198

MUSQUET.

answer the purpose. I find that chalk will not make a good mastic; being too com -pact to permit the air to insinuate between the pores, and to produce the concretion ofthe linseed oil, with which the above mixture is worked up and applied. This masticsoon acquires great hardness, and is totally impervious to water. The surface to whichit is to be applied must be dry, and smeared over with linseed oil. Considerable dex-terity is required to make good work with it. The tine dust of sandstone alone, mixedwith 10 or 12 per cent, of litharge, and 7 per cent, of linseed oil, forms an excellentmastic.

Limestone , which contains so much as 10 per cent, of clay, comports itself after cal-cination, if all the carbonic acid be expelled, just as pure limestone would do. Whenit is less strongly bhrned, it affords, however, a mass which hardens pretty speedily j'jwater. If the argillaceous proportion of a marl amounts to 18 or 20 per cent., it stillwill slake with water, but it will absorb less of it, and forms a tolerably good hydrauh cmortar, especially if a little good Roman cement be added to it. When the proportionof clay is 25 or 30 per cent, after burning, it heats but little with water, nor does dslake well, and must therefore be ground by stampers or an edge millstone, when it lSto be used as a mortar. This kind of marl yields commonly the best water cementwithout other addition. Should the quantity of clay be increased further, as °Pto 40 per cent., the compound will not bear a high or long-continued heat without beingspoiled for making hydraulic mortar after grinding to powder. When more strong^calcined, it forms a vitriform substance, and should, after being pulverized, be mixe“up with good lime, to make a water mortar. If the marls, in any locality, differ muchin their relative proportions of lime and alumina, as may be readily ascertained by tf 1 ®use of my lime-proof apparatus (see Appendix ), then the several kinds should be mix ein such due proportions as to produce the most speedily-setting and most highly-indur®'ting hydraulic cement.

MUNDICK. The name given by the Cornish miners to iron or arsenical pyrites-

MUSK. The musk deer, from the male of which animal species the bag containerthis valuable drug is obtained, is a native of the mountainous Kirgesian and Langor ja .steppes of the Altai, on the river Irtish , extending eastward as far as the river Jei> eS jand Lake Baikal; and generally of the mountains of eastern Asia , between 30° aa60° of N. L. Two distinct kinds of musk are known in commerce, the first being 1Chinese Tonquin, Thibetian, or Oriental, and the Siberian or Russian . The ChJn eis regarded by Dr. Goebel as the result of ingenious adulterations of the genuine art,c ( jby that crafty people, i The Russian musk is genuine, the bags never being °P er *5 n ’are consequently never sewn, nor artificially closed, like those imported into Londfrom China . The former is sometimes so fresh, that moisture may be expressed f r °-the bag by cutting through its fleshy side. The interior mass is frequently of a s ° asand pappy consistence ; but the surface of the bag is perfectly dry. The Chinese are found invariably to have been opened and again glued together, more or less nea ^though sometimes the stitches of the sewing are manifest. Mr. Dyrssen, an emin ^ emerchant at St. Petersburgh, states that during the many years he has been in the tra ^although he has received at a time from 100 to 200 ounces from London , yet, recase whatever has he met with a bag which had not been opened, and closed with ^or less ingenuity. The genuine contents seem to have been first removed, m0<1> as j!-and replaced. M. Guibourt gives the following as the constituents of a Chinese m^ 0 .bag: 1, water ; 2, ammonia; 3, solid fat or stearine : 4, liquid fat or elaine ; 1 teslesterine; 6, acid oil, combined with ammonia; 7, volatile oil; 8-10, hydro®* 1 .of ammonia, potassa, and lime; 11, an undetermined acid; 12, gelatin; 13, al ^ ar bo-14, fibrin; 15, carbonaceous matter soluble in water; 16, calcareous salt; 17,nate of lime ; 18, hairs and sand. ort of

From June, 1841, to June, 1842, a duty of 6d. per ounce was paid at t* e P a jjtyLondon alone upon 969 ounces of musk. The prices of grain musk of the bes 9(the matter without the bag) varies from 60s. to 95s. per ounce. free

~ ” ■ ------- s, which is nearly

There is a superior musk imported now from the United States ,from the carbonate of lime, so abundant in the bags of the Siberian musk.

, with th«

MUSQUET. It is now fourteen years since the Hon. Board of Ordnance, e( j pieview of introducing the use of percussion firearms into the British army, eD jP ^ gJ . frsitto investigate experimentally the best mode of preparing the priming P°' w ,, tanC e ofpurpose. The result of these experiments was presented in a report, the su - j oJJ g jn-which is given under the article “ Fulminate” in the Dictionary . During t 0 jp theterval, Mr. Lovell, inspector of small-arms for her majesty’s service, and ire constr uc-Royal Manufactory, at Enfield Chase, has directed his ingenious mind to • ( en den® e >tion of a sure, simple, and strong musquet, with which, under his able supe n j s hed tb etnthe whole of her majesty’s soldiers are now provided. He has also ur () fwith a short, but clear set of instructions, for the cleaning and managem^ ^ or j ; theexcellent arms, illustrated by a series of wood engravings. From thisfollowing notice is copied :—