The composition of wood has been examined by Gay Lussac and Thenard, and Dr. Prout. The first two chemists found it to consist, in 100 parts, of—
| Oak. | Beech. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carbon | 52 | ·53 | 51 | ·45 |
| Hydrogen | 5 | ·69 | 5 | ·82 |
| Oxygen | 41 | ·78 | 42 | ·73 |
According to Dr. Prout, the oxygen and hydrogen are in the exact proportions to form water. Willow contains 50, and box 49·8 per cent. of carbon; each containing, therefore, very nearly 44·444 of oxygen, and 5·555 of hydrogen. In the analyses of Gay Lussac and Thenard, there is a great excess of hydrogen above what the oxygen requires to form water. Authenrieth stated, some years ago, that he found that fine sawdust, mixed with a sufficient quantity of wheat flour, made a coherent dough with water, which formed an excellent food for pigs; apparently showing that the digestive organs of this animal could operate the same sort of change upon wood as sulphuric acid does.
Table of the Distillation of One Pound of Wood, dried, at 86° Fahr.
| Name of the wood. | Weight of wood acid. | One ounce of the acid saturates of carbonate of potash. | Weight of the combustible oil. | Weight of the charcoal. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ounces. | Grains. | Ounces. | Ounces. | |||||
| White birch | 7 | 44 | 1 | 1⁄4 | 3 | 3⁄4 | ||
| Red beech | 7 | 44 | 1 | 1⁄2 | 3 | 3⁄4 | ||
| Prick wood (spindle tree) | 7 | 1⁄2 | 40 | 1 | 3⁄4 | 3 | 1⁄2 | |
| Large leaved linden | 6 | 3⁄4 | 41 | 2 | 3 | 3⁄4 | ||
| Red or scarlet oak | 7 | 40 | 1 | 1⁄2 | 4 | 1⁄4 | ||
| White beech | 6 | 1⁄2 | 40 | 1 | 3⁄4 | 3 | 3⁄4 | |
| Common ash | 7 | 1⁄2 | 34 | 1 | 1⁄2 | 3 | 1⁄2 | |
| Horse chestnut | 7 | 1⁄2 | 31 | 1 | 1⁄2 | 3 | 1⁄2 | |
| Italian poplar | 7 | 1⁄4 | 30 | 1 | 1⁄2 | 3 | 3⁄4 | |
| Silver poplar | 7 | 1⁄4 | 30 | 1 | 1⁄4 | 3 | 3⁄4 | |
| White willow | 7 | 1⁄4 | 28 | 1 | 1⁄2 | 3 | 1⁄2 | |
| Root of the sassafras laurel | 6 | 3⁄4 | 29 | 1 | 3⁄4 | 4 | 1⁄4 | |
| Wild service tree | 7 | 28 | 1 | 3⁄4 | 3 | 1⁄2 | ||
| Basket willow | 8 | 27 | 1 | 1⁄2 | 3 | 1⁄2 | ||
| Dogberry tree | 7 | 27 | 2 | 3 | 1⁄2 | |||
| Buckthorn | 7 | 1⁄2 | 26 | 1 | 1⁄2 | 3 | 1⁄2 | |
| Logwood | 7 | 3⁄4 | 26 | 1 | 1⁄2 | 4 | ||
| Alder | 7 | 1⁄4 | 22 | 1 | 1⁄2 | 3 | 1⁄2 | |
| Juniper | 7 | 1⁄4 | 23 | 1 | 3⁄4 | 3 | 1⁄2 | |
| White fir (deal) | 6 | 1⁄2 | 23 | 2 | 1⁄4 | 3 | 1⁄2 | |
| Common pine wood | 6 | 3⁄4 | 22 | 1 | 3⁄4 | 3 | 1⁄2 | |
| Savine tree | 7 | 20 | 1 | 3⁄4 | 3 | 3⁄4 | ||
| Red deal (pine) | 6 | 1⁄2 | 18 | 2 | 1⁄4 | 3 | 3⁄4 | |
| Guiac wood | 6 | 16 | 2 | 1⁄2 | 4 | 1⁄4 | ||
WOOF, is the same as [Weft].
WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. In reference to textile fabrics, sheep’s wool is of two different sorts, the short and the long stapled; each of which requires different modes of manufacture in the preparation and spinning processes, as also in the treatment of the cloth after it is woven, to fit it for the market. Each of these is, moreover, distinguished in commerce by the names of fleece wools and dead wools, according as they have been shorn at the usual annual period from the living animal, or are cut from its skin after death. The latter are comparatively harsh, weak, and incapable of imbibing the dyeing principles, more especially if the sheep has died of some malignant distemper. The annular pores, leading into the tubular cavities of the filaments, seem, in this case, to have shrunk and become obstructed. The time of year for sheep-shearing most favourable to the quality of the wool, and the comfort of the animal, is towards the end of June and beginning of July;—the period when Lord Leicester holds his celebrated rural fête for that interesting purpose.
The wool of the sheep has been surprisingly improved, by its domestic culture. The mouflon (Ovis aries), the parent stock from which our sheep is undoubtedly derived, and which is still found in a wild state upon the mountains of Sardinia, Corsica, Barbary, Greece, and Asia Minor, has a very short and coarse fleece, more like hair than wool. When this animal is brought under the fostering care of man, the rank fibres gradually disappear; while the soft wool round their roots, little conspicuous in the wild animal, becomes singularly developed. The male most speedily undergoes this change, and continues ever afterwards to possess far more power in modifying the fleece of the offspring, than the female parent. The produce of a breed from a coarse-woolled ewe, and a fine-woolled ram, is not of a mean quality between the two, but half-way nearer that of the sire. By coupling the female thus generated, with such a male as the former, another improvement of one-half will be obtained, affording a staple three-fourths finer than that of the grandam. By proceeding inversely, the wool would be as rapidly deteriorated. It is, therefore, a matter of the first consequence in wool husbandry, to exclude from the flock all coarse-fleeced rams.
Long wool is the produce of a peculiar variety of sheep, and varies in the length of its fibres from 3 to 8 inches. Such wool is not carded like cotton, but combed like flax, either by hand or appropriate machinery. Short wool is seldom longer than 3 or 4 inches; it is susceptible of carding and felting, by which processes the filaments become first convoluted, and then densely matted together. The shorter sorts of the combing wool are used principally for hosiery, though of late years the finer kinds have been extensively worked up into merino and mousseline-de-laine fabrics. The longer wools of the Leicestershire breed are manufactured into hard yarns, for worsted pieces, such as waistcoats, carpets, bombasines, poplins, crapes, &c.