Aerial ropeways or Cableways are a means of transport or carriage in which a great rope or cable, elevated above the ground on fixed supports, is made use of in conveying from place to place materials or articles of various kinds. Such a cable may be said to serve the purpose of a rail, from which are suspended the carriages, buckets, or carriers of whatever sort are employed to convey the materials dealt with, the cable being actuated by means of an engine and winding-gear of suitable construction. During the 19th century and early 20th century such cables were much used in carrying materials over a comparatively short space, as in quarries, excavations for canals, docks, etc; in the construction of bridges, in shipbuilding, etc, and in the coaling of battleships at sea from a coal transport standing by. Research Aerial Ropeways
Blue is one of the seven colours into which the rays of light divide themselves when refracted through a glassprism, seen in nature in the clear expanse of the heavens; the term is also applied to a dye or pigment of this hue.
The substances used as blue pigments are of very different natures, and derived from various sources; they are all compound bodies, some being natural and others artificial. They are derived almost entirely from the vegetable and mineral kingdoms. The principal blues used in painting are ultramarine, which was originally prepared from lapis-lazuli or azure-stone - a mineral found in China and other oriental countries - but, as now prepared, it is an artificial compound of china-clay, carbonate of soda, sulphur, and charcoal; Prussian or Berlin blue, which is a compound of cyanogen and iron; blue bice, prepared from carbonate of copper; indigo blue, from the indigo plant. Besides these, there are numerous other blues used in art, as blue-verditer, smalt- and cobalt-blue, from cobalt, lacmus or litmus, etc.
Before the discovery of aniline or coal-tar colours dyers chiefly depended for their blues on woad, archil, indigo, and Prussian blue, but now a series of brilliant blues are obtained from coal-tar, possessing great tinctorial power and various degrees of durability.
Blue as a colour ranges from green-blue (turquoise) through to purple-blue (indigo).
Alice blue - A very light greenish-blue colour.
Aquamarine - A bluish-green colour.
Azure - A deep blue colour reminiscent of the sky.
Aquamarine - A pale greenish-blue colour.
Bice blue - A medium blue colour
Cambridge blue - A light blue colour.
Cobalt blue - A deep blue colour with a greenish-tint. The colour of old blue glass.
Calico-printing is the art of applying colours to cloth after it has come from the hand of the weaver in such a manner as to form patterns or figures. The art was originally brought to Britain from India, and was sometimes practised on linen, woollen, and silk, but most frequently upon that species of cotton cloth called calico. The process was originally accomplished by means of hand-blocks made of wood on which patterns or parts of patterns for each different colour were cut. These blocks were of various dimensions, according to the nature of the work, and where several colours were employed in one pattern, a block for each colour was necessary.
As an improvement in the method of printing from wooden blocks, especially where delicacy of outline was required, engraved copperplates were introduced about 1760; but the greatest improvement was effected by the introduction of cylinder printing about 1785, which had almost superseded the other methods, except for particular styles by 1900. The machinery then generally used consisted of various modifications of the cylinder printing-machine, in which a number of separate engraved cylinders were mounted, corresponding to the number of colours to be printed. Formerly the cloth had to pass once through the machine for every colour; but later, by an arrangement of machinery equally ingenious and effective, any number of cylinders were fitted on one machine, which acted on the cloth one after the other, and by this means the pattern was finished with a corresponding number of colours in the same time that was formerly employed to give one.
A great variety of methods have been employed in calico-printing, but they all fall under the general heads of dye-colours and steam-colours. Under the first head are included all the styles in which the pattern is printed on the cloth by a mordant - a substance which may have little or no colour itself, but has an affinity for the fibre on the one hand, and for the colouring matter on the other - the dye or colouring matter being subsequently fixed by dyeing on such parts of the cloth as have been impregnated with the mordant, and thus bringing out the pattern.
In steam-colour printing the colouring material is applied to the cloth direct from the printing-cylinder, and subsequently fixed by steaming. In steam-colours there is no limit to the number and variety of shades which may be produced, each colour-box on the cylinder printing-machine containing the whole ingredients essential to the production and fixation of a separate and distinct shade of colour. This process was superseding most of the other styles by the end of the Victorian era, the brilliant coal-tar colours so extensively used being almost entirely fixed by steaming.
The bodies used for fixing were tin mordants, tannic acid, etc, which were mixed with the dye-colours and printed together. The effects of calico-printing are varied by numerous other operations, such as the discharge-style, in which the cloth is first dyed all over, then printed in a certain pattern with discharge-chemicals, which either produce a pattern of some other colour, or one purely white, as in the Turkey-red bandanna handkerchiefs. The resist-style, in some respects, is the reverse of the discharge-style; the process being to print a pattern in certain chemicals, which will enable those parts to resist the action of the dye subsequently applied to all other parts of the cloth. After the prints have undergone the printing process they are submitted to a series of finishing operations, the object of which is to give to the fabrics a pleasing appearance to the eye. Research Calico-Printing
The chaldron is an old English unit of capacity measurement equivalent to 36 bushels. It was used as a measure of coal in England, equal to 6,800 lbs. Research Chaldron
A cresset is a basket of open iron-work in which wood or coal is burned as a beacon. Formerly the cresset was used where lighthouses are now erected. The name was also given in the middle ages and later indifferently to the fixed candlesticks in great halls and churches and to lamps or fire-pans suspended on pivots and carried on poles in processions, municipal and military watches, etc. Research Cresset
Dyeing is the art of giving colour to textile and other articles in such a way that the colours are more or less permanent, and not readily affected by the action of light, washing, etc. Like spinning and weaving it was originally a home industry, as it still is in many places. Until about 1850 natural dye-stuffs alone were employed, but the discovery of dyes of all colours that can be obtained from coal-tar products revolutionized dyeing as an industry, and the vegetable dye-stuffs were gradually superseded by the newer colours.
Before dyeing, the materials have generally to be cleansed or bleached to get rid of undesirable colouring matters or impurities; and frequently a textile material is subjected to some subsidiary treatment in order to obtain special effects. For example, cottonyarn may be subjected to the action of strong causticsoda ('mercerizing' process) while in a state of great tension, in order to give it a permanent silky lustre.
Dyeing is not only an art, it is also a branch of applied chemistry. One fundamental principle is, that the colouring matter and other necessary substances must be applied in a state of solution, and while in direct contact with the fibre they must be rendered insoluble, so that they are precipitated within or upon the fibre and thus permanently fixed. The method of effecting this varies greatly according to the fibre and the colouring matter employed. As a rule the vegetable and the animal fibres are dyed by very different methods. The affinity of the animal fibres for certain colouring matters is often so great that they are readily dyed by simple immersion in hot colour solutions;
but this simple process is not generally sufficient. According to the method of their application in dyeing the following groups: of dye-stuffs may be distinguished: Avid Colours, Basic Colours, Direct Colours, Developed Colours, Mordant Colours, Miscellaneous Colours, Reactive Colours.
The acid colours are so called because they are of an acid character and are applied in an acid dye-bath. As a rule, they are only suitable for dyeing the animal fibres, e.g. wool and silk, also leather, horn, feathers, etc. Only a few vegetable dye-stuffs belong to this class, for example, the purple colour orchil and the blue colour indigo extract. On the other hand, the acid colours derived from coal-tar - and increasingly petroleum - are very numerous and yield a great variety of hues - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown, and black, each with its particular name.
The basic colours are so called because their essential constituents, to which they owe their dyeing power, are organicbases. The bases themselves are colourless and too insoluble in water to be of use, hence they are employed in the form of their soluble coloured salts, usually the hydrochlorides of the colour-bases. Their solutions are precipitated by tannic acid, because it combines with the colour-bases to form insoluble tannates. Wool, silk, and animal substances generally have a direct attraction for colour-bases, and hence these fibres are readily dyed by simple immersion in hot aqueous solutions of the basic colours. Cotton and linen, on the other hand, are not dyed so readily; they need first to be prepared or impregnated with tannic acid, and thus prepared are said to be mordanted, the tannic acid in this connection being styled the mordant. Most of the colours of this class are fugitive to light, and all but one, barberryroot, are derived from coal-tar products.
The direct colours are so called because they dyecotton direct, that is, without the aid of any mordanting process. The first of this class derived from coal-tar was congo red, discovered in 1884; this group includes a very great variety of fast colours, and forms, indeed, one of the most important and valuable series of dye-stuffs employed. Cotton, linen, and the vegetable fibres generally are dyed in the simplest possible manner by merely boiling them in a solution of the dye-stuff, with or without the addition of a little soap, carbonate or sulphate of soda, etc. Wool and silk are frequently dyed in the same manner as cotton. Very few vegetable dye-stuffs belong to the direct colours, e.g. Safflower, Turmeric, Saffron, Annatto. They are all fugitive, and have been of little or no importance to the dyer since the end of the 19th century. The coal-tar colours of this class, on the other hand, are extremely numerous.
The developed colours include a variety of colours which are formed in situ upon the fibre by the successive application of two or more substances. These colours are all of coal-tar origin. A number of them belong to the so-called azo colours, derived from compounds containing nitrogen.
The mordant colours form one of the most important classes of colouring matters, for they include not only most of the vegetable dye-stuffs, e.g. madder, logwood, fustic, etc, but also many valuable fast coal-tar colours, commonly known as the alizarin colours, after their typical representative, alizarin. These mordant colours have by themselves very little colouring power, as a rule, and if employed alone in dyeing give little or no result. If applied, however, in conjunction with metallic salts, notably those of chromium, aluminium, iron, tin, and copper, they each yield a variety of colours, according to the metallic salt employed. In employing them usually two distinct operations are involved: first, that of applying the metallic salt or mordant, called the mordanting process ; and second, that of dyeing proper, in which the mordanted material is boiled in a solution or decoction of the dye-stuff. During the dyeing operation the colouring principle of the dye-stuff combines with the metallic salt already upon the material, and the colour is thus produced and fixed upon the fibre. The method of mordanting varies with the fibre and the metallic salt employed. The vegetable dye-stuffs of this class include Madder, Sapanwood, Camwood, Barwood, Old Fustic, Young Fustic, Quercitron Bark, Persian Berries, Weld, Logwood. Madder was formerly the most important and highly valued of the dye-stuffs of this class, being especially employed to produce the fine 'Turkey-red' dye; but was entirely superseded by the coal-tar colour alizarin towards the end of the 19th century.
Reactive colours combine directly with the fibre being dyed through a chemical reaction and result in a fast colour. The first ranges of reactive dyes for cellulose fibres were introduced in the mid-1950s.
Similarly, the employment of cochineal (an insect dye) has also greatly diminished through the introduction of the cheaper colours. Camwood and barwood are almost entirely used in wool-dyeing, either in conjunction with the indigo-vat or for the purpose of dyeing various shades of brown. Old fustic is the most important of the yellow mordant dye-stuffs, and the colours are fast although not very brilliant. Young fustic yields fugitive colours, and has been little used since 1900. Quercitron bark is an excellent dye-stuff employed by wool-dyers for the production of bright orange and yellow colours. Persian berries and weld, a species of wild mignonette, are both excellent dye-stuffs, but their employment is now limited. Logwood is largely employed by wool, silk, and cotton dyers for dyeing black and dark-blues, which, although fast to washing, are only moderately so towards light. During the 20th century dyewoods were gradually replaced by coal-tar colours.
Among miscellaneous colours are several dye-stuffs applied in a distinct manner. Indigo is a dark-blue powder quite insoluble in water, but can be rendered soluble for dyeing purposes by two methods. The first method converts the indigo into so-called indigo extract, which is sold as a blue paste and applied as an acid colour in dyeing wool and silk. In the second method the indigo-blue is converted into indigo-white, which readily dissolves in the alkalipresent, the solution thus obtained being called an indigo-vat. If cotton, wool, or silk is steeped for some time in the clear yellow solution of such a vat, and then exposed to the oxidizing influence of the air, they are dyed a permanent blue. The indigo-white absorbed by the fibre loses its acquired hydrogen, and thus insoluble indigo-blue is regenerated within and upon the fibre. Aniline black is a valuable colour, produced direct upon the fibre by the oxidation of aniline, and remarkable for its extreme permanency.
Catechu is a vegetable dye-stuff used in dyeing cotton and woollen brown. On wool, catechu yields khaki browns in single bath by using copper sulphate as the mordant. On silk it is largely employed for weighting purposes in the process of dyeing black. Chrome Yellow, Iron Buff, Prussian Blue, and Manganese Brown, employed in cotton dyeing, are frequently classed as mineral colours. Chrome yellow is obtained by immersing cotton successively in solutions of acetate of lead and bichromate of potash, whereby the yellow precipitate of chromate of lead is fixed upon the fibre. Iron buff is obtained in a similar manner by the successive application of iron sulphate and carbonate of soda, and finally developing the full colour by washing with water and exposure to air. The buff colour is really due to the precipitation of oxide of iron on the cotton. Prussian blue is at once developed by passing the buff-dyed cotton through an acidified solution of potassium ferrocyanide. The production of manganese brown on cotton is similar to that of iron buff. The brown colour ultimately produced upon the fibre is an oxide of manganese. The mineral colours are very useful for certain purposes, and are to be regarded as very fast to light. Research Dyeing
Glue is an adhesive substance made by boilinganimalhides, hooves or bones. Glue consists of gelatine and chondrin, the proportions defining the adhesive qualities of the glue. Glue made from skins is superior to that made from bones, and the best glue is called 'Scotch glue'.
During the Victorian period large quantities of glue were produced from the skins of sheep, calves, cows, hares, dogs, cats, etc, from the refuse of tanneries and tawing works, from old gloves, from sinews, tendons, and other offal of animal origin.
By a process of cleaning and boiling the albuminoid elements of the animal matter are changed into gelatine. This in a soft jelly-like state constitutes size; dried into hard, brittle, glassy cakes, which before use must be melted in hot water, it formed the common glue used by joiners, etc during the Victorian period. When a solution is mixed with acetic or nitric acid it remains liquid, but still retains its power of cementing; in this state it is called liquid glue. Marine Glue is a cement made by dissolving india-rubber in oil of turpentine or coal-naphtha, to which an equal quantity of shellac is added. Research Glue
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Aerial Ropeways
