Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume Ii Part 237

The other end of the condensing tube carries the distillate away. On the top of this portion of the apparatus the tube (K) is placed, by means of which wine is run into the dephlegmator. The cold wine flows into the cooling vessel by the tube (I).

Another variety of distillatory apparatus, invented by Langier, is that represented in the accompanying cut.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The fluid intended for distillation flows from the tube (_s_) into the funnel (_p_), thence into the vessel (A), entering its lower part, and serving to condense the alcoholic vapour. From this vessel the warmed fluid pa.s.ses by means of the tube (_r_) into the lower part of the second vessel (B), where dephlegmation takes place by means of a condensing tube.

From B the fluid flows through the tube (_c_) into the second still (C), which is heated by the hot gases evolved from the fire, kept burning under the first still (D); in the still (C) the fluid undergoes a rectification, and the vina.s.se flows by the tube (_e_) into the still (D); _m_ is the pipe for conveying the hot vapour from D into C; the tube (_b_) carries the alcoholic vapours into the dephlegmator. The tube (_d_) conveys the phlegma into the still (C); _g_ and _h_ are gla.s.s gauging-tubes for indicating the height of the fluid in the interior of the stills; the tube (_l_) conveys the uncondensed vapours from the dephlegmator into the condensing apparatus, while _i_ carries the vapours formed in the vessel (B) into the condensing apparatus.

The alcohol condensed in the cooling apparatus flows, as shown in the cut, into the vessel (_o_), provided with a hydrometer, which shows the strength of the liquid. The cooling apparatus of the vessel (B) consists of seven compartments or sections formed by wide spirals, to each of which, at its lower level, is attached a narrow tube, all of which tubes are connected to the tube (_d_), which latter conveys the condensed fluids back into the still.

A very simple form of apparatus in use is that figured below.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

A is a cylinder made of cast iron or copper, in which the fluid to be distilled is heated by a spiral tube made of copper. The inlet of this tube is shown at _b_ and the outlet at _a._; c serves to carry off the vina.s.se; B is the dephlegmator, through which the fluid to be distilled continually flows in a downward direction, while the vapour of the low wine evolved in A ascends uninterruptedly.

The dephlegmator is so constructed as to have as large a surface and as many points of contact as possible. The vapour ascends to the reservoir (E), and pa.s.ses into the rectifier (C) by the tube (F). The condensed portion returns through the tube (H) to the dephlegmator, whilst the uncondensed vapour pa.s.ses on to the condenser of the vessel (D), where it becomes condensed, and is carried off through M. The liquid intended for distillation is kept in a tank (not shown in the engraving), placed above the apparatus, and is conveyed to the latter by the tube (L I), fitted with the stop-c.o.c.k (K), so that the liquid arrives first in D, is next conveyed to C, thence through G into the dephlegmator, and finally into the cylinder.

Divers adaptations for heating by steam have been arranged, in a very convenient form, by Mr Coffey. His so-called ESCULAPIAN STILL affords the pharmaceutical chemist the means of conducting the processes of ebullition, distillation, evaporation, desiccation, &c., on the small scale. The following cut represents his apparatus.

[Ill.u.s.tration: B, a burner supplied with gas by a flexible tube; C. the boiler or still; I, an evaporating pan fixed over the boiler, and forming the top of the still head; K, a valve for shutting off the steam from I, when it pa.s.ses through the tube (M), otherwise it would pa.s.s through L, and communicate heat to the drying closet (O O), and from thence to the condenser (T T). _o_ is a second evaporating pan over the drying closet.]

For further information on the subject of stills consult 'Ure's Dictionary,' 'Ill.u.s.trated Chemistry,' and Wagner's 'Chemical Technology.'

=STIM'ULANTS.= _Syn._ STIMULANTIA, L. Medicines or agents which possess the power of exciting vital action. They are divided in general stimulants, or those which affect the whole system, as mercury or bark; and local or topical stimulants, or those which affect a particular organ or part only, as mustard applied as a poultice. Diffusible stimulants are general stimulants the effects of which are rapid but fugacious, as ether or alcohol. "Much discrimination and caution are required in the administration of articles of this cla.s.s, because, if given when inflammation is present, they are liable to create more mischief than benefit; but they are called for when, on the decline of that condition of an organ or organs, a state of relaxation or torpidity exists. In this state of things a gentle stimulation materially a.s.sists the functions, and is productive of much benefit."

=STINGS.= See BITES.

=STIR-ABOUT.= Thick gruel formed of oatmeal and water boiled together.

When eaten with cold milk, it forms the porridge of the Scotch; and when mixed with the liquor in which meat or vegetables have been boiled, it is called beef brose, kale brose, &c.

=STOCK.= Among cooks, is condensed soup or jelly, used to make extemporaneous soup, broth, &c.

=STOM'ACH AFFEC'TIONS.= Those of a character to admit of being usefully noticed in a popular work are referred to under the heads APPEt.i.tE, DYSPEPSIA, SICKNESS, &c.

Dr Budd recommends small doses of ipecacuanha as a remedy for those cases of indigestion in which digestion is slow, and the food lies heavily on the stomach, and there is an inability for mental or bodily exertion for some time after meals. He says it should be given in the morning, fasting, and in quant.i.ty barely sufficient to occasion a slight feeling of vermiculating motion in the stomach, but without causing any sensation of pain or nausea. The dose to produce this effect varies from 1/4 to 2 gr.

He thinks there is no other medicine which appears so effectual in removing the affections in question. Small doses of rhubarb, ginger, and cayenne pepper, have a similar kind of action, and may be given singly or together for the same purpose. "I generally prescribe from 1/2 to 1 gr. of ipecacuanha, in a pill, with 3 or 4 gr. of rhubarb. With many, a favourite remedy for the discomfort resulting from slow digestion is a grain of cayenne pepper, with 3 or 4 gr. of rhubarb. The best time for giving these medicines is shortly" (say 1/2 an hour) "before any meal after which a sense of oppression is usually felt."

=STOPP'ERS=, when obstinately immoveable in bottles, are the most safely treated by patiently hitting them upwards alternately on opposite sides with a piece of wood. When this fails the part may be dipped into hot water.

"Another method of removing a bottle-stopper is to insert its head into a c.h.i.n.k, and then endeavouring to turn the bottle with both hands. If the neck of the stopper break, the hand is out of the way of danger. An upright board, such an one as supports the ends of a set of shelves, should be selected in a convenient situation in the laboratory, and a vertical slit cut through it about a foot in length, an inch in width above, but gradually decreasing in size, so as to be about one third of an inch at the bottom. The top of the hole may be about the height of the breast. This aperture will in one part or another receive and retain the head of almost any stopper, and prevent its turning with the bottle. Then by wrapping a cloth about the bottle and grasping it with both hands, the attempt to turn it round so as to move the stopper may be made with any degree of force which it may be thought safe to exert. The force employed should never be carried so far as to cause fracture anywhere, but the attempts, if unavailing with the application of a moderate degree, should be desisted. Another and very successful method of removing a stopper is to turn the bottle round when held horizontally over the small flame of a spirit lamp or candle applied to the neck. The heat should be applied only to the part round the plug of the stopper, and in a few moments, when that has become warm, the stopper should be tapped with the piece of wood as before stated. As soon as the stopper moves by tapping it is to be taken out, and must not be replaced till the gla.s.s is cold.

"The application of heat in this manner must be short and the operation altogether, to be successful, must be a quick one. If the contents of the bottle are fluid, it should be so inclined that they must not become heated; if they are volatile this method should be tried very carefully, lest the vapour formed within should burst the bottle.

"It is often advantageous to put a little olive oil round the edge of the stopper at its insertion, allowing it to soak in for a day or two. If this be done before the heat be applied, it frequently penetrates by increased facility; by oil, heat, and tapping very obstinate stoppers may be removed.

"When a stopper has been fixed by crystallisation from solution, water will sometimes set it free, and it is more efficacious in such cases than oil, because it dissolves the cement. When the cementing matter is a metallic oxide or sub-salt, a little muriatic acid may be useful if there be no objection to its application arising from the nature of the substance within."[198]

[Footnote 198: Faraday.]

A writes in 'New Remedies' suggests that, in attempting to extricate the fixed stopper by means of knocking with a piece of wood, the motion given to it when putting it in should be reversed, that is, the stopper should be knocked from _right_ to _left_.

=STORM-GLa.s.s.= A philosophical toy, consisting of a thin gla.s.s tube about 12 inches long and 3/4 inch in diameter, about three fourths filled with the following liquid, and covered with a bra.s.s car having an almost capillary hole through it, or else tied over with bladder.

The solution. Take of camphor, 2 dr.; nitre 1-1/2 dr.; sal ammoniac, 1 dr.; proof spirit 2-1/4 fl. oz.; dissolve, and place it in the tube above referred to. Used to foretell changes of the weather.

=STOVES.= In England the open grate or fireplace, because of its cheerful appearance and the sense of comfort it suggests when filled with glowing coal, is the favorite and general receptacle for the fuel with which we warm our apartments. The cozy appearance, however, of our old-fas.h.i.+oned English grate, const.i.tutes its chief, if not its only merit; for it not only fails in uniformly warming and effectively ventilating our apartments, but it more or less sets into circulation a number of draughts of cold air, and besides occasionally filling our rooms with smoke and spoiling our furniture by the deposition of soot and dust, wastes our fuel, by allowing it to escape unconsumed in the shape of smoke, and thus pollutes the atmosphere of our cities and towns.

In France, Germany, Belgium, Russia, and other European countries, as well as in America and Canada, the stove or closed fireplace is used. The domestic stove of these countries is made either of sheet or cast-iron, or fire-clay. The iron stoves, being mostly composed of thin plates, soon absorb and radiate the heat; and although this property enables them to rapidly warm an apartment, it has the disadvantage, if the stove becomes red-hot, of allowing the escape through the heated metal into the surrounding air of the carbonic acid generated in the stove; and furthermore, in its immediate vicinity converts a portion of it into carbonic oxide. Such stoves must necessarily be unsafe unless used in well-ventilated apartments.[199] Another effect of the over heating of the stove is to desiccate or parch the air, and to render it irritating when breathed. The fire-clay stoves are free from these drawbacks, and continue to radiate from their surfaces a large amount of heat, even when the fuel with which they have been supplied is consumed. But although we exclude the close stove from our sitting rooms and dormitories, it is in frequent requisition in halls, picture-galleries, churches, theatres, lecture-rooms, and the like.

[Footnote 199: Dr Bond has suggested coating them with soluble gla.s.s, as a remedy for this.]

"Stove literature," if such a term may be applied to the various treatises descriptive of the mult.i.tude of patterns in use, which have emanated alike from inventors and their critics, is so voluminous that it is impossible for us to attempt to give even a list of the numberless stoves in use, to say nothing of a commentary on their relative value. Of close stoves suitable for heating s.p.a.ces other than dwelling or sleeping-rooms, mention may be made of Arnott's stove, and one known as "The Belfast." These stoves are serviceable when it is desirable to keep up a fire for some time, as in heating a lobby. They have the advantage of requiring little, if any, attention after the fuel has been placed in them and ignited.

Of late years, gas-stoves, both for heating and cooking purposes, have come largely into use. One of those for the former purpose is called the "Pyropneumatic." The inner part of this apparatus is formed of lumps of fire-clay traversed by vertical air-pa.s.sages which communicate with the external air by a special channel. The air becomes heated as it pa.s.ses through the lumps of fire-clay, and rising to the top of the stove, escapes therefrom by an outlet into the room. Another so-called "ventilating" warming gas-stove is Mr George's "Culirogen." It consists of a stove made of thin-rolled iron, inside of which is a coil of wrought-iron tubing open at the top of the stove. The lower end of this tubing is in connection with an iron pipe which is carried through the wall of the apartment, and fed with air from without. Gas is the fuel generally used to heat the inside of the stove. The continuous current of air as it rushes into the iron pipe from without, thus becomes warmed as it ascends into the coil, which it leaves to become diffused into the surrounding apartment, whilst the products of combustion of the gas used as fuel are, by means of a pipe attached to the stove, carried into the chimney, as with coal fire.

A gas-cooking apparatus possesses many advantages over an ordinary coal fire. In the first place, it is more cleanly; in the second, it affords a much more uniform and equable temperature; in the third, it forms no smoke, and in the fourth it is more economical as well as expeditious.

Mr Ea.s.sie gives the following practical suggestions to intending purchasers of gas-stoves:--

"It is not necessary here to enter into a description of any of the numberless common patterns extant, but it might be well to record the opinion of the best engineers, that the simplest gas-stove is the best.

They should not be surrounded by a non-conducting material, as that affords no advantage, but the contrary. An Argand or fish-tail burner should also be used instead of rings pierced for so many separate jets, and where practicable, the Bunsen-burner should be employed, as the mixture of common air with the gas not only prevents the formation of soot, but also intensifies the heat."

=STRABIS'MUS.= _Syn._ SQUINTING. This need not be described. When one eye only is affected, an excellent plan is to blindfold the sound eye during several hours each day, until the affection be removed. When both eyes are affected, a projecting piece of pasteboard, in the line of the nose, may be worn as much as possible with the same object. In bad cases of squinting inwards, as it is called, the division of the internal rectus muscle of the eyeball by a skilful surgeon, is said to often relieve the deformity.

=STRANGULATION.= See HANGING.

=STRAP'PING.= Spread adhesive plaster. Used to dress wounds, &c.

=STRa.s.s.= See ENAMEL.

=STRAW'BERRY.= _Syn._ FRAGARIA, L. The fruit of _Fragaria vesca_ (Linn.), or strawberry plant. Strawberries are, perhaps, the mildest of all the cultivated fruits; they are cooling, and slightly laxative and diuretic; rubbed on the teeth, they dissolve the tartar, and whiten them. They were formerly in repute in gout, stone, and consumption. The root of the plant is aperient.

=Strawberry essence, fact.i.tious.= Nitric ether, 1 part; acetate of ethyl, 5 parts; forminate of ethyl, 5 parts; butyrate of ethyl, 5 parts; salicylate of methyl, 1 part; acetate of amyl, 3 parts; butyrate of amyl, 2 parts; glycerin, 2 parts; alcohol, 100 parts.[200]

[Footnote 200: 'Pharm. Journ.']

=STRAW PLAIT=, and the articles made of it, are bleached by exposing them to the fumes of burning sulphur in a close chest or box; or, by immersing them in a weak solution of chloride of lime, and afterwards well was.h.i.+ng them in water. Water acidulated with oil of vitriol or oxalic acid is also used for the same purpose. Straw plait may be dyed with any of the simple liquid dyes.

=STRINGHALT.= The same as Ch.o.r.eA, which _see_.

=STRON'TIUM.= Sr. The metallic base of the earth strontia. It was discovered by Sir H. Davy, in 1808. It closely resembles barium, but is less l.u.s.trous. With chlorine it combines to form a chloride of strontium, a somewhat deliquescent salt, soluble in 2 parts of cold and in less of boiling water, and freely soluble in alcohol. With oxygen it forms an oxide.

_Test._ Strontium salts are precipitated by sulphuric acid and alkaline carbonates and sulphate. They are distinguished from barium by not giving such a decided precipitate with sulphates, and by not being precipitated by b.i.+.c.hromate of pota.s.sium. From calcium, by sulphates of calcium solution giving a precipitate, and by concentrated solutions giving a precipitate with chromate of pota.s.sium. It is distinguished from magnesium by the insolubility of its sulphate.

=Strontium, Oxide of.= SrO. _Syn._ PROTOXIDE OF STRONTIUM, STRONTIA.

_Prep._ Quite pure crystalline nitrate of strontium. _Prop._ Greyish-white powder, uniting with water to form a white, somewhat soluble substance, the hydrate of strontium, Sr(HO)_{2}.