through the upper opening. When such punches are of large size, over 2 inches in diameter, they are made of steel rings attached to iron stems. The punch used for cutting out wafers is a thin cylinder of steel, attached to the end of a perforated brass cone with a cross handle at the top. Lozenges are cut out with a thin steel cutter fixed to a straight perforated handle of wood. "When the disk is the object required, the punch is always chamfered exteriorly, as then the edge of the disk is left square, and the external or wasted part is bruised or bent; but the punch is made cylindrical without and conical within when the annulus or external substance is required to have a keen edge. And when pieces, such as washers, or those having central holes, are required in card or leather, the punches are sometimes constructed in 2 parts, the inner being made to fit the outer punch, and their edges to fall on one plane; so that one blow effects the two incisions, and the punches may then be separated for the removal of the work should it stick fast between the two parts of the instrument."!

Various forms of punches are described or referred to in the course of this work.-See COMB-COININGENVELOPE-FOLDING MACHINE-FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

-CUTLERY-BUTTON-PEN-NAIL, &c.

Many forms of punch are for the sake of greater precision in their action furnished with guides. The punch pliers, Fig. 1800, have a round hollow punch with acute edges, and are used for making holes in

leather straps and thin materials. Some pliers are made with oval punches; others square and triangular. In all such tools the punch closes upon a small block of ivory or copper, and the material being put between the punch and the block and pressure applied, it is cut through without injury to the punch.

The tool shown in Fig. 1801, is of great use in repairing boilers, and in confined situations where larger tools cannot be used, as about the holds of ships. It consists of a stout piece of wrought-iron about 1 inch thick, and about 4 or 5 inches wide, thickened at the ends and bent into the curve shown in the figure. One extremity is tapped for the reception of a coarse screw,

Fig. 1801.

the end of which is formed as a

cylindrical pin or punch. Opposite the punch is a hole for the reception of a hardened steel ring or bed punch. When the screw is turned round by a

(1) Holtzapffel, Mechanical Manipulation, vol. ii. The reader interested in the subject is recommended to study the chapter on Punches in this admirable work.

lever about 3 feet long, it will make holes as large as inch diameter in plates inch thick. A similar tool made of gun-metal, but weighing only a few ounces, is used for punching the holes in leather straps, for lacing them together by thongs, or uniting them by screws and nuts, as in making the endless bands or belts for driving machinery.

In connexion with punching, the fly-press comes into prominent importance. This most useful apparatus is employed for cutting out blanks, puuching holes, moulding, stamping, bending or raising thin metals into various shapes, impressing others with devices as in medals and coins; also in the manufacture of encaustic tiles, tesseræ, &c., and various other objects of great commercial importance. The fly-press is a contrivance for giving a precise and well-regulated blow to the punch, which is guided by moving in a slide: the slide gives precision to the blow, while the required degree of force is imparted to it by the heavy revolving fly attached to the screw of the press. When the fly-press is used for cutting out works it is called a cutting-press, to distinguish it from stamping or coining-presses. The body of the press B, Fig. 1802, is a solid massive piece of iron, attached to a bed or base B' at right angles to the screw. The latter is coarse in pitch, and has a

double or triple square thread, the rise of which is about 1 to 6 inches in every revolution. The nut of the screw n is usually of gun-metal, and is fixed in the upper part or head of the press: the top of the screw is square or hexagonal, and on it is fitted a wrought-iron lever with a solid cast-iron ball at each extremity; the lever and balls forming the fly, f. From the lever a handle descends to the level of the dies, so that while the operator works the press with his right-hand, his left is at liberty to feed the press. The punch is usually attached to a square bar or follower, which fits into an aperture at the bottom of the screw. A punch is commonly attached by being fitted into a cavity, and retained by a pin or

(2) This is also the principle of the embossing press described under BOOKBINDING, Fig. 174.

OP.

QUARRY. See STONE.

QUART, a word applied to the fourth part or quarter of a gallon.

QUARTATION. See ASSAYING.

QUARTZ is the mineralogical name of a substance widely diffused throughout nature, as in the numerous varieties of rock crystal or native oxide of silicium, siliceous or flint earth, and silicic acid [see SILICIUM]. Quartz is one of the constituents of granite and of the older rocks. [See INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, p. lxxix.] It also occurs crystallized and massive. The primary form of the crystal is a rhomboid, but it is generally found in hexagonal prisms terminated by hexagonal pyramids, and when the prism is wanting and both pyramids are present, the crystal is a dodecahedron with triangular planes. The cleavage is not usually traceable by ordinary means, but may often be detected by heating the crystal and plunging it in water. The cleavage is parallel to the planes and pyramids of the ordinary crystal. The fracture is conchoidal, hardness 7.0; it scratches glass readily, and gives fire when struck with steel. It becomes positively electrical when rubbed, and two pieces when rubbed together in the dark become luminous. It is transparent, translucent or opaque; the lustre is vitreous or resinous: the specific gravity 2.69 to 2.81. It is infusible, insoluble in most acids; but it combines with the fixed alkalis and produces silicates. [See GLASS, Sec. II.]

Pure quartz is colourless, but quartz usually exhibits a great variety of colours. Purple quartz or amethyst occurs both crystallized and massive: it is of every shade of purplish violet: it contains alumina and oxide of manganese. Blue quartz or siderite also occurs crystallized and massive. The Cairngorm or smoky quartz contains a small quantity of bitumen. Green quartz is found in Peru in translucent hexagonal prisms. Opaque massive green quartz is called prase: it is found in Saxony. Crysoprase is an amorphous quartz of a light green colour, oxide of nickel being the colouring matter. Yellow quartz, called Scotch, and Bohemian topaz is of various shades of yellow. Opaque yellow or ferruginous quartz contains about 5 per cent. of oxide of iron: it occurs in various shades of yellow and reddish yellow. Red quartz, or Compostella hyacinthine quartz, is of a yellowish or reddish-brown.

latter they would be poisoned: but they may drink the quassia water with impunity.

QUERCITRON, the bark of the quercus nigra, or tinctoria, or yellow oak, a native of North America. It is prepared for use by taking off the epidermis and pounding the inner bark in a mill. Its colouring principle, quercitrine, forms pale yellow spangles; it has a faint acid reaction, is soluble in alcohol, and to a certain extent in water. A decoction of the bark, deprived of its tannine by means of glue, produces a fine yellow upon fabrics mordanted with alum, and various shades of olive with iron mordants. It is much used in calico-printing.

QUICKLIME. See LIME.
QUICKSILVER. See MERCURY.
QUILL. See PEN.

QUININE, a vegeto-alkali obtained from yellow bark, as cinchonia is from pale bark. [See BARK.] The valuable medicinal properties of the Peruvian barks are due to these vegeto alkalis. They are associated in the bark with sulphuric and kinic acids. Pale bark, or cinchona condaminea, contains most cinchona; and yellow bark, or C. cordifolia, most quinia. Both are contained in C. oblongifolia.

There are various methods of preparing cinchonia and quinia. The simplest is to add a slight excess of hydrate of lime to a strong decoction of the ground bark in acidulated water; to wash the precipitate and boil it in alcohol. The solution filtered while hot deposits vegeto-alkali on cooling. When both bases are present they may be separated by converting them. into sulphates, the salt of quinia being the less soluble of the two crystallizes first and may be separated.

Cinchonia C20 H12 NO, crystallizes in small, brilliant, transparent, four-sided prisms. It dissolves slightly in water, but readily in boiling.alcohol; it has little taste, although its salts are excessively bitter. It acts as a powerful base, completely neutralizing acids and forming crystallizable salts. Quinia or quinine C20 H12 NO2, resembles cinchonia in many particulars: but it does not crystallize so readily: it is more soluble in water and its taste is intensely bitter. Sulphate of quinine, as mentioned under BARK, is largely manufactured for medicinal use: it crystallizes in small white needles, and its solubility is increased by the addition of a small quantity of sulphuric acid.

like mass, insoluble in water, but freely soluble in alcohol and ether, as also in dilute acids. It is said to be identical in composition with quinine; if so, it may bear to quinine the same relation that uncrystallizable syrup does to ordinary sugar, it being pro

RADIATION. See HEAT. RAILWAY. See ROAD.

water in the cylinder. A

stopcock is added for draw

ing off the water from the cylinder after each observation.

Some years ago Mr. Phil

Fig. 1803.

Fig. 1804.

quantity of water collected in the bottle is to be measured by a glass jar, Fig. 1804, divided into inches and parts. In such a case the mouth of the funnel evidently represents a portion of ground; and the water collected and measured is the depth of rain which would cover the ground at and about the observed spot if the ground were horizontal, and the water could neither flow off nor sink into the soil. By noting down the quantity of rain which thus falls day by day and year by year, and taking the average of many years, the mean annual fall of rain is obtained for the particular place, and by extending these observations the mean annual fall of rain is obtained for a district or a kingdom.

A convenient form of rain-gauge consists of a funnel fixed to the top of a brass or copper cylinder, Fig. 1805, with a glass tube rising from near the bottom and graduated into inches and tenths of an inch. The water stands at the same height in the glass tube as in the cylinder and the height can be read off from the graduated scale. The cylinder and the tube are so constructed that the sum of the areas of their sections is a given part, such as a tenth of the arca of the mouth of the funnel; so that each inch of

(1) Fownes, "Manual of Chemistry." A full account of the methods of preparing cinchonia and quinia is given in the fifth volume of Dumas, Chimie appliquée, &c. Large quantities of the sulphate of quinine were formerly manufactured at Paris for

The rain-gauge should be placed in an exposed situaFig 1805. tion, if possible at a distance from buildings and trees. The quantity of water in the gauge should be observed at least twice a day in rainy weather. A less frequent observation may lead to error in consequence of the rapid evaporation of water. The gauge should also be as near the surface of the ground as possible; for it appears that the gauge indicates different quantities of rain as falling in the same locality according to the different heights at which it is placed. Thus the annual depth of rain at the top of Westminster Abbey was found to be 12 inches; on the top of a house 16 feet lower down it was 18 inches; and on the ground in the garden of the house it was 22 inches.

medicinal use, but of late years the trade has been extended to other countries. Probably the largest makers in the world are

Messrs. Zimmer of Frankfort, who supply the greater part of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, with this article. Messrs Howard and Kent of Stratford, are probably the largest manufacturers in Great Britain. The retail price of sulphate of quinine is about 12s per ounce.

VOL. II.

Mr. Thom's rain-gauge consists of a cylinder 2 feet long and 7 inches in diameter, sunk in the earth until the mouth of the funnel, which receives the rain, is on a level with the surrounding ground. Into this cylinder is put a float with a graduated rod attached to it, the float and rod moving up and down as the water rises or falls in the cylinder. There is a thin brass bar fixed within the funnel, about inch under its mouth, with an aperture in the middle just large enough to allow the scale to move easily through it. The upper side of this cross bar is brought to a fine edge, so as to cut but not obstruct the drops which may alight on it. There is an aperture also in the bottom of the funnel, through which the water must pass into the cylinder, and through which also the scale must move; but this aperture is not larger than will allow the scale to move through it freely. The cylinder is firmly fixed in a large flat stone, level with the surface of the ground. In the stone, a groove is cut round the gauge to guard it from receiving rain which may fall on the stone. The adjustment to zero is performed in the usual way.

Mr. James Johnston described a rain-gauge so constructed, that the receiving-funnel or orifice, at which the rain enters, is always kept at right angles to the falling rain. By the action of the wind on a large vane, the whole gauge is turned round on a pivot until the front of the gauge faces the wind, and by the action of the wind on another vane attached to the receiving-funnel, the mouth of the funnel is moved

M M

towards a perpendicular position, according to the strength of the wind. The receiving-funnel and vane attached to it are balanced with counterpoise weights in such a manner, that the wind, in moving them, has as much weight to remove from a perpendicular position, in proportion to their bulk, as it has when moving an ordinary sized drop of rain from the same position: by this means, the mouth of the gauge is kept at right angles to the falling rain.1

In the year 1844, Mr. Ronalds, in his Report on the Kew Observatory, described a Rain and Vapourgauge which indicated a mean result arising from the quantity of water which may have fallen between any two given periods, minus the quantity of vapour which has arisen in the same time (and vice versa) on and from a circular plane of one foot in diameter. A A, Fig. 1806, is a cylindrical vessel of zinc of the internal diameter of one foot; B is another cylindrical

contrary direction. The index is brought to zero every day at sunset by the addition to or subtraction of water in A, and the mean results of deposition and evaporation for the preceding 24 hours are observed. A small reservoir is placed near with a pipe and cock for supplying water. The instrument is fixed upon a stand at about 2 feet above the leaden roof of the observatory. It would, however, be more properly situated if the cylinders A and B were sunk in the neighbouring earth. The use of the plate d'd', and of the glass shade P, is to exclude rain from B, and for protection. If it were required to be used as a rain-gauge only, a funnel might be fitted upon a; if for a vapour-gauge only, the whole might be protected from rain by a roof placed some feet above it.

RAISED WORKS IN METAL. The malleability of several of the ductile metals and alloys is illustrated in a remarkable manner in the production of various well-known articles, such as tea-pots, coffee-pots, covers of cups and vessels, the bell mouths of musical instruments, extinguishers, thimbles, &c. Circular works in thin metal are rapidly formed on a turning lathe, by the process of what is called "spinning or burnishing to form," or by raising by the hammer, or pressing between dies. Fig. 1807 will illustrate the method of spinning the body of a Britannia metal tea-pot from a complete disk of metal. The disk dd

vessel attached to A, and communicating with it by a small pipe b; c is a glass vessel standing in B, and having a small perforation near its foot; D D is a circular plate of brass firmly screwed to a cap c, and d' d' is a copper plate, also attached to the cap of c; E and F are cocks fixed upon D, at a distance of about

inch from each other; G is a pulley upon an arbor, running in centres opposite to each other in the supports E and F; the centres are jewelled, and the carefully-turned pivots of the arbor are of platinum; H is an index carried by G, and III is the scale screwed upon P; K is a silken thread passing round a groove in G, descending through a hole in D, and suspending a light copper-covered dish I; M is another silk thread passing in the contrary direction round another groove in G, and suspending a weight N, which is somewhat lighter; P is a glass shade placed upon D D. This arrangement is an application of the principle of the wheel barometer. If a quantity of water be poured into A, exactly sufficient to bring the index H to a given point, and if afterwards any addition be made to that quantity by means of rain, the index will point out the increase upon the multiplying scale 1; or if any diminution of that quantity should be occasioned by evaporation, the loss will also be pointed out by the motion of the index in the

(1) British Association Report, vol. x.

Fig. 1807.

is pinched by the fixed centre screws of the lathe, between two flat surfaces of wood mw, one of which m, is a mould or chuck turned to the form of the lower part of the tea-pot; by which arrangement m, dd, and w, revolve with the mandrel. A burnisher b, resting against a pin in the lathe-rest is now applied near the centre of the metal, and a wooden rod r being held on the opposite side to support the edge, the metal is rapidly bent or swaged through the successive forms 1, 2, 3, 4, so as to fit close against the curved face of the block and to extend up its cylindri cal edge. The mould is now removed, and in its place is screwed on a cylindrical block c, Fig. 1809, of the diameter of

6.

Fig. 1808.

the intended aperture or mouth of the tea-pot. One of the numerous forms of burnishers employed in