Consol (bond)

“ It is quite possible, therefore, that the 2-per-cent United States Consols would sell in any case at a relatively higher price than the obligations of any other country, but it can not be denied that the chief reason which causes them to sell at the remarkably high price which they have attained is the fact that they are required by national banks as security for circulation. This fact is doubtless the controlling element in their market position, and at once accounts for their special strength and removes them from the field of private investment. ”

“ No wonder that we came to believe in the stability of money contracts over a long period. The metal gold might not possess all the theoretical advantages of an artificially regulated standard, but it could not be tampered with and had proved reliable in practice.
At the same time, the investor in Consols in the early part of the century had done very well in three different ways. The “security” of his investment had come to be considered as near absolute perfection as was possible. ”

“ In a great panic, Consols cannot be sold unless the Bank of England will advance to the buyer, and no buyer can obtain advances on Consols at such a time unless the Bank of England will lend to him. This case is worst if the alarm is not confined to the great towns, but is diffused through the country. As a rule, country bankers only keep so much barren cash as is necessary for their common business. All the rest they leave at the bill brokers', or at the interest-giving banks, or invest in Consols and such securities. But in a panic they come to London and want this money. ”

“ Curiously enough, it was Captain Thalakka who waxed gloomiest as the trio descended interminable stairs into the black depths of Lanka. The tall, golden-skinned warrior fumed with brooding restlessness, a torment that finally would not be restrained. He turned to Ramey, his eyes haggard.
"Now, Lord Ramaíya," he cried angrily, "am I, Thalakka, Captain of the Torthian Guard, a shamed and sorrowed man! It is iron to my soul that I, who owe you my life, should be the one to lead you to a foul and certain doom!" ”

“ They're low-grade because they are mixed with lead or zinc, hold a small proportion of silver, and yield very small profit. The separation of the silver and zinc is difficult. A hyperstatic process has been invented, but if a chemical process could be found, it would be cheaper and better; besides, it would make a yield of zinc as well as of silver. And to-day both zinc and silver are soaring. ”

“ If, when Consols are 73, he pays 1 per cent. for a put-and-call option on £10,000 for the end of next month and they rise 2, he can sell them for £7,500; exercise his call, which, with the price he has paid for the option, cost £7,400; and pocket the profit of £100 less the commission of £12 10s. which he pays his broker. If during the option period Consols fall 2, then he exercises that part of his option which enables him to put them upon the jobber, and pockets a similar profit less the similar commission which he pays his broker. ”

“ Outlook.—"The author discusses the architecture with a minuteness that might terrify the inexpert if it were not for the sustained ease and interest of his style; great is the fascination of the expert hand when its touch is light."
Saturday Review.—"Mr Bond leaves us more than ever proud of what is left to us of the stately Benedictine house of God, which is to the entire English-speaking world a common bond and home."
Antiquary.—"It has a wealth of capital illustrations, is preceded by a bibliography, and is supplied with good indexes to both illustrations and text." ”

“ A slight profit was again made in the years 1900-1902, but the rate of interest on Consols was then reduced to 21⁄2 per cent., and there has been no appreciable recovery since. No Government seems inclined to make the obvious but unpopular move of reducing the interest allowed to depositors. ”

“ Every principal who dabbles in rickety stock without a certain reserve as a security is set down by most men as little better than a swindler.
During the rumours of war which prevailed in October, 1840, shortly before the fall of the Thiers administration in France, the fluctuations in Consols were as much as 4 per cent. The result was great ruin to speculators. The speculators for the rise—the "bulls," in fact—of £400,000 Consols sustained a loss of from £10,000 to £15,000, for which more than one broker found it necessary, for sustaining his credit, to pay. ”

“ Outwardly there was nothing to see, save the unofficial, bald statement that on August 1st, the latest of twelve fortnightly settlements in this stock, Rubber Consols had been bid for, and carried over, at 15 pounds for one-pound shares. The information concerned the public at large not at all. Nobody knew of any friend or neighbour who was fortunate enough to possess some of these shares. Readers here and there, noting the figures, must have said to themselves that certain lucky people were coining money, but very little happened to be printed as to the identity of these people. ”

“ Our coal-fields are, in fact, so many bituminous banks, in which there is abundance for an adequate currency, but against any sudden run upon them nature has interposed numerous checks, by locking up whole reserves of the precious fuel in the bank cellar, under the invincible protection of ponderous stone-beds.’
If we examine the nature of the mineral fuel thus provided for us in the bowels of the earth, we find a number of varieties greatly differing from each other in chemical 401composition and in combustible value. ”

“ Too great a concentration, as has just been shown, will prevent the precipitation of all, or part, of the more soluble sulphides of the former groups, notably of the sulphides of cadmium and lead, which is a common error in the laboratory. Too small a concentration, which may result when a salt of a weak acid, such as an acetate, borate or phosphate is present, may lead, as was shown above, to the precipitation of part of the zinc group, notably of zinc and possibly of nickel and cobalt, with the copper and arsenic groups, and thus lead to other errors. ”

“ What’s the difference between the weight of thirteen thousand tons of coal and thirteen thousand tons of ore?”
The twinkle in Ted’s eyes caused Phil to hesitate, then continue: “Why, er, none, of course, but you needn’t be so cockey. A ton of coal takes more room than a ton of ore, so they couldn’t put thirteen thousand tons of coal aboard.”
“They could, too. If a boat’s capacity is thirteen thousand tons, she can carry thirteen thousand tons, whether it’s sawdust or mercury.” ”

“ The conversion of the sulphur which escapes from our chimneys into sulphuretted hydrogen, and then into sulphuric acid, or oil of vitriol, has already been referred to, and we can only hope that in these days when every available source of wealth is being looked up, and when there threatens to remain nothing which shall in the future be known as "waste," that the atmosphere will be spared being longer the receptacle for the unowned and execrated brimstone of millions of fires and furnaces. ”

“ Tin forms stannic acid which probably produces stannates with copper and lead. Zinc becomes zinc oxide, lead is converted into oxides. Sulphur, as sulphuretted hydrogen, causes the formation of metallic sulphides. Ammonia has a threefold action, viz. it causes and furthers hydration, it is an energetic solvent, and it forms double salts. This last-mentioned action is particularly important in the formation of patina. Carbonic acid in the presence of moisture attacks copper, lead and iron, and, as a carbonate, exists in every metallic oxide which is exposed to the air. ”

“ The sulphate, vulgarly called white vitriol, is made from the sulphuret, by roasting it gently, and then exposing it upon sloping terraces to the action of air and moisture, as has been fully detailed under Sulphate of Iron. The purest sulphate of zinc is made by dissolving the metal in dilute sulphuric acid, digesting the solution over some of the metal, filtering, evaporating, and crystallizing.
Sulphate of zinc is added as a drier to japan varnishes.
The ordinary zinc found in the market is never pure; but contains lead, cadmium, arsenic, copper, iron, and carbon ”

“ An excellent substance for soldering: all sorts of small work, such as pieces of brass, copper, or tin, is chloride of zinc-this may easily be made by putting pieces of zinc into spirit of salt, (hydrochloric acid) , and allowing them to remain as long as any effervescence continues; this solution may be kept in a bottle and applied to any edge to be soldered, by means of a small brush or feather. When iron and copper have to be “brazed,” the joints are made bright, and then coated with borax ground into a paste with water. ”

“ As this futile creature was loosed, terror glittered in his beady eyes; he emitted a small, high-pitched bleat and strove to break from his guards. But the warrior women, grim and adamant as stone, formed a phalanx about him, a barricade of hard flesh which stood unyielding before the panic thrusts of his soft, white fists. ”

“ Now, closer examination of the solution of zinc sulphate, from which zinc sulphide has been precipitated by the action of hydrogen sulphide, shows, after the hydrogen sulphide has precipitated as much sulphide as it can and the solution has been passed through a filter, that a very considerable proportion of zinc salt is still present in the filtrate, and we must ask why hydrogen sulphide fails to precipitate the zinc completely. ”

“ This kind of a soldering fluid is a good flux for tin, iron, steel, brass and copper. It is good for all ordinary work but it must be washed off from iron or steel as it will rust them very quickly. To solder copper sal ammoniac can be used.
The only kind of a flux to solder zinc with is a solution made of 10 per cent. of muriatic acid and 90 per cent. of water. For lead, pewter and any alloy with lead in it use tallow, Gallipoli oil or Venice turpentine. Resin can be used successfully for all metals provided they are scraped bright and clean before they are soldered. ”

“ The ores (Spanish and Portuguese pyrites) treated by this method vary very slightly in composition, rarely containing much more than 3 per cent. of copper, nearly 50 per cent. of sulphur, from 43 to 44 per cent. of iron, with small quantities of lead, arsenic, zinc, lime, &c. The ores are first employed by the vitriol manufacturers, as a source of sulphuric acid. In the process of burning they lose about 30 per cent. of their sulphur. ”

“ Analysis.—From neutral solutions of its salts zinc is precipitated by sulphuretted hydrogen as sulphide, ZnS—a white precipitate, soluble, but by no means readily, in dilute mineral acids, but insoluble in acetic acid. In the case of acetate the precipitation is quite complete; from a sulphate or chloride solution the greater part of the metal goes into the precipitate; in the presence of a sufficiency of free HCl the metal remains dissolved; sulphide of ammonium precipitates the metal completely, even in the presence of ammonium salts and free ammonia. ”

“ The gold will generally shoot its yellow branches rapidly round the margin of the drop. Such a running branch has been seen to stop on coming in contact with a loose piece of gold, which immediately in its turn becomes active, and commences to sprout on its farther side. Copper salts give round nodules, which have no crystal-line appearance when deposited from moderately weak solutions, but a very strong solution of the chloride—about forty per cent.—yields with zinc, first a thick, black growth, then arborescent fringes of red metal, terminating in crystals of very appreciable size. ”

“ Iron and zinc dissolve rapidly in diluted sulphuric acid, giving off abundance of hydrogen gas, and this was the way this gas was formerly produced for the inflation of balloons, but the common coal-gas being easily obtainable in almost any quantity in all towns, it is now used for that purpose instead of hydrogen gas. Sulphuric acid (chemically considered) consists of 1 equivalent of sulphur with 3 of oxygen, and 1 of water. ”

“ The liquid is decanted from the residue, which is washed with hydrochloric acid and hot water, then boiled with aqua regia until the insoluble matter is white. From the aqua regia solution any gold that may be present is precipitated by means of ferrous sulphate, and afterwards zinc is added to precipitate the tellurium. The precipitate on the zinc is washed, dried, and heated to redness, treated with sulphuric acid to remove any silver, and the remaining tellurium is then collected. ”

“ Neither does sulphur affect it; but it is dissolved by bromine and chlorine, or by any combination of acids or other substances in which free chlorine is present. This element, as it is generated in mixtures, is a powerful solvent of gold; and to it is due this property of the compound called aqua regia, formed of 4 parts of hydrochloric and 1 part of nitric acid. Gold forms alloys with most of the metals. Silver or copper increases its hardness and renders it better adapted for wear when used for coins, jewelry, or plate. Such compounds are also more fusible than pure gold. ”

“ The market value of the salt varies, but an average figure is £12 per ton, whilst the average yield is about 24 ℔ of salt per ton of coal carbonized. In large works the sulphuric acid is usually manufactured on the spot from the spent oxide, so that the sulphuretted hydrogen, which in the gas is considered an undesirable impurity, plays a valuable part in the manufacture of an important by-product. ”