Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/612

 600 CINNAMON In Hungary, Bohemia, Bavaria, China, Japan, and Brazil, the ore is also worked. Artificial cinnabar, from which the greater part of the vermilion used in the arts is prepared, is made by subliming an intimate mixture of 5 or 6 parts of mercury and 1 of sulphur. The mer- cury is introduced and stirred into melted sul- phur. When the mixture becomes thick, com- bination suddenly takes place, attended with violent crackling and movement of the mass, and evolution of light and heat. The blackish red product is pounded to powder and mixed with a little sulphur. A glass flask half filled with it, and loosely closed with a charcoal stop- per, is partially buried in a sand bath, and kept at a red heat for some hours. The excess of sulphur passes out of the flask, and the cinna- bar sublimes and condenses in its upper part, leaving the fixed impurities in the bottom, It is then broken up and ground with pure water as finely as possible, and finally dried. The finer the powder is made, the more beautiful is the color. In Idria the process is somewhat different, mercury being thoroughly intermixed with powdered sulphur by placing them to- gether in casks, which are made to revolve. In a few hours a brown powder is produced, which is heated and sublimed in cast-iron vessels. The Chinese have still another process; and their cinnabar is said to incline to a carmine color, while all the European has a yellow tinge. These processes are all in the dry way ; but the substance is also prepared in the wet way by the action of the alkaline hydrosulphites upon the black sulphuret of mercury, which is obtained by passing sulphuretted hydrogen through a solution of some mercurial salt.- The finest artificial product is obtained by Brunner's process. Mercury, 100 parts, is triturated with 38 parts of sulphur, till the whole is converted into yEthiops mineral (a black compound of the two substances). This is placed in a solution consisting of hydrate of potash in 6 parts of water, and kept at a temperature varying little from 45 C., with constant stirring at first. As the water evaporates it is replaced. The red- dening usually begins in about 8 hours. The heat must not then rise above 46 C. When the color is the brightest it is allowed to cool slowly. It is then washed and freed from the metallic mercury. From 109 to 110 parts of cinnabar to 100 of mercury is the product. Vermilion is adulterated with brick dust, ox- ide of iron, red lead, and dragon's blood. The last is detected by its empyreumatic odor on applying heat ; the others by their remaining behind when the pigment is ignited. CINNAMON, the inner bark of the cinnamon tree (laitrus cinnamomum), which appears to have been known at a very early period. The spice obtained from it was used by the He- brews in their religious ceremonies (Exod. xxx. 23). The Arabian merchants trading be- tween the Red sea and the East are supposed to have carried supplies of it within the range of Phoenician and Grecian commerce. The tree is a native of Ceylon, where it grows to the height of 20 or 30 ft. It grows also in China and South America. The bark was originally collected from the tree in a natural state, as the Cingalese gave no attention to its cultivation and improvement. Not much was done toward its cultivation until the Dutch came into possession of the island, when, by clearing off the underbrush and weeds and thoroughly draining the lands, a finer quality of bark was produced. The cinnamon gardens, as they are called, cover an extent of 12,000 acres, the yield ranging between 50 and 500 Ibs. per acre. For a long time the Dutch gov- ernment monopolized the trade in this spice; in which period it was greatly extended. Am- sterdam being the sole mart for the product, the supplies sold in that city were immense, averaging from 1692 to 1792 about 320,000 Ibs. per annum. After the British came into possession of Ceylon, the cinnamon trade fell Cinnamon. into the hands of the East India company, by whom it was monopolized until the year 1833. It was then thrown open, but heavy duties were levied on the exportation. Cinnamon from Java a few years later, as also the cassia from China, coming into competition with the Ceylon spice, the duties have been much re- duced, though the last named is superior to any other variety. The soil of Ceylon, being light and sandy, is particularly adapted to this culture. The trees are raised from the seed, and will in six or seven years afford shoots fit for peeling. There are two harvesting seasons in the course of the year : the first and princi- pal crop is procured in May and June, the sec- ond in November. Trees two centuries old continue to bear abundantly. The " peelers," as they are called, belong entirely to the Cha- lia caste, and become by practice very skilful. The bark, after being taken in strips about 40 inches in length from the trees, is collected in bundles for the purpose of fermentation, the