Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/555

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the central part of a thick fquare bar of call iron, the outer part changing firft into the condition of malleable iron, and ferving as a crucible for the fufion of the yet unaltered fu- iible iron within. By a proper management of this difco- very, it will be eafy to take off the unwieldy weight of many works of caft iron, which do not require fo much ftrength as that of the folid contained in their circumference. Mem. Acad. Scienc. Par. 1722.

Mr. Cramer obferves, that the method of making Jieel out of iron, is either by fufion, or by cementation. That by cementation may be performed in the following manner: choofe fome bars of pure iron, not too thick, prepare a ce- ment of charcoal -daft, moderately pulverized, one part, and wood-aflies half a part ; or of charcoal-duft two parts, bones, horns, leather, or hair of animals, burnt to a black- nefs in a clofe veflel, and in a gentle fire, and afterwards re- duced to powder, one part, wood-afh.es half a part j mix them together. Prepare a cylindrical earthen veflel, two or three inches higher than the bars are long ; put into the bot- tom of this veflel the cement, prepared as before directed, fo that being gently prefied down, it may cover the bottom of the veflel an inch and half deep ; place then the iron bars perpendicularly, fo that they may be every where an inch diftant from the fides of the vefiel, and from each other ; fill the interftices with the cement, and cover the bars with it, that the veflel may be quite full, cover it with a tile, and flop the joints with a lute ; put this veflel into a furnace, and keep it moderately, but equally red-hot, for fix or ten hours. When this is over, take the red-hot bars out, and dip them in cold water, they will then be brittle, and turned to Jieel. Cramer's Art of Aflaying, p. 344. The method of making ft eel by fufion is this : take of iron ore, or of unmalleable iron of the firft fufion, divide it into fmall parcels, and put them into a bed made of charcoal-duft in a fmith's forge ; let the quantity of the iron be but fmall for the experiment; put to it, as a defenfitive menftruum, fome of the vitrefcent fcorite of fand, or ftones of the fame nature; then put upon them a quantity of charcoal, light this, and admit only a fmall blaft of the bellows, that the fcorife and metal may both melt regularly : when this has been fome time kept in fufion, take it out, divide it into two parts, which make red-hot, and hammer into long bars ; fi- nally, heat them red-hot, and plunge them into cold water, and they will then be found to be fteel, fo very hard, as not to be filable, and fo brittle, as to break afunder when ftruck with confiderable force. Cramer's Art of Afiaying, p. 348. Mr. Lemery fhews a fimple method of reducing fuel to a very fine powder, without ruffing it: pour water on filings trfjteel'm an earthen veflel, till it is four inches above the filings ; ftir it well every day, fupplying more water, as that in the vefiel fubfides, fo that the Jieel is always covered : continue this operation till the Jieel falls into an impalpable black powder, then dry it for ufe. Mem. de l'Acad. des Scienc. 1736.

Mr. Boyle tells us of his having opened the body ofy&r/, by a highly rectified fpirit of urine made per fe, and poured upon new filings of the fteel. This being put into a warm place, the menftruum diflblved a confiderable part of the metal. See his Works Abr. Vol. I. p. 77.

Annealing, or Healing of Steel, is by fome ufed for the foft- ening it, in order to make it work eafier ; which is ufually done by living it a blood-red heat in the fire, and then tak- ing it out, and letting it cool of itfelf. Max. Mechan. Exerc. p. 60.

Some have pretended to fecrets in annealing, by which they could bring down iron or Jieel to the temper of lead : this was to be done by often heating the metal in melting lead, and letting it cool again out of the lead. But this method is found by Moxon to have no other effect than what is had from the former. Bought. Collect. N° 276. Steel may indeed be made a little fofter than in the common way, by covering it with coarfe powder of cow-horn, or hoofs ; thus inclofing it in a loam, heating the whole in a wood fire till it be red-hot, and then leaving the fire to go out of itfelf, and then the Jieel to cool. Mox. loc. cit.

Steel glajfes, a name given by fome authors to the metalline fpheres ufed in optics. Thefe, according to Cardan, are made of three parts of brafs, one part of tin, and one of filver, with an eighteenth part of antimony ; but moft either totally leave out the filver, or add only a twenty-fourth part, to five the expence. There are many other methods, di- rected by feveral authors, but moft ufe arfenic and tartar, mixed with the metals. Thefe are afterwards to be polifhed with emery, rotten-ftone, putty, and the like. Merreth Notes onNeri, p. 342.

Steel-ah?, is ufed to fignify a particular kind of lead- ore.

- See LEAD-ore.

§te Eh-tuaters. See the article Mineral Waters.

STEELING, in cutlery, the laying on a piece of fteel upon

1 a larger mafs of iron, to make that part which is to receive the edge harder than the reft. The body of an ax may very well be of iron, as it never comes into ufe to cut with,

SuPPi-i Vol. II.
 * and perhaps is ftronger, and lels liable to break, than if of

STE

Jieel\- but it rriuft have a quantity of Jieel at that part Where the edge is to be made. STEELYARD {Cycl)~Chinefe Steelyard. The people of China carry this ftatera about them to weigh their gemsj and other things of value. The beam, or yard, is made of wood, and is round, and a quarter of an inch over* and a'^out a foot in length ; upon this are three rules of mea- fure, made of a fine filver-ftuckkd work, as in a watch-cafe. One of thefe rules is divided into inches, and every inch into 25 parts ; the other two are divided alfo into equal parts, but not into inches. They all begin from the end of the beam, whence the firft is extended 8 inches, the fe- cond 6 and i, the third 8 and -i.. The firft is the European meafure, the other two feem to be China meafure* and that of fome other nation trading with them; At the other end of the yard hangs a round fcale, marked with China cha- racters, and at three feveral diftances from this end are faft- ened fo many fiender firings ; the firft diftance makes -| of an inch, the fecond is double to the firft, and the third 4 inches and -+. When they weigh any thing, they hold up the yard by fome of ihefc firings, and hang a fealed weight, of about an ounce and ± troy weight, upon fome point of the rule, as the thing requires. Grctv's Mufeum,

e P- 3 6 9-. .

Steelyard-/m;?h£. In the Philofophical Tranfactions we have an account of a Jlee'yard-fwing, propofed as a mecha- nical method for aflifting children labouring under defor- mities, owing to the contraction of the mufcles on one fide of the body. The crooked perfon is fufpended with cords under his arm, and thefe are placed at equal diftances from the center of the beam. It is fuppofed that the gravity of the body will affect the contracted fide, fo as to put the mufcles upon the ftretch ; and hence by degrees the defect may be remedied. See K° 462. feet. 7. STEEVE, aboard a {hip. The feamen fay that the bow-fprit* or the beak-head of a fnip Jleeves, when it ftands too up- right, and not {trait enough forwards. STEEVING, in merchant fhips, is ufed for the flowing of cotton, or wool, by means of fcrews, to force it clofe to- gether. STEINBIZA, in ichthyology, a name given by Hildegard^ and fome other writers, to that fmall fpecies of cobitis, called by others cobitis aculeatus, and tan'ta cornuia. It is the cobitis with a forked fpinc under each eye, defcribed by Artedi. Hildegard, lib. 4. p. 1. See Cobitis. STEINHUN, Jlone-hen, a name given by the Germans to a bird of the lagopus kind, more commonly known by the name of otomo, and in fome places by that of olmejlre. It feems not to differ from the lagopus in any thing but co- lour, and that bird being known to change its colour in the fummer months, it is probably no other fpecies. Rajs Or- njtholog. p. 127. See the articles Lagopus and Otomo. STELE, Stji^, in antiquity, a kind of punifhment, being a pillar whereon a criminal was expofed, and on which was engraven an account of his crime.

The perfons, thus expofed to the laughter and reproaches of the people, were called Jielita: Potter^ Arehseol. Grasc. lib. 1. cap. 25. Tom. I. p. 130. STELECHEIA, a word ufed by fome authors to exprefs the

vena portas. STELECHITES, in the materia medica, a name given by Diofcorides, and fome other of the Greek writers, to a pe- culiarly fine kind of ftorax. It was the fame with the cata- mite, only that this name xvas given to the larger, and the' name calamite to the fmaller or flenderer pieces. Pliny, Strabo, and many others, join in telling us, that the wood of the ftorax-tree was the moft fubject to be eaten by Worm's^ of that of any tree in the world.

The foftnefs, and fvveet tafte it had, probably rendered it liable to thefe injuries. When the worms attacked a branch* they generally eat away all- the wood, and left an empty cafe of the bark, fo that inftead of a ftick, there was a hollow tube like a reed : all the while that the worms were eating, the wounded veflels poured out their balfam, and covered at length the whole furface with their fine pellucid yellowifh balfam. This was doing without, while the vermin were; at work within s and in confequence, the whole ftick, or twis;, became a hollow tube, covered over with the moft purl and fine ftorax. This was eftecmed beyond any other"" ftorax for medicinal ufes; and when in fmall twigs it was called calamitesy or calamita^ and when on larger fticks, it was called fielecUUs Jiarax. When the worms attacked the body of the tree, the duft they made by their erofion formed a hillock or heap round the tree, or at its foot, and the ex- travafated balfam running among this duft, made a mafs that was called thzcymdtim Jhrax at that time, and was the fame with the common ftorax now in ufe. Stelechit'es Jlibii facie, in natural hiftory, a very uncouth name given by Aldrovandus, and forrie others, to the en- trochi.° He c*ave them this name from the rcfemblance of fome of thelongefl pieces to fragments of the trunks of trees the arms parting out from the fides of thefe main branches, the rudiments of which are very freqt ent in "" 3 Hhh