BEECH, ECONOMICAL USES. 



BEET. 



60 



Mr. Hancock's bed-chair is another variety of bedstead. It consists 

 of an air-tight India-rubber bag, so formed as to constitute a convenient 

 bed or cushion when laid down horizontally and inflated with air ; 

 while it may be made into a sofa-chair or reclining-bed, by inflating 

 one half of it through a separate aperture, and raising that half to any 

 desired angle by means of suspending bands. 



Another novelty, registered by Mr. Perkes in 1850, is a light iron 

 frame- work, capable of being quickly made to assume any one of the 

 four forms of a bed, a couch, a settee, or a crib. Like many similar 

 contrivances, there is a light but strong cast-iron frame, the hinges 

 and other parts of which admit of many different modes of adjustment. 

 [AlR-CUSHIOX.] 



BEECH ; ECONOMICAL USES. The common beech, known in 

 America as the white beech, is the most useful species of this valuable 

 tree. The timber is hard, and is employed for a great variety of pur- 

 poses. It is used for the keels and side-planking of ships ; for ringing 

 mill-wheels ; for making piles, weirs, sluices, flood-gates, and other 

 constructions exposed to the action of water ; for cogs of wooden 

 wheels ; for making bedsteads and chairs ; for panels of carriages ; for 

 various articles in joinery, cabinet-making, and turnery ; for number- 

 less small articles of household furniture ; for railway-sleepers ; for 

 barn-floors ; for herring-barrels ; for wooden shovels and peels ; for 

 wooden screws and sieves. In Germany beech-wood is used for 

 m.my of the purposes above named, and also for gun-carriages, 

 wheel-felloes, bowls, porringers, salt-boxes, spindles, rollers, spinning- 

 wheels, pestles, presses, bellows, and numerous other articles ; while, 

 sawn into thin boards, it is used for boxes, packing-cases, sword- 

 scabbards, .and even the boards of books (instead of millboard). In 

 Fnince, besides other purposes, beech is used for gun-stocks, plough- 

 socks, cricket-bats, cheap knife-handles, and cheap sabots, or wooden 

 shoes. 



Beech is used to an enormous extent in France and Germany for 

 fuel. The bark is used in tanning. The dried leaves are said to form 

 an excellent substitute for feathers in beds, and to be largely employed 

 in such a way in some districts. The dried catkins of the leaves are 

 used to stuff cushions. The mast, or fruit, is eaten by many animals ; 

 and from this fruit an oil useful for lamps and for cooking is obtained. 

 A Beerh-Oil Company was one of the most noted commercial speculations 

 of Queen's Anne's reign, at a time when joint-stock \indertakings were 

 but ill understood. 



BEEF-EATER, a jocular appellation, as it is now used, for the 

 yeomen of the guard ; though it seems probable that the name of 

 buffetiers was formerly assigned to that portion of the yeomen of the 

 guard who from time to time waited at table at great solemnities, and 

 were ranged near the buffets. (See ' Antiq. Repert.,' edit. 1808, vol. ii. 

 p. 398.) As yeomen of the guard, they were constituted by Henry VII., 

 and they have continued as a royal institution to the present day, and 

 with nearly the same costume as when first established, although in 

 1858 Home modification wan introduced into the ordinary habits of 

 those who are stationed at the Tower ; but the old costume is still 

 worn on occasions of ceremony. 



BEELZEBUB. [BAAL.] 



BEER. The distinctions between different kinds of malt liquors 

 arc partially noticed under ALE, and will be found further elucidated 

 under BHKWIX<;. 



BEER-MACHINE, or BEER-ENGINE. In the ordinary beer- 

 machine, each handle has a single action that is, draws from one cask 

 only ; but in many respects it would be useful if two pumps could be 

 worked at once by the same handle. From the rapid fluctuations 

 which malt liquor undergoes in quality, owing to changes in the 

 weather, it is frequently necessary for the retailer to mix old and new 

 beer together, in order to maintain a uniform quality. This is done 

 either by drawing from two butts, by two pumps and two handles, or 

 by mixing beer of two ages in the same butt, by which a liability to a 

 new fermentation IB incurred. To obviate these inconveniences was 

 the purpose of Ernest's beer-engines, patented a few years ago. The 

 arrangement of this machine is very ingenious. One handle works the 

 levers, rods, and pistons of two pumps, which may be connected with 

 the beer in two butts. In the usual perpendicular position of the han- 

 dle it wi irks both pumps at once ; but if drawn a little on one side, by 

 a slight movement of the hand, it works one pump only either one of 

 the two, at pleasure. It is optional with the drawer whether to work 

 one or the other pump, or both, and whether to draw equally or 

 unequally from both. 



BEES -WAX. This important substance constitutes a secretion 



which is expelled through the interstices of the ventral plates of the 



honey-bee, and is employed by that insect hi the construction of its cells. 



Bees'-wax is obtained from the expressed honeycomb by agitating the 



latter* with boiling water so as to dissolve out the last portions of 



honey and other impurities. After allowing the mixture to stand at 



rest, the wax forms a layer on the surface, whence, on cooling, it may 



I": removed as a solid cake. It is once more fused alone, and being 



UHTJ east in moulds, forms yellow or virgin Ktu:. White, or bleached 



wax, i.< obtained from the foregoing, by reducing it to thin strips and 



i to the sun's rays for several days. It may also be 



<vs. t'> Sully, by melting and agitating it with a small 



quantity of sulphuric acid, diluted with two parts of water to which 



fragment* of nitrate of soda are added. The bleaching process 



ARTS AXD SCI. DIV. VOL. II. 



does not alter the chief constituents of the wax ; the colouring matter 

 only appears to be oxidised and bleached. 



Bees'-wax fuses at 145 Fahr. ; it is completely insoluble in water, 

 but easily soluble in essential and fat oils. We are indebted chiefly to 

 Professor Brodie for an insight into the chemical constituents of bees'- 

 wax. It is composed of two principal bodies, formerly termed cerine 

 and myricine. The first is soluble in alcohol, and has been proved by 

 Brodie to be a peculiar acid, the eerotic acid (C =4 H 53 3 , HO), homo- 

 logous with acetic acid, crystallising in small grains and fusing at 

 172 Fahr. It is white, brittle, and volatile at a high temperature, 

 and constitutes 22 per cent, of Surrey wax. According to the same 

 chemist, myricine is an ethereal salt, consisting of palmitic acid united 

 with the oxide of an organic radical, myricyl (C 80 H 01 ). The formula 

 oi palmitate of myricyl (myricine) is C 32 H 31 6.,, C^H,, 0. Palmitate of 

 myricyl is insoluble in boiling alcohol, fusible at 161, and possesses a 

 slight odour of wax. Treated with alcoholic solution of potash, it 

 gives palmitate of potash, and myricylic alcohol (C^H^O, HO). 

 [ALCOHOLS.] By destructive distillation palmitate of myricyl gives an 

 homologue of olefiant gas, melene (C^H^). 



Bees'-wax is used in the manufacture of candles, and for modelling 

 objects of art. It is also employed in the construction of anatomical 

 models. 



BEET, a plant of the genus Beta, in the natural order Chenopodere. 



There are two distinct species of beet commonly cultivated, each 

 containing several varieties, the one producing succulent leaves only, 

 the other the Vulyarig, distinguished by its large fleshy root. The 

 former is chiefly cultivated in gardens as a culinary vegetable, and 

 forms one of the principal vegetables used by agricultural labourers 

 and small occupiers of land in many parts of Germany, France, and 

 Switzerland. A variety known by the name of Swiss chard produces 

 numerous large succulent leaves, which have a very solid rib running 

 along the middle. The leafy part being stripped off and boiled, is 

 used as a substitute for greens and spinach, and the rib and stalk are 

 dressed like asparagus or scorzonera ; they have a pleasant sweet taste, 

 and are more wholesome than the cabbage tribe. In a good soil the 

 produce is very abundant, and if cultivated on a large scale in the field, 

 this species of beet would prove a valuable addition to the plants 

 raised for cattle. By cultivating it in rows, and frequently hoeing and 

 stirring the intervals, it would be an excellent substitute for a fallow 

 on good light loams. 



All cattle are very fond of the leaves of this beet, which add much 

 to the milk of cows without giving it that bad taste which is unavoid- 

 able when they are fed with turnips or cabbages, and which is chiefly 

 owing to the greater rapidity with which the latter undergo the putre- 

 factive fermentation. If sown in May in. drills two feet wide, and 

 thinned out to the distance of a foot from plant to plant in the rows, 

 they will produce an abundance of leaves, which may be gathered in 

 August and September, and will grow again rapidly, provided a bunch 

 of the centre leaves be left on each plant. They do not sensibly 

 exhaust the soil. These leaves, when boiled or steamed with bran, cut 

 chaff, or refuse grain, are an excellent food for pigs, or bullocks put up 

 to fatten. 



The second species, the Vulgaris, or beet-root, has been long culti- 

 vated in gardens; especially that variety called the red beet, which, 

 when boiled and sliced, makes such an excellent addition to winter 

 salad. It is a native of the south of Europe, and hence all the varieties 

 are tender, and destroyed by frost when in their young state. It 

 thrives best in a rich, light, dry soil, and, from the length of its tap- 

 root, requires a considerable depth. The white beet is an excellent 

 root, and is preferred by many to the larger and more common inter- 

 mediate varieties. It has been lately in great repute in France and 

 Belgium for the manufacture of sugar. It is not commonly cultivated 

 in our gardens, and we only notice it as being, with the red beet, 

 the parent of those varieties which have been introduced into field 

 culture. 



The common field-beet for cattle, which has been long known in 

 Germany, was introduced into England at the latter end of the last 

 century ; and its introduction is generally attributed to the late Dr. Lett- 

 som, a physician of great reputation, and one of the Society of Friends. 

 The German name is mangold intrzel, or mangold root, but it is com- 

 monly pronounced mangel wnrzcl, which means scarcity root ; and by a 

 strange translation it is called in French racine d'abondance, or root of 

 plenty, as well as racine dc disette, or root of scarcity. The name of 

 field-beet is much more appropriate. 



The improved varieties of this beet, which grow to a very large size 

 in good soil, have a red orange skin, and when cut through appears 

 veined with red or yellow, in concentric circles. The principal part of 

 the root, which is either long or round in shape, rises often a foot and 

 more above the ground, and the leaves, which are large and succulent, 

 spring from the crown of the root. There is a limit, however, beyond 

 which the root does not improve in quality as it increases, and the 

 roots of a moderate size contain more saccharine and nutritive matter 

 in the same bulk than the larger. This is particularly the case with 

 those varieties from which sugar is extracted. The soil best adapted 

 for the beet-root is a good loam, naturally rich, or made so by repeated 

 manuring. The manure should be well incorporated with the soil, and 

 what is added for this crop should be well rotted and ploughed in deep. 

 The application of liquid manure during the growth of the plant greatly 



