Part 131

«Permanent (Record) Ink.»—Any finely divided, non-fading color may be used as the pigment; vaseline is the best vehicle and wax the best corrigent. In order to make the ribbon last a long time with one inking, as much pigment as feasible should be used. To make black record ink: Take some vaseline, melt it on a slow fire or water bath, and incorporate by constant stirring as much lampblack as it will take up without becoming granular. Take from the fire and allow it to cool. The ink is now practically finished, except, if not entirely suitable on trial, it may be improved by adding the corrigent wax in small quantity. The ribbon should be charged with a very thin, evenly divided amount of ink. Hence the necessity of a solvent—in this instance a mixture of equal parts of petroleum benzine and rectified spirit of turpentine. In this mixture dissolve a sufficient amount of the solid ink by vigorous agitation to make a thin paint. Try the ink on one extremity of the ribbon; if too soft, add a little wax to make it harder; if too pale, add more coloring matter; if too hard, add more vaseline. If carefully applied to the ribbon, and the excess brushed off, the result will be satisfactory.

On the same principle, other colors may be made into ink; but for delicate colors, albolene and bleached wax should be the vehicle and corrigent, respectively.

The various printing inks may be used if properly corrected. They require the addition of vaseline to make them non-drying on the ribbon, and of some wax if found too soft. Where printing inks are available, they will be found to give excellent results if thus modified, as the pigment is well milled and finely divided. Even black cosmetic may be made to answer, by the addition of some lampblack to the solution in the mixture of benzine and turpentine.

After thus having explained the principles underlying the manufacture of permanent inks, we can pass more rapidly over the subject of copying inks, which is governed by the same general rules.

For copying inks, aniline colors form the pigment; a mixture of about 3 parts of water and 1 part of glycerine, the vehicle; transparent soap (about 1⁠/⁠4 part), the corrigent; stronger alcohol (about 6 parts), the solvent. The desired aniline color will easily dissolve in the hot vehicle, soap will give the ink the necessary body and counteract the hygroscopic tendency of the glycerine, and in the stronger alcohol the ink will readily dissolve, so that it can be applied in a finely divided state to the ribbon, where the evaporation of the alcohol will leave it in a thin film. There is little more to add. After the ink is made and tried—if too soft, add a little more soap; if too hard, a little more glycerine; if too pale, a little more pigment. Printer’s copying ink can be utilized here likewise.

Users of the typewriter should so set a fresh ribbon as to start at the edge nearest the operator, allowing it to run back and forth with the same adjustment until exhausted along that strip; then shift the ribbon forward the width of one letter, running until exhausted, and so on. Finally, when the whole ribbon is exhausted, the color will have been equably used up, and on reinking, the work will appear even in color, while it will look patchy if some of the old ink has been left here and there and fresh ink applied over it.

UDDER INFLAMMATION: See Veterinary Formulas.

«VALVES.»

The manufacturers of valves test each valve under hydraulic pressure before it is sent out from the factory, yet they frequently leak when erected in the pipe lines. This is due to the misuse of the erector in most cases. The following are the most noteworthy bad practices to be avoided when fitting in valves:

I.—Screwing a valve on a pipe very tightly, without first closing the valve. Closing the valve makes the body much {712} more rigid and able to withstand greater strains and also keeps the iron chips from lodging under the seats, or in the working parts of the valves. This, of course, does not apply to check valves.

II.—Screwing a long mill thread into a valve. The threads on commercial pipes are very long and should never be screwed into a valve. An elbow or tee will stand the length of thread very well, but a suitable length thread should be cut in every case on the pipe, when used to screw into a valve. If not, the end of pipe will shoulder against the seat of valve and so distort it that the valve will leak very badly.

III.—The application of a pipe wrench on the opposite end of the valve from the end which is being screwed on the pipe. This should never be done, as it invariably springs or forces the valve seats from their true original bearing with the disks.

IV.—Never place the body of a valve in the vise to remove the bonnet or centerpiece from a valve, as it will squeeze together the soft brass body and throw all parts out of alignment. Properly to remove the bonnet or centerpiece from a valve, either screw into each end of the valve a short piece of pipe and place one piece of the pipe in the vise, using a wrench on the square of bonnet; or if the vise is properly constructed, place the square of the bonnet in same and use the short piece of pipe screwed in each end as a lever. When using a wrench on square of bonnet or centerpiece, use a Stillson or Trimo wrench with a piece of tin between the teeth of the jaws and the finished brass. It may mark the brass slightly, but this is preferable to rounding off all the corners with an old monkey wrench which is worn out and sprung. As the threads on all bonnets or centerpieces are doped with litharge or cement, a sharp jerk or jar on the wrench will start the bonnet much more quickly than a steady pull. Under no circumstances try to replace or remove the bonnet or centerpiece of a valve without first opening it wide. This will prevent the bending of the stem, forcing the disk down through the seat or stripping the threads on bonnet where it screws into body. If it is impossible to remove bonnet or centerpiece by ordinary methods, heat the body of the valve just outside the thread. Then tap lightly all around the thread with a soft hammer. This method never fails, as the heat expands the body ring and breaks the joint made by the litharge or cement.

V.—The application of a large monkey wrench to the stuffing box of valve. Many valves are returned with the stuffing boxes split, or the threads in same stripped. This is due to the fact that the fitter or engineer has used a large-sized monkey wrench on this small part.

VI.—The screwing into a valve of a long length of unsupported pipe. For example, if the fitter is doing some repair work and starts out with a run of 2-inch horizontal pipe from a 2-inch valve connected to main steam header, the pipe being about 18 feet long, after he has screwed the pipe tightly into the valve, he leaves the helper to support the pipe at the other end, while he gets the hanger ready. The helper in the meantime has become tired and drops his shoulder on which the pipe rests about 3 inches and in consequence the full weight of this 18-foot length of pipe bears on the valve. The valve is badly sprung and when the engineer raises steam the next morning the valve leaks. When a valve is placed in the center of a long run of pipe, the pipe on each side, and close to the valve, should be well supported.

VII.—The use of pipe cement in valves. When it is necessary to use pipe cement in joints, this mixture should always be placed on the pipe thread which screws into the valve, and never in the valve itself. If the cement is placed in the valve, as the pipe is screwed into the valve it forces the cement between the seats and disks, where it will soon harden and thus prevent the valve from seating properly.

VIII.—Thread chips and scale in pipe. Before a pipe is screwed into a valve it should be stood in a vertical position and struck sharply with a hammer. This will release the chips from the thread cutting, and loosen the scale inside of pipe. When a pipe line containing valves is connected up, the valves should all be opened wide and the pipe well blown out before they are again closed. This will remove foreign substances which are liable to cut and scratch the seats and disks.

IX.—Expansion and contraction. Ample allowance must be provided for expansion and contraction in all steam lines, especially when brass valves are included. The pipe and fittings are much more rigid and stiff than the brass valves and in consequence the expansion strains will relieve themselves at the weakest point, unless otherwise provided for. {713}

X.—The use of wrenches or bars on valve wheels to close the valves tightly. This should never be done, as it springs the entire valve and throws all parts out of alignment, thus making the valve leak. The manufacturer furnishes a wheel sufficiently large properly to close against any pressure for which it is suitable. If the valves cannot be closed tightly by this means, there is something between the disks and seats or they have been cut or scratched by foreign substances.

«Vanilla»

(See also Essences and Extracts.)

The best Mexican vanilla yields only in the neighborhood of 1.7 per cent of vanillin; that from Reunion and Guadeloupe about 2.5 per cent; and that from Java 2.75 per cent. There seems to be but little connection between the quantity of vanillin contained in vanilla pods and their quality as a flavor producer. Mexican beans are esteemed the best and yet they contain far less than the Java. Those from Brazil and Peru contain much less than those from Mexico, and yet they are considered inferior in quality to most others. The vanillin of the market is chiefly, if not entirely, artificial and is made from the coniferin of such pines and firs as abies excelsa, a. pectinata, pinus cembra, and p. strobus, as well as from the eugenol of cloves and allspice. Vanillin also exists in asparagus, lupine seeds, the seeds of the common wild rose, asafetida, and gum benzoin.

A good formula for a vanilla extract is the following:

Vanilla 1 ounce Tonka 2 ounces Alcohol, deodorized 32 fluidounces Syrup 8 fluidounces

Cut and bruise the vanilla, afterwards adding and bruising the Tonka; macerate for 14 days in 16 fluidounces of the alcohol, with occasional agitation; pour off the clear liquid and set aside; pour the remaining alcohol on the magma, and heat by means of a water bath to about 168° F., in a closely covered vessel. Keep it at that temperature for 2 or 3 hours, then strain through flannel with slight pressure; mix the two portions of liquid and filter through felt. Lastly, add the syrup. To render this tincture perfectly clear it may be treated with pulverized magnesium carbonate, using from 1⁠/⁠2 to 1 drachm to each pint.

«To Detect Artificial Vanillin in Vanilla Extracts» (see also Foods).-There is no well-defined test for vanillin, but one can get at it in a negative way. The artificial vanillin contains vanillin identical with the vanillin contained in the vanilla bean; but the vanilla bean, as the vanilla extract, contains among its many “extractive matters” which enter into the food and fragrant value of vanilla extract, certain rosins which can be identified with certainty in analysis by a number of determining reactions. Extract made without true vanilla can be detected by negative results in all these reactions.

Vanilla beans contain 4 to 11 per cent of this rosin. It is of a dark red to brown color and furnishes about one-half the color of the extract of vanilla. This rosin is soluble in 50 per cent alcohol, so that in extracts of high grade, where sufficient alcohol is used, all rosin is kept in solution. In cheap extracts, where as little as 20 per cent of alcohol by volume is sometimes used, an alkali—usually potassium bicarbonate—is added to aid in getting rosin, gums, etc., in solution, and to prevent subsequent turpidity. This treatment deepens the color very materially.

Place some of the extract to be examined in a glass evaporating dish and evaporate the alcohol on the water bath. When alcohol is removed, make up about the original volume with hot water. If alkali has not been used in the manufacture of the extract, the rosin will appear as a flocculent red to brown residue. Acidify with acetic acid to free rosin from bases, separating the whole of the rosin and leaving a partly decolorized, clear supernatant liquid after standing a short time. Collect the rosin on a filter, wash with water, and reserve the filtrate for further tests.

Place a portion of the filter with the attached rosin in a few cubic centimeters of dilute caustic potash. The rosin is dissolved to a deep-red solution. Acidify. The rosin is thereby precipitated. Dissolve a portion of the rosin in alcohol; to one fraction add a few drops of ferric chloride; no striking coloration is produced. To another portion add hydrochloric acid; again there is little change in color. In alcoholic solution most rosins give color reactions with ferric chloride or hydrochloric acid. To a portion of the filtrate obtained above add a few drops of basic lead acetate. The precipitate is so bulky as to almost {714} solidify, due to the excessive amount of organic acids, gums, and other extractive matter. The filtrate from this precipitate is nearly, but not quite, colorless. Test another portion of the filtrate from the rosin for tannin with a solution of gelatin. Tannin is present in varying but small quantities. It should not be present in great excess.

«To Detect Tonka in Vanilla Extract.»—The following test depends on the chemical difference between coumarin and vanillin, the odorous principles of the two beans. Coumarin is the anhydride of coumaric acid, and on fusion with a caustic alkali yields acetic and salicylic acids, while vanillin is methyl protocatechin aldehyde, and when treated similarly yields protocatechuic acid. The test is performed by evaporating a small quantity of the extract to dryness, and melting the residue with caustic potash. Transfer the fused mass to a test tube, neutralize with hydrochloric acid, and add a few drops of ferric chloride solution. If Tonka be present in the extract, the beautiful violet coloration characteristic of salicylic acid will at once become evident.

«Vanilla Substitute.»—A substitute for vanilla extract is made from synthetic vanillin. The vanillin is simply dissolved in diluted alcohol and the solution colored with a little caramel and sweetened perhaps with syrup. The following is a typical formula:

Vanillin 1 ounce Alcohol 6 quarts Water 5 quarts Syrup 1 quart Caramel sufficient to color.

An extract so made does not wholly represent the flavor of the bean; while vanillin is the chief flavoring constituent of the bean, there are present other substances which contribute to the flavor; and connoisseurs prefer this combination, the remaining members of which have not yet been made artificially.

VANILLIN: See Vanilla.

«Varnishes»

(See also Enamels, Glazes, Oils, Paints, Rust Preventives, Stains, and Waterproofing.)

Varnish is a solution of resinous matter forming a clear, limpid fluid capable of hardening without losing its transparency. It is used to give a shining, transparent, hard, and preservative covering to the finished surface of woodwork, capable of resisting in a greater or less degree the influence of the air and moisture. This coating, when applied to metal or mineral surfaces, takes the name of lacquer, and must be prepared from rosins at once more adhesive and tenacious than those entering into varnish.

The rosins, commonly called gums, suitable for varnish are of two kinds—the hard and the soft. The hard varieties are copal, amber, and the lac rosins. The dry soft rosins are juniper gum (commonly called sandarac), mastic, and dammar. The elastic soft rosins are benzoin, elemi, anime, and turpentine. The science of preparing varnish consists in combining these classes of rosins in a suitable solvent, so that each conveys its good qualities and counteracts the bad ones of the others, and in giving the desired color to this solution without affecting the suspension of the rosins, or detracting from the drying and hardening properties of the varnish.

In spirit varnish (that made with alcohol) the hard and the elastic gums must be mixed to insure tenderness and solidity, as the alcohol evaporates at once after applying, leaving the varnish wholly dependent on the gums for the tenacious and adhesive properties; and if the soft rosins predominate, the varnish will remain, “tacky” for a long time. Spirit varnish, however good and convenient to work with, must always be inferior to oil varnish, as the latter is at the same time more tender and more solid, for the oil in oxidizing and evaporating thickens and forms rosin which continues its softening and binding presence, whereas in a spirit varnish the alcohol is promptly dissipated, and leaves the gums on the surface of the work in a more or less granular and brittle precipitate which chips readily and peels off.

Varnish must be tender and in a manner soft. It must yield to the movements of the wood in expanding or contracting with the heat or cold, and must not inclose the wood like a sheet of glass. This is why oil varnish is superior to spirit varnish. To obtain this suppleness the gums must be dissolved in some liquid not highly volatile like spirit, but one which mixes with them in substance permanently to counteract their extreme friability. Such solvents are the oils of lavender, spike, rosemary, and turpentine, combined with linseed oil. The vehicle in which the rosins are dissolved must be soft and remain so in order to {715} keep the rosins soft which are of themselves naturally hard. Any varnish from which the solvent has completely dried out must of necessity become hard and glassy and chip off. But, on the other hand, if the varnish remains too soft and “tacky,” it will “cake” in time and destroy the effect desired.

Aside from this, close observers if not chemists will agree that for this work it is much more desirable to dissolve these rosins in a liquid closely related to them in chemical composition, rather than in a liquid of no chemical relation and which no doubt changes certain properties of the rosins, and cuts them into solution more sharply than does turpentine or linseed oil. It is a well-known fact that each time glue is liquefied it loses some of its adhesive properties. On this same principle it is not desirable to dissolve varnish rosins in a liquid very unlike them, nor in one in which they are quickly and highly soluble. Modern effort has been bent on inventing a cheap varnish, easily prepared, that will take the place of oil varnish, and the market is flooded with benzine, carbon bisulphide, and various ether products which are next to worthless where wearing and durable properties are desired.

Alcohol will hold in solution only about one-third of its weight in rosins. Turpentine must be added always last to spirit varnish. Turpentine in its clear recently distilled state will not mix with alcohol, but must first be oxidized by exposing it to the air in an uncorked bottle until a small quantity taken therefrom mixes perfectly with alcohol. This usually takes from a month to six weeks. Mastic must be added last of all to the ingredients of spirit varnish, as it is not wholly soluble in alcohol but entirely so in a solution of rosins in alcohol. Spirit varnishes that prove too hard and brittle may be improved by the addition of either of the oils of turpentine, castor seed, lavender, rosemary, or spike, in the proportion required to bring the varnish to the proper temper.

«Coloring “Spirit” Varnishes.»—In modern works the following coloring substances are used, separately and in blends: Saffron (brilliant golden yellow), dragon’s blood (deep reddish brown), gamboge (bright yellow), Socotrine or Bombay aloes (liver brown), asphalt, ivory, and bone black (black), sandalwood, pterocarpus santalinus, the heartwood (dark red), Indian sandalwood, pterocarpus indica, the heartwood (orange red), brazil wood (dark yellow), myrrh (yellowish to reddish brown; darkens on exposure), madder (reddish brown), logwood (brown), red scammony rosin (light red), turmeric (orange yellow), and many others according to the various shades desired.

«Manufacturing Hints.»—Glass, coarsely powdered, is often added to varnish when mixed in large quantities for the purpose of cutting the rosins and preventing them from adhering to the bottom and sides of the container. When possible, varnish should always be compounded without the use of heat, as this carbonizes and otherwise changes the constituents, and, besides, danger always ensues from the highly inflammable nature of the material employed. However, when heat is necessary, a water bath should always be used; the varnish should never fill the vessel over a half to three-fourths of its capacity.

«The Gums Used in Making Varnish.»—Juniper gum or true sandarac comes in long, yellowish, dusty tears, and requires a high temperature for its manipulation in oil. The oil must be so hot as to scorch a feather dipped into it, before this gum is added; otherwise the gum is burned. Because of this, juniper gum is usually displaced in oil varnish by gum dammar. Both of these gums, by their dryness, counteract the elasticity of oil as well as of other gums. The usual sandarac of commerce is a brittle, yellow, transparent rosin from Africa, more soluble in turpentine than in alcohol. Its excess renders varnish hard and brittle. Commercial sandarac is also often a mixture of the African rosin with dammar or hard Indian copal, the place of the African rosin being sometimes taken by true juniper gum. This mixture is the pounce of the shops, and is almost insoluble in alcohol or turpentine. Dammar also largely takes the place of tender copal, gum anime, white amber, white incense, and white rosin. The latter three names are also often applied to a mixture of oil and Grecian wax, sometimes used in varnish. When gum dammar is used as the main rosin in a varnish, it should be first fused and brought to a boiling point, but not thawed. This eliminates the property that renders dammar varnish soft and “tacky” if not treated as above.

Venetian turpentine has a tendency to render varnish “tacky” and must be skillfully counteracted if this effect is to be avoided. Benzoin in varnish exposed to any degree of dampness has a {716} tendency to swell, and must in such cases be avoided. Elemi, a fragrant rosin from Egypt, in time grows hard and brittle, and is not so soluble in alcohol as anime, which is highly esteemed for its more tender qualities. Copal is a name given rather indiscriminately to various gums and rosins. The East Indian or African is the tender copal, and is softer and more transparent than the other varieties; when pure it is freely soluble in oil of turpentine or rosemary. Hard copal comes in its best form from Mexico, and is not readily soluble in oil unless first fused. The brilliant, deep-red color of old varnish is said to be based on dragon’s blood, but not the kind that comes in sticks, cones, etc. (which is always adulterated), but the clear, pure tear, deeper in color than a carbuncle, and as crystal as a ruby. This is seldom seen in the market, as is also the tear of gamboge, which, mixed with the tear of dragon’s blood, is said to be the basis of the brilliant orange and gold varnish of the ancients.

Of all applications used to adorn and protect the surface of objects, oil varnishes or lacquers containing hard rosins are the best, as they furnish a hard, glossy coating which does not crack and is very durable even when exposed to wind and rain.