BLEACHING BLENHEIM. 



563 



for four hours; when taken out, it is found quite 

 white, and being thoroughly washed, the bleaching 

 process is at an end. The cloth has yet, however, to 

 undergo various processes of finishing, in order that 

 it may please the eye of the purchaser. The first of 

 these finishing processes is the squeezing, by which 

 much of the water is pressed out of the cloth. This 

 is effected by passing the pieces through between two 

 rollers in the squeezer, represented in plate X., being 

 kept tight by the force necessary to drag it through 

 B cistern of water. The frame of the squeezer is of 

 cast iron, and the rollers of wood, being driven by 

 machinery and requiring only one man to attend it, 

 whose business it is to fold up the cloth as it comes 

 through the rollers. The pieces are now stretched by 

 women to their breadth, and the folds, as much as pos- 

 sible, taken out by beating them ; then they are stitched 

 together by the ends with a sailor's needle, and being 

 thus prepared for the mangle (q. v.), the cloth is now 

 starched, common wheat flour and a portion of porce- 

 i ain clay being employed, and then subjected to the 

 action of the stiffening machine, represented in plate 

 X. A represents a roll of pieces which have come 

 from the mangle ; they are made to pass under a 

 roller placed at the bottom of the box B containing 

 the starch. The cloth is thus impregnated with 

 starch, the superfluous portion of which is pressed 

 out as it passes through the rollers above. The goods 

 are then hung upon rails in an apartment called the 

 stove, heated by two furnaces, from which flues are 

 led through the room. The heat thus generated is 

 sometimes so great, that the workmen, in hanging 

 up the cloth, are obliged to throw off the most of 

 their clothes. When the goods are dried thoroughly, 

 tfiey are taken from the stove and carried to the 

 damping machine, represented in plate X., where 

 they are subjected to the action of a shower of water. 

 A is a box containing water, which is constantly kept 

 at the.same level, and the points of a rapidly revolv- 

 ing brush B dipping in it scatter a shower on the 

 dry cloth as it passes over the surface of the box, 

 being laid down dry from the stove at C, and drawn 

 over the bar above, and passing down under a roller 

 at the top of the water box, from thence to the rollers 

 above D at the other end of the machine, where it is 

 received and folded up by an attendant. When the 

 cloth comes from the damping machine, it may be 

 *een covered with wet spots, the greater portion, 

 Jiowever, being diy, but after remaining sometime it 

 becomes uniformly damp. The goods are now passed 

 through the calender shown in plate X, (See Calen- 

 der), they are then regularly folded and put into a 

 Uramah press, with a sheet of pasteboard between 

 each, and, being sufficiently pressed, they are then 

 finished for the market. 



The bleaching of linen is conducted after a similar 

 iiiiinner as that of cotton ; but there is much more 

 colouring matter in the former than in the latter, 

 wherefore it is found necessary in the bleaching of 

 linen to repeat the boiling in lye and the steeping 

 in chloride of lime three or four times. The mode 

 of bleaching woolen cloth in Paris is as follows : The 

 rloth being washed thoroughly in river water, and 

 then hung upon poles, is, when half dry, stretched 

 out in a very close stove, in which sulphur is burning, 

 the vapour of which, diffusing itself by degrees, ad- 

 heres to the whole of the cloth, by which it is ren- 

 dered of a beautiful white. For bleaching silk the 

 ordinary method is this : the raw material is put into 

 a bag of fine linen, and thrown into a vessel of boiling 

 river water, in which a quantity of good soap has 

 been dissolved. In this the silk is boiled for three 

 hours, the bag being then taken out, beaten, and 

 washed in cola water. It is then boiled in soup and 

 water, a little indigo being added to the solution, 



giving it a bluish tinge, and being then taken out, 

 wrung, and beaten, it is introduced into a stove. 



BLEMMYES, or BLEMYES ; a fabulous people of Ethi 

 opia, without heads, their eyes, mouths, c. being 

 placed in their breasts. A barbarous tribe of this 

 name appeared in the third century as the ally of the 

 Egyptians against Diocletian. With a view of op- 

 posing to the B. a suitable adversary, Diocletian per- 

 suaded the Nobatae, a people of Nubia, to remove 

 from their ancient habitations in the deserts of Libya, 

 and resigned to them an extensive but unprofitable 

 territory, above Syene and the cataracts of the Nile. 



BLENDE. See Zinc. 



BLENHEIM, or BUNDHEIM ; a village situated in the 

 circle of the Upper Danube, in Bavaria, on the Da- 

 nube. Here was fought, Aug. 13, 1704, the famous 

 battle of Blenheim, or, as it is more commonly called 

 on the European continent, the battle of Hochstadt, 

 from another village of this name in the vicinity.. 

 Louis XIV., in the war of the Spanish succession, 

 had to contend with Holland, England, Austria, Sa- 

 voy, Portugal, and the German empire. The elector 

 of Bavaria was his only ally ; but, as the territories 

 of this prince were contiguous to Austria, which, on 

 that side, was unprotected, he was the more to be 

 feared, especially as he was an active and warlike 

 prince, who took the field himself, and, in case of 

 success, could open the way to Vienna for the French 

 armies. Sept. 20, 1703, he defeated, near Hochstadt, 

 a village in the vicinity of Donawert, the imperial 

 general Styrum, and took the fortress of Passau. 

 But his dissensions with the upright and unyielding 

 French marshal Villars, prevented him from reaping, 

 in the same year, all the fruits which this victory 

 might otherwise have afforded him. Villars was or- 

 dered to cede the chief command to marshal Tallard, 

 who overcame, on the Rhine, near Spire, the margrave 

 Louis of Baden, and rendered the situation of the 

 hereditary states of Austria very dangerous. Marl- 

 borough, however, the soul of this whole war, in the 

 field and in the cabinet, formed the plan of deciding 

 the fate of the contest on the Danube. Italy, Flan- 

 ders, and the Lower Rhine were to be defended only ; 

 but the decisive blow was to be struck in the south 

 of Germany, whither the best imperial troops marched, 

 under Eugene, from the Rhine. Marlborough at- 

 tacked the Bavarian intrenchments, July 2, after a 

 violent combat on the Schellenberg, and made his 

 way over the Danube, in order to be able to occupy 

 the territory of the elector of Bavaria, if circumstances 

 required it. But, for this latter purpose, the gaining 

 of a decisive battle was indispensable, since, without 

 it, the invasion of Bavaria would have been a hazard- 

 ous enterprise, and a long delay, after the manner of 

 carrying on war in those times, required well filled 

 and secure magazines. The French and Bavarian 

 armies were drawn into an engagement, August 13, 

 1704, under the most unfavourable circumstances. 

 Both these armies were posted, under the command 

 of Tallard, Marsin, and the elector of Bavaria him- 

 self, between the village of B. and that of Kinzingen, 

 behind the Nebelbach, a small stream emptying into 

 the Danube, which was on their right flank. They 

 amounted to 56,000 men, whilst the forces of Marl- 

 borough and Eugene were about 52,000. The first 

 had thrown their troops chiefly into the two villages, 

 which they considered as points of support for their 

 wings, though they were at too great a distance in 

 front of their main position. A large proportion of 

 cavalry was in the centre, since each army, the Ba- 

 varian as well as the French, had their horse on their 

 wings, and in this way those of two wings must ne- 

 cessarily join each other. Both the commanders 

 would undoubtedly have perceived and cmrected this 

 mistake, as Tallard had in B. alone, twenty-sew r. 



