Knight's cyclopædia of the industry of all nations, 1851 / [edited by George Dodd].

Date:
[1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Knight's cyclopædia of the industry of all nations, 1851 / [edited by George Dodd]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    71 ALBATA. ALBU'MEN. 72 Zonuag Pdver, in -wliicli the salt forms in masses four or five inches thick ; this furnishes a supply of salt to the district. The most im- portant part of the trade of Albany consists in the traffic carried on by licensed traders with the native tiibes, beyond the boundary line of the colony. This tr'ade is carried on through a wide extent of country, in the Kaffer terri- tory. The principal articles procured in this manner are hides, horns, and ivory, together ynth. a considerable number of live cattle. The attention of the settlers has, within tlie last few yeai-s been dra\vn to the improvement of the growth of wool; and during 1848 and 1849, many manufactories were estabhshed in the towns. ALBATA, is the name given to one of the numerous varieties of tvhite metal, now so lai'gely used in many branches of manufac- tm-e at Birmingham. Many different mixtm-es or alloys wiU produce a white metal. For example, Mr. Parker obtained in 1844 a patent for five such compounds, all ha^^ng the pro- perties of whiteness and considerable mallea- bihty. One consists of zinc, tin, iron, and copper, in certain specified proportions; an- other of zinc, tin, and antimony; a thu-d of zinc, nickel, iron, and copper; a foui'th of copper, nickel, and silver; and a fifth of nickel, iron, and copper. It seems evident from the specification, that many difierent proportions of the ingredients may be adopted, in each of the above lands. The mode of making wliite metal, of zinc 50, tin 48, iron 1, and copper 3, is thus described :—the iron and copper are first melted together in a cmcible, and while in a fused state, the tin is added in such quan- tities at a time, that the iron and copper shall not become solid; the zinc is then added, and the whole well combined by stuTing. The flux is composed of one part of Hme, one part of Cumberland ore, and three parts of sal- ammonia. The alloy thus produced may be cast in sand or ingots for roUing. See further in respect to these compound metals under Alloy. ALBERT DuRER. [DiiEEE.] ALBUM (White), was a tablet on which the Roman preetor's edicts were written; it was .put up in a public place. It was probably called album because the tablet was white. The word was also used to signify a list of any body of persons, as of the senators and of the judices. A book which is intended to contain the signatures, or short verses, or other contribu- tions of persons of note or supposed note, is now called an album. The name is also given to a book which is merely intended as a reposi- tory for dramngs, prints, verses, and such matters. Trifling as it may appear, an album, in the hands of a person possessing good taste, may be made a very graceful article of artistic decoration. Some modem specimens are extremely costly. ALBU'MEN forms a constituent principle of i)lants and animals; and its essential pro- perties are found to be the same from which- ever Idngdom of the organised world it is de- rived. It is found in the green feculfe of plants in general; in the fresh shoots of trees; in the sap of many plants; in the bitter- almond, the sweet-almond, and the emulsive seeds in general; but it exists in the greatest abundance in such vegetables as ferment without yeast, and afibrd a vinous hquor. But albumen exists much more abundantly in animals than in plants. It fomis a consti- tuent both of the animal fluids and solids. Of the animal fluids, it forms an essential part of the serum of the blood; it abounds in the fluid that moistens the sui-face of the internal cavities of the body and of the organs they contain; and it exists in large quantity in the wateiy fluid pom'ed out into those cavities in the disease termed dropsy. 'S^^lite of egg is neai'ly pure albumen: when hquid it soon putrefies; but if carefully dried it may belong preserved. In the animal solids, albumen forms the principal part of the skin, of fibrin, the basis of muscle or flesh, and of the organs called glands. It is an intricate compound of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus. The most remai'kable i)roperty of albumen is its power of sohdifjing under circumstances which would rather tend to liquefy than to solidify most substances. UTiite of egg shows wMte flbres at a temperature of 134° F., soU- difies at 160°, and becomes horny at 212°. When mixed with water, a higher temperature is required for coagulation. Albumen is pre- cipitated in white fibres, by agitating white of egg with alcohol. Galvanic action vnM also coagulate albimien. Many of the stronger acids and salts wiU have the same effect; and so delicate a test of the presence of this siib- stance is the bichloride of mercury, or, as it is commonly called, con-osive subUmate, that if a siugle drop of a satiu-ated solution of cor- rosive subhmate be let fall into water contain- ing only the two-thousandth part of albumen, it Avill occasion a mUliiness in the water, and produce a curdy precipitate. Albimien is not, as a distinct substance, lai-gely used in manufactures; but its pre- sence in many natural substances gi'eatly in- fluences themauiifactm-iugprocesses adopted. It is employed as a glaze, or species of varnish, and as a clariftcr for wines and sjTups. Al-