Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/558

 546 FUSEL OIL FUSIBILITY FUSEL OIL, or Amyl Alcohol, a liquid colorless when pure, of offensive smell and burning taste, obtained by continuing the distillation of the fermented infusions used for the preparation of ardent spirits after the alcoholic portion has been drawn off. In this condition, however, it is mixed with water, from which it should be separated by a second distillation, the water coming over first. As this brings with it a portion of oil, it* is to be set aside for the latter to separate, and form a layer on the surface. Ardent spirits contain fusel oil, particularly if the distillation has been pushed far. It is de- tected by redistilling whiskey, especially that obtained from potatoes, a milky fluid coming over at the last, from which the oil separates by standing; or by redistillation, water first coming over, and then the oil at its boiling point of 269. Thus obtained, it is usually of a pale yellow, of specific gravity 0-818; at 4 below zero it congeals in crystalline leaves. It inflames only when heated to 130. It unites with alcohol in all proportions, but has little affinity for water. The resins, fats, camphor, sulphur, phosphorus, &c., are dissolved by it. Upon the animal system it acts as an irritant poison ; its vapor produces nausea, headache, and giddiness. Its composition is represented by the formula CsHiaO ; or, on the supposition of its being a hydrated oxide of amyle, its for- mula is C 6 HnHO. Fusel oil is used to some extent for burning in lamps, and for dissolving copal and other resins for varnishes, &c. Its presence is highly injurious to liquors, and when in sufficient quantity to be perceptible to the smell and taste indicates bad rectification or the use of damaged grain. It may be detected by agitating the liquor with water, and leaving it to stand for the oil to rise and appear at the surface. It is separated in rectifying by the in- troduction of some soft wood charcoal. Olive oil may also be added, and the mixture being well shaken the oils will afterward collect to- gether at the surface, when they may be de- canted and the spirits be again distilled. FUSELI, John Henry, a painter and writer on art, born in Zurich, Switzerland, Feb. 7, 1741, died near London, April 16, 1825. His father was John Casper Fiissli, also a painter. He received a good classical education in his native town, and in 1761 took orders. A pamphlet written, by himself and Lavater, who was his schoolfellow, in which a public functionary was severely handled, was the cause of his leaving Zurich, and after spending some time in Vienna and Berlin he went to England, where for a time he supported himself by lite- rary labors. Sir Joshua Eeynolds, to whom he showed some of his drawings, advised him to devote himself to art, and he accordingly spent eight years in Italy among the works of the old masters. Here he changed his name to its Ital- ian form, Fuseli, which he ever after retained. Returning to England in 1778, he executed a number of pictures for Boydell's "Shake- speare Gallery." In 1790 he was elected an academician, and in 1799 he exhibited a series of 47 designs on a large scale from Milton's works. In the same year he became professor of painting in the academy. Among his lit- erary labors was a translation of Lavater's "Aphorisms on Man." His "Lectures on Painting" was published in 1831, and trans- lated into German by Eschenburg (1833). As a painter he possessed high imaginative powers, but his drawing was imperfect and unnatural. See his "Life and Writings," edited by John Knowles (3 vols., London, 1831). FUSIBILITY, that property by which solid bodies are rendered liquid by the application of heat. It is probably possessed by all bodies, but some are so altered by chemical changes among their own elements or by the action of external bodies in contact, that they cease to retain their individual characteristics before their melting point is reached. Although it seems that in some crystalline organic com- pounds, and also in some of the fats, the fusing point varies after the body has been once melted, it is generally the case that the fusion takes place at a constant temperature for the same body, that this point is ascertained for many, and is given with each as one of the distinctive qualities. Carbon, however, resists this deter- mination, and the assertions of its fusibility made by some experimenters are not generally admitted as establishing the fact. The range of the fusing point of bodies is very great, some existing in the solid state only far below the ordinary temperatures, while others require the most intense artificial heat to cause them to assume the liquid form. This is exhibited in the following table, which comprises many of the bodies thus arranged by Pouillet : SUBSTANCES. Degrees Centigrade. Degrees Fahrenheit. English hammered iron Steel 1.600 1 300 to 1 400 2,912 2 372 to 2 552 Gray cast iron, second fusion. . White cast iron, very fusible. . Very fine gold 1,200 1,050 1 250 2,199 1,922 2282 Standard gold 1,180 2,156 Silver very pure 1000 1832 Bronze 900 1,652 Antimony 482 810 Zinc 360 C80 Lead 320 608 Bismuth 202 396 Tin. . . 230 446 Sulphur 114 237 Iodine 107 225 Phosphorus ... . 43 109 "White wax 68 154 49 130 Ice

32 Oil of turpentine 10 14 39 38 The fusing point of oils, &c., is ascertained by introducing them together with a fine thermom- eter into small glass tabes, and placing these in water, which is gradually heated till the sub- stances melt. The thermometer indicates the temperature. The method of determining the high melting points of the metals, &c., will be described in the article PYEOMETEE.