SHAWL MANUFACTURE 775 



According to the price of candle wanted, the tenth process may succeed either the first, 

 second, or third pressing. 



From the washings -which flow from the paraffin when tinder hydraulic pressure, 

 soft paraffin, much used in lucifer-match-making, and burning oil, or spirits, for re-use 

 in the process, are recovered. The spirits used must not be too light ; those having a 

 specific gravity of 745 were once used at Addicwell, but strong electric sparks were 

 emitted from the cooling-drums ; and hence there was constant liability to fires. A 

 specific gravity of 765 may be safely used. For a new way of manufacturing this 

 beautiful material, see the article PARAFFIN. 



Kirk's Refrigerator, invented to meet Mr. Young's necessities in this manufacture, 

 works on the principle that just as force is exerted air loses heat. By a series of 

 pistons and plungers air is expanded, and then rarefied. During this rarefaction so 

 much heat is extracted that a cold current, sufficient to form ice, is produced. Such 

 machines are made to make 1 to 4 tons in the 24 hours. In the paraffin-refinery a 

 solution of common salt in water receives the cold current ; this is more easily mani- 

 pulated than ice. 



Henderson's Cooling-drum (Spec., A.D. 1870, No. 3310) is now preferred to that of 

 Kirk. It is the instrument by which the cold current is applied to the paraffin, 

 either in separating it from the lubricating oil or before bagging. 



Most refineries recover the caustic soda from the soda-tar by the usual methods 

 pursued in that manufacture. At Oakbank Works Mr. Henderson has an ingenious 

 plan by which he first separates the vitriol used in washing the oils from the tars, to 

 re-transfer it for use in manufacturing sulphate of ammonia. The now neutral tar is 

 conducted by a pipe, within which is another containing steam, to the still-furnaces, 

 and burned as fuel. It is first projected on a hearth above the ordinary furnaces 

 where it is coked, and then allowed to fall down into the ordinary furnace. Half of 

 the fine oil-stills are thus fired, and all the available tar is thus used up. The stills 

 stand much longer than if they had been heated by ordinary coals. There is thus no 

 just cause why oil-refiners should subject themselves to vexatious actions for river 

 pollution. A. T. 



SH-aiVIOY, or SCHAMOIS LEATHER. See LEATHER. 



SHANGHAI OXXi. A good oil obtained in China from the Brassica chinensis. 

 See COLZA. 



SHAW!. ftXACTUFACTURE. Shawls were originally, and still continue to be 

 woven in the centre of India, from the fine silky wool of the Thibet goat ; and the 

 most precious of them still come from Cashmere. The wool is beautifully rich and 

 soft to the touch, and is superior to the finest Continental lamb's-wool. It is also 

 divisible into qualities. The source from which this article of apparel has sprung is 

 well known to be the ancient and beautiful fabric of the valley of Cashmere, where the 

 excellence of the raw material stands unrivalled, although its manufacture has been, 

 and still is, carefully prosecuted in many other parts of the world. The great beauty 

 of the eastern tissue, considering the rudeness of the machinery employed, as com- 

 pared with that which is now available to the European manufacturer, is a marvel in 

 the eyes of the most experienced. 



The following information, which has been communicated (1874) by a well-known 

 London firm, will prove of interest : 



' The importance of the London public sales of India shawls has greatly diminished 

 of late years, owing to the establishment in Umritzir of agencies of the principal Paris 

 shawl-dealers. Shawls are in consequence bought on the spot by these representatives 

 of the Paris firms, and forwarded direct to their principals in Paris, thus escaping the 

 London market. We continue to hold public sales twice a year, as usual; in June and 

 December ; but imfortunately, they are now for the reason explained above, shorn of 

 much of their former interest and importance by the direct trading between Paris and 

 the India shawl-districts ; these French buyers naturally secure all the more desirable 

 shawls, and those which are left, or passed over, are sent to the London sales. Some few 

 years ago, say during the 15 or 20 years preceding 1862-3, the sales were of consider- 

 able magnitude and importance, and used to range in value from 100,000^. to 140,000^., 

 every sale: but after 1863, they rapidly declined, and ceased to be held during the 

 Franco-German war ; after that epoch we revived the sales, and they continue, but 

 their value now is reduced to from 30 ; 000/. to 40,000. a sale, and contain very few 

 rich shawls. 



' The highest value of Cashmere shawls is from 100. to 140. each, tnaximum cost, 

 and of the good ordinary Cashmere 40/. to 80?. There are no such prices as 10,000 francs 

 for a shawl ; such a price may have existed in bygone days, but not of late years. We 

 have in exceptional times (in past years) obtained from 1601. to 220^., per shawl for a 

 few long shawls in public sale, but they were shawls of the grandest kind, and such as 

 it would be impossible to obtain now. Furthermore, the competition among the shawl- 



