May 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



AFRICAN VEGETABLE PRODUCTS. 471 



packed in 1-lb. tin canisters and in wood boxes. Papers of various 

 colours are used to form the small packets, so that the different qualities 

 may be readily distinguished. A paper covered on one side with bur- 

 nished black lead is employed for wrapping up some of the higher 

 qualities. 



Two descriptions of "blocked black lead" are manufactured by the 

 Company. The blocks are formed by pressing the powdered and sifted 

 graphite into suitable moulds by the aid of machinery, very similar in 

 construction to that employed for making bricks, though, of course, on 

 a much smaller scale. There are two blocking-machines constantly at 

 work, and the number of little bricks they turn out annually would 

 amply suffiee for the building of a Lilliputian city. 



The organization of labour is thoroughly understood at the Battersea 

 Works. There is a place for every man and every man is in his place. 

 A strict code of rules is enforced by fines ; but these fines are paid over 

 to the Fund of the Workmen's Provident Club. We have been over 

 many great industrial establishments, but have not seen any better 

 managed than this Crucible factory. 



A few days after writing the above we paid a visit to the establish- 

 ment of Messrs. Brown and Wingrove, the refiners to the Bank of Eng- 

 land, where we saw a hundred ounces of silver poured out from a 

 pliunbago crucible which had been used again and again. Here, 

 indeed, as at many other great establishments, the Patent Plumbago 

 Crucibles are alone used. We were informed by the courteous manager 

 of the refinery, that the pots never cracked, but gradually became 

 thinner until a point was reached^ when it would be unsafe to trust a 

 charge in them. He assured us that 50,000 ounces of silver and 

 upwards had been melted in one 1000-oz. pot. We were glad to receive 

 such good testimony to the value of the plumbago crucibles, for all that 

 we saw at Battersea gave us a most favourable impression of the manu- 

 factures of the Company. 



NOTES .ON SOME AFRICAN VEGETABLE PRODUCTS. 



BY JOHN R. JACKSON. 



That a nation's wealth is derived from its natural resources is a 

 truism more or less truthful according to the geographical disposition of 

 the nation referred to. The natural productions of one land tend to 

 alleviate the wants and necessities of another not so highly favoured, 

 thereby establishing a system of exchange and communication known 

 to us in this busy world by the short, but comprehensive word, Com- 

 merce, and every day fulfilling with greater truthfulness the words of 



