Borax

“ We used this in the proportion of a teaspoonful to every 14 lbs. of sugar adding it just as the sugar began to boil. Borax has been found useful with any water when making goods to be exposed in the window or on the counters, such as taffies, rocks and clear boiled sugars generally. Where the supply of water, as in most large towns is suitable, given good sugar, cream of tartar or glucose, in proper proportions, and careful boiling up to the standard, the addition of borax is unnecessary and should only be resorted to under special circumstances. ”

“ Most beautiful transparent colours, pregnant with meaning, are often seen to have formed with the borax as flux.
The operator may test his skill by making the following brilliant experiments. Take up a few small fragments of the mineral malachite (a carbonate of copper) by means of the clear, colourless, heated borax bead, and then introduce them to the oxidising flame. They slowly dissolve in the borax, and, whilst doing so, the tip of the blowpipe flame becomes emerald-green in colour. ”

“ But afterwards, when the difference became known, our borax, at least in Europe, retained exclusively the general name of Baurach, from which at length was formed the present word borax. My conclusion therefore is, that the nitrum of the ancients must have been mineral alkali; otherwise it is impossible that our borax, which till modern times was reckoned to be mineral alkali, should have been considered as a nitrum.
For many centuries past, the people in Africa and Asia, and also in Spain and Sicily, have cultivated some kinds of plants, which they dry and then burn to ashes. ”

“ ALKALI FOSSIL, only in part saturated with a peculiar acid is called tinkal; after depuration, borax. It is dug out of the earth in the kingdom of Thibet [25] . Borax takes nearly an equal weight of acid before the alkaline properties entirely disappear [26] .
I believe no one has yet found the acid of borax united either to the vegetable or volatile alkalies.
§ 54. ALKALI VEGETABILE aeratum (mild vegetable alkaly) is hardly ever found native, unless in the neighbourhood of woods destroyed by fire. ”

“ Be careful not to get borax on the upper part of the wire or on the handle. Some of the borax will stick to the hot loop. Hold this in the flame until it melts into a glassy bead in the loop. You may have to dip it into the borax once or twice more to get a good-sized bead.
When the bead is all glassy, and while it is melted, touch it lightly to one small grain of one of the chemicals on the "jewel-making plate." This jewel-making plate is a plate with six small heaps of chemicals on it. They are: manganese dioxid, copper sulfate, cobalt chlorid, nickel salts, chrome alum, and silver nitrate. ”

“ The salts thus gathered were used by lixiviation to strengthen the lake-water in the evaporating-pans, and thus increase the yield of borax.
The work of refining the borax thus obtained differed in nothing from that employed with the green crystals of Borax Lake—hot solution and crystallization in lead-lined tanks. Hachinhama borax, as placed in the market, was of a grade of excellence never surpassed. ”

“ As it reaches this country, Californian borax, after being freed from its earthy elements at the Borax Lake, is put up in small bags, and consists of pure white crystals, which are crushed into a fine, white, almost inpalpable powder in the factories. After undergoing various processes, it comes out eventually to the outside world as borax extract of soap, borax dry soap, washing-powders, &c. In one factory, over thirty-seven million of packets are turned out annually. ”

“ Boracic ACID, (acid of borax, or sedative salt.) Many people still think this to be an artificial production, but not long since Mr. Hoefer [17] found it in a lake near Sienna in the great dutchy of Hetruria, and it has long been known to be united to the fossil alkaly in native borax. It acts like an acid, though very feebly. It melts in the fire and volatilizes with water. Its specific gravity is 1,480.
§ 36. Amber ACID, is a concrete salt obtained from amber; it acts like a feeble acid. It is yet doubtful whether amber be of vegetable origin; many reckon it fossil. ”

“ Boric acid is also a [Pg 430] constituent of certain silicates, such as tourmaline, axinite, and datholite.
The natural borates are used in the preparation of borax, which is largely employed as a preservative agent, for fluxing, and for other purposes.
There is only one series of boron compounds which have any importance. These are the borates in which the trioxide (B2O3) acts the part of a weak acid. The addition of any acid liberates boric acid, which separates out in cold solutions as a crystalline precipitate. ”

“ Borax is easily tested for by dissolving the milk ash in a drop or two of dilute hydrochloric acid, moistening a strip of yellow turmeric paper with the solution and drying it, when, in the presence of even very minute quantities of borax, the yellow colouring matter of the turmeric paper will be changed into a brilliant red-brown. Formaldehyde (which in 40% water solution forms the formalin of commerce) in milk affords a bright purple colour when the milk containing it is mixed with sulphuric acid containing a trace of an iron salt. ”

“ Commercial biborate of soda. Borax is obtained either by purifying native borate of soda (TINC′AL, TINC′AR) , or by saturating crude boracic acid with the alkali. It is never prepared on the small scale unless for chemical analysis.
Prop. Crystals, six-sided prisms, which contain 10 equiv. of water, and effloresce in dry air; soluble in 20 parts of cold, and in 6 parts of boiling water; solution has an alkaline reaction on test-paper; by heat it loses its water of crystallisation, and at a higher temperature fuses to a glass-like substance (see below) . ”

“ Borax. This mineral is borate of soda. Its composition is: 37 per cent. boric acid, 16 per cent. soda, and 47 per cent. water. Its gravity is 1.7. Hardness, 2.3. It is white, and has a sweetish taste. Borax is valuable, but occurring as it does as an incrustation upon the ground over large areas, a detailed description would be superfluous, as the explorer will surely recognize it should he find it.
Clay. A good bed of clay may be of value in an accessible region. Brick-clay contains silica, alumina, iron, etc. ”

“ Many housewives who have used borax in various ways have never known its value as a medicine. It is almost the only antiseptic and disinfectant known that is entirely safe to use. Clothes washed in borax water are free from infection, and can be worn again without fear of contagion. A solution of ten grains of borax to one ounce of pure soft water is an excellent lotion for sore eyes. Apply it two or three times a day until it strengthens and heals them. Half a teaspoonful of borax and a pinch of salt dissolved in a cupful of water and used frequently as a gargle will cure sore throat. ”

“ By the construction of immense cisterns for the catching of rain water, by the employment of steam-engines for raising it from below, and probably by creating artificial vents for the soffioni, the quantity of borax produced might be almost indefinitely increased, since the range of country through which the vapor ascends is far too great for us to suppose it to be exhausted by the production of 7000 pounds of borax a day. ”

“ The Boracic Acid is not found like the greater number of substances in almost every country, but as far as our present knowledge extends, appears confined to a few particular places. On this account, as well as the great utility of borax in various arts, the discovery of its existence in any new situation may deserve to be recorded. ”

“ Borax, bō′raks, n. a mineral salt used for soldering, as a flux in metallurgy, in enamelling and glazing, as a mordant in dyeing, as a substitute for soap, and also in medicine.—adj. Borac′ic, of or relating to borax.—ns. Bor′acite, a mineral composed of boracic acid and carbonate of magnesia ”

“ The metallic oxide combines with this excess of acid anhydride, forming a mixed salt of metaboric acid.
Borax is extensively used as a constituent of enamels and glazes for both metal ware and pottery. It is also used as a flux in soldering and brazing, and in domestic ways it serves as a mild alkali, as a preservative for meats, and in a great variety of less important applications.
EXERCISES
1. Account for the fact that a solution of borax in water is alkaline.
2. What weight of water of crystallization does 1 kg. of borax contain? ”

“ To produce them pour a quart of water into a vessel, warm, add 2/5 of an ounce of shellac or rosin and a 1/100 part of a quart of ammonia or 2/5 of an ounce of borax so that the rosin becomes dissolved, and then bring the mixture to a boiling temperature.
Ammonia dissolves the rosins much more quickly and thoroughly than borax, but the solution in ammonia has the property of gelatinizing the colors after they have remained standing a short time. They therefore can only be used in a greatly diluted condition. The borax solution, on the other hand, has no such effect ”

“ It may be more simply prepared by heating anhydrous borax with potassium ferrocyanide, or by heating borax with ammonium chloride. For this purpose one part of borax is intimately mixed with two parts of dry ammonium chloride, and the mixture heated in a platinum crucible. A porous mass is formed, which after crushing and treating with water and hydrochloric acid, leaves boron nitride. Boron fluoride, BF, is known, corresponding to BN; this body was obtained by Besson and Moissan (1891) . ”

“ The atomic weight of boron has been determined by estimating the water content of pure borax (J. Berzelius) , also by conversion of anhydrous borax into sodium chloride (W. Ramsay and E. Aston) and from analysis of the bromide and chloride (Sainte-Claire Deville) ; the values obtained ranging from 10.73 to 11.04. Boron can be estimated by precipitation as potassium fluoborate, which is insoluble in a mixture of potassium acetate and alcohol. For this purpose only boric acid or its potassium salt must be present ”

“ The influence of a little sulphuric acid in the wool would be in the direction of neutralising some of the ammonia or soda, and shellac, if dissolved in the alkalis, would be to some extent precipitated on the fibre, unless the alkali, soda or ammonia, were present in sufficient excess to neutralise that sulphuric acid and to leave a sufficient balance to keep the shellac in solution. Borax, which is a borate of soda, would be so acted on by the sulphuric acid that some boric acid would be set free, the sulphuric acid robbing some of that borax of its soda. ”

“ Among these are included alum, borax and boric acid. Every physician has used them. To say that a wafer consists of alum, borax and boric acid inspires but little awe. But there is something much more mysterious and impressive in declaring that a wafer “consists of an astringent and antiseptic base, in which are incorporated certain medicaments which both locally and after absorption, contribute to the astringent, antiphlogistic, depletive, soothing and healing action of the product.” This gives the impression that some powerful and almost incomprehensible factors are at work. ”

“ Where fortunes are to be made lives are held cheap, and natures great deposits of wealth in the valley have tempted man to pit his ingenuity, strength, and endurance against the powers of the great destroyer.
In the United States the supply of borax is limited to the States of California, Oregon, and Nevada. Until within the last ten or twelve years the supply of borax in this country was derived from evaporating the water of Clear Lake and several alkaline marshes in California and Nevada. ”

“ It is generally conceded that as far as regards digestion neither borax nor boric acid have any specific influence, but when considerable quantities are present the alkalinity of the former or slight acidity of the latter may be of some effect. In a similar way they may act as mild irritant poisons, occasioning diarrhœa. With continued use most observers find a loss of weight, which seems to be due to loss of fat in the body, and this may occur, without any symptoms of ill health, when small quantities of borax or boric acid are ingested daily. ”

“ They are, in fact, pure biborate of soda, without any other impurities than the mud mechanically entangled with them in their process of crystallization. They correspond to the native borax of other localities, designated as tincal, but yet are decidedly distinct from it. In fact, no such crystals as those of Borax Lake have ever been found in any other locality, and there are several points in connection with their mode of formation, and even their very existence, which are by no means easy of comprehension, as we shall see. ”

“ The immense stock crowding upon the market, which has reduced the price of borax to very nearly one fourth of its former rate, is commonly called "California borax," but that is a misnomer, originating in the fact that it has necessarily been shipped from San Francisco; it is exclusively a product of Nevada. It is, in its look, so unlike the ordinary English borax, or that made at Hachinhama, that the contrast is very striking. Still it is practically the same, and has the same working value. ”

“ Gold is occasionally found in a matrix of this substance, and in the assay of "concentrates" largely made up of pyrites, this oxide will be formed in the preliminary calcination. Now, the lower oxide of iron (ferrous oxide, FeO) is easy to deal with; fused borax will dissolve about its own weight of it, and a silicate of soda (such as makes up the bulk of a slag in a gold assay) will take up at least half as much. But the higher oxide (ferric oxide, Fe2O3) is more refractory; even 6 parts of borax yields a poor product, and slags with any considerable percentage of it are not satisfactory. ”