Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/958

 KAR

KAMINE, a name given by fome to the but'ter-itone. See

BUTTER-y/w.

KANFOR, a word ufed by fome chemical writers to exprefs tin. See the article Tin.

KANNAWAKERAKA, in botany, a name ufed by =fome authors for the tree which produces the gamboge, or gutta gamba of the fhops. Herm. Muf. Zcyl. p. 26.

KAOLIN, the name of one of the two Jubilances, which are the ingredients of China ware. The other, which is called petuidfe, is eafily vitrifiable, and this kaolin is fcarce at all lb. Whence the fire compofes from a mixture of them both a femivitrification-, which is China ware. Mr. Reaumur had an opportunity of examining this fub- ftance, not in its native ftate, but only in form of fmall bricks, made out of a pafte of the powder of the native kaolin and water. He found it of a white colour, and fprinkled all over with fine glittering particles ; but thefe he did not judge to be fragments of a different fubftance mixt among the Ifaafs. as are the fmall flakes of talc in our clays and lands; but that the whole mafs was compofed of fome Hone reduced to -^powder and made into a parte with water, and thac thefe ■larger fpangles were only coarfer particles of the powder ; the examination of which he promifed himfelf would difco- ver what the ftonc was of which, they were formed. And this 'was the more worthy a diligent enquiry, fmce the petuntfe might eafily be fupplied by-many of our own earths and lands ; nothing being required of that but a fubftance eafiiy running into a white glafs. But the difficulty of vitrifying this other ingredient, renders it a thing much more difficult to be fupplied by one of the fame nature among ourfclves. The companion of thefe, with other mineral fubftances, foon proved that they were of the na- ture of talc ; or, in other words, that kaolin was talc pow- dered, and made up into a pafte with water. And to be af- rured whether the whole mafs was talc powdered, or any thing elfe with a mixture of talc, he feparated the particli of the kaolin by water, and found the fmall ones wholly the fame with the larger, and that the larger, when reduced to powder alone, made with water a pafte wholly the fame with the kaolin. It is well known, that the fragments of talc have a great rcfemblance to the pearly part of fome (hell fifties ; and hence unqueftionably has arifen the opinion ol porcelain being made of fea Ihelts ; ignorant perfons having feen the talc or kaolin, and taken it for fhelly matter. Talc has not yet been fuccefsfully ufed in any of our European manufactures of porcelain ; but it is eafy to fee, from many unanfwerable reafons, that fmce China porcelain is made of a mixture of a vitrifiable and an unvitrifiable matter, no- thing is fo likely to fucceed with us in the place of the laft of thefe as talc.

t. We know no fubftance in the foffile world fo difficult to reduce to glafs as talc, which if put into the ftrongeft of our fires, in a crucible, is not to be vitrified, nor even cal- cined. 2. We know no fubftance which' keeps fo much brightnefs after having palled the fire as talc, or is of fo pure a white j whence we may alfo learn that it is not to the petuntfe alone, that the China ware owes its white- neis, but that the kaolin is tnftrumental to the giving it that colour. 3. Talc is tranfparent, nay, and in fome degree keeps its tranfparence after the action of the moil 'violent fire. If we are to make porcelain of a vitrifiable, and an unvitrifiable matter mixt together, yet it is neceflary that the unvitrifiable one fhould retain its tranfparence, otherwife it would obfeure the mafs ; and talc is therefore the only known fubftance qualified for this purpbfe, Per- fons who have been at the China works, fay, that the porce- lain is made of equal quantities of petuntje and kaolin, and it is therefore a juft and exact femivitrification. 4. Talc is well known to have a great flexibility or toughnefs, and as it is found to preferve this even after it has palled the fire; it is verv probable, that it is owing to this property of the kaolin, that the China ware is fo much lefs brittle than glafs. Mem. Acad. Par. 1727.

It has been before obferved, that we may eafily in Europe be provided with different Jubilances, which will, in our pprcelain manufactures, fupply the place of the petuntfe of China, and talc appears equally qualified to ferve inftead of the kaolin. For this purpofe we may ufe the common Muf- covy talc, or ifinglafs, ufed by our miniature painters, to cover their pictures inftead of glafs, and, by the curious, to preferve objects for the microfcope ; or perhaps the Vene- tian talc of the druggifts, would fucceed even better ; at leaft the procefs is fo rational as to be extremely well worth trying.

KAPAMARA, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the cafhew nut tree, the acajou, and acajuiba of other writers. Hort. Malab. V. 3. p. 65. See Acajou.

KAPNAJICORAKA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the tree which produces the gamboge, or gutta gamba of the ihops. Herm. Muf. Zeyl. p. 26.

KAPRILI, a word ufed by fome chemical writers to exprefs fulphur. See Sulphur.

KARABITUS, a word ufed by the Arabian phyficians to ex- prefs a delirium.

K E E.

KAllADRE, a name given by the writers of the middle age- to a ftone, of which they record many imaginary virtues, fuchas the rendering people amiable, fprightly, and the like. They defefibe it to have refcmbled cryftal, but with a mix- ture of a dufky white* It fcems to have been a foul kind of pebble cryftal.

KARENA, a term ufed by Paracelfus, to exprefs a very minute quantity of any liquid. He explains it, by calling it a twenty-fourth part of the fmalleft drop : but this is a very indeterminate fort of meafure.

KASAM, a word ufed by fome chemical writers to exprefs iron. See the article Iron.

KATIMIA, a word ufed by fome chemical writers to exprefs tutty, and by others for the lapis calarninaris.

KATOV-alou, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for

■ the feus Indica, the arched Indian fig-tree. Hort. Malab. V. 3. p. 73. See Ficus.

Katou Carva, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the tree, whofe leaves are the tarhalapatfa, or Indian leaf of the ihops. Hort. Malab. V. 5, p. 109. See the article Malabathrum.

KATOVINDEL, in botany, the name given by the authors of the hortus Malabaricm, to a genus of plants, called by fome elate, and by Linna:us pbtznix. Hort. Malab. V. 3. p. 23. See Phoenix.

KAYL, a word ufed by fome writers to exprefs fowcr milk.

KAYSIR, a word ufed by fome to fignify the froth of the (es, and by others for the pumice ftone, fuppofed to be generated of that froth.

KAZDIR, a word ufed by fome chemical writers to ex- prefs tin. See the article Tin.

KEALE, fmall fragments refembling chips or broken pieces of ftone of various kinds ; fome of lime- ftone, others of free- ftone, and others of rag-ftone, found mixed among the earth, of the upper ftratum in many parts of this kingdom, and giving that fori the name of kealy ; hence, fome of thefe pieces of keah arc thin and flat like bits of ftate. Alureton's North, p. 41.

KE ALY foil, in agriculture, is ufed by the hufbandmen for a fort of land, plentifully ilrewed with hale or kale.

KECKLE, on board afhip. When the cables gaul in the hawfe, or the bolt ropes do fo againft the fhip's quarter, the feamen wind fome fmall ropes about them j and this is called keckling.

KEDGER, or KETtGE-ancho?-) in a fhip. See Anchor.

KEDRELj*EON, Cedrelaion, in the materia medica of the antients, an oil taken from the pix cedri, or pitch of the cedar tree.

Erotian, and many of the old Greek authors have con- founded together the two fubftances mentioned by the phy- ficians of moft account ; the cedrium or cedria, and the cedrelaion or cedrelaum. Thefe were not the fame fubftance, though generally fuppofed to be fitch-; but the cedrium was a kind of liquid pitch or tar obtained from the cedar wood by burning ; and the cedrclaum was a liquid oil, that fepa- rated itfelf from this cedrium or tar, while it was kept boil- ing over the fire, and was collected by locks of wool dipped into it.

Diofcorides plainly diftinguifties the two fubftances, and in the very formation of the word from cedria or cedrium, we may undcrftand the nature of the fubftance expreifed by it. For as cedrel&um was formed from cedrium, fo was pijfieheum from pix; and as the one exprefled the fubftance iaved in the boiling of pitch, fo the other fignificd that which was faved in the boiling of cedrium, or the pitch of the cedar. Pliny indeed confounds the cedrelmun and pijpsltsum- as one fubftance ; and where he tranflates Diofcorides on the virtues of medicines, he often renders that pijpelesum which he finds in his author cedrelcsum. But this is not furpri- fing ; fince he knew fo little of thefe fubftances, as not only to fuppofe them the fame, but to give an account of their being obtained from the fruit of the cedar, not from its wood. In another place, indeed, he tells us, that this liquid fubftance was made from the cedrium, or pitch of the cedar, and that it was more efficacious than the common piffklaum. This confufion of Pliny, in regard to the oil of pitch, and that of the cedrium, is evidently owing to his miftaking the name, by which the Greeks diftinguifhed the latter bil'from the name of a tree. Inftead of cedrelaion, he has written crcdelaton, and fuppofes it a large kind of cedar tree. When he had thus loft the only name of the cedre- laum, it is no wonder that he confounded the fubftance with another, fo like it, as the common oil of pitch or piffeelaum was.

KEEL [Cycl.)~- KzE-L-haiing, or KEEL-raking, in the fea language, is a punifhment inflicted at fea on very great of- fenders, who are drawn underneath the very keel of the fhip. See Ducking, Cycl.

KEEL-rope, a hair rope running between the keelfon and the keel of a fliip, to clear the limber holes when they are choaked up with ballaft, &c.

KEELAGE, killagium, a privilege to demand money 'for the bottoms of Clips refting in a port or harbour. Terms of law, Blozmt,

a K-EtL-i