8 
MACHINE FOR MAKING BLUE MASS. 
To the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy : 
The Committee appointed to witness the operation of 
J. W. W. Gordon's apparatus for making blue mass, and to 
examine the product afforded by it, report as follows: 
Having made an arrangement with Samuel F. Troth & 
Co., who kindly offered to facilitate the views of the Com- 
mittee by accommodating the apparatus at their ware- 
house ; and the ingredients for thirty pounds of mass having 
been obtained of good quality, viz. ten pounds of mercury, 
fifteen pounds of conserve of hundred-leaved roses, and five 
pounds of powdered liquorice root ; the inventor commenced 
operations by placing the mercury in the cylinder, then 
throwing in all the conserve but two pounds ; on this the 
powdered liquorice was placed, and lastly the remaining 
conserve. The object of this last addition is to prevent the 
waste of the liquorice powder. 
The two-bladed knife is then attached to the guide-plate. 
The scraper screwed in its place, and the machine put in 
motion ; the power being applied to the handle on the fly- 
wheel, which necessarily rendered the motion of the piston 
very slow. This action was continued for two hours, when 
the greater part of the metal was disseminated through 
the mass, though the globules were mostly visible. The 
contents of the cylinder were now removed, and then 
divided into four parts, that taken from the bottom having 
most mercury in it ; one-fourth of each of these quarters was 
placed in the cylinder, the handle attached to the larger 
cog-wheel, the single-bladed piston screwed in place, and 
the power applied. The piston moves with nearly five 
times the rapidity in this case, and was suffered to run 
twenty minutes, when the mass was removed and another 
charge introduced, composed in the same manner of each 
of the quarters, which was treated for twenty minutes as 
before ; the remaining portions were successively subjected 
to the action of the knife for the same length of time. When 
examined, the mass had changed in colour to a bluish 
cast, and the mercury was sufficiently divided to be hardly 
