Evening at Home 50

Evening at Home 50

Geo._ Does silver melt easily?

 

_Tut._ Silver and gold both melt more difficultly than lead; not till

they are above a common red heat. As to the weight of silver, it is

nearly one half less than that of gold, being only eleven times as heavy

as water.

 

_Har._ Is quicksilver a kind of silver?

 

_Tut._ It takes its name from silver, being very like it in colour; but

in reality it is a very different thing, and one of the most singular of

the metal kind.

 

_Geo._ It is not _malleable_, I am sure.

 

_Tut._ No; not when it is quick or fluid, as it always is in our

climate. But a very great degree of cold makes it solid, and then it is

malleable like other metals.

 

_Geo._ I have heard of _killing_ quicksilver; pray, what does that mean?

 

_Tut._ It means destroying its property of running about, by mixing it

with something else. Thus if quicksilver be well rubbed with fat, or

oil, or gum, it unites with them, losing all its metallic appearance or

fluidity. It also unites readily with gold and silver, and several other

metals, into a kind of shining paste, which is called an _amalgam_. This

is one of the ways of gilding or silvering a thing. Your buttons are

gilt by means of an amalgam.

 

_Geo._ How is that done?

 

_Tut._ The shells of the buttons, which are made of copper, are shaken

in a hat with a lump of amalgam of gold and quicksilver, till they are

all covered over with it. They are then put into a sort of frying-pan,

and held over the fire. The quicksilver, being very volatile in its

nature, flies off in the form of a smoke or vapour when it is heated,

leaving the gold behind it spread over the surface of the button. Thus

many dozens are gilt at once with the greatest ease.

 

_Geo._ What a clever way! I should like vastly to see it done.

 

_Tut._ You may see it any day at Birmingham, if you happen to be there;

as well as a great many other curious operations on metals.

 

_Geo._ What a weight quicksilver is! I remember taking up a bottleful of

it, and I had liked to have dropped it again, it was so much heavier

than I expected.

 

_Tut._ Yes, it is one of the heaviest of the metals—about fifteen times

as heavy as water.

 

_Geo._ Is not _mercury_ a name for quicksilver? I have heard them talk

of the mercury rising and falling in the weather-glass.

 

_Tut._ It is. You, perhaps, may have heard too of _mercurial medicines_,

which are those made of quicksilver prepared in one manner or another.

 

_Geo._ What are they good for?

 

_Tut._ For a great variety of complaints. Your brother took some lately

for the worms; and they are often given for breakings-out on the skin,

and for sores and swellings. But they have one remarkable effect, when

taken in a considerable quantity, which is to loosen the teeth, and

cause a great spitting. This is called salivation.

 

_Har._ I used to think quicksilver was poison.

 

_Tut._ When it is in its common state of running quicksilver it

generally does neither good nor harm; but it may be prepared, so as to

be a very violent medicine, or even a poison.

 

_Geo._ Is it useful for anything else?

 

_Tut._ Yes—For a variety of purposes in the arts, which I cannot now

very well explain to you. But you will perhaps be surprised to hear that

one of the finest red paints is made from quicksilver.

 

_Geo._ A red paint!—which is that?

 

_Tut._ Vermilion, or cinnabar, which is a particular mixture of sulphur

with quicksilver.

 

_Har._ Is quicksilver found in this country?

 

_Tut._ No. The greatest quantity comes from Spain, Istria, and South

America. It is a considerable object of commerce, and bears a high

value, though much inferior to silver. Well, so much for metals at

present. We will talk of the rest on some future opportunity.

 

 

 

 

FLYING AND SWIMMING.

 

 

“How I wish I could fly!” cried Robert, as he was gazing after his

pigeons that were exercising themselves in a morning’s flight. “How fine

it must be to soar to such a height, and to dash through the air with so

swift a motion!”

 

“I doubt not,” said his father, “that the pigeons have great pleasure in

it; but we have our pleasures, too; and it is idle to indulge longings

for things quite out of our power.”

 

_Robert._ But do you think it impossible for men to learn to fly?

 

_Father._ I do—for I see they are not furnished by Nature with organs

requisite for the purpose.

 

_Rob._ Might not artificial wings be contrived, such as Dædalus is said

to have used?

 

_Fa._ Possibly they might; but the difficulty would be to put them in

motion.

 

_Rob._ Why could not a man move them, if they were fastened to his

shoulders, as well as a bird?

 

_Fa._ Because he has got arms to move which the bird has not. The same

organs which in quadrupeds are employed to move the fore-legs, and in

man the arms, are used by birds in the motion of the wings. Nay, muscles

or bundles of flesh, that move the wings, are proportionally much larger

and stronger than those bestowed upon our arms; so that it is

impossible, formed as we are, that we should use wings, were they made

and fastened on with ever so much art.

 

_Rob._ But angels, and cupids, and such things are painted with wings;

and I think they look very natural.

 

_Fa._ To you they may appear so; but an anatomist sees them at once to

be monsters, which could not really exist.

 

_Rob._ God might have created winged men, however, if he had pleased.

 

_Fa._ No doubt; but they could not have had the same shape that men have

now. They would have been different creatures, such as it was not in his

plan to make. But you that long to fly—consider if you have made use of

all the faculties already given you! You want to subdue the element of

air—what can you do with that of water? Can you swim?

 

_Rob._ No, not yet.

 

_Fa._ Your companion, Johnson, I think, can swim very well?

 

_Rob._ Yes.

 

_Fa._ Reflect, then, on the difference betwixt him and you. A boat

oversets with you both in a deep stream. You plump at once to the

bottom, and infallibly lose your life. He rises like a cork, darts away

with the greatest ease, and reaches the side in perfect safety. Both of

you, pursued by a bull, come to the side of a river. He jumps in and

crosses it. You are drowned if you attempt it, and tossed by the bull if

you do not. What an advantage he has over you! Yet you are furnished

with exactly the same bodily powers that he is. How is this?

 

_Bob._ Because he has been taught, and I have not.

 

_Fa._ True, but it is an easy thing to learn, and requires no other

instruction than boys can give one another when they bathe together: so

that I wonder anybody should neglect to acquire an art at once agreeable

and useful. The Romans used to say, by way of proverb, of a blockhead,

“He can neither read nor swim.” You may remember how Cesar was saved at

Alexandria by throwing himself into the sea, and swimming with one hand,

while he held up his commentaries with the other.

 

_Rob._ I should like very well to swim, and I have often tried, but I

always pop under water, and that daunts me.

 

_Fa._ And it is that fear which prevents you from succeeding.

 

_Rob._ But is it as natural for man to swim as for other creatures? I

have heard that the young of all other animals swim the first time they

are thrown into the water.

 

_Fa._ They do—they are without fear. In our climate the water is

generally cold, and is early made an object of terror. But in the hot

countries, where bathing is one of the greatest pleasures, young

children swim so early and well, that I should suppose they take to it almost naturally.