MORDANT, 361 



goafs-hair lace is as brilliant as that made from silk, and costing only about 

 Is. 2d. the piece, has come into very general wear among the middle classes. 

 Mohair is also manufactured into fine shawls, selling from 4l. to 161. each. Also 

 large quantities of what is termed Utrecht velvet, suitable for hangings and fur- 

 niture-linings for carriages, are made from it abroad. Recently, this kind of velvet 

 has begun to be manufactured at Coventry, and it is fully anticipated that the 

 English -made article will successfully compete with the foreign one in every essen- 

 tial quality. 



MOIRE is the name given to the best watered silks. These silks are made in the 

 same way as ordinary silks, but always much stouter, sometimes weighing, for equal 

 surface, several times heavier than the best ordinary silks. They are always made 

 of double width, and this is indispensable in obtaining the bold waterings, for these 

 depend not only on the quality of the silk, but greatly on the way in which they are 

 folded when subjected to the enormous pressure in watering. They should bo 

 folded in such a manner, that the air which is contained between the folds of it 

 should not be able to escape easily ; then when the pressure is applied the air, in try- 

 ing to effect its escape, drives before it the little moisture which is used, and hence 

 causes the watering. Care must also be taken so to fold it that every thread may be 

 perfectly parallel, for if they ride one across the other, the watering will be spoiled. 

 The pressure used is from 60 to 100 tons. 



MOIREE TCETAXiXiXQUE, called in this country crystallised tin-plate, is a 

 variegated primrose appearance, produced upon the surface of tin-plate, by applying to 

 it in a heated state some dilute nitro-muriatic acid for a few seconds, then washing it 

 with water, drying, and coating it with lacquer. The figures are more or less beau- 

 tiful and diversified, according to the degree of heat, and relative dilution of the acid. 

 This mode of ornamenting tin-plate is much less in vogue now than it was a few 

 years ago. 



MOXiASSE is a sandstone belonging to the miocene strata, employed under that 

 name by the Swiss for building. 



MOLASSES is the brown viscid uncrystalli sable liquor which drains from cane- 

 sugar in the colonies. It is employed for the preparation of spirits of wine. See 

 SUGAR. 



MOLYBDENUM (Molybdene, Fr. ; Molybddn, Ger.) is a rare metal which 

 occurs in nature sometimes as a sulphide, sometimes as molybdic acid, and at others 

 as molybdate of lead. Its reduction from the acid state by charcoal requires a very 

 high heat, and affords not very satisfactory resiilts. When reduced by passing hydro- 

 gen over the ignited acid, it appears as an ash-grey powder, susceptible of acquiring 

 metallic lustre by being rubbed with a steel burnisher ; when reduced and fused with 

 charcoal, it possesses a silver- white colour, is very brilliant, hard, brittle, of specific 

 gravity 8'6 ; it melts in a powerful air-furnace, oxidises with heat and air, burns at an 

 intense heat into molybdic acid, dissolves in neither dilute sulphuric, muriatic, nor 

 fluoric acids, but in the concentrated sulphuric and nitric. 



The protoxide consists of S5'69 of metal and 14 - 31 of oxygen; the binoxide con- 

 sists of 75 of metal and 25 of oxygen ; and the peroxide, or molybdic acid, of 66'6 

 of metal and 33 - 4 of oxygen. This metal is too rare at present to be used in any 

 manufacture. 



MOLYBDENUM BUTE. One of the preparations from the bisulphide of 

 molybdenum. 



MOMIE or MUMMY. A colour prepared from asphalte. It was supposed that 

 the asphalte taken from the Egyptian mummies made the finest colour. 



MOONSTONE, a transparent or translucent variety of felspar. It contains bluish- 

 white spots, which, when held to the light, present a pearly or silvery play of colour, 

 not unlike that of the moon. The moonstone is held in some estimation as an 

 ornamental stone, but, in common with the other varieties of felspar, it is so soft that 

 few lapidaries know how to work it to the greatest advantage. H. W. B. 



MORDANT, in dyeing and calico-printing, denotes a body which, lowing a twofold 

 attraction for organic fibres and colouring particles, serves as a bond of union between 

 them, and thus gives fixity to certain colouring substances, constituting them dyes. In 

 order properly to appreciate the utility and the true functions of mordants, we must bear 

 in mind that many colouring matters, even those forming dark-coloured solutions, 

 have no affinity for the fibre to be dyed. When the goods are passed through such 

 a coloured solution, they become stained only to the extent in which they retain tho 

 solution, and if they are afterwards put into water, the colour, being soluble, is all 

 washed out. Suppose the coloured solution to be a decoction of logwood, and that tho 

 stuff is passed into it. It may be slightly coloured ; but on being washed with water, 

 all the colour is removed. But if, previous to being put through the logwood solu- 

 tion, the stuff be passed through a solution of protochloride of tin, a portion of tho 



