EBONITE 179 



EAGLE-STONE. A name applied to nodular concretions of iron-stone, which 

 present a concentric structure, and are often hollow, containing loose materials, which 

 rattle when the stone is shaken. 



EAGLE-WOOD. (Bois tfAigle, Fr.) The wood of the Aquilaria Malacccnsis or 

 A. ovata. This is the ' aloes-wooer of commerce ; an exceedingly aromatic wood, much 

 used in Hindostan and in all Mohammedan and Catholic countries for fumigation and 

 incense. The trees, belonging to the Aquilariacees, are natives of tropical Asia. 

 Eagle-wood, or aloes-wood, is also yielded by the Aloexylon AgaUochum. 



EARTH. Common alluvial deposit, or agricultural soil. Weight of a cubic foot 

 varies from 95 to 125 pounds. Specific gravity from 1'5 to 2'0. 



EARTH-COAL, or Earthy Brown Coal. A name sometimes given to Lignite or 

 Brown Coal. See BROWN COAL. LIGNITE. 



EARTHEWWARE. See POTTERY. 



EARTH-FLAX. Asbestos is sometimes so called. See ASBESTOS. 



EARTH-NUT. The fruit of the Arachis hypog&a, a leguminous creeping plant, 

 native of India, South Africa, and South America. It is cultivated in North America 

 and Southern Europe. The legumes are ripened under ground, whence the name, and 

 the seeds are edible. 



EARTH-NUT OXIi. (Huile d'Arochide ; Huile de pistacJie de terre, Fr. ; Erd- 

 nussbl, Ger.) The oil expressed from the earth-nut by cold pressure. It is nearly 

 colourless, and has an agreeable odour. It is used for culinary purposes instead of 

 olive oil, but it is liable to become rancid much sooner. The hot-pressed earth-oil is 

 coloured, and has a disagreeable taste and smell. A soap made from the oil of earth- 

 nuts is manufactured in France, and to some extent in Germany. Earth-nut oil is 

 much used by watchmakers. 



EARTHS. (Torres, Fr. ; Erden, Ger.) It has been demonstrated that the' Bub- 

 stances called Earths, and which, prior to the electro -chemical discoveries of Davy, 

 were deemed to be elementary bodies, are all compounds of certain metallic bases and 

 oxygen. Five of the earths, when pure, possess decided alkaline properties, being 

 more or less soluble in water, having (at least three of them) an acrid alkaline taste, 

 changing the purple infusion of red cabbage to green, most readily saturating the 

 acids, and affording thereby neutral salts ; these are baryta, strontia, lime, (calcia), 

 magnesia, and lithia. The earths proper are alumina, glucina, yttria, zirconia, 

 and tliorina ; these do not change the colour of infusion of cabbage or tincture of 

 litmus, do not readily neutralise acids, and are quite insoluble in water. 



EARTHY BITUMEN'. A bituminous schist found at Hurlet near Glasgow, 

 and in the Binney quarries near Edinburgh. See BITUMEN. 



EARTH'S* COBALT. A manganese ore, containing oxide of cobalt sometimes 

 to the amount of 33 per cent. See WAD. 



EARTHY "MANGANESE. See WAD and MANGANESE. 



EAST-INDIA BLACK. WOOD. The Sit Sal of the natives of India ; the Dal- 

 bergia latifolia. It is a wood of a greenish black colour, with light coloured veins. It 

 takes a fine polish, and is very heavy. This wood is sometimes called East India Ebony. 



EAU DE COLOGNE. See PERFUMERY. 



EATT DE JAVELLE. A solution of ' chloride of potash,' occasionally used as 

 a bleaching agent. See CHLORIDE OF POTASH. 



EAU DE LUCE. See PERFUMERY. 



EBONITE. A name given to vulcanised India-rubber, or Vulcanite. The 

 process of manufacture has been fully described under CAOUTCHOUC. Ebonite 

 has been applied almost to every kind of small ornamental manufacture. A large 

 trade is done in imitations of jet ornaments made of it. It is also used for electrical 

 machines and apparatus. In Poggendorf's 'Annalen,' 1873, F. Kohlrausch has a 

 paper on the expansibility of ebonite by heat. He observed that ebonite lids stuck 

 fast in glass vessels and even cracked them. Some experiments were therefore made, 

 and ebonite was found to be three times as expansible as zinc. 



The coefficient for 1 was found to be 



0-0000770 measured between 167 and 25'3 

 0-0000842 25-3 and 35-4 



thus the increase with the temperature is very considerable. The linear coefficient of 

 expansion for the temperature t can be put 



0-000061 + 0-0000076 t, 



N2 



