sits at A, fig. 1159., and causes the reel B to revolve, by turning round with his hand the wheel C, with the endless rope or band D. The bobbins filled with yarn are placed in the frame E. There is a sliding piece at F, called the heck box, which rises and falls by the coiling and uncoiling of the cord G, round the central shaft of the reef H. By this simple contrivance, the band of warp-yarns is wound spirally, from top to bottom, upon the reel. I, I, I, are wooden pins which separate the different bands. Most warping mills are of a prismatic form; having twelve, eighteen, or more sides. The reel is commonly about six feet in diameter, and seven feet in height, so as to serve for measuring exactly upon its periphery the total length of the warp. All the threads from the frame E, pass through the heck F, which consists of a series of finely-polished hard-tempered steel pins, with a small hole at the upper part of each, to receive and guide one thread. The heck is divided into two parts, either of which may be lifted by a small handle below, while their eyes are placed alternately. Hence, when one of them is raised a little, a vacuity is formed between the two bands of the warp; but when the other is raised, the vacuity is reversed. In this way, the lease is produced at each end of the warp, and it is preserved by appropriate wooden pegs. The lease being carefully tied up, affords a guide to the weaver for inserting his lease-rods. The warping mill is turned alternately from right to left, and from left to right, till a sufficient number of yarns are coiled round it to form the breadth that is wanted; the warper’s principal care being to tie immediately every thread as it breaks, otherwise deficiencies would be occasioned in the chain, injurious to the appearance of the web, or productive of much annoyance to the weaver.

The simplest and probably the most antient of looms, now to be seen in action, is that of the Hindu tanty, shown in fig. 1160. It consists of two bamboo rollers; one for the warp, and another for the woven cloth; with a pair of heddles, for parting the warp, to permit the weft to be drawn across between its upper and under threads. The shuttle is a slender rod, like a large netting needle, rather longer than the web is broad, and is made use of as a batten or lay, to strike home or condense each successive thread of weft, against the closed fabric. The Hindu carries this simple implement, with his water pitcher, rice pot, and hooka, to the foot of any tree which can afford him a comfortable shade; he there digs a large hole, to receive his legs, along with the treddles or lower part of the harness; he next extends his warp, by fastening his two bamboo rollers, at a proper distance from each other, with pins, into the sward; he attaches the heddles to a convenient branch of the tree overhead; inserts his great toes into two loops under the geer, to serve him for treddles; lastly, he sheds the warp, draws through the weft, and beats it close up to the web with his rod-shuttle or batten.

The European loom is represented in its plainest state, as it has existed for several centuries, in fig. 1161. A is the warp-beam, round which the chain, has been wound; B represents the flat rods, usually three in number, which pass across between its threads, to preserve the lease, or the plane of decussation for the weft; C shows the heddles or healds, consisting of twines looped in the middle, through which loops, the warp yarns are drawn, one half through the front heddle, and the other through the back one; by moving which, the decussation is readily effected. The yarns then pass through the dents of the REED under D, which is set in a movable swing-frame E, called the lathe, lay, and also batten, because it beats home the weft to the web. The lay is freely suspended to a cross-bar F, attached by rulers, called the swords, to the top of the lateral standards of the loom, so as to oscillate upon it. The weaver, sitting on the bench G, presses down one of the treddles at H, with one of his feet, whereby he raises the corresponding heddle, but sinks the alternate one; thus sheds the warp, by lifting and depressing each alternate thread, through a little space, and opens a pathway or race-course for the shuttle to traverse the middle of the warp, upon its two friction rollers M, M. For this purpose, he lays hold of the picking-peg in his right hand, and, with a smart jerk of his wrist, drives the fly-shuttle swiftly from one side of the loom to the other, between the shed warp yarns. The shoot of weft being thereby left behind from the shuttle pirn or cop, the weaver brings home, by pulling, the lay with its reed towards him by his left hand, with such force as the closeness of the texture requires. The web, as thus woven, is wound up by turning round the cloth beam I, furnished with a ratchet-wheel, which takes into a holding tooth. The plan of throwing the shuttle by the picking-peg and cord, is a great improvement upon the old way of throwing it by hand. It was contrived exactly a century ago, by John Kay, of Bury in Lancashire, but then resident in Colchester, and was called the fly-shuttle, from its speed, as it enabled the weaver to make double the quantity of narrow cloth, and much more broad cloth, in the same time.

The cloth is kept distended, during the operation of weaving, by means of two pieces of hard wood, called a templet, furnished with sharp iron points in their ends, which take hold of the opposite selvages or lists of the web. The warp and web are kept longitudinally stretched by a weighted cord, which passes round the warp-beam, and which tends continually to draw back the cloth from its beam, where it is held fast by the ratchet tooth. See Fustian, Jacquard Loom, Reed, and Textile Fabrics.

The greater part of plain weaving, and much even of the figured, is now performed by the power loom, called mÉtier mÉcanique À tisser, in French. Fig. 1162. represents the cast-iron power loom of Sharp and Roberts. A, A', are the two side uprights, or standards, on the front of the loom. D, is the great arch of cast iron, which binds the two sides together. E, is the front cross-beam, terminating in the forks e, e; whose ends are bolted to the opposite standards A, A', so as to bind the framework most firmly together. G', is the breast beam, of wood, nearly square; its upper surface is sloped a little towards the front, and its edge rounded off, for the web to slide smoothly over it, in its progress to the cloth beam. The beam is supported at its end upon brackets, and is secured by the bolts g', g'. H, is the cloth beam, a wooden cylinder, mounted with iron gudgeons at its ends, that on the right hand being prolonged to carry the toothed winding wheel H'. k' is a pinion in geer with H'. H'', is a ratchet wheel, mounted upon the same shaft h''', as the pinion h'. h', is the click of the ratchet wheel H''. k''', is a long bolt fixed to the frame, serving as a shaft to the ratchet wheel H'', and the pinion h'. I, is the front heddle-leaf, and I', the back one. J, J, J', J', jacks or pulleys and straps, for raising and depressing the leaves of the heddles. J'', is the iron shaft which carries the jacks or system of pulleys J, J, J', J'. K, a strong wooden ruler, connecting the front heddle with its treddle. L, L', the front and rear marches or treddle-pieces, for depressing the heddle leaves alternately, by the intervention of the rods k, (and k', hid behind k). M, M, are the two swords (swing bars) of the lay or batten. N, is the upper cross-bar of the lay, made of wood, and supported upon the squares of the levers n, n', to which it is firmly bolted. N', is the lay-cap, which is placed higher or lower, according to the breadth of the reed; it is the part of the lay which the hand-loom weaver seizes with his hand, in order to swing it towards him. n', is the reed contained between the bar N, and the lay-cap N'. O, O, are two rods of iron, perfectly round and straight, mounted near the ends of the batten-bar N, which serve as guides to the drivers or peckers o, o, which impel the shuttle. These are made of buffalo hide, and should slide freely on their guide-rods. O', O', are the fronts of the shuttle-boxes; they have a slight inclination backwards. P, is the back of them. See figs. 1163. and 1164. O'', O'' are iron plates, forming the bottoms of the shuttle-boxes. p, small pegs or pins, planted in the posterior faces P (fig. 1164.) of the boxes, round which the levers P' turn. These levers are sunk in the substance of the faces P, turn round pegs p, being pressed from without inwards, by the springs p'. P'', fig. 1162. (to the right of K,) is the whip or lever, (and Q'', its centre of motion, corresponding to the right arm and elbow of the weaver,) which serves to throw the shuttle, by means of the pecking-cord p'', attached at its other end to the drivers o, o.

On the axis of Q'', a kind of eccentric or heart wheel is mounted, to whose concave part, the middle of the double band or strap r, being attached, receives impulsion; its two ends are attached to the heads of the bolts r', which carry the stirrups r'', that may be adjusted at any suitable height, by set screws.

S (see the left-hand side of fig. 1162.), is the moving shaft, of wrought iron, resting on the two ends of the frame, S' (see the right-hand side), is a toothed wheel, mounted exteriorly to the frame, upon the end of the shaft S. S'' (near S'), are two equal elbows, in the same direction, and in the same plane, as the shaft S, opposite to the swords M, M, of the lay.

Z, is the loose, and Z', the fast pulley, or riggers, which receive motion from the steam-shaft of the factory, Z'', a small fly-wheel, to regulate the movements of the main shaft of the loom.

T, is the shaft of the eccentric tappets, cams, or wipers, which press the treddle levers alternately up and down; on its right end is mounted T', a toothed wheel in geer with the wheel S', of one half its diameter. T'', is a cleft clamping collar, which serves to support the shaft T.

U, is a lever, which turns round the bolt u, as well as the click h''. U', is the click of traction, for turning round the cloth beam, jointed to the upper extremity of the lever U; its tooth u', catches in the teeth of the ratchet wheel H''. u'', is a long slender rod, fixed to one of the swords of the lay M, serving to push the lower end of the lever U, when the lay retires towards the heddle leaves.

X, is a wrought-iron shaft, extending from the one shuttle-box to the other, supported at its ends by the bearings x, x.

Y, is a bearing, affixed exteriorly to the frame, against which the spring bar Z, rests, near its top, but is fixed to the frame at its bottom. The spring falls into a notch in the bar Y, and is thereby held at a distance from the upright A, as long as the band is upon the loose pulley z'; but when the spring bar is disengaged, it falls towards A, and carries the band upon the fast pulley z, so as to put the loom in geer with the steam-shaft of the factory.

Weaving, by this powerful machine, consists of four operations: 1. to shed the warp by means of the heddle leaves, actuated by the tappet wheels upon the axis Q', the rods k, k', the cross-bar E, and the eyes of the heddle leaves I, I'; 2. to throw the shuttle (see fig. 1161.), by means of the whip lever P'', the driver cord p, and the pecker o; 3. to drive home the weft by the batten N, N'; 4. to unwind the chain from the warp beam, and to draw it progressively forwards, and wind the finished web upon the cloth beam H, by the click and toothed wheel mechanism at the right-hand side of the frame. For more minute details, the reader may consult The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 291.

WEFT (Trame, Fr.; Eintrag, Germ.); is the name of the yarns or threads which run from selvage to selvage in a web.

WELD (VouËde, Fr.; Wau, Gelbkraut, Germ.); is an annual herbaceous plant, which grows all over Europe, called by botanists Reseda luteola. The stems and the leaves dye yellow; and among the dyes of organic nature, they rank next to the Persian berry for the beauty and fastness of colour. The whole plant is cropped when in seed, at which period its dyeing power is greatest; and after being simply dried, is brought into the market.

Chevreul has discovered a yellow colouring principle in weld, which he has called luteoline. It may be sublimed, and thus obtained in long needle-form, transparent yellow crystals. Luteoline is but sparingly soluble in water; but it nevertheless dyes alumed silk and wool of a fine jonquil colour. It is soluble in alcohol and ether; it combines with acids, and especially with bases.

When weld is to be employed in the dye-bath, it should be boiled for three quarters of an hour; after which the exhausted plant is taken out, because it occupies too much room. The decoction is rapidly decomposed in the air, and ought therefore to be made only when it is wanted. It produces with,

A lack is made from decoction of weld with alum, precipitated by carbonate of soda or potassa. See Yellow Dye.

WELDING (Souder, Fr.; Schweissen, Germ.); is the property which pieces of wrought iron possess, when heated to whiteness, of uniting intimately and permanently under the hammer, into one body, without any appearance of junction. The welding temperature is usually estimated at from 60° to 90° of Wedgewood. When a skilful blacksmith is about to perform the welding operation, he watches minutely the effect of the heat in his forge-fire upon the two iron bars; and if he perceives them beginning to burn, he pulls them out, rolls them in sand, which forms a glassy silicate of iron upon the surface, so as to prevent further oxidizement; and then laying the one properly upon the other, he incorporates them by his right-hand hammer, being assisted by another workman, who strikes the metal at the same time with a heavy forge-hammer.

Platinum is not susceptible of being welded, as many chemical authors have erroneously asserted.

Mr. T. H. Russell, of Handsworth, near Birmingham, obtained a patent, in May, 1836, for manufacturing welded iron tubes, by drawing or passing the skelp, or fillet of sheet iron, five feet long, between dies or holes, formed by a pair of grooved rollers, placed with their sides contiguous; for which process, he does not previously turn up the skelp from end to end, but he does this so as to bring the edges together at the time when the welding is performed. He draws the skelp through two or more pairs of the above pincers or dies, each of less dimension than the preceding. In making tubes of an inch of internal diameter, a skelp four inches and a half broad is employed. The twin rollers revolve on vertical axes, which may be made to approach each other to give pressure; and they are kept cool by a stream of water, while the skelp, ignited to the welding heat, is passed between them. They are affixed at about a foot in front of the mouth of the furnace, on a draw-bench; there being a suitable stop within a few inches of the rollers, against which the workman may place a pair of pincers, having a bell-mouthed hole or die, for welding and shaping the tube. In the first passage between the rollers, a circular revolving plate of iron is let down vertically between them, to prevent the edges of the skelp from overlapping, or even meeting. The welding is performed at the last passage.

WELLS, ARTESIAN. See also Artesian Wells. The following account of a successful operation of this kind, lately performed at Mortlake, in Surrey, deserves to be recorded. The spot at which this undertaking was begun, is within 100 feet of the Thames. In the first instance, an auger, seven inches in diameter, was used in penetrating 20 feet of superficial detritus, and 200 feet of London clay. An iron tube, 8 inches in diameter, was then driven into the opening, to dam out the land-springs and the percolation from the river. A 4-inch auger was next introduced through the iron tube, and the boring was continued until, the London clay having been perforated to the depth of 240 feet, the sands of the plastic clay were reached, and water of the softest and purest nature was obtained; but the supply was not sufficient, and it did not reach the surface. The work was proceeded with accordingly; and after 55 feet of alternating beds of sand and clay had been penetrated, the chalk was touched upon. A second tube, 4¹/₂ inches in diameter, was then driven into the chalk, to stop out the water of the plastic sands; and through this tube an auger, 3¹/₂ inches in diameter, was introduced, and worked down through 35 feet of hard chalk, abounding with flints. To this succeeded a bed of soft chalk, into which the instrument suddenly penetrated to the depth of 15 feet. On the auger being withdrawn, water gradually rose to the surface, and overflowed. The expense of the work did not exceed 300l. The general summary of the strata penetrated is as follows:—Gravel, 20 feet; London clay, 250; plastic sands and clays, 55; hard chalk with flints, 35; soft chalk, 15; = 375 feet.

WHALEBONE (Baleine, Fr.; Fischbeine, Germ.); is the name of the horny laminÆ, consisting of fibres laid lengthwise, found in the mouth of the whale, which, by the fringes upon their edges, enable the animal to allow the water to flow out, as through rows of teeth (which it wants), from between its capacious jaws, but to catch and detain the minute creatures upon which it feeds. The fibres of whalebone have little lateral cohesion, as they are not transversely decussated, and may, therefore, be readily detached in the form of long filaments or bristles. The blades, or scythe-shaped plates, are externally compact, smooth, and susceptible of a good polish. They are connected, in a parallel series, by what is called the gum of the animal, and are arranged along each side of its mouth, to the number of about 300. The length of the longest blade, which is usually found near the middle of the series, is the gauge adopted by the fishermen to designate the size of the fish. The greatest length hitherto known has been 15 feet, but it rarely exceeds 12 or 13. The breadth, at the root end, is from 10 to 12 inches; and the average thickness, from four to five tenths of an inch. The series, viewed altogether in the mouth of the whale, resemble, in general form, the roof of a house. They are cleansed and softened before cutting, by boiling for two hours in a long copper.

Whalebone, as brought from Greenland, is commonly divided into portable junks or pieces, comprising ten or twelve blades in each; but it is occasionally subdivided into separate blades, the gum and the hairy fringes having been removed by the sailors during the voyage. The price of whalebone fluctuates from 50l. to 150l. per ton. The blade is cut into parallel prismatic slips, as follows:—It is clamped horizontally, with its edge up and down, in the large wooden vice of a carpenter’s bench, and is then planed by the following tool: fig. 1165. A, B, are its two handles; C, D, is an iron plate, with a guide-notch E; F, is a semicircular knife, screwed firmly at each end to the ends of the iron plate C, D, having its cutting edge adjusted in a plane, so much lower than the bottom of the notch E, as the thickness of the whalebone slip is intended to be; for different thicknesses, the knife may be set by the screws at different levels, but always in a plane parallel to the lower guide surface of the plate C, D. The workman, taking hold of the handles A, B, applies the notch of the tool at the end of the whalebone blade furthest from him, and with his two hands pulls it steadily along, so as to shave off a slice in the direction of the fibres; being careful to cut none of them across. These prismatic slips are then dried, and planed level upon their other two surfaces. The fibrous matter detached in this operation, is used, instead of hair, for stuffing mattresses.

From its flexibility, strength, elasticity, and lightness, whalebone is employed for many purposes: for ribs to umbrellas or parasols; for stiffening stays; for the framework of hats, &c. When heated by steam, or a sand-bath, it softens, and may be bent or moulded, like horn, into various shapes, which it retains, if cooled under compression. In this way, snuff-boxes, and knobs of walking-sticks, may be made from the thicker parts of the blade. The surface is polished at first with ground pumice-stone, felt, and water; and finished with dry quicklime, spontaneously slaked, and sifted.

WHEAT. (Triticum vulgare, Linn.; Froment, Fr.; Waizen, Germ.) See Bread, Gluten, and Starch.

WHEEL CARRIAGES. Though this manufacture belongs most properly to a treatise upon mechanical engineering, I shall endeavour to describe the parts of a carriage, so as to enable gentlemen to judge of its make and relative merits. The external form may vary with every freak of fashion; but the general structure of a vehicle, as to lightness, elegance, and strength, may be judged of from the following figure and description.

Fig. 1166. shows the body of a chariot, hung upon an iron carriage, with iron wheels, axletrees, and boxes; the latter, by a simple contrivance, is close at the out-head, by which means the oil cannot escape; and the fastening of the wheel being at the in-head, as will be explained afterwards, gives great security, and prevents the possibility of the wheel being taken off by any other carriage running against it.

Fig. 1167. shows the arm of an axletree, turned perfectly true, with two collars in the solid, as seen at G and H. The parts from G to B are made cylindrical. At K is a screw nail, the purpose of which will be explained in fig. 1171.

Fig. 1168. is the longitudinal section of a metal nave, which also forms the bush, for the better fitting of which to the axletree, it is bored out of the solid, and made quite air-tight upon the pin; and for retaining the oil, it is left close at the out-head D.

Fig. 1169. represents a collet, made of metal, turned perfectly true, the least diameter of which is made the same with that part of the axletree M, fig. 1167., and its greatest diameter the same with that of the solid collar G, fig. 1167. This collet is made with a joint at S, and opens at p. Two grooves are represented at qq, qq, which are seen at the same letters in fig. 1170., as also the dovetail r, in both figures.

Fig. 1170. is an edge view of the collet, fig. 1169.

Fig. 1171. is a longitudinal section of an axletree arm, nave or bush, and fastening. A, B, is the arm of the axletree, bored up the centre from B to E. C, C, D, the nave, which answers also for the bush. P, S, the collet (see figs. 1169. and 1170.), put into its place. q, q, two steel pins, passing through the in-head of the bush, and filling up the grooves in the collet. W, W, a caped hoop, sufficiently broad to cover the ends of said pins, and made fast to the bush by screws. This hoop, when so fastened to the bush, prevents the possibility of the pins q, q, from getting out of their places. u, u, is a leather washer, interposed betwixt the in-head of the bush and the larger solid collar of the axletree, to prevent the escape of oil at the in-head. K, is a screw, the head of which is near the letter K, in fig. 1167. This screw being undone, and oil poured into the hole, it flows down the bore in the centre of the axletree arm, and fills the space B, left by the arm being about one inch shorter than the bore of the bush, and the screw, being afterwards replaced, keeps all tight. In putting on the wheel, a little oil ought to be put into the space betwixt the collet P, S, and the larger collar. The collar P, S, being movable round the axletree arm, and being made fast to the bush by means of the two pins q, q, revolves along with the bush, acting against the solid collar G, of the arm, and keeps the wheel fast to the axletree, until by removing the caped hoop W, W, and driving out the pins q, q, the collet becomes disengaged from the bush.

The dovetail, seen upon the collet at r, fig. 1170., has a corresponding groove cut in the bush, to receive it, in consequence of which the wheel must of necessity be put on so that the collet and pins fit exactly. These wheels very rarely require to be taken off, and they will run a thousand miles without requiring fresh oiling.

The spokes of the wheel, made of malleable iron, are screwed into the bush or nave at C, C, figs. 1168. 1171., all round. The felloes, composed merely of two bars of iron, bent into a circle edgeways, are put on, the one on the front, the other on the back, of the spokes, which have shoulders on both sides to support the felloes, and all three are attached together by rivets through them. The space between the two iron rings forming the felloes, should be filled up with light wood, the tire then put on, and fastened to the felloes by bolts and glands clasping both felloes.

This is a carriage without a mortise or tenon, or wooden joint of any kind. It is, at an average, one-seventh lighter than any of those built on the ordinary construction.

The design of Mr. W. Mason’s patent invention, of 1827, is to give any required pressure to the ends of what are called mail axletrees, in order to prevent their shaking in the boxes of the wheels. This object is effected by the introduction of leather collars in certain parts of the box, and by a contrivance, in which the outer cap is screwed up, so as to bear against the end of the axletree with any degree of tightness, and is held in that situation, without the possibility of turning round, or allowing the axletree to become loose.

Fig. 1172. shows the section of the box of a wheel, with the end of the axletree secured in it. The general form of the box, and of the axle, is the same as other mail axles, there being recesses in the box for the reception of oil. At the end of the axle, a cap a, is inserted, with a leather collar enclosed in it, bearing against the end of the axle; which cap, when screwed up sufficiently tight, is held in that situation by a pin or screw passed through the cap a, into the end of the iron box; a representation of this end of the iron box being shown at fig. 1173.

In the cap a, there is also a groove for conducting the oil to the interior of the box, with a screw at the opening, to prevent it running out as the wheel goes round.

The particular claims of improvement are, the leather collar against the end of the axle; the pin going through one of the holes in the end of the box, to fix it; and the channel for conducting the oil.

Mr. Mason’s patent, of August, 1830, applies also to the boxes and axles of that construction of carriage wheels which are fitted with the so called mail-boxes; but part of the invention applies to other axles.

Fig. 1174. represents the nave of a wheel, with the box for the axle within it, both shown in section longitudinally; fig. 1175. is a section of the axle, taken in the same direction; and fig. 1176. represents the screw cap and oil-box, which attaches to the outer extremity of the axle-box. Supposing the parts were put together, that is, the axle inserted into the box, then the intention of the different parts will be perceived.

The cylindrical recess a, in the box of the nave, is designed to fit the cylindrical part of the axle b; and the conical part c, of the axle, to shoulder up against a corresponding conical cavity in the box, with a washer of leather to prevent its shaking. A collar d, formed by a metallic ring, fits loosely upon a cylindrical part of the axle, and is kept there by a flange or rim, fixed behind the cone c. Several strong pins f, f, are cast into the back part of the box; which pins, when the wheel is attached, pass through corresponding holes in the collar d; and nuts being screwed on to the ends of the pins f, behind the collar, keep the wheel securely attached to the axle. The screw-cap g, is then inserted into the recess h, at the outer part of the box, its conical end and small tube i, passing into the recess k, in the end of the axle.

The parts being thus connected, the oil contained within the cap g, will flow through the small tube i, in its end, into the recess or cylindrical channel l, within the axle, and will thence pass through a small hole in the side of the axle, into the cylindrical recess a, of the box; and then lodging in the groove and other cavities within the box, will lubricate the axle as the wheel goes round. There is also a small groove cut on the outside of the axle, for conducting the oil, in order that it may be more equally distributed over the surface and the bearings. This construction of the box and axle, as far as the lubrication goes, may be applied to the axles of wheels in general; but that part of the invention which is designed to give greater security in the attachment of the wheel to the carriage, applies particularly to mail axles.

Mr. William Mason’s patent invention for wheel carriages, of August, 1831, will be understood by reference to the annexed figures. Fig. 1177. is a plan showing the fore-axletree bed a, a, of a four-wheeled carriage, to which the axletrees b, b, are jointed at each end; fig. 1178. is an enlarged plan; and fig. 1179. an elevation, or side view of one end of the said fore-axletree bed, having a Collinge’s axletree jointed to the axletree bed, by means of the cylindrical pin or bolt c, which passes through and turns in a cylindrical hole d, formed at the end of the axletree bed, shown also in the plan view, fig. 1180., and section, fig. 1181.

The axletree b, is firmly united with the upper end e, of the pin or bolt c; and to the lower end of it, which is squared, the guide piece f, is also fitted, and secured by the screw g, and cap or nut h, seen in fig. 1179., and in section in fig. 1182. There are leather washers i, i, let into recesses made to receive them in the parts a, b, and f, the intent of which is to prevent the oil from escaping that is introduced through the central perpendicular hole seen in fig. 1182., which hole is closed by means of a screw inserted into it. The oil is diffused, or spread over the surface of the cylinder c, by means of a side branch leading from the bottom of the hole into a groove formed around the cylinder, and also by means of two longitudinal gaps or cavities made within the hole, as shown in figs. 1180. and 1181. The guide piece f, is affixed at right angles with the axletree b, as shown in fig. 1178., and turns freely and steadily in the cylindrical hole d, made to receive one end of the iron fore-axletree bed a. In like manner, the opposite fore axletree b, fig. 1177., is jointed to the other end of the iron fore-axletree bed. The outer ends of the guide pieces f, f, are jointed to the splinter-bar n, fig. 1181, as follows:—Fig. 1183. is a plan, and fig. 1184. a section of the joint o, in fig. 1177., shown on an enlarged scale; a cylindrical pin or bolt c, is firmly secured in the splinter-bar, and round the lower part of the said pin or bolt the guide piece f, turns, and is made fast in its place by the screw g, and screwed nut h.

Oil is conveyed to the lower part of the cylindrical pin c, in a similar manner to that already described, and two leather washers are likewise furnished, to prevent its escape. The connecting joint at the opposite end of the splinter-bar n, is constructed in a similar manner. The futchel or socket p, p, for the pole of the carriage, must also be jointed to the middle of the fore-axletree bed and splinter-bar, in a similar manner. The swingletrees q, q, fig. 1177., are likewise jointed in the same way to the splinter-bar. Fig. 1185. is a side view of these parts. The fore wheels of the carriage, fig. 1177., are furnished with cast-iron boxes, as usual. The dotted lines show the action of the pole p, p, upon the splinter-bar n, and as communicated through the latter to the guide pieces f, f, connected with the axletrees b, b, so as to lock the wheels r, r, as shown in that figure.

The axletree may be incased in the woodwork of the fore-bed of the carriage, as usual, and as shown by dotted lines in the back end view thereof, fig. 1186.; and the framing s, fig. 1187., may be affixed firmly upon the said woodwork, in any fit and proper manner, as well as the fore-springs t, t, shown in figs. 1186. and 1187., and likewise in the side view, fig. 1188. In certain cases it may be desirable to fix the cylindrical pin or bolt c, firmly in the splinter-bar n, in the manner shown in figs. 1189. and 1190.; the swingletrees q, q, and guide pieces f, f, turning freely above and below upon the said pin or bolt, and secured in their places thereon by screws and screwed nuts, oil being also supplied through holes formed in both ends of the said pin or bolt, and leather washers provided, as in the above-described instances.

Mr. Gibbs, engineer, and Mr. Chaplin, coach-maker, obtained a patent, in 1832, for the construction of a four-wheeled carriage which shall be enabled to turn within a small compass, by throwing the axles of all the four wheels simultaneously into different positions. They effect this object by mounting each wheel upon a separate jointed axle, and by connecting the free ends of the four axles by jointed rods or chains, with the pole and splinter-bar in front of the carriage.

To fix the ends of the spokes of wheels to the felloe or rim, with greater security than had been effected by previous methods, is the object of a contrivance for which William Howard obtained a patent, in February, 1830. Fig. 1191. shows a portion of a wheel constructed on this new method; a, is the nave, of wood; b, b, b, wooden spokes, inserted into the nave in the usual way; c, c, is the rim or felloe, intended to be formed by one entire circle of wrought iron; d, and e, e, are the shoes or blocks, of cast iron, for receiving the ends of the spokes, which are secured by bolts to the rim on the inner circumference. The cap of the block d, is removed, for the purpose of showing the internal form of the block; e, e, have their caps fixed on, as they would appear when the spokes are fitted in. One of the caps or shoes is shown detached, upon a larger scale, at fig. 1192., by which it will be perceived that the end of the spoke is introduced into the shoe on the side. It is proposed that the end of the spoke shall not reach quite to the end of the recess formed in the block, and that it shall be made tight by a wedge driven in. The wedge piece is to be of wood, as fig. 1193., with a small slip of iron within it; and a hole is perforated in the back of the block or shoe, for the wedge to be driven through. When this is done, the ends of the spokes become confined and tight; and the projecting extremities of the wedges being cut off, the caps are then attached on the face of the block, as at e, e, by pins riveted at their ends, which secures the spokes, and renders it impossible for them to be loosened by the vibrations as the wheel passes over the ground. One important use of the wedges, is to correct the eccentric figure of the wheel, which may be readily forced out in any part that may be out of the true form, by driving the wedge up further; and this, it is considered, will be a very important advantage, as the nearer a wheel can be brought to a true circle, the easier it will run upon the road. The periphery of the wheel is to be protected by a tire, which may be put on in pieces, and bolted through the felloe; or it may be made in one ring, and attached, while hot, in the usual way.

Mr. Reedhead’s patent improvements in the construction of carriages, are represented in the following figures. They were specified in July, 1833.

Fig. 1194. is a plan or horizontal view of the fore part of a carriage, intended to be drawn by horses, showing the fore wheels in their position when running in a straight course; fig. 1195. is a similar view, showing the wheels as locked, when in the act of turning; fig. 1196. is a front end elevation of the same; fig. 1197. is a section taken through the centre of the fore axletree; and fig. 1198. is a side elevation of the general appearance of a stage-coach, with the improvements appended: a, a, are two splinter-bars, with their roller-bolts, for connecting the traces of the harness; these splinter-bars are attached, by the bent irons b, b, to two short axletrees or axle-boxes c, c, which carry the axles of the fore wheels d, d, and turn upon vertical pins or bolts e, e, passed through the fore axletree f, the splinter-bars and axle-boxes being mounted so as to move parallel to each other, the latter partaking of any motion given to the splinter-bars by the horses in drawing the carriage forward, and thereby producing the locking of the wheels, as shown fig. 1195.; and in order that the two wheels, and their axles and axle-boxes, together with the splinter-bars a, a, may move simultaneously, the latter are connected by pivots to the end of the links or levers g, g, which are attached to the arms i, i, which receive the pole of the coach by a hinge-joint or pin h; the arms i, i, turning on a vertical fulcrum-pin k, passed through the main axletree, f, as the pole is moved from one side to the other.

The axles o, o, are firmly fixed into the naves of the wheels, as represented in the side view of a wheel detached, at fig. 1200., the axles being mounted so as to revolve within their boxes in the following manner:—The axle-boxes, which answer the purpose of short axletrees, are formed of iron, and consist of one main or bottom plate l, seen best in figs. 1200. and 1199.; upon this bottom plate is formed the chamber m, m, carrying the two anti-friction rollers n, n, which turn on short axles passed through the sides and partition at the upper part of the chambers. These anti-friction rollers bear upon the cylindrical parts of the axle o, of each wheel, and support the weight of the coach; p, is a bearing firmly secured in the axle-box to the plate l, for the end of the axle o, to run in, the axle being confined in its proper situation by a collar and screw-nut on its end; e, is the vertical pin or bolt before mentioned, upon which the axle-bar turns when the wheels are locking, which bolt is enlarged within the box, and has an eye for the axle to pass through, being firmly secured to the plate l, and also to the sides of the box. Fig. 1200. is a plan or horizontal view of an axle and its box, belonging to one of the fore wheels; a piece q, is fixed to the under side of the main axletree, which supports the ends of the plates l, and thereby relieves the pins e, e, of the strain they would otherwise have to withstand. The axles of the hind wheels are mounted upon similar plates l, l, with bearings and chambers with anti-friction rollers; but as these are not required to lock, the plates l, l, are fixed on to the under side of the hind axletree by screw-nuts; there are small openings or doors, which can be removed for the purpose of unscrewing the nuts and collars of the bearings p, when the wheel is required to be taken off the carriage, when the axle can be withdrawn from the boxes. If it should be thought necessary, other chambers with friction rollers, may be placed on the under side of the plate l, to bear up the end of the axles, and relieve the bearing p. In order to stop or impede the progress of a carriage in passing down hills, there is a grooved friction or brake wheel t, fixed, by clamps or otherwise, on to the spokes of one of the hind wheels; u, is a brake-band or spring, of metal, encircling the friction wheel, one end of which band is fixed into the standard v, upon the hind axletree, and the other end connected by a joint to the shorter end of the lever w, which has its fulcrum in the standard v; this lever extends up to the hind seat of the coach, as shown in fig. 1198., and is intended to be under the command of the guard or passengers of the coach, and when descending a hill, or on occasion of the horses running away, the longer end of the lever is to be depressed, which will raise the shorter end, and, consequently, bring the band or spring u, in contact with the surface of the friction wheel, and thereby retard its revolution, and prevent the coach travelling too fast; or, instead of attaching the friction brake to the hind wheel, as represented in fig. 1198., it may be adapted to the fore wheels, and the end of the lever brought up to the side of the foot-board, or under it, and within command of the coachman, the standard which carries the fulcrum being made to move upon a pivot, to accommodate the locking of the wheels. It will be observed, that by these improved constructions of the carriage, and mode of locking the patentee is enabled to use much larger fore wheels than in common, and that the splinter-bars will always be in the position of right angles with the track or way of the horses in drawing the carriage, by which they are much relieved, and always pull in a direct and equal manner.

A manifest defect in all four-wheeled carriages, involving vast superfluous friction, is the small size of the front wheels; a defect which has existed ever since Walter Rippon made “the first hollow turning coach with pillars and arches for her majesty Queen Mary, being then her servant,” until the railroad era, when our engineers remedied the defect by equalizing the wheels, at the expense of another defect—sacrificing the power of turning, and thus producing great lateral friction; whence a train of evil consequences result:—necessarily increased strength, and consequently increased weight of the carriages; increased power and weight of the engine to draw them, and overcome the friction; and, of course, increased strength of rails, and greater solidity of railway.

These defects are at last remedied by an invention patented by Mr. William Adams, author of a work entitled “English Pleasure Carriages.” Instead of placing the perch-bolt, or turning centre, as is commonly done, over the front axle, he places it at a convenient distance between the front and hind axles; so that when turning the carriage the front wheels, instead of turning beneath the body, as is common, turn outside of it, and the driver’s seat turns with them; thus giving him a perfect command over his horses in all positions, instead of the usual dangerous plan, which renders a driver liable to be pulled off his box by a restive horse, when in the act of turning. A carriage constructed on Mr. Adams’ plan may also be driven round a corner at full speed, without any risk of overturning, as the weight is equally poised on the axles in all positions. It is well known that the oversetting of stage coaches usually takes place when turning a corner, the momentum urging the vehicle in a right line, while the horses are pulling at an angle. By the new arrangement the front wheels may be made equal to the hind ones, or of any desirable height, and at the same time the body may be kept as low as may be thought convenient, even almost close to the ground, if desired. Thus two important objects, hitherto deemed incompatible, are combined—high wheels and a low centre of gravity. These carriages are therefore essentially safety carriages, while the friction is reduced to a minimum. The principle, in its various modifications, is applicable to every variety of carriage, both those of the simply useful kind, and those where beauty of form and colour are prime requisites.

Another most important part of Mr. Adams’ invention, is his new mode of spring suspension; applying the principle of the bow and string, for the first time, to obviate the effects of concussion in wheel carriages. All the springs hitherto in use for wheel carriages, have been friction springs, composed of long sliding surfaces, uncertain in their action, and liable to quick destruction by rust. But Mr. Adams’ springs are essentially elastic, being formed of single plates abutting endways, so that all friction is removed, and they can be hermetically sealed within paint to prevent their corrosion. He has various modes of applying the bow, either single or double, above or below the axle; but one most important feature is, that the axle being attached to the flexible cords or braces, the concussion which affects the wheels, either laterally, vertically, or in the line of progress, is perfectly intercepted, without the unpleasant oscillation experienced in carriages where the same purpose is accomplished by the use of the curved or C spring. Mr. Adams’ brace being, at the same time, a non-conductor of sound, the rattling of the wheels does not annoy the rider as in ordinary carriages. His springs are equally applicable to vehicles with two and four wheels.

The advantages of these carriages may be thus summed up:—A great diminution of the total weight; a diminution of resistance in draught equal to about one third; increase of safety to the riders; increased durability of the vehicle; absence of noise and vibration; absence of oscillation.

To these qualities, so desirable to all, and especially those of delicate nervous temperament, may be added—greater economy, both in the first cost and maintenance.

The whirling public so blindly follows fashionable caprice in the choice of a carriage, as to have hitherto paid too little attention to this fundamental improvement; but many intelligent individuals have fully verified its practical reality. Having inspected various forms of two-wheeled and four-wheeled carriages, in the patentee’s premises in Drury Lane, I feel justified in recommending them as being constructed on the soundest mechanical principles; and have no doubt, that if reason be allowed to decide upon their merits, they will ere long be universally preferred by all who seek for easy-moving, safe, and comfortable vehicles.

WHEY (Petit lait, Fr.; Molken, Germ.); is the greenish-gray liquor which exudes from the curd of milk. Scheele states, that when a pound of milk is mixed with a spoonful of proof spirit, and allowed to become sour, the whey filtered off, at the end of a month or a little more, is a good vinegar, devoid of lactic acid.

WHISKEY; is dilute alcohol, distilled from the fermented worts of malt or grains.

WHITE LEAD, Carbonate of lead, or Ceruse. (Blanc de plomb, Fr.; Bleiweiss, Germ.) This preparation is the only one in general use for painting wood and the plaster walls of apartments white. It mixes well with oil, without having its bright colour impaired, spreads easily under the brush, and gives a uniform coat to wood, stone, metal, &c. It is employed either alone, or with other pigments, to serve as their basis, and to give them body. This article has been long manufactured with much success at Klagenfurth in Carinthia, and its mode of preparation has been lately described with precision by Marcel de Serres. The great white-lead establishments at Krems, whence, though incorrectly, the terms white of Kremnitz became current on the continent, have been abandoned.

1. The lead comes from Bleyberg; it is very pure, and particularly free from contamination with iron, a point essential to the beauty of its factitious carbonate. It is melted in ordinary pots of cast iron, and cast into sheets of varying thickness, according to the pleasure of the manufacturer. These sheets are made by pouring the melted lead upon an iron plate placed over the boiler; and whenever the surface of the metal begins to consolidate, the plate is slightly sloped to one side, so as to run off the still liquid metal, and leave a lead sheet of the desired thinness. It is then lifted off like a sheet of paper; and as the iron plate is cooled in water, several hundred weight of lead can be readily cast in a day. In certain white-lead works these sheets are one twenty-fourth of an inch thick; in others, half that quantity; in some, one of these sheets takes up the whole width of the conversion-box; in others, four sheets are employed. It is of consequence not to smooth down the faces of the leaden sheets; because a rough surface presents more points of contact, and is more readily attacked by acid vapours, than a polished one.

2. These plates are now placed so as to expose an extensive surface to the acid fumes, by folding each other over a square slip of wood. Being suspended by their middle, like a sheet of paper, they are arranged in wooden boxes, from 4¹/₂ to 5 feet long, 12 to 14 inches broad, and from 9 to 11 inches deep. The boxes are very substantially constructed; their joints being mortised; and whatever nails are used, being carefully covered. Their bottom is made tight with a coat of pitch about an inch thick. The mouths of the boxes are luted over with paper, in the works where fermenting horsedung is employed as the means of procuring heat, to prevent the sulphuretted and phosphuretted hydrogen from injuring the purity of the white lead. In Carinthia it was formerly the practice, as also in Holland, to form the lead sheets into spiral rolls, and to place them so coiled up in the chests; but this plan is not to be recommended, because these rolls present obviously less surface to the action of the vapours, are apt to fall down into the liquid at the bottom, and thus to impair the whiteness of the lead. The lower edges of the sheets are suspended about two inches and a half from the bottom of the box; and they must not touch either one another or its sides, for fear of obstructing the vapours in the first case, or of injuring the colour in the second. Before introducing the lead, a peculiar acid liquor is put into the box, which differs in different works. In some, the proportions are four quarts of vinegar, with four quarts of wine-lees; and in others, a mixture is made of 20 pounds of wine-lees, with 8¹/₂ pounds of vinegar, and a pound of carbonate of potash. It is evident that in the manufactories where no carbonate of potash is employed in the mixture, and no dung for heating the boxes, it is not necessary to lute them.

3. The mixture being poured into the boxes, and the sheets of lead suspended within them, they are carried into a stove-room, to receive the requisite heat for raising round the lead the corrosive vapours, and thus converting it into carbonate. This apartment is heated generally by stoves, is about 9 feet high, 30 feet long, and 24 feet wide, or of such a size as to receive about 90 boxes. It has only one door.

The heat should never be raised above 86° Fahr.; and it is usually kept up for 15 days, in which time the operation is, for the most part, completed. If the heat be too high, and the vapours too copious, the carbonic acid escapes in a great measure, and the metallic lead, less acted upon, affords a much smaller product.

When the process is well managed, as much carbonate of lead is obtained, as there was employed of metal; or, for 300 pounds of lead, 300 of ceruse are procured, besides a certain quantity of metal after the crusts are removed, which is returned to the melting-pot. The mixture introduced into the boxes serves only once; and if carbonate of potash has been used, the residuary matter is sold to the hatters.

4. When the preceding operation is supposed to be complete, the sheets, being removed from the boxes, are found to have grown a quarter of an inch thick, though previously not above a twelfth of that thickness. A few pretty large crystals of acetate of lead are sometimes observed on their edges. The plates are now shaken smartly, to cause the crust of carbonate of lead formed on their surfaces to fall off. This carbonate is put into large cisterns, and washed very clean. The cistern is of wood, most commonly of a square shape, and divided into from seven to nine compartments. These are of equal capacity, but unequal height, so that the liquid may be made to overflow from one to the other. Thereby, if the first chest is too full, it decants its excess into the second, and so on in succession. See Rinsing Machine.

The water poured into the first chest, passes successively into the others, a slight agitation being meanwhile kept up, and there deposits the white lead diffused in it proportionally, so that the deposit of the last compartment is the finest and lightest. After this washing, the white lead receives another, in large vats, where it is always kept under water. It is lastly lifted out in the state of a liquid paste, with wooden spoons, and laid on drying-tables to prepare it for the market.

The white lead of the last compartment is of the first quality, and is called on the continent silver white. It is employed in fine painting.

When white lead is mixed in equal quantities with ground sulphate of barytes, it is known in France and Germany by the name of Venice white. Another quality, adulterated with double its weight of sulphate of barytes, is styled Hamburgh white; and a fourth, having three parts of sulphate to one of white lead, gets the name of Dutch white. When the sulphate of barytes is very white, like that of the Tyrol, these mixtures are reckoned preferable for certain kinds of painting, as the barytes communicates opacity to the colour, and protects the lead from being speedily darkened by sulphureous smoke or vapours.

The high reputation of the white lead of Krems was by no means due to the barytes, for the first and whitest quality was mere carbonate of lead. The freedom from silver of the lead of Villach, a very rare circumstance, is one cause of the superiority of its carbonate; as well as the skilful and laborious manner in which it is washed, and separated from any adhering particle of metal or sulphuret.

In England, lead is converted into carbonate in the following way.—The metal is cast into the form of a network grating, in moulds about 15 inches long, and 4 or 5 broad. Several rows of these are placed over cylindrical glazed earthen pots, about 4 or 5 inches in diameter, containing some treacle-vinegar, which are then covered with straw; above these pots another range is piled, and so in succession, to a convenient height. The whole are imbedded in spent bark from the tan-pit, brought into a fermenting state by being mixed with some bark used in a previous process. The pots are left undisturbed under the influence of a fermenting temperature for eight or nine weeks. In the course of this time the lead gratings become, generally speaking, converted throughout into a solid carbonate, which when removed is levigated in a proper mill, and elutriated with abundance of pure water. The plan of inserting coils of sheet lead into earthenware pipkins containing vinegar, and imbedding the pile of pipkins in fermenting horsedung and litter, is now little used; because the coil is not uniformly acted on by the acid vapours, and the sulphuretted hydrogen evolved from the dung is apt to darken the white lead.

In the above processes, the conversion of lead into carbonate, seems to be effected by keeping the metal immersed in a warm, humid atmosphere, loaded with carbonic and acetic acids; and hence a pure vinegar does not answer well; but one which is susceptible, by its spontaneous decomposition in these circumstances, of yielding carbonic acid. Such are tartar, wine-lees, molasses, &c.

Another process has lately been practised to a considerable extent in France, though it does not afford a white lead equal in body and opacity to the products of the preceding operations. M. Thenard first established the principle, and MM. Brechoz and Leseur contrived the arrangements of this new method, which was subsequently executed on a great scale by MM. Roard and Brechoz.

A subacetate of lead is formed by digesting a cold solution of uncrystallized acetate, over litharge, with frequent agitation. It is said that 65 pounds of purified pyrolignous acid, of specific gravity 1·056, require, for making a neutral acetate, 58 pounds of litharge; and hence, to form the subacetate, three times that quantity of base, or 174 pounds, must be used. The compound is diluted with water, as soon as it is formed, and being decanted off quite limpid, is exposed to a current of carbonic acid gas, which, uniting with the two extra proportions of oxide of lead in the subacetate, precipitates them in the form of a white carbonate, while the liquid becomes a faintly acidulous acetate. The carbonic acid may be extricated from chalk, or other compounds, or generated by combustion of charcoal, as at Clichy; but in the latter case, it must be transmitted through a solution of acetate of lead before being admitted into the subacetate, to deprive it of any particles of sulphuretted hydrogen. When the precipitation of the carbonate of lead is completed, and well settled down, the supernatant acetate is decanted off, and made to act on another dose of litharge. The deposit being first rinsed with a little water, this washing is added to the acetate; after which the white lead is thoroughly elutriated. This repetition of the process may be indefinitely made; but there is always a small loss of acetate, which must be repaired, either directly or by adding some vinegar.

In order to obtain the finest white lead by the process with earthen pots containing vinegar buried in fermenting tan, and covered by a grating of lead, the metal should be so thin as to be entirely convertible into carbonate; for whenever any of it remains, it is apt to give a gray tint to the product: if the temperature of the fermenting mass is less than 90° Fahr., some particles of the metal will resist the action of the vinegar, and degrade the colour; and if it exceeds 122°, the white verges into yellow, in consequence of some carbonaceous compound being developed from the principles of the acetic acid. The dung and tan have been generally supposed to act in this process by supplying carbonic acid, the result of their fermentation; but it is now said that this explanation is inexact, because the best white lead can be obtained by the entire exclusion of air from the pots in which the carbonation of the metal is carried on. We are thence led to conclude that the lead is oxidized at the expense of the oxygen of the vinegar, and carbonated by the agency of its oxygen and carbon; the hydrogen of the acid being left to associate itself with the remaining oxygen and carbon, so as to constitute an ethereous compound: thus, supposing the three atoms of oxygen to form, with one of lead and one of carbon, an atom of carbonate, then the remaining three atoms of carbon and three of hydrogen would compose olefiant gas.

It is customary on the continent to mould the white lead into conical loaves, before sending them into the market. This is done by stuffing well-drained white lead into unglazed earthen pots, of the requisite size and shape, and drying it to a solid mass, by exposing these pots in stove-rooms. The moulds being now inverted on tables, discharge their contents, which then receive a final desiccation; and are afterwards put up in pale-blue paper, to set off the white colour by contrast. Nothing in all the white-lead process is so injurious as this pot operation; a useless step, fortunately unknown in Great Britain. Neither greasing the skin, nor wearing thick gloves, can protect the operators from the diseases induced by the poisonous action of the white lead; and hence they must be soon sent off to some other department of the work.

It has been supposed that the differences observed between the ceruse of Clichy and the common kinds, depend on the greater compactness of the particles of the latter, produced by their slower aggregation; as also, according to M. Robiquet, on the former containing considerably less carbonic acid. See infrÀ.

Mr. Ham proposed, in a patent dated June, 1826, to produce white lead with the aid of the following apparatus, a, a, (fig. 1201.) are the side-walls of a stove-room, constructed of bricks; b, is the floor of bricks laid in Roman cement; c, c, are the side-plates, between which and the walls, a quantity of refuse tanner’s bark, or other suitable vegetable matter, is to be introduced. The same material is to be put also into the lower part at d (upon a false bottom of grating?) The tan should rise to a considerable height, and have a series of strips of sheet lead e, e, e, placed upon it, which are kept apart by blocks or some other convenient means, with a space open at one end of the plates, for the passage of the vapours; but above the upper plates, boards are placed, and covered with tan, to confine them there. In the lower part of the chamber, coils of steam-pipe f, f, are laid in different directions to distribute heat; g, is a funnel-pipe, to conduct vinegar into the lower part of the vessel; and h, is a cock to draw it off, when the operation is suspended. The acid vapours raised by the heat, pass up through the spent bark, and on coming into contact with the sheets of lead, corrode them. The quantity of acid liquor should not be in excess; a point to be ascertained by means of the small tube i, at top, which is intended for testing it by the tongue. k, is a tube for inserting a thermometer, to watch the temperature, which should not exceed 170° Fahr. I am not aware of what success has attended this patented arrangement. The heat prescribed is far too great.

A magnificent factory has been recently erected at West Bromwich, near Birmingham, to work a patent lately granted to Messrs. Gossage and Benson, for making white lead by mixing a small quantity of acetate of lead in solution with slightly damped litharge, contained in a long stone trough, and passing over the surface of the trough currents of hot carbonic acid, while its contents are powerfully stirred up by a travelling-wheel mechanism. The product is afterwards ground and elutriated, as usual. The carbonic acid gas is produced from the combustion of coke. I am told that 40 tons of excellent white lead are made weekly by these chemico-mechanical operations.

Messrs. Button and Dyer obtained a patent about a year and a half ago, for making white lead by transmitting a current of purified carbonic acid gas, from the combustion of coke, through a mixture of litharge and nitrate of lead, diffused and dissolved in water, which is kept in constant agitation and ebullition by steam introduced through a perforated coil of pipes at the bottom of the tub. The carbonate of lead is formed here upon the principle of Thenard’s old process with the subacetate; for the nitrate of lead forms with the litharge a subnitrate, which is forthwith transformed into carbonate and neutral nitrate, by the agency of the carbonic acid gas. I have discovered that all sorts of white lead produced by precipitation from a liquid, are in a semi-crystalline condition; appear, therefore, semi-transparent, when viewed in the microscope; and do not cover so well as white lead made by the process of vinegar and tan, in which the lead has remained always solid during its transition from the blue to the white state; and hence consists of opaque particles.

A patent was obtained, in December, 1833, by John Baptiste Constantine Torassa, and others, for making white lead by agitating the granulated metal, or shot, in trays or barrels, along with water, and exposing the mixture of lead-dust and water to the air, to be oxidized and carbonated. It is said that upwards of 100,000l. have been expended at Chelsea, by a joint stock company, in a factory constructed for executing the preceding most operose and defective process; which has been, many years ago, tried without success in Germany. I am convinced that the whole of these recent projects for preparing white lead, are inferior in economy, and quality of produce, to the old Dutch process, which may be so arranged as to convert sheets of blue lead thoroughly into the best white lead, within the space of 12 days, at less expense of labour than by any other plan.

White lead, as obtained by precipitation from the acetate, subacetate, and subnitrate, is a true carbonate of the metal, consisting of one prime equivalent of lead 104, one of oxygen 8, and one of carbonic acid 22; whose sum is 134, the atomic weight of the compound; or, of lead, 77·6; oxygen, 6; carbonic acid, 16·4; in 100 parts. It has been supposed, by some authors, that the denser and better-covering white lead of Krems and Holland is a kind of subcarbonate, containing only 9 per cent. of carbonic acid; but this view of the subject does not accord with my researches.

WICK (MÈche, Fr.; Docht, Germ.); is the spongy cord, usually made of soft spun cotton threads, which by capillary action, draws up the oil in lamps, or the melted tallow or wax in candles, in small successive portions, to be burned. In common wax and tallow candles, the wick is formed of parallel threads; in the stearine candles, the wick is plaited upon the braiding machine, moistened with a very dilute sulphuric acid, and dried, whereby as it burns, it falls to one side and consumes without requiring to be snuffed; in the patent candles of Mr. Palmer, one-tenth of the wick is first imbued with subnitrate of bismuth ground up with oil, the whole is then bound round in the manner called gimping; and of this wick, twice the length of the intended candle is twisted double round a rod, like the caduceus of Mercury. This rod with its coil being inserted in the axis of the candle mould, is to be enclosed by pouring in the melted tallow; and when the tallow is set, the rod is to be drawn out at top, leaving the wick in the candle. As this candle is burned, the ends of the double wick stand out sideways beyond the flame; and the bismuth attached to the cotton being acted on by the oxygen of the atmosphere, causes the wick to be completely consumed, and, therefore, saves the trouble of snuffing it.

WINCING-MACHINE, is the English name of the dyer’s reel, which he suspends horizontally, by the ends of its iron axis in bearings, over the edge of his vat, so that the line of the axis, being placed over the middle partition in the copper, will permit the piece of cloth which is wound upon the reel, to descend alternately into either compartment of the bath, according as it is turned by hand to the right or the left. For an excellent self-acting or mechanical wince, see Dyeing.

WINE, is the fermented juice of the grape. In the more southern states of Europe, the grapes, being more saccharine, afford a more abundant production of alcohol, and stronger wines, as exemplified in the best port, sherry, and madeira. The influence of solar heat upon the vines may, however, be mitigated by growing them to moderate heights on level ground, and by training them in festoons under the shelter of trees. In the more temperate climates, such as the district of Burgundy, the finer flavoured wines are produced; and there the vines are usually grown upon hilly slopes fronting the south, with more or less of an easterly or westerly direction, as on the CÔte d’Or, at a distance from marshes, forests, and rivers, whose vapours might deteriorate the air. The plains of this district, even when possessing a similar or analogous soil, do not produce wines of so agreeable a flavour. The influence of temperature becomes very manifest in countries further north, where, in consequence of a few degrees of thermometric depression, the production of generous agreeable wine becomes impossible.

The land most favourable to the vine is light, easily permeable to water, but somewhat retentive by its composition; with a sandy subsoil, to allow the excess of moisture to drain readily off. Calcareous soils produce the highly esteemed wines of the CÔte d’Or; a granitic debris forms the foundation of the lands where the Hermitage wines are grown; siliceous soil interspersed with flints furnishes the celebrated wines of ChÂteau-Neuf, FertÉ, and La Gaude; schistose districts afford also good wine, as that called la Malgue. Thus we see that lands differing in chemical composition, but possessed of the proper physical qualities, may produce most agreeable wines; and so also may lands of like chemical and physical constitution produce various kinds of wine, according to their varied exposure. As a striking example of these effects, we may adduce the slopes of the hills which grow the wines of Montrachet. The insulated part towards the top furnishes the wine called Chevalier Montrachet, which is less esteemed, and sells at a much lower price, than the delicious wine grown on the middle height, called true Montrachet. Beneath this district, and in the surrounding plains, the vines afford a far inferior article, called bastard Montrachet. The opposite side of the hills produces very indifferent wine. Similar differences, in a greater or less degree, are observable relatively to the districts which grow the Pomard, Volnay, Beaune, Nuits, Vougeot, Chambertin, RomanÉe, &c. Every where it is found, that the reverse side of the hill, the summit, and the plain, although generally consisting of like soil, afford inferior wine to the middle southern slopes.

Amelioration of the soil.—When the vine lands are too light or too dense, they may be modified, within certain limits, by introducing into them either argillaceous or siliceous matter. Marl is excellent for almost all grounds which are not previously too calcareous, being alike useful to open dense soils, and to render porous ones more retentive.

Manure.—For the vine, as well as all cultivated plants, a manure supplying azotized or animal nutriment may be used with great advantage, provided care be taken to ripen it by previous fermentation, so that it may not, by absorption in too crude a state, impart any disagreeable odour to the grape; as sometimes happens to the vines grown in the vicinity of great towns, like Paris, and near Argenteuil. There is a compost used in France, called animalized black, of which from ¹/₃ to ¹/₂ of a litre (old English quart) serves sufficiently to fertilize the root of one vine, when applied every year, or two years. An excess of manure, in rainy seasons especially, has the effect of rendering the grapes large and insipid.

The ground is tilled at the same time as the manure is applied, towards the month of March; the plants are then dressed, and the props are inserted. The weakness of the plants renders this practice useful; but in some southern districts, the stem of the vine, when supported at a proper height, acquires after a while sufficient size and strength to stand alone. The ends of the props or poles are either dipped in tar, or charred, to prevent their rotting. The bottom of the stem must be covered over with soil, after the spring rains have washed it down. The principal husbandry of the vineyard consists in digging or ploughing to destroy the weeds, and to expose the soil to the influence of the air, during the months of May, June, and occasionally in August.

The vintage, in the temperate provinces, generally takes place about the end of September; and it is always deteriorated whenever the fruit is not ripe enough before the 15th or 20th of October; for, in this case, not only is the must more acid, and less saccharine, but the atmospherical temperature is apt to fall so low during the nights, as to obstruct more or less its fermentation into wine. The grapes should be plucked in dry weather, at the interval of a few days after they are ripe; being usually gathered in baskets, and transported to the vats in dorsels, sufficiently tight to prevent the juice from running out. Whenever a layer about 14 or 15 inches thick has been spread on the bottom of the vat, the treading operation begins, which is usually repeated after macerating the grapes for some time, when an incipient fermentation has softened the texture of the skin and the interior cells. When the whole bruised grapes are collected in the vat, the juice, by means of a slight fermentation, reacts, through the acidity thus generated, upon the colouring-matter of the husks, and also upon the tannin contained in the stones and the fruit-stalks. The process of fermentation is suffered to proceed without any other precaution, except forcing down from time to time the pellicles and pedicles floated up by the carbonic acid to the top; but it would be less apt to become acetous, were the mouths of the vats covered. With this view, M. Sebille Auger introduced with success his elastic bung in the manufacture of wine in the department of the Maine-et-Loire.

With whatever kind of apparatus the fermentation may have been regulated, as soon as it ceases to be tumultuous, and the wine is not sensibly saccharine or muddy, it must be racked off from the lees, by means of a spigot, and run into the ripening tuns. The marc being then gently squeezed in a press, affords a tolerably clear wine, which is distributed among the tuns in equal proportions; but the liquor obtained by stronger pressure, is reserved for the casks of inferior wine.

In the south of France the fermentation sometimes proceeds too slowly, on account of the must being too saccharine; an accident which is best counteracted by maintaining a temperature of about 65° or 68° F., in the tun-room. When the must, on the other hand, is too thin, and deficient in sugar, it must be partially concentrated by rapid boiling, before the whole can be made to ferment into a good wine. By boiling up a part of the must for this purpose, the excess of ferment is at the same time destroyed. Should this concentration be inconvenient, a certain proportion of sugar must be introduced, immediately after racking it off.

The specific gravity of must varies with the richness and ripeness of the grapes which afford it; being in some cases so low as 1·0627, and in others so high as 1·1283. This happens particularly in the south of France. In the district of the Necker in Germany, the specific gravity varies from 1·050 to 1·090; in Heidelberg, from 1·039, to 1·091; but it varies much in different years.

After the fermentation is complete, the vinous part consists of water, alcohol, a colouring-matter, a peculiar aromatic principle, a little undecomposed sugar, bitartrate and malate of potash, tartrate of lime, muriate of soda, and tannin; the latter substances being in small proportion.

It is known that a few green grapes are capable of spoiling a whole cask of wine, and therefore they are always allowed to become completely ripe, and even sometimes to undergo a species of slight fermentation, before being plucked, which completes the development of the saccharine principle. At other times the grapes are gathered whenever they are ripe, but are left for a few days on wicker-floors, to sweeten, before being pressed.

In general the whole vintage of the day is pressed in the evening, and the resulting must is received in separate vats. At the end usually of 6 or 8 hours, if the temperature be above 50° F., and if the grapes have not been too cold when plucked, a froth or scum is formed at the surface, which rapidly increases in thickness. After it acquires such a consistence as to crack in several places, it is taken off with a skimmer, and drained; and the thin liquor is returned to the vat. A few hours afterwards another coat of froth is formed, which is removed in like manner, and sometimes a third may be produced. The regular vinous fermentation now begins, characterized by air-bubbles rising up the sides of the staves, with a peculiar whizzing as they break at the surface. At this period all the remaining froth should be quickly skimmed off, and the clear subjacent must, be transferred into barrels, where it is left to ripen by a regular fermentation.

The white wines, which might be disposed to become stringy, from a deficient supply of tannin, may be preserved from this malady by a due addition of the footstalks of ripe grapes. The tannin, while it tends to preserve the wines, renders them also more easy to clarify, by the addition of white of egg, or isinglass.

The white wines should be racked off as soon as the first frosts have made them clear, and at the latest by the end of the February moon. By thus separating the wine from the lees, we avoid, or render of little consequence, the fermentation which takes place on the return of spring, and which, if too brisk, would destroy all its sweetness, by decomposing the remaining portion of sugar.

The characteristic odour possessed by all wines, in a greater or less degree, is produced by a peculiar substance, which possesses the characters of an essential oil. As it is not volatile, it cannot be confounded with the aroma of wine. When large quantities of wine are distilled, an oily substance is obtained towards the end of the operation. This may also be procured from the wine lees which are deposited in the casks after the fermentation has commenced. It forms one 40,000th part of the wine; and consists of a peculiar new acid, and ether, each of which has been called the oenanthic. The acid is analogous to the fatty acids, and the ether is liquid, but insoluble in water. The acid is perfectly white when pure, of the consistence of butter at 60°, melts with a moderate heat, reddens litmus, and dissolves in caustic and carbonated alkalis, as well as in alcohol and ether. Œnanthic ether is colourless, has an extremely strong smell of wine, which is almost intoxicating when inhaled, and a powerful disagreeable taste. Liebig and Pelouze.

Sparkling wines.—In the manufacture of these, black grapes of the first quality are usually employed, especially those gathered upon the vine called by the French noirien, cultivated on the best exposures. As it is important, however, to prevent the colouring-matter of the skin from entering into the wine, the juice should be squeezed as gently and rapidly as possible. The liquor obtained by a second and third pressing is reserved for inferior wines, on account of the reddish tint which it acquires. The marc is then mixed with the grapes of the red-wine vats.

The above nearly colourless must, is immediately poured into tuns or casks, till about three-fourths of their capacity are filled, when fermentation soon begins. This is allowed to continue under the control of the elastic bung, above mentioned, for about 15 days, and then three-fourths of the casks are filled up with wine from the rest. The casks are now closed by a bung secured with a piece of hoop iron nailed to two contiguous staves. The casks should be made of new wood, but not of oak—though old white wine casks are occasionally used.

In the month of January the clear wine is racked off, and is fined by a small quantity of isinglass dissolved in old wine of the same kind. Forty days afterwards a second fining is required. Sometimes a third may be useful, if the lees be considerable. In the month of May the clear wine is drawn off into bottles, taking care to add to each of them a small measure of what is called liquor, which is merely about 3 per cent. of a syrup made by dissolving sugar-candy in white wine. The bottles being filled, and their corks secured by packthread and wire, they are laid on their sides, in this month, with their mouths sloping downwards at an angle of about 20 degrees, in order that any sediment may fall into the neck. At the end of 8 or 10 days, the inclination of the bottles is increased, when they are slightly tapped, and placed in a vertical position; so that after the lees are all collected in the neck, the cork is partially removed for an instant, to allow the sediment to be expelled by the pressure of the gas. If the wine be still muddy in the bottles, along with a new dose of liquor, a small quantity of fining should be added to each, and the bottles should be placed again in the inverted position. At the end of two or three months, the sediment collected over the cork, is dexterously discharged; and if the wine be still deficient in transparency, the same process of fining must be repeated.

Sparkling wine (vin mousseux), prepared as above described, is fit for drinking usually at the end of from 18 to 30 months, according to the state of the seasons. It is in Champagne that the lightest, most transparent, and most highly flavoured wines, have been hitherto made. The breakage of the bottles in these sparkling wines amounts frequently to 30 per cent., a circumstance which adds greatly to their cost of production.

Weak wines of bad growths ought to be consumed within 12 or 15 months after being manufactured; and should be kept meanwhile in cool cellars. White wines of middling strength ought to be kept in casks constantly full, and carefully excluded from contact of air, and the racking off should be done as quickly as possible. As the most of them are injured by too much fermentation, this process should be so regulated as always to leave a little sugar undecomposed. It is useful to counteract the absorption of oxygen, and the consequent tendency to acidity, by burning a sulphur match in the casks into which they are about to be run. This is done by hooking the match to a bent wire, kindling and suspending it within the cask through the bung-hole. Immediately on withdrawing the match, the cask should be corked, if the wine be not ready for transfer. If the burning sulphur be extinguished on plunging it into the cask, it is a proof of the cask being unsound, and unfit for receiving the wine; in which case it should be well cleansed, first with lime-water, then with very dilute sulphuric acid, and lastly with boiling water.

Wine-cellars ought to be dry at bottom, floored with flags, have windows opening to the north, be so much sunk below the level of the adjoining ground as to possess a nearly uniform temperature in summer and winter; and be at such a distance from a frequented highway or street as not to suffer vibration from the motion of carriages.

Wines should be racked off in cool weather; the end of February being the fittest time for light wines. Strong wines are not racked off till they have stood a year or eighteen months upon the lees, to promote their slow or insensible fermentation. A syphon well managed serves better than a faucet to draw off wine clear from the sediment. White wines, before being bottled, should be fined with isinglass; red wines are usually fined with whites of eggs beat up into a froth, and mixed with two or three times their bulk of water. But some strong wines, which are a little harsh from excess of tannin, are fined with a little sheep or bullock’s blood. Occasionally a small quantity of sweet glue is used for this purpose.

The following maladies of wines, are certain accidental deteriorations, to which remedies should be speedily applied.

La-pousse (pushing out of the cask), is the name given to a violent fermentative movement, which occasionally supervenes after the wine has been run off into the casks. If these have been tightly closed, the interior pressure may increase to such a degree as to burst the hoops, or cause the seams of the staves or ends to open. The elastic bungs already described, will prevent the bursting of the casks; but something must be done to repress the fermentation, lest it should destroy the whole of the sugar, and make the wine unpalatably harsh. One remedy is, to transfer the wine into a cask previously fumigated with burning sulphur; another is, to add to it about one thousandth part of sulphite of lime; and a third, and perhaps the safest, is to introduce half a pound of mustard-seed into each barrel. At any rate the wines should be fined whenever the movements are allayed, to remove the floating ferment which has been the cause of the mischief.

Turning sour.—The production of too much acid in a wine, is a proof of its containing originally too little alcohol, of its being exposed too largely to the air, or to vibrations, or to too high a temperature in the cellar. The best thing to be done in this case is, to mix it with its bulk of a stronger wine in a less advanced state, to fine the mixture, to bottle it, and to consume it as soon as possible, for it will never prove a good keeping wine. This distemper in wines formerly gave rise to the very dangerous practice of adding litharge as a sweetener; whereby a quantity of acetate or sugar of lead was formed in the liquor, productive of the most deleterious consequences to those who drunk of it. In France, the regulations of police, and the enlightened surveillance of the council of salubrity, have completely put down this gross abuse. The saturation of the acid by lime and other alkaline bases has generally a prejudicial effect, and injures more or less the vinous flavour and taste.

Ropiness or viscidity of wines.—The cause of this phenomenon, which renders wine unfit for drinking, was altogether unknown, till M. FranÇois, an apothecary of Nantes, demonstrated that it was owing to an azotized matter, analogous to gliadine (gluten); and in fact it is the white wines, especially those which contain the least tannin, which are subject to this malady. He also pointed out the proper remedy, in the addition of tannin under a rather agreeable form, namely, the bruised berries of the mountain-ash (sorbier), in a somewhat unripe state; of which one pound, well stirred in, is sufficient for a barrel. After agitation, the wine is to be left in repose for a day or two, and then racked off. The tannin by this time will have separated the azotized matter from the liquor, and removed the ropiness. The wine is to be fined and bottled off.

The taste of the cask, which sometimes happens to wine put into casks which had remained long empty, is best remedied by agitating the wine for some time with a spoonful of olive oil. An essential oil, the chief cause of the bad taste, combines with the fixed oil, and rises with it to the surface.

According to a statement in the Dictionnaire Technologique, the annual produce of a hectare of vineyard, upon the average of 113 years, in the district of Volnay, is 1779 litres, which fetch 0·877 francs each, or 200 francs the piece of 228 litres, amounting in all to 1672 francs. Deducting for expenses and taxes (contributions) 572 francs, there remain 1100 francs of net proceeds; and as the value of the capital may be estimated at 23,000 francs, the profit turns out to be no more than 5 per cent. The net proceeds in the growths of Beaune, Nuits, &c., does not exceed 600 francs per hectare (2·4 acres), and therefore is equivalent to only 2¹/₂ per cent. upon the capital.

The quantity of alcohol contained in different wines, has been made the subject of elaborate experiments by Brande and Fontenelle; but as it must evidently vary with different seasons, the results can be received merely as approximative. The only apparatus required for this research, is a small still and refrigeratory, so well fitted up as to permit none of the spirituous vapours to be dissipated. The distilled liquor should be received in a glass tube, graduated into one hundred measures, of such capacity as to contain the whole of the alcohol which the given measure of wine employed is capable of yielding. In the successive experiments, the quantity of wine used, and of spirit distilled over, being the same in volume, the relative densities of the latter will show at once the relative strengths of the wines. A very neat small apparatus has been contrived for the purpose of analyzing wines in this manner, by M. Gay Lussac. It is constructed, and sold at a moderate price, by M. Collardeau, No. 56, Rue Faubourg St. Martin, Paris. The proportion given by Brande (Table I.), has been reduced to the standard of absolute alcohol by Fesser; and that by Fontenelle (Table II.), to the same standard by Schubarth; as in the following tables:—

Table I.

Table II.

WINE-STONE, is the deposit of crude tartar, called argal, which settles on the sides and bottoms of wine casks.

WIRE-DRAWING. (TrÉfilerie, Fr.; Draht-ziehen, Drahtzug, Germ.) When an oblong lump of metal is forced through a series of progressively diminishing apertures in a steel plate, so as to assume in its cross section the form and dimensions of the last hole, and to be augmented in length at the expense of its thickness, it is said to be wire-drawn. The piece of steel called the draw-plate is pierced with a regular gradation of holes, from the largest to the smallest; and the machine for overcoming the lateral adhesion of the metallic particles to one another, is called the draw-bench. The pincers which lay hold of the extremity of the wire, to pull it through the successive holes, are adapted to bite it firmly, by having the inside of the jaws, cut like a file. For drawing thick rods of gilt silver down into stout wire, the hydraulic press has been had recourse to with advantage.

Fig. 1202. represents a convenient form of the draw-bench, where the power is applied by a toothed wheel, pinion, and rack-work, moved by the hands of one or two men working at a winch; the motion being so regulated by a fly-wheel, that it does not proceed in fits and starts, and cause inequalities in the wire. The metal requires to be annealed, now and then, between successive drawings, otherwise it would become too hard and brittle for further extension. The reel upon which it is wound is sometimes mounted in a cistern of sour small beer, for the purpose of clearing off, or loosening at least, any crust of oxide formed in the annealing, before the wire enters the draw-plate.

When, for very accurate purposes of science or the arts, a considerable length of uniform wire is to be drawn, a plate with one or more jewelled holes, that is, filled with one or more perforated rubies, sapphires, or chrysolites, can alone be trusted to, because the holes even in the best steel become rapidly wider by the abrasion. Through a hole in a ruby 0·0033 of an inch in diameter, a silver wire 170 miles long has been drawn, which possessed at the end, the very same section as at the beginning; a result determined by weighing portions of equal length, as also by measuring it with a micrometer. The hole in an ordinary draw-plate of soft steel becomes so wide, by drawing 14,000 fathoms of brass wire, that it requires to be narrowed before the original sized wire can be again obtained.

Wire, by being diminished one-half, one-third, one-fourth, &c., in diameter, is augmented in length respectively, four, nine, sixteen times, &c. The speed with which it may be prudently drawn out, depends upon the ductility and tenacity of the metal; but may be always increased the more the wire becomes attenuated, because its particles progressively assume more and more of the filamentous form, and accommodate themselves more readily to the extending force. Iron and brass wires, of 0·3 inch in diameter, bear drawing at the rate of from 12 to 15 inches per second; but when of 0·025 (¹/₄₀) of an inch, at the rate of from 40 to 45 inches in the same time. Finer silver and copper wire may be extended from 60 to 70 inches per second.

By enclosing a wire of platinum within one of silver ten times thicker, and drawing down the compound wire till it be ¹/₃₀₀ of an inch, a wire of platinum of ¹/₃₀₀₀ of an inch, will exist in its centre, which may be obtained apart, by dissolving the silver away in nitric acid. This pretty experiment was first made by Dr. Wollaston.

The French draw-plates are so much esteemed, that one of the best of them used to be sold in this country, during the late war, for its weight in silver. The holes are formed with a steel punch; being made large on that side where the wire enters, and diminishing with a regular taper to the other side. In the act of drawing, they must be well supplied with grease for the larger kinds of wire, and with wax for the smaller.

WOAD (VouËde, Pastel, Fr.; Waid, Germ; Isatis tinctoria, Linn.); the glastum of the antient Gauls and Germans; is an herbaceous plant which was formerly much cultivated, as affording a permanent blue dye, but it has been in modern times well nigh superseded by indigo. Pliny says, “A certain plant which resembles plantago, called glastum, is employed by the women and girls in Great Britain for dyeing their bodies all over, when they assist at certain religious ceremonies; they have then the colour of Ethiopians.”—Hist. Nat. cap. xxii. § 2.

When the arts, which had perished with the Roman empire, were revived, in the middle ages, woad began to be generally used for dyeing blue, and became an object of most extensive cultivation in many countries of Europe. The environs of Toulouse and Mirepoix, in Upper Languedoc, produced annually 40,000,000 pounds of the prepared woad, or pastel, of which 200,000 bales were consumed at Bordeaux. Beruni, a rich manufacturer of this drug, became surety for the payment of the ransom of his king, Francis I., then the prisoner of Charles V. in Spain.

The leaves of woad are fermented in heaps, to destroy certain vegetable principles injurious to the beauty of the dye, as also to elaborate the indigoferous matter present, before they are brought into the market; but they should be carefully watched during this process. Whenever the leaves have arrived at maturity, a point judged of very differently in different countries, they are stripped off the plant, a cropping which is repeated as often as they shoot, being three or four times in Germany, and eight or ten times in Italy. The leaves are dried as quickly as possible, but not so much as to become black; and they are ground before they get quite dry. The resulting paste is laid upon a sloping pavement, with gutters for conducting the juice which exudes into a tank; the heap being tramped from time to time, to promote the discharge of the juice. The woad ferments, swells, and cracks in many places, which fissures must be closed; the whole being occasionally watered. The fermentation is continued for twenty or thirty days, in cold weather; and if the leaves have been gathered dry, as in Italy, for four months. When the fermented heap has become moderately dry, it is ground again, and put up in cakes of from one to three pounds; which are then fully dried, and packed up in bundles for the market. Many dyers subject the pastel to a second fermentation.

1,600 square toises (fathoms) of land afford in two cuttings at least 19,000 pounds of leaves, of which weight four-fifths are lost in the fermentation, leaving 3,880 pounds of pastel, in loaves or cakes. When good, it has rather a yellow, or greenish-yellow, than a blue colour; it is light, and slightly humid; it gives to paper a pale-green trace; and improves by age, in consequence of an obscure fermentation; for if kept four years, it dyes twice as much as after two years. According to Hellot, 4 pounds of Guatimala indigo produce the same effect as 210 pounds of the pastel of Albi. At Quins, in Piedmont, the dyers estimate that 6 pounds of indigo are equivalent to 300 of pastel; but Chaptal thinks the indigo underrated.

Pastel will dye blue of itself, but it is commonly employed as a fermentative addition to the proper blue vat, as described under Indigo.

Fresh woad, analyzed by Chevreul, afforded, in 100 parts, 65·4 of juice. After being steeped in water, the remaining mass yielded, on expression, 29·65 of liquid; being in whole, 95·05 parts, leaving 4·95 of ligneous fibre. The juice, by filtration, gave 1·95 of green fecula. 100 parts of fresh woad, when dried, are reduced to 13·76 parts. Alcohol, boiled upon dry woad, deposits, after cooling, indigo in microscopic needles; but these cannot be separated from the vegetable albumine, which retains a greenish-gray colour.

WOLFRAM, is the native tungstate of iron and manganese, a mineral which occurs in primitive formations, along with the ores of tin, antimony, and lead, in the Bohemian Erzgebirge, in Cornwall, Switzerland, North America, &c. It is used by chemists for obtaining tungstic acid and tungsten.

WOOD (Bois, Fr.; Holz, Germ.); is the hard but porous tissue between the pith and the bark of trees and shrubs, through which the chief part of the juices are conducted from the root towards the branches and leaves, during the life of the vegetable. The ligneous fibre is the substance which remains, after the plant has been subjected to the solvent action of ether, alcohol, water, dilute acids, and caustic alkaline lyes. It is considered by chemists that dry timber consists, on an average, of 96 parts of fibrous, and 4 of soluble matter, in 100; but that these proportions vary somewhat with the seasons, the soil, and the plant. All kinds of wood sink in water, when placed in a basin of it under the exhausted receiver of an air-pump; showing their specific gravity to be greater than 1·000. That of fir and maple is stated, by chemical authors, to be 1·46; and that of oak and beech, at 1·53; but I believe them to have all the same spec. grav. as the fibre of flax; namely, 1·50, as determined by me some years ago.[71]

Wood becomes snow-white, when exposed to the action of chlorine; digested with sulphuric acid, it is transformed first into gum, and, by ebullition with water, afterwards into grape-sugar; with concentrated nitric acid, it grows yellow, loses its coherence, falls into a pulverulent mass, but eventually dissolves, and is converted into oxalic acid; with strong caustic alkaline lyes, in a hot state, it swells up excessively, dissolves into a homogeneous liquid, and changes into a blackish-brown mass, containing oxalic and acetic acids.

The composition of wood has been examined by Gay Lussac and Thenard, and Dr. Prout. The first two chemists found it to consist, in 100 parts, of—

According to Dr. Prout, the oxygen and hydrogen are in the exact proportions to form water. Willow contains 50, and box 49·8 per cent. of carbon; each containing, therefore, very nearly 44·444 of oxygen, and 5·555 of hydrogen. In the analyses of Gay Lussac and Thenard, there is a great excess of hydrogen above what the oxygen requires to form water. Authenrieth stated, some years ago, that he found that fine sawdust, mixed with a sufficient quantity of wheat flour, made a coherent dough with water, which formed an excellent food for pigs; apparently showing that the digestive organs of this animal could operate the same sort of change upon wood as sulphuric acid does.

Table of the Distillation of One Pound of Wood, dried, at 86° Fahr.

WOOF, is the same as Weft.

WORT, is the fermentable infusion of malt or grains. See Beer.

WOULFE’S APPARATUS, is a series of vessels, connected by tubes, for the purpose of condensing gaseous products in water. See Acetic Acid, fig. 1.; also Muriatic Acid.