Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/540

 516 SAFETY LAMP SAFFORD to introduce gunpowder without consuming a long time in boring. A contrivance to pre- vent boring has been patented by Mr. Henry Geering of Birmingham, England, which con- sists in placing in front and on each side of the lock a set of movable cylindrical steel bars, so that when the burglar's drill has penetrated through the outer plate it cannot get a bearing upon the rotating bars. SAFETY LAMP. See LAMP. Mill, or Asfl, a seaport of Morocco, on the W. coast, S. of Cape Cantin, 75 m. N. by E. of Mogador; pop. about 10,000. It is sur- rounded by a massive wall 80 ft. high, with a ditch on the land side. The country around it is sterile, and water'is scarce. The harbor is large and generally safe, but is exposed to "W. winds. Before the rise of Mogador Saffi con- trolled most of the commerce of Morocco with Europe. The entries at the port in 1873 were 180 vessels, of 35,876 tons; value of cargoes, $568,590, of which $300,000 was in specie; clearances the same, value $1,388,140. The principal exports are grain, beans, eggs, goat skins, wool, oranges, and slippers. Saffi is on the site of the Portus Rhusibis of Ptolemy, supposed to have been built by the Cartha- ginians. It was held by the Portuguese and Spaniards from 1608 to 1641. SAFFLOWER, a dyeing material, the florets of carthamitt tinctorius, also called bastard and dyer's saffron, and in this country, incor- Safflower (Csrthamnfl tinctoriufl). rectly, saffron. The genus carthamu* (from kartam or quortom, the Arabic name of the plant) belongs to that tribe of compotita which includes the thistles, and contains about 20 spe- cies, the most important being the safflower ; this is an annual, which has been so long culti- vated in the East that its native country is unknown ; it is from 1 to 3 ft. high, the stem branching above, and furnished with oval, half- clasping leaves, with spiny teeth ; the flow- ers are in thistle-like heads at the ends of the branches, with a leafy and prickly involucre ; the florets are all tubular, and of a dark orange color; akenes (popularly seeds) without pap- pus, four-sided, white or brownish, and very smooth. The plant will perfect itself in the northern states, and is often seen in the gar- dens of those who raise medicinal herbs. "When the florets are fully expanded, they are pulled out of the head and dried. The principal sup- ply of commerce is from the East Indies, where the florets are pressed into small cakes an inch or two in diameter, and dried in kilns ; after- ward they are packed in bales of about 2 cwt. Formerly safflower was largely used in measles and other diseases accompanied by an eruption of the skin, and it is still kept in the drug stores, there being some demand for it in do- mestic practice ; the home-grown, dried loose- ly, is preferred. It has at most a slightly dia- phoretic effect. Safflower is sometimes used to adulterate the true saffron, a more expen- sive drug. (See SAFFBON.) The chief use of safflower is as a dye, and before the introduc- tion of aniline colors it was largely employed to impart to silk various shades of pink, rose, crimson, and scarlet ; the colors, though fugi- tive, are very brilliant. It contains a yellow coloring principle, which is soluble in water and of no value, and a red coloring matter, carthamine or carthamic acid, which is insolu- ble in water, but soluble in alkaline liquids, from which it is precipitated by acids. "When used as a dye, the yellow color is first extract- ed by kneading the safflower in bags under water ; it is then treated with a solution of car- bonate of soda ; in the liquid thus obtained the silk, previously mordanted with lemon juice, is immersed. The pink saucers, sold for dye- ing and for toilet purposes, are small white saucers with a thin coating of carthamine. Rouge is also prepared from it. (See ROUGE.) SAFFORD, Truman Henry, an American math- ematician, born in Royalton, Vt., Jan. 6, 1886. While a child he attracted public attention by his remarkable powers of calculation. He could mentally extract the square and cube roots of numbers of 9 and 10 places of figures, and at 14 produced the elliptic elements of the first comet of 1849. At this time he was widely known as the Vermont boy calculator. He graduated at Harvard college in 1854, and spent some time in professional studies in the observatory of that institution. Between 1850 and 1862 he computed the orbits of many planets and comets, and his labors were pub- lished in the monthly notices of the royal as- tronomical society of England, the Astrono- mische Nachrichten, and the " Astronomical Journal." From 1863 to 1866 he was con- nected with the Harvard observatory, part of the time as acting director, and was chiefly employed in observations for a standard cata- logue of right ascensions. In the single year 1863 he determined the right ascension of 1,700 stars, and the declination of 450. In 1865 he became professor of astronomy in the univer-