Congreves were a predecessor of the Lucifer matches. The splints were dipped in sulphur and then tipped with the chlorate of potash paste, in which gum was substituted for sugar, and there was added a small quantity of antimony sulphide. The match was ignited by drawing it through a fold of sandpaper under pressure. The matches were banned in France and Germany on account of being dangerous. Research Congreves
Enamel is a vitreous glaze of various colours fused to the surface of gold, silver, copper, and other substances. The art of enamelling, which is of great antiquity, was practised by the Assyrians and by the Egyptians, from whom it may have passed into Greece, and thence into Rome and its provinces, including Great Britain, where various Roman antiquities with enamelled ornamentation have been discovered. The enamelled gold cup given by King John to the corporation of Lynn, in Norfolk, proves that the art was known among the Normans. The Byzantines of the 10th century produced excellent cloisonne enamels on a gold base, the cloisonne process consisting in tracing the design in fillets of gold upon the gold plate and filling up the small moulds thus formed with enamels the design appearing in coloured enamels separated by thin gold partitions or cloisons. In some cases, however, the enamels were filled into hollows beaten out in the gold plate, which formed part of the field.
In the 12th century the town of Limoges acquired the high reputation for inlaid enamels which it held until the 14th century, aud re-acquired in the 16th for its painted enamels. The costliness of the sculptured ground had led the Italians early in the 14th century to substitute the practice of incising the design on the face of the plate, and then covering it with a transparent enamel. The further step, which made the Limousin workshops famous, consisted in the method of superficial enamelling, in which opaque colours or colours laid on a white opaque ground were used. The Limoges school degenerated greatly in the 17th century, but its method with certain modifications in detail is still employed.
The basis of all kinds of enamel is a perfectly transparent and fusibleglass, which is rendered either semitransparent or opaque by the admixture of metallic oxides. White enamels are composed by melting the oxide of tin with glass, and adding a small quantity of manganese or phosphate of calcium to increase the brilliancy of the colour. The addition of the oxide of lead, or antimony, or oxide of silver, produces a yellow enamel. Reds are formed by copper, and by an intermixture of the oxides of gold and iron. Greens, violets, and blues are formed from the oxides of copper, cobalt, and iron.
In the middle of the 18th century enamelling was largely applied to the decoration of snuff-boxes, tea-canisters, candlesticks, and other small articles. Of later years it was extensively applied to the coating of iron vessels for domestic purposes, the protection of the insides of baths, cisterns, and boilers, and the like. Enamelling in colours upon iron was common, iron plates being thus treated by means of various mixtures, and words and designs of various kinds being permanently fixed upon them by stencilling, for advertising, signboards, etc.
The Southwark Poisoning Case was a notorious series of murders committed by Severino Klosowski, a Russian Pole. Becoming a publican, Severino Klosowski advertised for barmaids whom he then slowly poisoned with doses of antimony. Tow of his victims were an Elizabeth Taylor, who died in February 1901 and a Maude Marsh who died at the Crown public house, Borough High Street, in October 1902. Severino Klosowski was tried, found guilty of murder and executed at Wandsworth in April 1903. Research Southwark Poisoning Case
Dumdum fever (kala-azar) is a tropical fever common in north-east Africa and southern Asia, caused by the Leishmaniaparasite. The infection occurs chiefly in the bonemarrow and the lymphatic system. Symptoms include fever, anaemia and enlargment of the spleen and liver. The disease is often fatal if left untreated, but may be frequently successfully treated with compounds of antimony. Research Dumdum Fever
An alloy is a substance produced by melting together two or more metals, sometimes a definite chemical compound, but more generally a solid solution of some such compound in an excess of one of the components. Most metals mix together in all proportions, but others unite only in definite proportions, and form true chemical compounds. Others, again, will not alloy, and when fused together, and then allowed to solidify, form not a homogeneous mixture, but a conglomerate of distinct masses.
Alloys differ from their components in most of their physical properties. Their hardness is in general increased, their malleability and ductility impaired. The colour of an alloy may closely resemble that of one of the components, or may be entirely different from the colours of both. Its specific gravity is sometimes less than the mean of its component metals. Alloys are always more fusible than their components, at any rate than the least fusible component. Newton's fusible metal, composed of three parts of tin, two or five parts of lead, and five or eight parts of bismuth, melts at temperatures varying from 198 degrees to 210 degrees Fahrenheit (and therefore in boiling water); its components fuse respectively at the temperatures 442 degrees, 600 degrees and 478 degrees Fahrenheit. Sometimes each metal retains its own fusing-point. With few exceptions metals are not much used in a pure state. 19th century British gold coins contained eight percent silver; 19th century British silver coins 7.1 percent copper. Printer's types were made from an alloy of lead and antimony; brass and a numerous list of other alloys are formed from copper and zinc; bronze from copper and tin. Research Alloy
Animony white is a pigment formed from antimonyoxide. The pigment is produced by roasting the black antimony in the presence of air, the fumes being condensed to form an amorphous white pigment. Antimony white is fine textured and very opaque, but tends to discolour in the presence of sulphur and retards the drying of linseed oil. Research Animony White
Antifriction metal is a name given to various alloys of tin, zinc, copper, antimony, lead, etc, which oppose little resistance to motion, with great resistance to the effects of friction, so far as concerns the wearing away of the surfaces of contact. Babbitt metal consisting of 50 parts tin, 5 parts of antimony and 1 part copper is one of them. Research Antifriction Metal
Antimony white is a pigment formed from antimonyoxide. The pigment is produced by roasting the black antimony in the presence of air, the fumes being condensed to form an amorphous white pigment. Antimony white is fine textured and very opaque, but tends to discolour in the presence of sulphur and retards the drying of linseed oil. Research Antimony White
Abbreviations
Research Aldebaran
