Blowpipe

“ If you find the slightest difficulty in detaching the skin of a valuable specimen, it is far better to damage the blowpipe than to risk spoiling the skin. Supposing your blowpipe is a glass one, you can easily break off the end of it after making a cut with a very small triangular file, and the portion thus removed may be left attached to the skin. ”

“ Having procured a healthy full-grown one, a short piece of a poisoned blowpipe arrow was broken off and run up into its thigh, as near as possible betwixt the skin and the flesh, in order that it might not be incommoded by the wound. ”

“ Originally, the blowpipe was only a simple, conical tube, more or less curved towards its point, and terminated by a very small circular opening. By means of this, a current of air was carried against the flame of a candle, and the inflamed matter was directed upon small objects, of which it was desirable to elevate the temperature. Workers in metal still derive immense advantages from the use of this little instrument: they employ it in the soldering of very small articles, as well as for heating the extremities 2 of delicate tools, in order to temper them. ”

“ Combustion-Glass.—This may be worked more easily if a small percentage of oxygen is introduced into the air with which the blowpipe flame is produced. If the air is replaced entirely by oxygen there is a risk of damaging [Pg 102] the blowpipe jet, unless a special blowpipe is employed.
Internal Seal.—There are two ways of making these, one, in which the inner portion of the tube is fused on to the inside of the bulb or tube through which it is to pass, an opening is made by bursting and the outer tube is joined on. ”

“ A support for such a blowpipe may be cut out of a piece of brass or tin-plate, and should be fastened to a small, flat, wooden board. A source of flame may consist of an ordinary brass elbow, such as is used on gas fittings, and into which a piece of thin brass tube (the body of a fish-tail burner from which the perforated non-metallic plug has been removed will serve quite well) has been fitted. It is an advantage to flatten the brass tube somewhat and to file the flattened end to a slope which corresponds with the angle at which the blowpipe jet enters the burner. ”

“ A tube of bark or hollow reed, a piece of curled up dry hide, or a gun-barrel with the nipple taken out, serves for a blowpipe to gently urge on the fire with. We—as stated in the early portion of this work—endeavour, if possible, to have a small pair of bellows as part of our travelling kit. It is well, however, to know how to manage without them. Small quantities of gunpowder cautiously sprinkled in will aid considerably in setting up the first flame of a sluggish fire. The greatest care must, however, be exercised in order to guard against accidents from explosion. ”

“ The wind is generally supplied by a blowpipe, though in some cases bellows are used. These and other slight variations, however, involve no essential difference in character or construction, and a description of the great bagpipe of the Highlands of Scotland will serve to indicate the leading features of the instrument in all its forms. ”

“ He should also practice using the blowpipe until he can keep up a steady and uninterrupted flame for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, without stopping for breath. It is quite possible to replenish wind in the mouth, which alone ought to be used, without interrupting the breathing for an instant, but it requires some practice. ”

“ These little tubes are smaller than the end of 28a pipe-stem, about four inches long, and made of very thin glass. A dozen can be procured for ten or twelve cents at any place where chemical supplies are to be found. A short tallow candle, held in a cheap tin candlestick, answers for the flame; and the tobacco-pipe, converted into the blowpipe just described, can be used in any of the experiments here given. ”

“ There is a wide choice of apparatus, from a simple mouth-blowpipe and a candle flame to a power-driven blower and a multiple-jet heating device. All are useful, and all have their special applications, but, for the present, we will consider the ordinary types of bellows and blowpipes, such as one usually finds in a chemical or physical laboratory.
The usual, or Herepath, type of gas blowpipe consists of an outer tube through which coal gas can be passed and an inner tube through which a stream of air may be blown. Such a blowpipe is shown in section by Fig. ”

“ The mouth blowpipe is unsuitable for the production of a large flame, and cannot be used for any lengthy operations; hence recourse must be made to types in which the air-blast is occasioned by mechanical means. ”

“ Two of these platinum tubes should be supplied, differing in the size of the orifice, by which a stronger or lighter current of flame may be projected from it. Metals, such as brass or German silver, are very liable to become dirty through oxidation, and when placed between the lips are liable to impart a disagreeable taste. To avoid this, the top of the tube must be supplied with a mouthpiece of ivory or horn C. The blowpipe here represented is the one used by Ghan, and approved by Berzelius. The trumpet mouthpiece was adopted by Plattner ”

“ Many people think that one blower is as good as another, and expect that a fan giving a pressure equal to, say, the height of a two inch column of water should do the same work as a blower giving a pressure ten to twenty times as great. The construction and power of blowpipes, with the laws ruling the proportions and power, will be found in an article on "Blowpipe Construction," published in Design and Work, March, 1881, and as the matter is there fully treated, no further reference to the subject is necessary. ”

“ In the very act of this becoming ignited, the heat radiates so fast that you cannot accumulate enough to cause the fusion of the wire, except under the most careful arrangement. Thus I cannot melt that piece of antimony by simply putting it into the candle; but if I put it upon charcoal, and drive the fiery current against it, there will be heat enough to melt it. The beauty of the blowpipe is, that it sends hot air (making hot air by the combustion of the flame) against the thing to be heated. ”

“ No wadding is used. Aim is rendered inaccurate, in the first place by the heaviness of the tube, and secondly by the unsuitable nature of the missile." A toy blow-gun is also figured by Dr. Annandale, such as is used as a plaything by Labbai boys, and consisting of a hollow cane with a piece of tinned iron twisted round the butt, and fastened by soldering the two ends together. I have received from the Madura district a blowpipe consisting of a long black-japanned tin tube, like a billiard-cue case, with brass fittings and terminals. ”

“ I have never seen any carved ornamentation on a blow-pipe except a plate of bone inlaid with strips of lead, at the mouth-end. ‘Sumpitan’ is the Malay name for the weapon; the Kayans call it ‘Leput,’ and the Punans simply ‘Put;’ Ibans, who clip and elide Malay words, drop the ending an, and call it ‘Sumpit.’ All these names are, possibly, derived from an imitation of the sound when the dart is blown through the tube and the tongue closes the opening with a quick pat. ”

“ There were wonderful tales of gnomes and kobolds, of the strange adventures of the charcoal-burners in lonely forests, of water-sprites and dwarfs. But none of all these made quite as great an impression on me as one which Meta called "The Man with the Pan-pipes," a story which, much to my surprise, I found years after in a well-known poem called "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." It was the very same story as to the facts, with just a few differences; for instance, the man in the poem is not described as playing on pan-pipes, but on some other kind of pipe. ”

“ Out come the children: little ones in night gowns; bigger ones, with playthings, toy animals, dolls. He pipes, gayer and louder. They pour in, right and left. Motion and music fill the air. The PIPER lifts JAN to his shoulder (dropping the little crutch) and marches off, up the street at the rear, piping, in the midst of them all. ”

“ A blow-pipe is simply a small pipe or tube a few inches long and bent at a right angle very near one end. Insert one end in your mouth, the bent end in a gas or even lamp flame, and blow gently. The effect is a flame many times hotter than the still flame. ”

“ In the Highlands the piper is always in the open air; and when people wish to dance to his music, it is on the green, if the weather permits; nothing but necessity makes them attempt a pipe-dance in the house. The bagpipe was a field instrument intended to call the clans to arms, and animate them in battle, and was no more intended for a house than a round of six-pounders. A broadside from a first-rate, or a round from a battery, has a sublime and impressive effect at a proper distance. ”

“ Douglas, in reply; and she resolved that Lily's little acquaintance should have not only a doll, but plenty of good warm clothing, and herself for a friend.
THE POCKET BLOW-PIPE. BY WILLIAM BLAIKIE, Author of "How to Get Strong, and How to Stay so."
Stand erect, with the chin turned a little up. Draw through the nose all the air you can, till your chest is brimful. Now place in the mouth a piece of clay pipe stem, say an inch long, and blow through it as long and hard as you can, as if you were trying to blow out a flame. ”

“ What have we here! Oh! My gift. The Sumpitan, or blow-pipe, the weapon of the natives of Central America, presented together with a case of poisoned arrows, by John Sporboy. Tra-la-la! Observe this:--The fellow takes one of these little wooden needles stuck into a pith ball, puts it into the pipe, blows, and puff!--down falls his dinner! ”

“ But how, then, did the piper come to be buried in Duntroon?
“THE CAMPBELLS ARE COMING” dates so far back in the centuries that we fail to trace its origin. It has been the march of the clan for hundreds of years. There is an old Gaelic song sung to the air, which tradition says was the composition of a piper. This piper, in the course of his vocation, was at a wedding in Inveraray, where he was inhospitably treated. ”

“ When the man in blue was a hundred yards from the pit, he shot him dead. The rifle was still lifting from the recoil when he sprang to his feet, turned, and ran. Before he was twenty feet away, the place where he had been exploded; the force of the blast almost knocked him down, and steam blew past and ahead of him. Ignoring his pack and ice-staff, he ran on, calling to Brave to follow. The dog obeyed instantly; more negatron-blasts were thundering and blazing and steaming on the crest of the ridge. ”

“ The piper is, first and last, a fighting man; and when a regiment is mobilised it at once loses most of its pipers. Whatever the strength of the band may have been in peace time, only the "sergeant piper"—a hideous official term for the pipe major—and five "full" pipers are normally retained as such. ”

“ The man who blows takes the handles (which are perpendicular,) in each hand, and raises one hand up, and at the same time presses the other down, so that with the two bellows a constant blast is kept up. The pipe is frequently made of a sort of clay, similar to that used in coarse earthenware; but when such things can be procured, old gun-barrels, which have burst on the coast, not unfrequently find their way into the interior, and are sold at a very high price for this purpose. ”

“ A.D. 1513.—It is on record that John Hastie, the celebrated hereditary piper of Jedburgh, played at the battle of Flodden. There is a painting of this date by the German artist, Albrecht Durer, which represents a shepherd boy playing to his sheep on the bagpipe, and another which shows a piper leaning against a tree with a naked dirk at the left side and a purse exactly like a sporran suspended in front. Olaus Magnus, a Swedish prelate of the same century, affirms that a double pipe, probably the bagpipe, was carried by the shepherds to the pastures that their flocks might feed better. ”

“ The tears from his eyes at the sound of your piping!
Though many may term you infestive,
Discordant, or dull, as they please,
Or say that your skirls are suggestive
Of pigs being bitten by bees;
There's nought so exciting, for marching or fighting,
As sounds that your chanter produces;
No strains so entrancing, for dining, or dancing,
Or similar uses!
In peace or in war, for civilian or 'sniper,'
There's nothing on earth like the pipes of the Piper! ”

“ He lets down a water-jar into the well again. The nearness of the hell startles him. He becomes watchful as a wild creature. It sounds nearer and nearer. A woman's voice calls like the wind: 'Jan! Jan!'— The PIPER, tense and cautious, moves softly down into the shrubbery by the well. ”

“ Jets of several sizes to fit the air-tubes of blow-pipes may be obtained with them, and will serve for regulating the supply of air to the flame.
The Bellows.—The usual blowing apparatus is some form of foot-blower. These may be obtained fitted to small tables with sheet-iron tops. But a much less expensive apparatus is the large foot-blower made by Mr. Fletcher of Warrington, which can be used at an ordinary table or laboratory bench. Good foot-blowers can also be obtained from makers of furnace bellows.
Fig. 2
No part of the glass-blower’s equipment exceeds the bellows in importance. ”

“ A Culloden incident—Ancient Celts in battle—The harper and bard superseded—First mention of pipes in battle—First regimental pipers—In the navy—Prince Charlie’s pipers—An “instrument of war”—A Mac Crimmon incident—Power of pipes in battle—A Magersfontein incident—Byron’s tribute—Position in actual battle.
Professor Aytoun in these cynically humorous lines, from the “Bon Gaultier Ballads,” would have us believe that the piper was more important in times of war than the actual fighting man. ”