Cement, Build′ing. Syn. Artificial puzzolene′. From a mixture of clay or loam, broken pottery, flints, or siliceous sand, or broken bottle glass, and wood ashes, exposed to a considerable heat in a furnace, until it becomes partially vitrified; it is then ground to fine powder, sifted, and mixed with one third its weight of quick-lime, also in fine powder, after which it must be packed (tight) in casks to preserve it from the air and moisture. For use it is mixed up with water and applied like Roman cement.
Cement, Cap. Prep. 1. Resin, 5 lbs.; beeswax and dried Venetian red, of each 1 lb.; melted together.
2. (C. G. Williams.) Equal weights of red lead and white lead. Used for chemical and electrical purposes. For cementing glass tubes, necks of balloons, &c., into metal mountings. No. 2 is preferable to white lead alone, and may be depended on for temperature up to 212°.
Cement, Cheese. From grated cheese, 2 parts; quick-lime (in fine powder) 1 part; white of egg, q. s.; beat to a paste. Used for earthenware, &c.
Cement, Chem′ical. Syn. Soft cement. Prep. From yellow wax, 4 parts; common turpentine, 2 parts; Venetian red (well dried), 1 part; melted together. Used as a temporary stopping or lute for the ends or joints of tubes, which are not exposed to much heat; as in alkalimetry, &c. See Cement, Electrical.
Cement, Chi′nese. Syn. Shell-lac cement, Liquid glue. Prep. 1. Finest pale orange shell-lac (broken small), 4 oz.; rectified spirit (strongest), 3 oz.; digested together in a corked bottle in a warm place until dissolved. Very strong and useful; almost odourless. It should have about the consistence of treacle.
2. As before, but using rectified wood naphtha as the solvent. Inferior to the last, but excellent for many purposes.
3. (Without spirit.) Prep. Borax, 1 oz.; water, 3⁄4 pint; shell-lac, 3 oz.; boil in a covered vessel until dissolved, then evaporate to a proper consistence. Cheap and useful, but dries slowly.
4. Macerate for several hours, 6 parts of glue, in small pieces, in 16 parts of water; then add 1 part of hydrochloric acid, and 11⁄2 part of sulphate of zinc; and let the mixture be kept for 10 or 12 hours at a temperature of 68° or 70° C.
Uses, &c. Employed to mend glass, china, fancy work, jewelry, &c., for which it is only inferior to Armenian cement. The first formula produces a cement so strong that pieces of wood may be joined together, cut slopingly across the grain, and will afterwards resist every attempt to break them at the same place. In many of the islands of the Indian Ocean, in Japan, China, and the East Indies, a similar cement is used to join pieces of wood for bows, lances, &c. The fluid is thinly smeared over each face of the joint, a piece of very thin gauze interposed, and the whole pressed tightly together and maintained so until the next day. Joints so made will even bear the continual flexure of a bow without separating. It is admirably adapted for fishing rods. The product of the second formula is commonly sold as LIQUID GLUE. That of the last is much used by the druggists and oilmen, instead of gum, for fixing paper labels to tin, and to glass when exposed to damp.