210 



FUSCOBALTIA. 



FUTURE. 



250 



were thrown open, a long time would elapse before the trading of the 

 company would cease to hold its prominence : because of the wide rami- 

 fications of their system, and because also of the ties of various kinds 

 which bind the native hunters to them. There are not many furs 

 procured from Vancouver. 



Concerning the quantity of furs and skins brought to England, the 

 official returns are not quite clear, st-eing that sheep and goat skins 

 are combined in the same entries as those which we are more in 

 the habit of denominating furs. The Hudson's Bay Company, during 

 the last five years, have imported about 700,000 skins annually. 

 Only a small number are sold for consumption in England ; the 

 greater part is bought up by foreign merchants, who come to 

 London for that purpose ; or rather, they are purchased and partially 

 prepared in England, and then sold to foreigners, especially the mer- 

 chants of Leipsic. Our total imports from all quarters nearly reach 

 4,000,000 skins annually, of which 400,000 are racoon and 600,000 

 seal ; the greater portion of the remainder comprises weasel, marten, 

 beaver, neutria, musk-rat, rabbit, and squirrel skins. It is roundly 

 estimated that the retail value of all the furs put to use annually in 

 all parts of the world cannot be much less than 7,000,000/., of which 

 one- third is produced by Russia. 



Taking one particular year, 1856, we may usefully, in addition to the 

 number of furs imported, quote the average prices assigned by the 

 importers in computing the real values. 



Bear . 

 Beaver 

 Coney 

 Ermine . 

 Fitch . 

 Fox 

 Lynx . 

 Marten 

 Minx . 

 Musquash 

 Neutria 

 Otter 

 Racoon 

 Sable 

 Seal . 

 Squirrel . 



No. 



11,870 

 82,830 



142,285 

 96,523 



158,955 

 81,487 

 15,688 



206,777 



112,466 

 1,190,430 



175,821 

 19,930 



490,128 

 844 



Average Price. 

 240 

 096 

 004 

 1 1 

 028 

 11 10 

 13 

 12 

 079 

 012 

 12 

 200 

 040 

 2 10 



681,234 (about) 050 

 2,188,737 004 



FUSCOBALTIA. [COBALT, ammoniacal compounds of cobalt.] 

 FUSE ia a tube filled with a peculiar combustible composition. 

 Fuses are principally used in firing shells. They are made in such a 

 manner, that either by cutting or boring, or adjusting as in the fuse 

 used in Sir W. Armstrong's gun, the length of the composition may 

 be proportioned to the intended range of the shell, so as to burst the 

 shell when it strikes the object, or before if required. The common 

 wooden fuse is made of well-seasoned beech-wood in the form of a 

 slightly tapering cylinder, with an enlargement at the larger end. The 

 cylinder is pierced by a bore of $ inch in diameter, which terminates 

 in a hemispherical cup in the enlargement. The bore is driven with 

 fuse composition consisting |of nitre, 3 Ibs. 4 oz. ; sulphur, 1 Ib. ; 

 mealed powder, 1 Ib. 12 oz. ; which is hammered in hard by the hand, 

 and then burns at the rate of "2 inches per second. The cup is primed 

 with quick match, in order to be easily ignited by the explosion of 

 the shell. The exterior of the wooden cylinder is marked with rings J 

 inch apart, so that by sawing off a piece or by boring out the com- 

 position from the lower end it can be made of any length required ; the 

 fuse is then fixed in the shell by gently hammering it in. For sea 

 service metal fuses are employed. They are made of gun-metal of 

 the same shape as the wooden ones, but are screwed into the shell, 

 which is fitted with a gun-metal collar to receive them. They cannot 

 be cut or bored to any particular length, as it is not considered safe to 

 do so on board ship, but are made of three lengths, 4, 3, and 1 .'. inches, 

 which burn 20, 74, and 2 seconds. The priming is protected by a 

 metal cap which is unscrewed when required. 



The old wooden fuse has been nearly superseded by one invented by 

 Captain Boxer, R. A. a few years ago. The external form is much the 

 same, but the bore is slightly eccentric, and parallel to it ; two much 

 smaller bores or channels are made in the thicker side of the wood. 

 These small bores contain quick match, and fine grain powder, which 

 communicate with the fuse composition at the bottom. Small holes 

 2, inches apart are made from the exterior to the bore containing the 



quick match and fine grain powder, and are filled up again with putty. 

 By boring through the putty and the wood between the channel con- 

 taining the fine grain powder and the fuse composition, these two are put 

 in communication as it were, and when the composition has burned down 

 to that point in the fuse, the flame drives through the hole, lights the 

 powder and the charge of the shell at once. The small holes are bored 

 at - 2 of an inch apart, those in one row being opposite the blanks of 

 the next, so that the fuse can be adjusted to tenths of an inch, with 

 much greater ease and precision than with the old fuse. Boxer's fuse 

 also has the advantage of being solid at the end, the bore with com- 

 position not running the whole length, hence there is no chance of the 

 composition being driven through by the concussion of the discharge. 

 Sir W. Armstrong, by a very beautiful arrangement, which it would 

 take too long to describe here, has made his fuse so that without 

 removing it from the shell, by turning a dial-marked plate at the top 

 which carries the composition in a circular ring, any portion of this 

 ring is brought opposite a channel of fine grained powder, which com- 

 municates with and fires the charge of the shell. 



FUSEE. [HOROLOGY.] 



FUSEL OIL. The oils which contaminate potato and grain spirit 

 are classed by the Germans under the common name fuseloel, and the 

 game term translated is applied by English chemists to these oils. 

 Potato spirit is accompanied by the hydrated oxide of amyl, or oil of 

 potato spirit [AMYL], whilst grain spirit is accompanied by an oily 

 matter consisting of margaric, capric, and cenanthic acids, which pro- 

 bably, with the spirit, form their corresponding ethers. Dr. Gregory 

 suggests that this is probably the composition of the oil of grain, the 

 Oleum siticum of Professor Mulder. 



FUSIBLE METAL. An alloy of 5 parts of bismuth, 2 of tin, and 

 3 of lead, melting about the temperature of boiling water. It is used 

 for stereotype plates, and for the blocks of calico printers. [BISMUTH]. 



FUSION. The different temperatures at which certain solids are 

 rendered fluid have been already mentioned. [FREEZING POINTS.] In 

 addition it may be merely remarked that fusion is sometimes used with 

 the prefix of watery, and at other times iyneoui. Watery fusion is that 

 which occurs when a salt, such as sulphate of soda for example, con- 

 taining much water of crystallisation, fuses or melts in its water by 

 exposure to a moderate heat ; it may afterwards undergo igneous fusion 

 by exposure to a much higher temperature. 



FUSTIAN is a kind of cotton fabric similar in the mode of manu- 

 facture to velvet, having in addition to the warp and weft common to 

 all woven goods, a pile consisting of other threads doubled under the 

 weft, and thrown at intervals so close together that when the goods are 

 finished the interlacing of the warp and weft are concealed by them. 

 [VELVET.] While in the loom the pile forms a series of loops, which 

 are afterwards cut and sheared. The cutting is performed by running 

 a knife through each series of loops as they occur in the weft ; this 

 gives an uneven and hairy appearance to the cloth, which is after- 

 wards remedied first by the shearing process, and afterwards by 

 singeing and brushing which latter operations are repeated until the 

 fustian has acquired a smooth and polished appearance. The shearing 

 of fustians is a separate art, employing many thousand persons in 

 Lancashire. Until lately the operation of fustian-cutting was con- 

 ducted by hand ; but the aid of machinery has now been obtained ; 

 and instead of the tedious operation of cutting open only one set of 

 loops at once, a series of knives are brought to act together and con- 

 tinuously, until the whole piece is finished. By this means the work 

 is not only done more quickly, but is also better performed than when 

 its excellence depended upon the uniform precision of the human 

 hand. 



Various kinds of fustians are made, and are known by different 

 names, according to their form and fineness. The i best kinds are 

 known as cotton velvet and velveteen ; besides these there are beaver- 

 teens, moleskin, corduroy, and cords. Different patterns are produced 

 by different dispositions of the pile threads. Fustians are woven both 

 in the hand-loom and with the power-loom ; they are made of different 

 widths, some pieces being 18 and others 27 inches wide : a piece of 

 velveteen of medium quality, 90 yards long and 18 inches wide, weighs 

 about 24 or 25 Ibs. The yarn for the warp is made of New Orleans 

 cotton, or of Upland Georgia and Brazil cotton mixed, of the fineness 

 of 32 hanks to the pound ; the weft and pile are usually spun from 

 Upland mixed with East India cotton, and the yarn is commonly of 

 the fineness of 24 hanks to the pound. For further illustrations, see 

 COTTON MANUFACTURE ; VELVET ; WEAVING. 



FUSTIN. The non-azotised yellow colouring matter of fustic. Its 

 composition is not known. 



FUTURE. [CONJUGATION; TIME.] 



