G52 
CORK AND ITS USES. 
duced. The blue is perfectly insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol, and its solution 
thrown in water imparts a brilliant tint, although probably the dye is only in a most 
minute state of division. If a tassel of wool or of silk be plunged into this liquid, you 
will observe that the colour disappears from the bath, and the fabric becomes dyed; it has 
acted like a sponge, or perhaps, more properly speaking, like a filter, arresting in its 
passage through the water, the finely disseminated particles. Mr. Nicholson patented a 
method for obtaining a beautiful blue dye soluble in water, which consisted in heating 
the phenyl blue with strong sulphuric acid. This compound, however, though most 
advantageous for silks, refuses to impart its colour to wool, and we have before us the 
curious phenomena of wool and silk in the same vessel, the one of a bright azure tint, 
the other perfectly untouched. The effect is still more striking upon cotton. We have 
here the letters “ R. I.,” in honour of the Royal Institution, worked in silk upon a cotton 
ground ; after dipping it for a few moments in this bath, you will see that the letters 
are blue and the cotton is unchanged. 
There is another colour I must mention, aniline green, produced by the action of alde¬ 
hyde upon acid solutions of rosaniline. This is one of the most charming colours yet 
discovered; the green is perfect, and you have only to compare the artificial greens 
made by the mixtures of blues and yellows with this extraordinary dye, to sec the 
wonderful difference they present. 
I have prepared a little conceit here, which may be called puerile by some, yet which 
I cannot help feeling is full of instruction. You are aware that the base magenta or 
rosaniline is colourless. Such is the case with the majority of the aniline colours. We 
were taught in the catechisms of childhood that there are seven primitive colors—violet, 
indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. 
Aniline consists of seven letters, and up to the present time we have from this won¬ 
derful base obtained seven colours. On this white board the letters of aniline are written 
in the colourless bases, and if our experiment succeed, you will find that upon sprinkling 
the board with acetic acid and spirit, the A will be violet, the N indigo, the I blue, the 
L green, the I yellow, the N orange, and the E red, making aniline speak to us in the 
language of its gorgeous offspring. 
I am indebted to my kind friends Messrs. Simpson, Maule, and Nicholson, for the 
beautiful specimens of dye, many of a most costly and magnificent description, which 
you see before you ; and to Messrs. Hands, Son, and Co., of Coventry, for the splendid 
array of silks so kindly furnished me to illustrate my lecture.— Chemical Times. 
CORK AND ITS USES. 
EY JOHN 11. JACKSON. 
Amongst the many materials or productions in use in everyday life, cork may certainly 
take a position in the foremost rank. We all know something of cork ; from our earliest 
childhood we have been familiar with it. It is a substance that has retained all its 
ancient uses, as w r ell as its importance and value, from its earliest history down to our 
own day. Unlike most other things, it has not, even in this age of application and in¬ 
vention, found a rival. True it is we have “corky” substances in abundance, produced 
in almost every country; but neither the productions of nature nor the productions of 
mechanical skill have produced an efficient substitute for cork, one that could take the 
place of this valuable bark, or even go side by side with it. 
Considering the great quantity of cork that is consumed even in this country alone, 
as well as the great amount that is wasted, the quantity of bark annually stripped in 
the cork-forests is an operation of no little importance. The slight value many indi¬ 
viduals place upon cork, on the whole, does not lead us in the least degree to estimate 
its real importance, which, in a commercial point of view, is of no trifling nature. 
There must needs be a large quantity imported; for amongst wine merchants, bottled- 
beer merchants, or soda-v T ater makers, a cork is never used a second time: but then 
what an immense bulk would go to make up a ton of cork, and yet it is by weight that 
the imports are estimated. There is an immense consumption, and the demand of late 
years has almost exceeded the supply. The annual quantity imported into this country 
averages about 5000 tons. 
