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In tlie manuraAiirc of tliia black much impofition is 

 rraaif>.-d, (o ttiat what is generally fold under this name is 

 no other than the coal of common bones. Being applied to 

 coarfe pui-pofes, and fold at a low price, it is very grofsly 

 levigated by the hand or horfe-mills which are employed in 

 grinding the bonts, and fo much adulterated with charcoal 

 durt, which gives it a blue cart, that it is wholly exploded 

 from delicate nfes, and lamp-black, though inferior with 

 regard to the purity and clearnefs of the black colour, fub- 

 ftituted for it. 



The following recipe is given in the Handmaid to the 

 Arts (vol.i. p. 140.) for preparing it in perfcftion. Take 

 plates, chips, or Ihavings of ivory, and foak them in hot lin- 

 feed oil ; or, if filings are more eallly procured, they may be 

 ufed moirtened with the hot oil. Put them into a vcfTel, 

 which will bear the fire, covering them with a fort of lid 

 made of clay and faiid ; which Ihould be dried, and the 

 cracks repaired before the vcdel be put into the fire. Let 

 this veffcl be placed in a tobacco-pipe maker's or potter's 

 furnace, or any other fuch fire ; and let it remain there 

 during one of their heats. When it is taken out, the ivory 

 will be properly burnt ; and mull be afterwards thoroughly 

 well levigated on the ftone with water, or to liave it per- 

 feiftlv good, be alfo walhed over. The ivory may be con- 

 veniently burnt in a calcining or fubliming furnace. 



An opake deep black for water colours is made by grinding 

 iwor)- -black with gum-water, or with the liquor which fettles 

 from the whites of eggs after they have been fuffered to 

 Hand a little. Some ufe gum water and the whites of eggs 

 togethei, and tliey fay, that a fmall addition of the latter 

 makes the mixture flow more freely from the pencil, and 

 improves its glofhncfs. It may be obferved, however, that 

 tliougli ivory-black makes the decpcll colour in water, as 

 well 35 in oil-painting, yet it is not on this account always 

 to be preferred to other black pigments. A deep jet-black 

 colour is feldom wanted in painting ; and in tiie lighter 

 fliades, whether obtained by diluting the black with white 

 bodies, or by applying it thin on a white ground, the parti- 

 cular beauty of the ivory-black is in a great meafurc loth 



Black, /ump, or Lwi Black, originally perhaps the foot 

 coUeCled from lamp?, is generally prepared by melting and 

 purifying refni or pitch in iron vcfTels ; then fetting fire to it 

 under a chimney, or other place made for the purpofe, lined 

 a-top with (hetp-i]<inp, or thick linen cloth, to receive the 

 vapour or fmoke, which is the black : in which manner they 

 prepare vail quantities of it at Paris. In England confiaer- 

 able quantities are prepared, particularly at the turpentine- 

 houfes, from the dregs and refufe parts of the refinous mat- 

 ters which are diere manufactured ; hut the greateft part is 

 brought from Germany, Sweden, and Norway. Its prepara- 

 tion is dcfciibed in the Swedilh Tranfadtions for 1754, ^^ a 

 procefs dependent on the manufaflure of common refin. 

 The impure refinous juice, coUefted from incifions made in 

 pines and iir-trees, is boiled down, with a little water, and 

 ftrained, whilil hot, through a bag: the dregs and pieces 

 of ba k, Itf: in the ftrainer, are burnt in a low oven, from 

 which the fmoke is conveyed, through a long pilTage, into 

 a fquare chasibtr, having an opening in the top, in which 

 is fallencd a large fack, made of flcafy or thin-woven woolly 

 ftuff; the foot, or lamp-black, concretes partly in the 

 chamber, from which it is fwept out onee in two or three 

 days, and partly iu the fack, which is now and then gently 

 ftruck upon, both for fiiaking.down the foot, and for clear- 

 ing the iiittrllices between the threads, fo as to procure a 

 fufficicnt di-.-iught of air through it. The more curious 

 artills prepare lamp-black for the nicer purpofes.by hanging 



7 



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a large copper pan over the flame of a lamp with a long wick, 

 fupplied with more oil than can be perfedlly confumed, fo as 

 to receive its fmoke. Soot coUcclcd in like manner from 

 fir and other woods, by burning fmall pieces of them flowly 

 under a copper pan, is of a deeper black colour than fuch. 

 as is obtained from the fame kinds of wood in a common 

 chimney, and little inferior to that of oils. The foot of 

 mineral bitumens, in this clofe way of burning, appears to 

 be of the fame quahties with thofe of woods, oils, and refins. 

 In fome parts of Germany, it is faid, great quantities of 

 good lamp-black are prepared from a fort of pit-coal. 



The Toodnefs of lamp-black lies in the fulnefs of the co- 

 lour, and in its being free from dud or other impurities. The 

 lightnefs of the fubllancc furnirties the means of difcovering 

 any adulteration, if to a great degree ; as the bodies with 

 wliich lamp-black is fubjeft to be fophidicated, are all 

 heavier in a confiderable proportion. 



This fubffance is ufed on various occafions, particularly 

 in the printers' ink ; for which it is mixed with oils of tur- 

 pentine and hiifeed, all boiled together. 



It mull be obferved, that this black takes fire very readily, 

 and when on fire is very difficultly extinguifhed : the beft 

 method of putting it out is with wet linen, hay, or ftraw ; 

 for water alone will not do it. 



A glafs tube clolely filled with lamp-black has been found 

 to conduct a confidcrable charge of eleftricity inftanta- 

 neouflv, and with fcarce any explofion. But a coating of 

 this fubllance, mixed with tar or oil, is a perfeft non-con- 

 ductor, and has proved a prefervative from lightning, by re- 

 pelling the electric matter from thofe parts of the mafts of 

 ihips which have been covered with it. 



Rujfuin lamp-black is prepared from the foot of fir, and is 

 collected at Ochta near St. Petcrfburg, Mofcow, Archangel, 

 and other places, in little wooden huts, from refinous fir 

 wood, and the unftuous bark of birch, by means of an ap- 

 paratus uncommonly fimple, conCiling of pots without bot- 

 toms, ftt one upon another, and is fold very cheap. It is 

 three or four times more heavy, thick, and unCtuous, thaa 

 that kind of painter's black which the Germans call " kien- 

 rahm," and which is called in Ruflia " Holland's black." 

 For an account of the fpontaneous accenfion of Ruflian fir- 

 black, impregnated with hemp-oil, fee Spontaneous Inflam- 

 mation. 



A mineral lamp-black may be procured from pit-coal, or 

 any kind of mineral or folTil coal, by preferving the blackelt 

 particles of the fmoke arifing from it in ignition. Mr. Wm. 

 Row of Newcaftle-uponTyne obtained a patent in 1798 

 for his method of manufacturing this kind of lamp-black. 

 See the fpecincation in the Repertory of the Arts, &c. 

 vol. X. p. 81. 



Black palnl. See Paint. 



Vii,ACK/an(l. See S.4ND. 



^LACK/en/ing nvax. See Wax. 



ELACK,yoo/, or chimney, is a poor colour ; but ready for 

 painting black draperies in oil. The foot blacks are in 

 general much fofter and of a more yielding texture than 

 thofe of the charcoal kind, and require much lefs grinding, 

 for uniting them with oily, watery, or fpirituous liquors, 

 into a fraooth mafs ; of fome of them a part is difToIvcd by 

 water, or fpirits of wine, while none of the charcoal blacks 

 have been found to contain any thing difToluble. This 

 foluble matter of foots, however, is not black like the indif- 

 foluble parts ; and in this particular, as well as in the colour 

 of the entire mafs, different forts of foot diflcr from one 

 another. Thus the foot of pit-coal collefted in common 

 chimneys, of itfclf rather greyilh black than of a full black, 



being 



