Joseph Hume was a Scottish politician and economist. He was born in 1777 at Montrose and died in 1855. After studying medicine at Edinburgh he was appointed marine assistant-surgeon in the service of the East India Company. Having qualified himself by a diligent study of the native languages he obtained several lucrative posts connected with the commissariat and the pay-office, and in 1808, when only 31 years old, he was able to return to Europe with a considerable fortune.
After making a tour in Southern Europe and Egypt in 1812 he became Tory member of Parliament for the 'rotten borough' of Weymouth; but losing his seat in 1813 began to take an active part in regard to Lancasterian schools, savings'-banks, and other measures of social reform. In 1818 he was again returned to parliament as member for the Aberdeen district of burghs. It was now that he began his career as an active advocate of reforms, such as the emancipation of the Catholics, the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, economy in public expenditure, etc.
He had no power as an orator, his strength lying in his handling of figures and the tenacity and energy with which he carried on his crusade against corruption. After representing Middlesex and Kilkenny county he was returned by the Montrose burghs in 1842, which he continued to represent until his death in 1855. Research Joseph Hume
Aluminium is a bluish-silver-white, malleable, ductile, light, trivalent metallic element with good electrical and thermal conductivity, high reflectivity, and resistance to oxidation and is the most abundant metal in the earth's crust occurring always in combination. It has the symbolAl. Aluminium was discovered in 1827, but nowhere found native, although its oxide, alumina is abundantly distributed. The minerals bauxite and cryolite are sources of aluminium, but the chief source is the pure oxide, from which the metal is obtained by means of a strong electric current. It forms several useful alloys with iron and copper; one of the latter (aluminium gold) much resembles gold, and is made into cheap trinkets. Another, known as aluminium bronze, possesses great hardness and tenacity. Spoons, tea and coffee pots, dish-covers, musical and mathematical instruments, trinkets, etc, are made of aluminium, as are aircraft parts on account of its light weight. Research Aluminium
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc formerly called Prince's Metal, German Gold, Deutsche Gold and also Dutch Gold. Brass is of a bright-yellow colour, and hard, ductile, and malleable. The best brass consists of two parts by weight of copper to one of zinc; but any degree of variation may be obtained by altering the proportions; thus by increasing the quantity of zinc we may form tombac and pinchbeck, and with nearly a seventh more of zinc than copper the compound becomes brittle and of a silver-white colour. By increasing the copper, on the other hand, the compound increases in strength and tenacity. Brass which is to be turned or filed is made workable by mixing about 2 percent of lead in the alloy, which has the effect of hardening the brass and preventing the tool being clogged. For engraving purposes a little tin is usually mixed with the brass. Brass is used for a vast variety of purposes, both useful and ornamental. Research Brass
Bronze is an alloy of copper, to which other metallic substances are sometimes added, especially zinc. It is a finegrained metal, taking a smooth and polished surface, harder and more fusible than copper, but not so malleable. In various parts of the world weapons and implements were made of this alloy before iron came into use, and hence the bronze age is regarded as one coming between the stone age and the iron age of prehistoric archeology.
Both in ancient and modern times bronze has been much used in making casts of all kinds, medals, bas-reliefs, statues, and other works of art; and varieties of it are also used for bells, gongs, reflectors of telescopes, and formerly for cannons, etc.
Bronze is of a reddish, brownish, or olive-green colour, and is darkened by exposure to the atmosphere. Ancient bronze generally contains from 4 to 15 percent of tin. The alloy of British bronze coinage at the start of the 20th century consisted of 94 parts of copper, 4 of tin, and 1 of zinc. An alloy of about 85 parts copper, 11 zinc, and 4 tin is used for statues. Bell-metal consists of 78 of copper and 22 of tin. An alloy called phosphor bronze, consisting of about 90 percent of copper, 9 of tin, and from .5 to .75 of phosphorus has been found to have peculiar advantages for certain purposes. The addition of phosphorus increases the homogeneousness of the compound, and by varying the proportion of the constituents the hardness, tenacity, and elasticity of the alloy may be modified at pleasure. Research Bronze
Cohesion is the force by which the various particles of the same material are kept in contact, forming one continuous mass. Its action is seen in a solid mass of matter, the parts of which cohere with a certain force which resists any mechanical action that would tend to separate them. In different bodies it is exerted with different degrees of strength, and it is measured by the force necessary to pull them asunder. Cohesion acts at insensible distances, or between particles in contact, and is thus distinguished from the attraction of gravitation. It unites particles into a single mass, and that without producing any change of properties, and is thus distinguished from adhesion, which takes place between different masses or substances; and from chemical attraction or affinity, which unites particles of a different kind together and produces a new substance. Hardness, softness, tenacity, elasticity, malleability, and ductility are to be considered as modifications of cohesion. The great antagonist of cohesion is heat. Research Cohesion
Gluten is a tough elasticprotein of a greyish colour which becomes brown and brittle by drying, found in the flour of wheat and other grain. It contributes much to the nutritive quality of flour, and gives tenacity to its paste. Research Gluten
Clay is the name of various earths, which consist of hydrated silicate of aluminium, with small proportions of the silicates of iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium. All the varieties are characterized by being firmly coherent, weighty, compact, and hard when dry, but plastic when moist and comprising very fine-grained materials (less than 0.004 mm in diameter), smooth to touch, not readily diffusible in water, but when mixed not readily subsiding in it. Their tenacity and ductility when moist and their hardness when dry has made them from the earliest times the materials of bricks, tiles, pottery, etc.
Of the chief varieties porcelain-clay, kaolin, or china-clay, a white clay with occasional gray and yellow tones, is the purest. Potter's-clay and pipe-clay, which are similar but less pure, are generally of a yellowish or grayish colour, from the presence of iron. Fire-clay is a very refractory variety, always found lying immediately below the coal; it is used for making fire-bricks, crucibles, etc. Loam is the same substance mixed with sand, oxide of iron, and various other foreign ingredients. The boles, which are of a red or yellow colour from the presence of oxide of iron, are distinguished by their conchoidal fracture. The ochres are similar to the boles, containing only more oxide of iron. Other varieties are f'uller's-earth, Tripoli, and boulder-clay, the last a hard clay of a dark-brown colour, with rounded masses of rock of all sizes embedded in it, the result of glacial action.
The distinctive property of clays as ingredients of the soil is their power of absorbing ammonia and other gases and vapours generated on fertile and manured lands; indeed no soil will long remain fertile unless it has a fair proportion of clay in its composition. The best wheats both in Britain and the European continent are grown on calcareous clays. Research Clay
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