BORAX 



Sohaga 

 or Tinkal 



Supply. 



Trade Eoutes. 



Uses. 



Mordant. 

 Medicine. 

 Antiseptic. 



Domestic. 



Insecticide. 



Glazing 

 Material. 



Early 

 Investigations. 



BORAX 



billigdru, lakhiya, vavut, tan-kana, tinkar or tankar, etc. In some parts of 

 the Panjdb frontier and Tibet it is tasle or sal (shal) (one variety being chu 

 tsale or water-borax, the other tasle mentog or flower-borax). 



History. The substance was apparently known to the ancient Sanskrit authors 

 and is unmistakably mentioned by Susruta. From the Sanskrit are derived doubt- 

 less its Persian and most of its Indian vernacular names, as also its old English 

 synonym tincal. Perhaps the earliest mention (by a European writer) of this 

 substance, in connection with India, is the reference by Garcia de Orta (in 1563) 

 in which he says it is known to the Gujaratis by its Arabic name of tincor. It is 

 mentioned by Abul Fazl in the Ain-i-Akbari (Blochmann, transl., 1590, i., 26), and 

 is called tangar. Hove (Tours in Gujarat, etc., 129), who visited India in 1787, 

 describes the salt as refined in Kathiawar. Ainslie (Mat. 2nd., 1826) gives a 

 good account of it as a drug and says that the process by which tinkal was refined 

 into borax was kept a secret by the Dutch. Royle (Prod. Res. Ind, 419) gives 

 a brief notice of the substance, but by far the most complete statement hitherto 

 published may be said to be that given by Baden-Powell in his Panjab Products 

 (1868, 90-4). This reviewed the reports of Cunningham, Hay, Edgeworth, 

 Marcadieu and others. 



Sources. Borax proper is a native borate of sodium found, along 

 with common salt, on the shores of certain lakes in Tibet and possibly 

 beyond in Persia and China, and is deposited with sulphur by hot springs 

 in the Puga valley of Ladakh, Kashmir. The Indian area may thus be 

 said to commence in Puga valley of Laddkh and to pass east to the lakes 

 of Rudokh. To the south of Lhasa, at the Yamdokcho, borax is also 

 obtained. Holes are dug in the ground in many parts of the deserts of 

 Tartary, and within these tinkal is said to collect. 



The Western supply (from Puga) enters India by Kullu and is refined at 

 Sultanpur, before being consigned via Mandi and Bhaji to Simla, or via 

 Rampur in Bashahr to Jag&dhri and thence to the plains. Smaller 

 quantities from this same source also find their way through Chamba to 

 Nurpur or to Kashmir and Lahore. Tibetan borax enters India across the 

 frontier of the United Provinces. Atkinson furnishes an interesting 

 account of this traffic. The borax, he says, is collected in June to September 

 and sold at certain markets. It is brought by Bhotia traders and pur- 

 chased by the merchants at Ramnagar, where it is refined. 



Economic and Industrial Uses. Borax is employed extensively as a 

 MORDANT in dyeing and calico-printing. MEDICINALLY it is viewed as a tonic, 

 useful in loss of appetite and painful dyspepsia, and also as an exceedingly 

 valuable detergent in affections of the skin. The antiseptic and disinfecting 

 property of borax, although fully known, might, as it seems, be much more ex- 

 tensively taken advantage of than appears to be the case. For household purposes 

 its uses are practically limitless. As a substitute for soap and soda crystals, 

 it may be regarded as cleaning without destroying colour, and a little added to 

 the starch gives a pleasing gloss to collars, table-linen, etc. As a preservative 

 for meat it is invaluable, and it is probable that as an insecticide (especially in 

 the tea-garden) it would be found unrivalled. Its most important use may be 

 said, however, to be for glazing pottery and as a simple and convenient enamel for 

 metallic surfaces, such as the dials of watches and clocks or domestic enamelled 

 metal wares. It acts as a flux in the formation of a glass which has a low melting- 

 point and thus affords a material that may be employed even in the ornamenta- 

 tion of the surface of glass or glass vessels, since it can be fused and fixed at a 

 temperature lower than what would re-melt the glass on which it has been 

 painted. But ornamentations produced by borax are generally held to be un- 

 stable because of the fact that borax is rendered anhydrous by fusion. In time 

 they gradually absorb moisture and become hydrated and efflorescent, when the 

 glaze splits and crumbles to pieces. Sir William O'Shaughnessy was instructed 

 by the Government of India in 1839 to investigate the question of the production 

 in India of glazed pottery sufficient for use at Indian hospitals. His report will 

 be found in the Appendix to the Bengal Dispensatory, and on pages 710 and 711 

 he also gives a most instructive description of the lime-borate that he employed. 



172 



