Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/1005

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•f a great number of experiments, made by the accurate Lew- enhoefc, and fince repeated by other obfervers. The reft with the figures of thefe moots are publifhed at large in the Phi- Iofophical Tranfactions.

Lime makes the greatcft improvement upon light fandy lands, or upon a dry gravel : but a cold clay feldom is much bene- fited by it. If it be mixed with dung, or with mud, drawn from the bottom of the rivers, it makes an excellent mix- ture, especially where the foil is very fandy ; and in Wcft- mor eland they procure fine crops of barley from their fandy lands, by manuring them with lime and cow-dung mixed together. The nature of lime on land is like that of chalk, it works downwards, as the farmers exprefs it ; it is therefore beft to treat it in the fame manner, laying it upon a lay the year before it is to be plowed up. Lime is reckoned to make corn grow with a thin hufk ; but it is not a lafting manure, feldom holding for more than five crops. When lime is ufed to land, which lies upon a defcent, it fhould be mixed with dung, and laid principally on the higher part of the land ; the confequence of which, will be, that the rain will wafh out the virtue of the time and dung together, and carry the whole to the lower parts as it runs down. Dunn- and lime mixed together will do better for any land, than either of them alone.

Lime is made of chalk, or of any ftone, that is not too cold, or fandy, as free ftone, and the like. All the foft ftoncs that are of a tolerably clofe texture, will burn to good lime, as will alfo marble, flatc, fea fhclls, corals, and flints ; but this laft kind of done is more difficult to be burnt to lime than the others, except in a reverberatory kiln, for they are apt to run to glafs. The harder the ftones of which Unit is made are, the better the lime is ; and when it is made of chalk, that is much better, which is made of the hard ftony kind, than that which is made from the foft ; but the harder the ftones are, the more fire is required to burn them : both forts may be burnt with wood, coals, turfF, or fern, which makes a very fierce fire. The kilns ufed for chalk, or ftone, they commonly make in a large pit, which is dug either round or fquare, according as they have convenience ; and is of fuch a fize, as will be proper for the quantities they intend to burn. They are wideft at the top, and narrower, by degrees, as they come nearer the bottom. The infide of this pit is lined with a wall built of lime- ftone; at the out- fide, near the bottom, they have a hole, or door, by which they take out the afhes, and above that fome have an iron grate, which comes clofe to the wall all about it; but others arch it over with ftone, or large pieces of chalk ; and upon this they lay a layer of ftone, or of whatever cUe they burn in the pit ; upon this they place a layer of wood, or coals, andfoon, layer over layer, to the top of the pit ; only they obferve, that the outcrmoft layer be always of the fuel, not of the ftone. When the kiln is thus filled they give fire at the hole underneath, and the lime is finifticd in a different time, according to the nature of the fubftance. That made of chalky is commonly burnt into lime in twenty-four hours ; hut lime-Rone generally takes fixty hours in burning. Ten bufhels of fea coal, or one hundred of faggots, three feet long, will burn forty bufhels of chalk, and this will yield thirty bufhels of unflakcd Hme. Where chalk is fcarce, they work up the chalk rubbifh into a fort of ftiff parte with water, and make it into a fort of bricks, which they dry in the air, and then burn them into lime in the common way; but this is not quite fo good as the other. Hot lime taken out of the kiln, and mixed into a very foft pafte with water, and then mixed with fand, makes a kind of mortar, very much fuperior to the common fort. Mortimer's Hufbandry. All lime is a very good manure, but that made of ftone is much better than what is made of chalk. The common allowance is a bufhel to a pole fquare, or a hundred and fixty bufhels to an acre.

This they cover with earth, and fo leave it till the rains fall and flake it, and after that they fpread it as evenly as poffible upon the ground. They always find that if it be carried hot out of the kiln, and laid upon the land to cool, it does much better than in any other way. The improvement it makes upon land is owing chiefly to its heat, and the fait it contains. It is in much the lame manner that coal afhes, and the foot of coal become ufeful upon the like fort of lands ; but the farmers always find that a mixture of good earth and lime., that has lain a con- fidcrable time together, is better for this purpofe than frefh lime alone. Moretan's Northampt. p. 481. In the late diffemper among the horned cattle, fome were buried with lime, two bufhels to each cow. The effect fecmed to be a ftrong fcent arifing through the ground, though the carcafs was ten feet under ground. It was diffi- cult to keep the dogs from fcratching, and endeavouring to tear up the ground to get at the flefh. Whereas, when the carcafles were buried without lime, though hut eight feet under ground, the dogs never attempted any fuch thing. Hence it was thought belt to bury without lime, as it is pro- bable it might fend up and fpread malignant particles through the air. That lime renders animal falts more volatile and pungent, appears in the procefs of fpirit of fal ammoniac with quick lime. See Phil. Tranf. N° 480. p. 224, 225 SUPFL. Vpl. f.

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•S/W-Lime. See Bird-AW.

Lime galls, in natural hiftory, a fort of galls or vegetable pro- tuberances, formed on the edges of the leaves of the lime tree in (bring time ; they are very common in the plantations of limes, and are irregularly fhaped, but ufually oblong and rugged, and of a reddifli colour, they occupy only the edges of the leaves, and are of a red colour, fometimes very beau- tiful. As thefe are very plentiful, Mr. Reaumur was of opinion, that they might be of fervice in the dying trade; he made trial by rubbing them on fome parts of his linnen, and found that they gave a very beautiful red colour, which did not come out in the firft warnings afterwards. It is ex- tremely probable, that there wants only inquiry to prove that we have many valuable productions of this kind, which, though difrcgarded at prefent, might prove of great ufe In the feveral mechanical arts as well as in medicine. Thefe galls of the lime leaves are formed by a worm, which inhabits them during its term of life, being found in them of all fizes, from the moft minute to that of the full o-rowtb, which is about half an inch in length ; but when its period of life, as a worm, draws near, it defcrts this habitation, and goes elfewhcre to pafs into its chryfalis ftate. This alfo is the cafe with the worms that inhabit many galls, which are frequently found to contain them in the worm ftate, but never in that of the chryfalis, which they always pafs into elfewhcre. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. Vol. 6. p. 188. Befide thefe galls of the leaves of the lime tree, they have fometimes another appearance not lefs Angular, and this is alfo owing to an infect ; though many curious obfervers have milled the finding it there. In this ftate the whole leaf of the time tree refemblcs a common fpoon, being funk into a hollow in the middle, and in its pedicle making the handle. The edge of the leaf in this cafe is always tumid, and forms a rib or ridge, running round the whole circum- ference in the fhape of a cord : this is ufually found during the time that the leaf is growing to its fize, and to this is owing the whole figure it afl'umes afterward ; for the leaf being unable to extend itfelf farther toward the circumfe- rence by reafon of this ring, naturally forms a fort of hollow or bafin in its fucceeding growth. ' The protuberance, in this cafe, furrounding the leaf is a kind of gall, and owes its origin in the manner of all the other excrefcences of that kind to an infecl. This, however, has been fought for in vain by many, who enquired after it too late ; but Mr. Reau- mur fearching the leaves in the beginning of May, found in every protuberance of this kind, feveral fmall worms of a white colour, and confiderablc length, though not ex- ceeding a horfe hair in thicknefs. The reafon that thefe are not found in the fame place afterwards, probably, is, that they either go out of it, as the inhabitants of many other galls do, in order to pafs into their chryfalis ftate, or elfe that this life in the worm ftate, and the duration of that in the chryfalis, are both very fhorr, and that they arc ge- nerally efcaped in the form of flies before the time that they are fought for in the leaves. See Tab. of Infects, N° 27. and Reaumur's Hift. Inf. Vol. 6. p. 189.

Lime pbofpborus, a kind of pholphorus, invented by Mr. Homberg, and made of fal armoniac and lime. The method of making it is this : Take of fal armoniac one part, of lime flaked in the air two parts, mix thefe well together, and fill a fmall crucible with them ; fct this in a fmall fire of fufion, and as foon as the crucible is red hot, the mixture will melt, and fhould be ftirrcd with an iron rod to prevent its running over. When the matter is entirely fufed, pour it into a brafs mortar, and when cold it will appear of a grey colour, and as if vitrified ; if now it be ftruck upon with any hard body, it appears as on fire in the whole extent of the ftroke ; but the matter being brittle, it is proper for the experiment's fake, to dip little bars of iron or copper into the melted matter in the crucible ; for thus they will be enamelled as it were with the matter, and thefe bars being ftruck upon will give the fame fire, and the experiment may be feveral times repeated before all the matter falls oft". Thefe bars muft be kept in a dry place. Shavfs Lectures, p. 406.

Lime tree. The feveral (pedes of the til'ta, or lime tree, are all eafily propagated by layers, which in one year will take good root, and fhould then be removed to the nurfery, planting them at four feet diftance in rows, and the plants two feet a/under in each row. The beft feafon for removing them is Michaelmas. They fhould remain four or five years in the nurfery, and fhould afterwards be removed to the places where they are to remain, The foil they love beft is a ftrong fat loam, in which they will grow very faft. Miller's Gardners Diet. See Tili a.

Lime water. The general opinion of lime acting as a cauftic, and confuming the bodies it was made to act upon, by means of the great quantity of particles of fire it contained, long denied any preparation of it a place among internal me- dicines ; at length, water poured upon it was found to take in a part of its virtues, and to be a valuable medicine, and very fufcly to be given internally in large quantities. All lime is not equally good for the making this water, but the feveral kinds differ according to the fubftances they are made from, in Holland they at dm time make lime of fea j 5 U (hells,