414

DRYING HOUSE.

readily in alcohol, ether, and oils. It is brought from the East Indies, Africa, SouthAmerica , as the produce of several trees, the Dracaena Draco , the Pterocarpus santalinus,the Pterocarpus Draco, and the Calamus Rolang.

Dragon’s blood is used chiefly for tingeing spirit and turpentine varnishes, forpreparing gold lacker, for tooth tinctures and powders, for staining marble, &c. Accord-ing to Herbenger, it consists of 9 07 parts of red resin, 2 of fat oil, 3 of benzoic acid,T6 ofoxalate, and 3-7 of phosphate of lime.

DRUGGET is a coarse, but rather slight, woollen 4 fabric, used for covering carpets,and as an article of clothing by females of the poorer classes. It is now-a-days nearlysuperseded by coarse cotton goods.

DRYING HOUSE. An apartment fitted up in a peculiar manner for drying calicoes,and other textile fabrics. Mr. Southworth, of Sharpies, a Lancashire bleacher, ob-tained a patent, in 1823, for the following ingenious arrangement, which has beensince generally adopted, with certain modifications, in most of our extensive bleachingand printing works. Fig. 363 is a section of the drying-house, where a is a furnace and

boiler for the purpose of generating steam ; it is furnished with a safety valve in thetube 6, at top, and from this tube the steam main c passes down to the floor of the base-ment story. From this main, a series of steam-pipes, as d d, extend over the surfaceof the floor, and from them heat is intended to be diffused for the purpose of warming thedrying-house.

Along the middle of the building a strong beam of timber e e, extends, and is sup-ported by cast-iron pillars; from this beam, to bearings on the side walls, a series of r°i^are carried in a cross direction, over which rails the wet cloth is to be hung in folds, athe steam or evaporation emitted in drying is allowed to. escape through apertures or vetilators in the roof.

The mode in which the cloth is delivered on to the rails, on either side of the bea^iwill be best understood by reference to the delivering carriage, which is shown, witrollers partly in section. . oS

The wet cloth is first to be coiled upon a roller, and then placed in the carriageat f, with its pivots bearing upon inclined planes. The carriage is to be placed 8 ^

commencement of the rails, running upon the middle beam, and also upon the

bearings or railways extending along the side walls of the building, parallel an( jupon a level.with the same beam. It is made to travel by means of an endless ^passing over two riggers, g and h, in Jig. 363, and over pulleys and a ban ' ,j esSattached to the carriage, as will be explained. The rigger g, which moves this ® en dband, is actuated by bevel gear, seen at i, which is put in motion by a pinion at

of a revolving shaft leading from a steam engine. > ^-heel*

In the same Jig., k 1c is the endless band passing over a pulley under the b an asand over the pulley n, by which it will be perceived that the traversing of t e j, a ad-described, would cause these pulleys and wheels to revolve. On the axle otwheel m, I here is a drum against which the roll of wet cloth / presses, ana dj .drum revolves, the roll of wet cloth is, by its friction, made to turn in a c0 ™i ce itrection, and to deliver off the cloth on to the periphery of the drum, ^ the

passes over a roller and descends to the rails. Upon the end of the axi