Imatges de pàgina
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and silver are used for coin, by all civilized nations. They are peculiarly well adapted to this use, as they are hard, and wear out slowly, and are not liable to rust or oxydize.

81. Pot and pearl ashes, which are fixed vegetable alkali, are obtained from the ashes of wood or weeds. The ashes are placed in tubs or wooden vessels, called leach-tubs; water is suffered to pass through them; this absorbs the alkaline particles, and falls down in lye. This process is called lixiviation. This liquid is then boiled, or exposed to the air, and the watery matter is evaporated, leaving the alkali at the bottom of the vessel. This alkali is then refined in a crucible or furnace, by which extraneous matter is burnt or dissipated. Refined potash is called pearlash. This alkali is of great use, especially in manufactories for bleaching. Potash, with oil, forms soap.

82. The common salt is an article of vast importance to mankind. It is found already formed in a mineral state, in most countries. The salt mine in Wielitska, in Poland, is a great curiosity, being seven or eight hundred feet deep, and having small chapels, formed by the diggers, in a solid mass of salt. Similar deposits of pure salt are found in many other countries, and particularly in the United States, west of the Missis sippi. This species of salt, of which the basis is soda, always forms its crystals in cubes, unless when disturbed by motion when they are forming.

83. This species of salt is also formed by evaporation from water impregnated with it. In the West Indies, sea-water is let into spacious basins or ponds, and the aqueous part evaporated by the heat of the sun. In this country, vast quantities are formed from sea-water, in the eastern part of Massachusetts. The water is taken into large wooden reservoirs, or pans, and there remains for evaporation. But the most remarkable place for making salt, is in Onondaga county, in the state of New York. There the water is drawn from springs in the earth, and placed in open vessels or reservoirs, where the evaporation is earried on by the air and heat of the sun. From this place the salt is conveyed to the neighboring country, and through the canal and lakes to Ohio, Michigan, and Canada.

Salt is useful in giving relish to many articles of food, and is essential to the preservation of meat in families, and in long voyages on the ocean.

84. Oil is of different kinds, animal and vegetable. It is extracted from the fat of animals slaughtered for food. Of this kind is tallow, which is used for candles. Vast quantities of oil are collected from whales; and this is used in tanning, in various arts, and in manufactories. When rendered very pure by straining, it is used for lights in lamps, in houses, and in the streets of cities.

85. Vegetable oils are obtained from various trees or fruit. Lintseed oil is expressed from the seed of flax. This is used in paints. A similar oil may be obtained from various seeds or kernels. The kinds most used, are olive oil and castor oil, se called. Olive oil is obtained from olives, by bruising them between mill-stones, and pressing them through bags made of rushes. This is much used, especially in the south of Europe, and in Asia, in dressing vegetables for the table. Castor oil is obtained from the nuts or seeds of the ricinus or palma christi, a tree growing in tropical climates. The oil is obtained by decoction or boiling, or by expression. The former is most pure. This oil is in common use, as a mild cathartic. 86. Sugar is an article of great use. It is obtained from the sap or juice of a species of maple, or from a particular kind of To obtain maple-sugar, the tree is tapped, that is, bored or cut with an ax, and a small tube inserted, through which the sap runs into vessels or troughs. This juice is boiled, and the lighter parts evaporated; the sugar remaining on the bottom of the kettle.

cane.

87. But most of our sugar is the produce of the cane, a plant that grows in the West Indies, and in the southern parts of the United States. The canes are crushed in a mill, between ironplated rollers; and the juice is conducted into copper pans, or caldrons, called clarifiers, in which the liquor is clarified by means of a heat a little under boiling temperature. The feculencies of the liquor rise to the surface, and form a scum; and after a while, the liquor is drawn off and placed in a boiler for evaporation. During the boiling, the scum is taken off; the liquor passes into four boilers successively, and then into the last copper, or teach. In this the boiling is continued till the liquor is thick, and then it is laded into the cooler, where it granulates, or forms grains. This is then carried to the curing, house, where it is lodged in empty hogsheads, over a cistern, to drain. These hogsheads are perforated, and the melasses passes through the spungy stalks of plantain-leaves into the cistern. This is muscovado or brown sugar; and from this is made loaf sugar, by a process of refining, which renders it perfectly pure and white.

88. Melasses then is the thick but liquid part of sugar. This is a valuable substance in families. But heretofore a great proportion of it has been distilled; by which process is formed ardent spirit, or rum, which has been drank in enormous quantities, mostly mixed with water, in various proportions, forming grog, sling, and toddy. This mischievous practice of drinking spirit, has been one of the most dreadful curses that ever befell mankind. Intemperance in drinks makes drunkards, who are almost beasts in human form; it has ruined thousands and mil

lions in property and character; it has doomed thousands of wives and children to wretchedness; it has peopled alms-houses, and penitentiaries, and prisons, with most of their inhabitants; it has brought millions to disgrace, and a premature grave. Happily the practice of drinking spirit has received a check, and it is to be hoped it will be forever banished.

89. Vinegar is a French word, signifying sour wine. This is a useful liquor, and is made by the fermentation of wine, cider, or other vegetable juices.

90. Spices are of several kinds. What is called allspice, is the berry of the pimento, a tree growing in the West Indies. Pepper is a more pungent species of spice. The black pepper is brought from the East Indies, from Java, Sumatra, and Ceylon. It is the berry or seed of a vine, which requires a prop. The white pepper is the black pepper deprived of its skin. These have a strong aromatic smell, and a pungent taste. There are other species, but not much used. The kinds of pepper used for pickling, with us, grow in our gardens. Both the common sort, and the cayenne, are extremely pungent; the latter is the most pungent.

91. Cloves are the flowers of a plant which grows in the Molucca isles, in the East Indies. The tree grows to the size of a laurel, and its bark resembles that of the olive. At the extremities of the branches, grow vast numbers of flowers, which are white at first, then green, and at last, red and hard. These are cloves,-a pungent, aromatic spice.

92. The nutmeg is produced on a tree in the East Indies. It is the fruit, which consists of a kernel, inclosed in a pulpy pericarp or covering. The kernel is the nutmeg, and the covering is what we call mace. These are aromatic, very grateful to the smell and taste, and much used in cookery.

93. Capers are the buds of the caper-bush, which grows among rubbish, and the joints of old walls, in the south of Europe. It is also cultivated in this country. Capers are used in the form of pickles.

94. Olives are the fruit of a tree which grows in warm climates. From these is expressed olive oil, and the fruit is much used for pickling.

95. Raisins are dried grapes. The grapes are suffered to ripen on the vines, and then dried in ovens, or in the sun; the latter are the sweetest. These come to us from the countries on the Mediterranean sea; particularly from Smyrna, in Asia.

96. The dried currants which we use, are a small sort of grapes, imported from the Levant, chiefly from the isles, Zante and Cephalonia, on the western coast of Greece. Prunes are plums dried in ovens, or in the sun.

97. Figs are the fruit of a tree growing in warm climates.

The fig is roundish, or oblong, of a dark purple color, the pulp of which is of a sweet taste. Bat there are many varieties, of different colors.

98. Almonds are the fruit of a tree, which is a nut, ovate or compressed. The shell is hard, but the kernel is eatable, like that of the chestnut, or walnut. The leaves and flowers of the tree resemble those of the peach.

99. The pine-apple is the fruit of a tree growing in the West Indies, and other warm climates. It is so called, from its resemblance to the cone of our common pine trees. When fully ripe, it is very delicious to the taste.

100. Tamarinds are the preserved seed-pods of the tamarindtree, which grows in Arabia, Egypt, and in both the Indies. These pods abound with an acid pulp, which, mixed with boiled sugar in water, makes a cooling, grateful drink.

101. Tea is the dried leaves of the tea-plant, or shrub, a native of China and Japan, which is an evergreen, growing to the hight of five or six feet, or more. It is propagated by seeds, and the leaves are not fit to be plucked off, till the plant is three years old. The leaves are exposed to the steam of boiling water, and then dried on plates of copper, over a fire.

102. Coffee is the produce of a plant, a native of Arabia, but now cultivated in the East and West Indies. The plant rises to the hight of sixteen or eighteen feet. The branches shoot horizontally. The flowers grow in clusters, in the axils of the leaves. The fruit, or berry, resembles a cherry. These berries are stripped of their skin, in mills, and divided, and then winnowed.

103. Alum is a compound of a species of earth, and potash. It is a powerful styptic and astringent; used in medicine, for stopping excessive discharges of blood; in dyeing, for fixing colors; in candles, for hardening tallow; and in tanning, for restoring cohesion in skins.

104. Borax is a compound of a certain acid, and soda, or marine salt. It is brought from the East Indies, where it is found on the bottom or on the borders of certain lakes, in Thibet. It is said, also, to be artificially prepared. It is much used, as a styptic, in medicine, and in sodering metals; also as a flux, in chimistry.

105. Ink is of different kinds. The common ink, for writing, is generally made by an infusion of oak galls, gum arabic, and copperas. Ink used in printing, is made by boiling lintseed oil, burning it a minute, and mixing it with lampblack, with some soap and rosin. Indian ink is composed of lampblack and size, or animal glue.

106. Lampblack is the fine soot, formed by a condensation

of the smoke of burning pitch, or resinous wood, as the pine. It is collected in a chimney, términating in a cone of cloth.

107. Paints are of various kinds, and composed of different substances. Some consist of a species of earth, mixed with water or oil; or of white lead, mixed with oil.

108. Varnish is a thick, viscid liquor, laid on wood, or other material, which, when dry, is hard, durable and glossy. Varnishes are made of very different materials; as amber, lintseed oil, litharge or turpentine, lampblack, and gum-lac.

109. Glue is inspissated animal gluten, which serves as a cement of other substances. It is made by boiling to a jelly the skins, parings, &c. of oxen, calves or sheep. Size is made in a similar manner, by boiling parings of leather, parchment, and vellum, and straining the water.

110. Starch is the sediment of wheat, steeped in water. The bran is separated from it, by passing it through sieves; and then the substance is dried. The best starch is made of the finest wheat. The wheat must be steeped ten or twelve days, and the water frequently changed, before the skin is easily separated from the substance of the grain.

111. Turpentine is a resinous substance, flowing from certain species of trees, chiefly the pine. It has about the consistence of honey.

112. Camphor is the concrete juice of a tree, a species of laurel, which grows in Borneo, Sumatra, and other parts of the East Indies. It has a bitterish taste, and a very fragrant smell, and it is a powerful diaphoretic, or substance promoting perspiration. When dissolved in spirits, the smell is used as a stimulant in cases of fainting and swooning.

113. Barilla is a plant cultivated in Spain for its ashes, which afford a pure alkali, used in making glass and soap, and in bleaching.

114. Glass is made by fusing sand with fixed alkali, lead, slags, &c. This mixture is softened in a furnace, till it is capable of being blown, and formed into any shape whatever. Glass is brittle, but transparent; permeable to light, but impermeable to water. It forms mirrors, and a thousand kinds of beautiful vessels.

115. Cork is the bark of a species of oak, growing in Spain and Portugal. This bark is very rough, but it is cut into stopples for bottles, and also burnt to make Spanish black. After the bark has been taken from a tree, a new bark is formed, and in the course of six or seven years, it is renewed, so as to be fit for use.

116. Earthen ware is of various kinds. The coarser sorts consist of common clay, made into mortar, shaped upon a wheel, into the form of a vessel, and dried. These vessels are then

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