Nov. 1, 1864] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



ON CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO THE ARTS. 163 



the action of high-pressure steam, when the lead combined with the 

 sulphur of the wool, producing galena, which gave the wool a lustre. 

 The action was regulated by generating, under the influence of steam, 

 nascent sulphuretted hydrogen from a polysulphuret of sodium, which 

 facilitated the object in view. Wool is generally dyed either in the fleece, 

 after undergoing the processes of washing or scouring, or it is first spun 

 into yarn or worsted. To describe all the various methods of dyeing wool 

 would far exceed the limits of this lecture. The operations of spinning 

 wool into yarn or worsted are purely mechanical, and it is not therefore 

 •within my province to describe them. The same remark applies to 

 the manufacture of felt and shoddy, now so extensively carried on in 

 Yorkshire, and I shall therefore merely refer to one or two points 

 having reference to chemistry — such, for instance, as the re-workiug up of 

 the wool or the cotton of worn-out fabrics. To recover the wool from 

 such fabrics the process is most simple, consisting simply in immersing 

 them in diluted muriatic acid, and drying them at a temperature of 

 about 220°, the wool remaining unaffected. The material is then sub- 

 mitted to the action of a " devil," which separates and blows away the 

 cotton, leaving the wool ready for being worked up. To remove the 

 vegetable fibre with the view of applying it to the purposes for which it 

 is adapted — as the paper manufacture, for instance — the following ])ro- 

 cess has been devised by Mr. F. 0. Ward and Captain Wynants. The 

 mixed fabric is submitted to high pressure steam (60 to 80 lbs. to the 

 square inch), and under the influence of this high and moist tempera- 

 ture the vegetable fibre remains unchanged, whilst the animal one is so 

 much disorganized, that when the rags are removed from the receptacle 

 and dried, and submitted to the action of a beating machine, the cotton 

 fibre remains intact, whilst the animal matter falls to the bottom of the 

 machine in the form of a dark-coloured powder mixed with small lumps 

 of the same substance ; this residue has been advantageously applied as 

 a manure, by these gentlemen, under the name of ' ' ulniate of ammonia." 

 I am happy to state that chemical science has discovered several means 

 of distinguishing cotton from wool when employed in the same fabric, 

 and even of determining their respective weights in it ; but the 

 aid of the magnifying powers of the microscope is often required in 

 investigating the mixtures of wool with flax, cotton, jute, &c, which are 

 now so extensively and so ingeniously spun together. The description 

 of these processes, however, would involve so much technicality, and 

 require so much time, that I must not trouble you with their details. 

 The same remarks apply to the means used for distinguishing the 

 materials used in mixed fabrics of silk and cotton, or silk, wool, and 

 cotton. 



Silk. — This material has always been highly esteemed, owing to its 

 remarkable durability, and to the beauty of the fabrics produced from it. 

 Thus the Chinese have used silk from time immemorial, and the 

 Romans held it in such high estimation that, in the time of the Cicsars, 



