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in soap dissolved in hot water. Soap alone 
would do very well; but this is expensive: 
though fuller’s earth, in the way of our dres* 
sing, is scarcely inferior to it; but then it 
must be well cleared of all stones and gritti- 
nesses, which are apt to make holes in the 
stull'. As to urine, it is certainly prejudicial, 
but ought to be entirely discarded; not so 
much on account of its ill smell, as of its 
sharpness and saltness, which qualities arc apt 
to render the stuffs dry and harsh. 
The method of fulling cloths and woollen 
stuffs with soap is this: A coloured cloth, of 
about 45 ells, is to be laid in the usual man- 
ner in the trough of a fulling-mill, without 
first soaking it in water, as is commonly prac- 
tised in many places. To full this "trough 
of ■doth, 15 pounds of soap are required, one- 
lialf of which is to be melted in two pails of 
river or spring water, made as hot as the 
hand can well bear it. This solution is to be 
poured by little and little upon the cloth, in 
proportion as it is laid in the trough ; and thus 
it is to be fulled for at least two hours ; after 
which it is to be taken out and stretched. 
This done, the cloth is immediately returned 
into the same trough, without any new soap, 
and there fulled two hours more. " Then tak- 
ing it out, they wring it well, to express all 
the grease and" tilth. After the second full- 
ing, the remainder of the soap is dissolved as 
in the former, and cast four different times 
on the cldth, remembering to take out the 
doth every two hours to stretch it, and undo 
■the .plaits and wrinkles it has acquired in the 
•trough. When they perceive it sufficiently 
fulled, and brought to the quality and thick- 
ness required, they scour it in hot water, 
keeping it in the trough till it is quite clean. 
As to white cloths, as these full more easilv 
and in less time than coloured ones, a third 
part of the soap may be spared. 
The fulling of stockings, caps, Sec. should 
be performed somewhat differently, viz. 
■either with the feet or the hands, or a kind of 
wooden rack, either armed with teeth of 
the same matter, or else horses or bullocks 
teeth. The ingredients made use of are, 
mine, green soap, white soap, and fuller’s 
•earth. Bwt the urine also is reckoned pre- 
judicial here. Woven stockings, Sec. should 
be fulled with the soap alone: for those that 
are knit, earth may be used with the soap, 
indeed h is common to full these kinds of 
works with the mill, after the usual manner 
of cloth, &c. ; but that is loo coarse and 
violent a manner, and apt to damage the 
work, unless it is very strong. 
L’late Foundry, ike. tig. 10. is a perspective 
view of a fulling-mill. A is the shaft which 
works it by the power of horses, water, steam, 
ike. This shafthas four arms or lifters BD upon 
it, two of which are to raise the wooden heat- 
er E, and the other two are to raise the beat- 
er F. In well executed mills, the shaft is 
made of cast-iron, as shewn in tig. 12; and 
then the arms RDMN have rollers at their 
ends. The beaters E,F, are made of hard 
wood, as shewn in fig. 11; G is Lae centre 
on which it turns, made of wood; 11 is 
a large block of wood wedged to the bar 
f'K, which passes through it; it h»v tln;g.e 
pieces of board a be pegged to it. The part 
jv of the piece IK. is shod with iron at the 
underside, to preserve it from being worn bv 
toe litters.' Two of these beaters work in a 
frame, shewn open in fig. 13. OPQR is a 
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large block of wood, hewn out as in the 
figure ; to this are fastened the curved pieces 
ST, in which there is left two openings de, 
through which the parts K of the beaters, 
fig. 11. pass, and the centres lay in small 
holes fghi: when the beaters are in, as shewn 
in lig. !0. the outside of the heads II move 
as close to the curves ST as possible without 
touching, when they are in motion. The 
block is boarded up on botli sides, as shewn 
in lig. 10. ; but one side is not boarded so 
high as the other, and has a moveable board 
I in, which fits into a groove for the conve- 
nience of putting in and taking out the cloth. 
The operation is as follows: The board Im is 
removed, and the cloth put in so as to lay be- 
tween the heads II of the beaters, anil the 
curve part XV, lig. 13. ; the beaters are then 
set to work, and the lifters first take up one 
beater, and as soon as it lets that fall, it be- 
gins to take up the other: this motion conti- 
nual iy shoves the doth round in the curve 
from Y to X ; and by its falling again when 
the beater is lifted into the place it before 
occupied, a fresh surface is continually ex- 
posed to the action of the boards abc, lig. 1 1. 
and to small streams of water supplied by a 
pipe no, lig, 10. which is full of holes: the 
quantity is regulated by a cock p. When 
the beaters are to be stopped, the workman 
takes a handspike and lays it over the hook 
q, and when the beater is lifted to the highest, 
he shoves the end of the handspike under it, 
so as to prevent its falling down again ; he 
then raises it enough to put an iron rod 
through the hole r: this operation is repeat- 
ed to the other beater, and the iron is pushed 
farther in, so as to hold them both up. This 
machine is fixed down by two beams under the 
Hobr, between which the projector W of lig. 
13. is bolted, and it is steadied by two struts, 
lig. 10. 
FULMINATION, in chemistry. When 
three parts of nitre, two parts of potass, and 
one part of sulphur, all previously well dried, 
are mixed together in a warm mortar, the 
resulting compound is known by the name of 
fulminating ponder. 
If a little of this powder is put upon an iron 
spoon, and placed upon burning coals, or 
held above the llame of a candle, it gradu- 
ally blackens, and at last melts. At that in- 
stant it explodes with a very violent report, 
and a strong impression is* made upon the 
bottom of the spoon, as if it had been pressed 
down very violently. This sudden and vio- 
lent combustion is occasioned by the rapid 
action of the sulphur on the nitre. By the 
application of the heat, the sulphur and pot- 
ass form a sulphuret, which is combustible 
at a lower heat than even sulphur. 
Sulphurated hydrogen gas, azotic gas, and 
perhaps sulphuric acid gas, are disengaged 
almost instantaneously. It is to the sudden 
action of these on the surrounding air that 
the report is to be ascribed. Its loudness 
depends upon the combustion of the whole 
powder at the same instant, which is secured 
by the previous fusion that it undergoes ; 
whereas the grains of gunpowder burn in suc- 
cession. 
Fulminating gold. Dissolve pure gold in 
nitro-muriatic acid to saturation, and dilute 
the solution with three times its bulk of dis- 
tilled water, and add to it gradually some 
pure ammonia, a yellow precipitate will be 
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obtained, which -must be repeatedly washed 
with distilled water, and dried on" a chalk- 
stone or m a filter. A hen perfectly dry, it 
is called fulminating gold, and detonates by 
heat, as may be shewn by heating a few 
grains of it on the point of a knife over the 
candle. 
Culminating silver. Dissolve fine silver 
in pale nitric acid, and precipitate the solu- 
tion by lime water; decant the fluid, mix the 
precipitate with liquid ammonia, and stir it 
till it assumes a black colour; then decant 
the fluid, and leave it in the open air to dry. 
r l his product is fulminating silver, which 
when once obtained cannot be touched with- 
out producing a violent explosion. It is the 
most dangerous preparation known, for the 
contact of fire is not necessary to cause it to 
detonate. It explodes by the mere touch. 
Its preparation is so hazardous, that it ought 
not to be attempted without a mask, with 
strong glass eyes, upon the face. No more 
than a single grain ought at any time to be 
tried as an experiment. This was invented 
by M. Berthollet- 
M. Chenevix has invented a fulminating 
silver not so dangerous as that just mention- 
ed, It explodes only by a slight fric- 
tion in contact with combustible bodies. It 
is thus prepared : Diffuse a quantity of alu- 
mina through water, and let a current of 
oxygenated muriatic acid gas pass through 
it tor some time. Then digest some phos- 
phate of silver on the solution of the oxyge- 
nated muriate of alumina, and evaporate it 
slowly. The product obtained will be a hy- 
per-oxygenated muriate of silver, a single 
grain of which, in contact with two or three 
of sulphur, will explode violently with the 
slightest friction. 
Fulminating mercury. The mercurial 
preparations which fulminate, when mixed 
with sulphur, and gradually exposed to a 
gentle heat, are well known to chemists: they 
were discovered, and have been fully de- 
scribed, by Mr, Bayen, 
“ MAf. Brugnatelli and Van Mons have 
likewise produced fulminations by concus- 
sion, as well by nitrate of mercury and phos- 
pnorus as with phosphorus and most other 
nitrates. Cinnabar likewise rs amongst the 
substances which, according to MM! Four- 
croy and \ auquelin, detonate by concussion 
with oxymuriate of potash. 
Al. Ameilon had, according to M. Her- 
thollct, observed, that the precipitate ob- 
tained from nitrate of mercury, by oxalic 
acid, fuses with a hissing noise. 
“ But mercury, and most if not all its ox- 
yds, may, by treatment with nitric acid and 
alcohol, be converted into a whitish crystal- 
lized powder, possessing all the inflammable 
properties of gunpowder, as well as many 
peculiar to itself, 
“ 1 was led to this discovery (says Mr. 
Howard, the inventor) by a late assertion, 
that hydrogen is the basis of the muriatic 
acid: it induced me to attempt to combine 
different substances with hydrogen and oxy- 
gen. With tins view 1 mixed such sub- 
stances with alcohol and nitric acid as might 
(by predisposing affinity) favour as well as 
attract an acid combination of the hydrogen 
ot the one, and the oxygen of the other. 
1 lie pure red oxvd of mercury appeared not 
unlit for this purpose; it was therefore inter- 
mixed with alcohol, and upon both nitric 
