887 



EMERSION. 



EMETICS. 



858 



ployed in those two portions of the United Kingdom ; but in England 

 and Wales the American machines are -virtually shut out. 



In both England and America the use of the machine is largely 

 extending. The shirts, collars, and mens' clothing sold in the London 

 shops, are in considerable part either stitched or sewn by machines. 

 Army clothing is begining to be sewn in the same manner, especially in 

 Ireland, where the cheaper American machines may be employed. Mr. 

 Peter Tait, of Limerick, in evidence given before the Contracts' Com- 

 mittee of 1 858, stated that he cuts out army clothing by steam-power, and 

 effects much of the sewing by machines worked also by steam-power ; 

 he can make 4000 suits of Infantry clothing per week, if needed ; and 

 employs several hundred men in the finishing operations, none at less 

 than a guinea a week. In America, Cincinnati is the great clothing 

 town for the Western and Central States. The articles are cut out in 

 large warehouses, then given out by contract to master-tailors, who 

 employ hands by the day or by the piece ; sewing-machines are very 

 largely employed in the making up, each doing as much work as ten 

 hand sewers. In 1851, there were 108 establishments employing 

 10,000 hands; and in the next eight years there was a large increase. 

 The owners of most of the establishments are German Jews, and the 

 workmen Germans. 



EMERSION (Astronomy), the reappearance of one heavenly body 

 from behind another after an eclipse or occultation. 



EMERY ; EMERY PAPER. In the NATURAL HISTORY DIVISION, 

 under ADAMANTINE SPAR and CORUNDUM, a brief notice is given of 

 the mineralogical structure and constituents of emery. We shall here 

 add a few details concerning the manufacture and trade, of recent date. 



Dr. Lawrence Smith, an American geologist, made the discovery of a 

 deposit of emery while residing at Smyrna in 1847. On reporting his 

 discovery to the Turkish government, a commission of inquiry was 

 instituted, and the subject soon acquired mercantile importance. 

 Arrangements were made with a mercantile house at Smyrna, leading 

 to an increased sale and a diminished price of Turkey emery. The 

 mining of the emery is of the simplest character in the vicinity of 

 Smyrna. It is rarely necessary to explore the rock in which the lumps 

 of this mineral are found ; for a certain redness of colour in the earth 

 immediately surrounding each lump nearly always indicates the exact 

 locality of the emery. Sometimes, before beginning to excavate, the 

 spots are sounded by means of an iron rod with a steel point, and when 

 any resistance is met with the rod is rubbed in contact with the resist- 

 ing body : the effect produced on the rod enables a practised eye to 

 decide whether it indicates emery or not. The smaller blocks are 

 carried away first in the state as obtained. The larger blocks are 

 broken by hammers ; or, if this does not suffice, they are subjected to 

 the action of fire for several hours, and on cooling they easily yield to 

 blows. It occasionally happens that large masses are abandoned from 

 the impossibility of breaking them into pieces of convenient size, 

 seeing that the mode of transportation, either on canals or horses, 

 requires that pieces shall not exceed 100 Ibs. in weight each. 



When the blocks of emery have been conveyed to the manufactory, 

 they are broken up by hammers into pieces nearly similar in size to 

 the stones for macadamising roads. These pieces are then reduced to 

 coarse powder, either by rollers or by stampers, driven by water or 

 steam power. The coarse powder is next sifted through cylindrical 

 wire-cloth sieves, the cloth having from 16 to 90 wires to an inch- 

 degree of fineness in the wire-cloth gives name to the different 

 qualities of emery produced. No. 16 sieve gives emery about the size 

 of mustard-seed ; engineers sometimes require fragments nearly as 

 coarse as pepi>er-corns ; the kind numbered 90 is very fine ; and some 

 for special purposes, as high as 120, is sifted through lawn-sieves. 

 The finest obtainable is that which floats in the atmosphere of the 

 stamping-room, and is deposited on the beams and shelves, from which 

 it is occasionally collected. When reduced to a powder, emery varies 

 in shade from dark gray to black ; but the colour affords little or no 

 indication of its commercial value. The chemical and mineralogical 

 constituents are noticed in the NATURAL HISTORY DIVISION, and need 

 not engage attention here. 



The manufacturers who prepare emery for the market seldom wash 

 it; this is done by the purchasers, glass-makers and others, who require 

 a greater degree of precision than can be obtained by sifting. The 

 manufacturers of plate-glass, who require large quantities, sometimes 

 adopt the following plan : Twelve or more copper cylinders are pre- 

 pared all alike about 2 feet in height, but of different diameters, the 

 smallest 3 inches and the largest 40. They are placed on a level, in a 

 row ; there are small trough* or channels of communication at their 

 . upper edges, and the largest has a waste-pipe near the top. In begin- 

 ning the process, all the vessels are filled with clean water. The pul- 

 verised emery, churned up with abundance of water in another vessel, 

 in allowed to run into the smallest cylinder through a tube opposite 

 the trough leading to the second cylinder. During this short passage 

 the water deposits such of its coarsest emery as will not bear sus- 

 pension even for that limited time ; flowing onward, it deposits parti- 

 cles a little fim;r in the next cylinder ; and so on throiighout the whole 

 series. Eventually the water forms a very languid eddy in the largest 

 cylinder, and deposits therein all the remaining particles. If there are 

 twelve cylinders, emery powder of twelve different degrees of fineness 

 is then obtained. The powder, when the water has been drained off, 

 is carefully dried for use. 



Emery is employed in various ways in manufactures. Emery powder 

 is applied to the grinding of glass and the polishing of metals and 

 numerous other substances, sometimes dry, and at other times moist- 

 ened with oil or with water. Emery paper consists of a thin layer of 

 the powder cemented to a sheet of paper by means of glue. There are 

 six or seven degrees of fineness, depending on the meshes of the sieve 

 employed in sifting. Emery paper is either used by the hand, or it is 

 wrapped round a slip of wood to act like a file ; if moistened with oil, it 

 cuts more smoothly, but leaves the surface more dull. Emery doth differs 

 from emery paper only in the use of thin cotton cloth instead of paper 

 as a foundation for the powder ; it is less useful to engineers and other 

 artisans, as being too flexible, but it is preferable for many hoiisehold 

 purposes. Emery sticks are carefully formed slips of wood with a layer 

 of the powder glued on their surface ; the sticks are from 8 to 12 

 inches long, and may vary in section as much as files. For engineering 

 processes, or metal work generally, they constitute a mode of employ- 

 ing the powder more economical than emery paper. Emery cake 

 consists of a mixture of bees'-wax with emery powder, carefully made 

 by heating, stirring, kneading, and rolling. It is employed for dressing 

 the edges of polishing-wheels in cutlery and other manufactures. It 

 is sometimes applied to the wheel while revolving, but more usually 

 when stationary. Strop paper consists of a peculiar mixture of emery, 

 glass, and paper pulp, made into sheets, and pasted or glued to the 

 surface of a flat piece of wood, to be employed as a razor-strop when 

 sUghtly rubbed with oil : the emery and glass together constitute more 

 than half the weight of the prepared paper. Emery icheek are made of 

 a composition of coarse emery powder with pulverised Stourbridge 

 clay, moistened to a thin paste with water, and pressed into shape by 

 means of a metallic mould. After being dried and baked it forms a 

 sort of artificial emery stone, which cuts very quickly and yet wears 

 away slowly. It is employed in the form of wheels, discs, or laps, suit- 

 able for grinding, cutting, and polishing glass, enamels, metals, and 

 other hard substances. Emery stone is sometimes made of flour-emery 

 alone, forced into and shaped by a metal mould, without the addition 

 of any clay, and then baked. It will produce a very smooth surface, 

 but not a high polish. Waterproof emery cloth or paper is prepared by 

 coating the material on both surfaces with a mixture of boiled linseed 

 oil, African copal, Venice turpentine, Venetian red, Prussian blue, and 

 litharge, and then sifting pounded emery on one or both of the 

 moistened surfaces. 



EME'TICS (ifitTMa) are substances which influence the stomach 

 in a peculiar manner, so as to invert its action and cause vomiting ; 

 and this effect is produced without reference to the quantity of 

 matter introduced into that organ or into the circulation. This 

 definition is intended to exclude, on the one hand, the mere inversion 

 of the stomach by the introduction of food or drink, either in inordinate 

 quantity, or of too stimulating a quality ; and, on the other, to com- 

 prise those means of causing vomiting by their direct introduction 

 into the circulation by injection into a vein. The action of emetics 

 must be viewed in two stages, the primary and secondary. The 

 primary effects of emetics are limited to the emptying of the stomach, 

 compressing, during the act of vomiting, the gall-bladder and pancreas, 

 and exciting to contraction the muscular parieties of the abdomen and 

 thorax, as the machinery by which the process of vomiting is 

 chiefly accomplished. We shall here briefly trace the obvious phe- 

 nomena of this process, without attempting to account for their 

 occurrence. 



Soon after a quantity of an emetic substance or solution (such as 

 ipecacuanha or emetic tartar) has been received into the stomach, a 

 feeUng of anxiety is experienced in the epigastrum, a general uneasiness 

 termed nausea is felt, which progressively becomes greater, till it ends 

 in the forcible expulsion of the contents of the stomach. This gives a 

 succussion to the whole frame, every part of which experiences more 

 or less of a vibratory motion. The condition of the system is con- 

 siderably different prior to and during the act of vomiting. In the 

 preliminary stage, the countenance is pale and collapsed ; the pulse is 

 small, contracted, irregular, but quick more generally than slow ; 

 chilliness is felt, and a cold perspiration may ooze from the surface, all 

 which symptoms disappear when the expulsive movement takes place. 

 Then the face appears flushed ; the pulse becomes quicker, fuller, and 

 stronger, and rarely subsides till some time after all vomiting lias 

 ceased. If, after a brief interval, the expulsive action be not renewed, 

 a state of langour succeeds, with tendency to sleep, and generally a 

 considerable flow of warm perspiration. 



Such are the effects of an emetic, when given in a dose sufficient to 

 produce vomiting ; but, if given in a smaller quantity, and repeated at 

 intervals, it will merely create a state of nausea, during which the 

 appetite is lowered, and arterial action is much diminished, while the 

 function of absorption is roused to great Activity. 



The secondary effects of emetics depenci upon the succussion of the 

 frame, the equalisation of the circulation, the increased secretion from 

 the mucous membrane of the stomach, and also of the duodenum as 

 well as the liver and pancreas, and frequently from the skin. 



The secondary effects of nauseating doses are diminished arterial 

 action and augmented absorption. 



We shall now state a few of the morbid conditions to which these 

 agents are suited, and a few of those for which they are unfit. 



In fever. Whatever opinions may be entertained respecting the 



