Mortar and pestle

“ King, I want to give you this mortar."
The king answered him roughly: "If you give me the mortar, I must have the pestle as well. Unless the pestle is here within three days; your life will be forfeit." ”

“ The mortar, used by a great number of savage or half-civilised tribes to crush not only grain but also the roots of starchy plants, cassava, yam, etc., must have been known for a very long time. Its most primitive form is met with among the Indians of North America—a block of granite or sandstone in which a cavity has been made, with a piece of porous rock, almost cylindrical, for the pestle. In Africa and Oceania the mortar and pestle are of wood. Almost everywhere the pounding is done by women. ”

“ A common iron mortar, such as is used by druggists and apothecaries, is found to answer very well for grinding or pounding the brimstone, charcoal, salt-petre, &c. separately; and apothecary’s close sieves, fitted with wire-cloth, are the best possible implements for obtaining the fire powder; but when corn gunpowder is to be mealed, or the various ingredients are to be mixed together, such mortars cannot be used, as the heat generated by the continued action of the pestle might inflame the mixture, and thereby place the life of the operator in imminent danger. ”

“ Malet, commissary of gunpowder at Pontailler, near Dijon, has seen charcoal take fire under the pestle. He also found, that when pieces of saltpetre and brimstone were put into the charcoal mortar, the explosion took place between the fifth and sixth strokes of the pestle. The weight of the pestles is eighty pounds each, half of this belonging to the box of rounded bell metal, in which they terminate. The pestles are raised only one foot, and make forty-five strokes in a minute. ”

“ For long such a dainty little mortar had been her special desire, and the attentive mechanician was therefore extremely welcome when he appeared one afternoon on her birthday and likewise brought along something to put the mortar to its legitimate use: a boxful of cinnamon, lump sugar, cloves and pepper. The mortar itself he hung, before entering at the door, by one of its handles to his little finger, and with the pestle he started a gay tinkling, just like a bell, so that out of the adventure grew a jolly day of festivity. ”

“ The mortar and long pestle, which is used by men and women standing up and working alone or pounding rhythmically with one or more companions, is certainly a southern invention; the wooden pestle is double-headed and some 3 feet long; the mortar is cut out of one piece of wood and stands about 12 inches high. The indigenous and more primitive fashion is to grind grain on the rudimentary saddle-stone quern, a form which has been preserved unchanged since prehistoric times. ”

“ In Africa and many other countries the pestle and mortar are extensively made use of for grain and seed crushing. A hard wood log is easily hollowed out by the aid of fire and cutting tools, and a pestle is extemporised from any suitable piece of heavy wood.
A powerful and simple description of mill is made by making a round and somewhat tapering hole in a large slab of sandstone or grit. In this a conical block of stone is fitted in such a manner as to admit of its being turned round by a cross-handle, as shown in the annexed illustration. ”

“ When the mortar is thus well made, a moderate quantity of wheat, to make firmity, is to be put into the mortar, in the upper part, as it stands on the end, and the grain is to be moistened with a little warm water, to make the skin or bran come off easily and perfectly, by the beating. The pestle is then to be used by a man so as, by striking in among the grains of wheat, from the top to the bottom of the parcel, from time to time, and repeatedly, to skin the grains of wheat, which it will do effectually. ”

“ Two boys were engaged in grinding in a mortar a “small 87quantity” of chlorate of potash and sugar. An explosion resulted which blew out the entire window frames of the room, destroyed the partition between the room and the passage, considerably damaged the other wall, and projected the pestle into the ceiling, where it remained embedded.
Accidents at displays are now happily rare; the most fruitful cause of such happenings was the detonation of shell in the mortar, that is, the detonation of the contents or “garniture” by the explosion of the propellant charge. ”

“ There is a hollow space in the thick end of the pestle, closed by a round piece of wood lightly screwed in, which, fitting tightly in the bottom part of the mortar, is easily unscrewed by the performer, or rather unscrews itself, as he apparently grinds away at the ill-fated chronometer. ”

“ There is little doubt that marble succeeded stone as a material for making mortars, and this brings us down to mediæval times, when the apothecaries, combining the practice of medicine and pharmacy, became wielders of the pestle.
The value of the mortar as a pharmaceutical implement was recognised by these early practitioners, [235] and was given the most prominent position in their shops, and so the pestle and mortar became a symbol or trade sign of pharmacy. ”

“ Will she who would not kiss me when alive ascend my funeral pyre when I am dead? உயிர் இருந்தால் உப்புமாறித் தின்னலாம். If one is alive, he may subsist by bartering salt. உரலில் அகப்பட்டது உலக்கைக்குத் தப்புமா ? Will that which is in the mortar escape the pestle? உரலிலே தலையை மாட்டிக்கொண்டு உலக்கைக்குப் பயப்பட்டால் தீருமா ? Will your fear of the pestle avail aught after your head has become fast in the mortar? உரலுக்கு ஒரு பக்கம் இடி மத்தளத்துக்கு இரண்டு பக்கமும் இடி. The mortar is beaten at one end, the drum at both. உரல் பஞ்சம் அறியுமா ? Does the rice mortar know what a famine is? ”

“ Many years ago short guns which threw their balls very high were in use, and because of their resemblance to the mortar which is used for pounding up things with the aid of a pestle these were termed mortars. ”

“ The pounding is performed by two or even three women at one mortar. Each, before delivering a blow with her pestle, gives an upward jerk of the body, so as to put strength into the stroke, and they keep exact time, so that two pestles are never in the mortar at the same moment. The measured thud, thud, thud, and the women standing at their vigorous work, are associations inseparable from a prosperous African village. By the operation of pounding, with the aid of a little water, the hard outside scale or husk of the grain is removed, and the corn is made fit for the millstone. ”

“ At nearly all houses in the country a large mortar scooped out of the trunk of some tree is found, being the instrument employed to free their paddy from the husk, and convert it into rice. This operation appears to rank among those household duties which fall to the wife’s share to perform. The pestle is sometimes of considerable weight; and when it is so, is worked by two women at once. ”

“ The pestle e, is a tree about 18 feet in length, and 1 foot in diameter, rounded at its bottom, which rubs against the mortar, and which is secured in its place by a button or knob, that goes into the channel of the mortar. The moving force is applied to a horizontal beam f, about 16 feet in length, which turns round about the mortar, and is fastened to it by a bent bamboo b. ”

“ She is said to be a huge female who goes driving about the p. 8steppes in a mortar, which she forces onward by pounding lustily with a pestle, though of course, being in a mortar, she cannot wield the pestle without hurting herself. ”

“ There are two other forms of grinding apparatus still in use—the pestle and mortar, and the rotatory mill—both of which date back to an early period, and concerning which it will be well to say a few words in this place. The ordinary form of pestle—a frustum of a very elongated cone with the ends rounded, is so well known that it appears needless to engrave a specimen on the same scale as the other objects. In Fig. 172 is shown one of a more than usually club-shaped form, 11 inches long, found in Holyhead Island. [120]
Fig. ”

“ Mortars are employed for the pulverization of substances, and, according to their use, may be either of wood, marble, brass, or cast-iron, which last costs less than the others. Large mortars have covers, in order to confine the finer particles. The pestles should be of very hard wood; because, in that case, no danger would be apprehended of an explosion of the materials, an occurrence which might take place, if iron were used. This, however, depends on the substances submitted to the pestle. ”

“ Therefore it is by no means impossible that rubbed or polished stone implements, excepting mortars and pestles, were unknown at the time of the origin of the lower strata, and that their use was rather limited in the succeeding strata. But the presence of mortar fragments and pestles in the lowest strata points toward a higher development of the human type than is usually expected of men who use flaked tools only. ”

“ With strong, sure strokes the three naked men shot out into the stream and past its center—seemingly unobserved. It began to look as though they would gain the other side unseen by the enemy. But suddenly, from the loop-holed section, came spiteful little squirts of fire. Against that fire only the mortar could cope—and the mortar had turned its attention elsewhere. Tiny geysers kicked themselves up where the Mauser bullets struck and skipped on the water. The roar from the Shirt-tailers rose in louder indignation, and the crew serving the mortar was feverishly refinding the range. ”

“ It was intended that one 13-inch mortar, of enormous weight, should be put upon each, that these mortars should be fired with twenty-three pounds of powder, and that the shell thrown should, at a distance of three miles, fall with absolute precision into any devoted town which the rebels might hold on the river banks. The grandeur of the idea is almost sublime. ”

“ The rubble is poor, imperfectly coursed, and held together by the excellence of the mortar, or rather of the lime, for the mortar is carelessly mixed and is full of sea shells, which have been brought with the sand and left uncrushed. It is clear from appearances, both inside and outside the building, that the south-east angle has, at some period soon after its construction, fallen down, and been rebuilt soon afterwards clumsily and in haste. No mere battering by a ram, no strokes from the missiles of a catapult, however ponderous, would have brought down both turret and wall. ”

“ The center circle represents the bore, while the three outer arcs show the relative thickness of the bore wall at (1) the smallest diameter of the chase, (2) at the trunnions, and (3) at the vent. The small arc inside the bore indicates the powder chamber found in the pedrero and mortar.
Mortars (fig. 23d) (p. 038) were excellent for "putting great fear and terror in the souls of the besieged." Every night the mortars would play upon the town: "it keeps them in constant turmoil, due to the thought that some ball will fall upon their house." ”

“ Thus, in mortars, the pestle produces no effect after a certain degree of contusion, water does not penetrate small fissures, and the air itself, notwithstanding its subtilty, does not penetrate the pores of solid vessels at once, but only by long-continued insinuation. ”

“ If a small quantity of powdered charcoal and hyper-oxymuriate of potash be rubbed together in a mortar, an explosion will be produced, and the charcoal inflamed. Three parts of this salt, and one of sulphur, rubbed together in a mortar, produce a violent detonation. If struck with a hammer on an anvil, there is an explosion like the report of a pistol. ”

“ For mortars of six, eight, or ten inches diameter, the serpents should be made in one and two ounce cases, six or seven inches long, and fired by a leader, brought out of the mouth of the mortar, and turned down the outside, and the end of it covered with paper, to prevent the sparks of the other works from setting it on fire. For a six inch mortar, let the quantity of powder for firing be two ounces ”

“ The terre-plein may be placed at any convenient depth below the surface of the ground, and the revetment of the interior slope, if any be used, will not ordinarily be carried higher than the muzzle of the mortar. As the traverses are not subject to gun-fire, the splinter-proofs afforded by the central passage may be added to by building others along both sides of the traverse; and by deepening the mortar emplacement sufficiently, they may be given enough cover to make them true bomb-proofs. ”

“ As one of the effects of the shell results from its weight, it is never discharged as a ball from a cannon, that is, by pointing it at a certain object: but the mortars are fixed at an elevation of or about 45 degrees; that is, inclined so many degrees from the horizon, that the shell describes a curve, called the military projectile: hence a mortar, whose trunnions are placed at the breech, can have no point-blank range. Mortars should be so contrived, that they may be elevated to any degree required, as much preferable to those fixed at an angle of 45° ”

“ There is also a kind of land-mortars, mounted on travelling carriages, invented by count Buckeburg, which may be elevated to any degree; whereas the British as we have already stated, are fixed to an angle of 45 degrees, and are firmly lashed with ropes.
Partridge Mortar, is a common mortar, surrounded by 13 other little mortars, bored round its circumference in the body of its metal. The centre one is loaded with a shell, and the others with grenades. The vent of the large mortar being fired, communicates its fire to the small ones; so that both shell and grenades go off at once. ”