STEATITE, OR SOAP-STONE. 119 



smoking. It is thought by some, that corn-cobs for burning, give 

 them the best flavor. If the Smoke-house is good, and v roper at- 

 tention paid to them, they will smoke abundantly in a few days, 

 and need not be smoked from three to six months, as it is said 

 Westphalia Hams are. Rumford. 



IVEISCEI.I.AN'ISOUS. 



Kotice regarding Steatite, or Soap-stone, and its principal uses. 



Steatite is, as is well known, a variety of the talc genus. Its 

 color is white, green, or gray ; it is also sometimes, though rarely, 

 red and yellow. Its specific gravity varies from 2.60, to 2.66. It 

 is a compound of silica, alumina, magnesia, oxide of iron, and water, 

 which vary according to the locality. It is very common in Corn- 

 wall and Germany. As it is fusible only at an exceedingly liigh 

 temperature, and is easily wrought, excellent crucibles rt.ay be 

 made of it, which are further hardened by fire, and which are only 

 with great difficulty penetrated by litharge. It is also employed 

 in making moulds for casting metals. In Eiigland it is used in the 

 manufacture of porcelain. M. Vilcof, an artist of Liege, made 

 several trials of it, with the view of finding out whether it might 

 not be susceptible of being employed by the lapidaries. He pre- 

 pared cameos of this substance, the color of which he brightened 

 in the fire, and which he rendered so hard, by the elevation of the 

 temperature, as to give sparks with steel. They were then color- 

 ed, yellow, gray, or milk-white, by different solutions. He polish- 

 ed them upon the stone, and ended with making them assume all 

 the lustre of agate. Some pieces even resembled onyx, in color ; 

 but a serious inconvenience was, that the markings were easily al- 

 tered by the fire, and could no longer be restored. Steatite has a 

 great affinity for glass ; it is also employed in the manner of paste, 

 reduced to a fine powder, and mixed with coloring matters, for 

 painting upon this substance. 



It also serves as a sympathetic crayon for writing upon glass ; 

 the traces seem elFaced, when a piece of woollen is passed over 

 them, but they re-aj)pear immediately, when moistened by the 

 breath, and again disappear when the glass becomes dry. Steatite 

 is not so easily eTaced as chalk, and does not, like that substance, 

 change its colors. 'J'ailors and embroiderers also, prefer it to 

 chalk, for marking silk. It j)ossesses the property of uniting with 

 oils and fat bodies, and enters into the composition of the greater 

 number of balls which are employed for cleaning silks and woollen 

 cloths ; it also forms the basis of some prej)aralions of paint. It is 

 employed also for giving lustre to marble, serpentine and gypseous 

 stones. Mixed vvilli oil, it is used to polish mirrors of metal and 

 crystal. When leather, recently prepared, is sprinkled with stea- 

 tite, to give it color, and aftenvards when the whole is dry. it is 

 rubbed several times with a piece of horn, the leather assumes a 

 very beautiful polish. Steatite is also used m the preparation of 

 glazed paper: it is reduced to a very fine powder, and spread out 



