Powder

“ Soft extracts, and other substances of a like character, may be rendered more consistent by the addition of any simple powder, as that of liquorice or sugar. Vegetable powders are generally beaten up with syrup or treacle, and heavy powders with conserve of roses or extract of liquorice. ”

“ THE POWDER STILL WORSE
So much for the liquid. The powder seems to be something entirely different, for, according to the chemist’s report, over 90 per cent. of it is inert, absorbent, talcum-like material. There is enough camphor and carbolic acid to give the powder an odor and thus mislead physicians, especially those who are in the habit of taking for granted that whatever statements nostrum manufacturers make are true. ”

“ In the preparation of a Compound Powder, i.e., a powder containing two or more ingredients, it is of the greatest importance that they should be uniformly and thoroughly incorporated, else it is evident that a small portion of it, such as is usually prescribed as a dose, may contain an excess of one ingredient—it may be an active or dangerous one, and operate powerfully—whilst the next dose may be comparatively inert. ”

“ Now my Child, you may take the half of your Powder, put it into a Glass and melt it, have in readiness a Mould made hollow, of Box-wood, great or small as you please, it must be made smooth and even within with an Instrument, anoint it with Oil Olive, and when your red Powder is flux'd, poure it into the Mould, it will be a precious Stone, red as a Ruby, clear and transparent, take it out of the Mould, and make projection upon the imperfect Metals, and in the Body of Man. ”

“ How to make a powder for the poorer sort of people. Take two drams of bole Armoniack with three drams of the Seeds of Oxalis, Aloes Epeticum Lotum, and Red Corrall of each of these a dram, the powder of Diatrio Santalon, eight scruples with the pills of dry Oringes, Cloves Cinamon and Saffone of each of these five drams, make of these a fine powder, you may use the same with conserves [Pg 18] or without them, with sirrups or with distilled waters, but much rather with juces and such convenient licquors as is before named. ”

“ Let us suppose it pounded to a pulp or powder more impalpable than any mince-meat; let us suppose this powder to become fluid, and then to be so stirred and mingled that all its particles, even down to a degree of tenuity far beyond what can be conceived, shall be mixed through and through each other; if we suppose this, it is obvious that we should obtain a mass of matter, each portion of which, however minute, would contain samples of all the ingredients which entered into the composition of the whole. ”

“ A "universal remedy," mayhap; should judge it to be powerful:
"The Bishop of Worcester's admirably curing Powder.—Take black tips of Crabs' claws when the Sun enters into Cancer, which is every year on the eleventh day of June; pick and wash them clean, and beat them into fine powder, which finely searce; then take Musk and Civet, of each three grains, Amber-greece twelve grains, rub them in the bottom of the Mortar, and then beat them and the powder of the Claws together; then with a pound of this powder mix one ounce of the magistery of Pearl. ”

“ The powders usually sold by druggists are injurious to the complexion, owing to harmful ingredients. If a powder is perfectly pure, a moderate use of it will not harm the complexion, but if it is impure it soon causes the face to turn sallow and yellow. The following is perfectly pure, and is a splendid article, giving a lovely, refined complexion:—
Boston Burnet Powder for the Face.—Five cents' worth of bay rum, five cents' worth of magnesia snowflake, five cents' worth of bergamot, five cents' worth oil of lemon; mix in a pint bottle and fill up with rain water. ”

“ Those remedies which are very unpleasant to the taste; those which deliquesce rapidly when exposed to the air, or are very volatile; and those which require to be given in very large doses, or which are not diffused readily in water, cannot, with propriety, be administered in the form of powder. Some substances cannot be reduced to powder unless they be very much dried, and the heat1372 necessary for that purpose alters their properties. ”

“ All powder, whether it is intended for blasting, hunting, rifle-shooting, or warfare purposes, is made in the same general way, and so, in telling of a visit I recently made to the Du Pont Works, near Wilmington, I shall reveal no secrets if I describe the various mills and processes which practically all powder goes through before it is finished. Ordinary powder is composed of three ingredients—saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal, or nitrate of soda, sulphur, and charcoal. Powder intended for blasting is generally made with soda; powder intended for shooting is generally made with saltpetre. ”

“ Forms of Exhibition. That of powder is the most eligible, especially when combined with some other powdered substance: pulverization increases its activity, see Pulveres. Van Swieten advised it to be pulverised, and mixed with sugar, and a small quantity of some aromatic. The addition of Soap is supposed to render its operation much milder, and the Prussian Pharmacopœia contains a formula for such a combination, which is said to operate mildly and promptly. To this preparation the name Sapo Jalapinus [546] is given. Dose, grs. x to ʒss. Officinal Preparations. Pulv. Jalap. comp. E. Extract. ”

“ But if the liquid be saturated with gas before any precipitate is suffered to subside, a black powder is obtained which does not seem to contain any metallic gold, and the liquor ceases to have any colour. ”

“ In Hotels, Restaurants and other places where a powder is frequently preferred and a large quantity of metal must be kept looking bright, it is especially suitable. A single trial will convince any one that it is a very superior powdered polish. ”

“ Give one powder, dissolved in half a tea-cup of hot coffee, whisky, milk, gin, &c. (using either Brown or White Powder as colour of liquid may require) 3 times a day before meals.
[Pg 166] The powders had an average weight of 5·3 grains, single powders ranging from 3·7 to 9·9 grains. The white and tinted powders were made of the same constituents, with a trace of colouring matter added in the latter case, but in different proportions. Analysis showed the composition to be:
The estimated cost of the ingredients for 48 powders was one-third of a penny. ”

“ Care must be taken that all the dry ingredients be finely pulverised, and that the harder and gritty ones be reduced to the state of an impalpable powder, either by levigation or elutriation. The mixture of the ingredients must also be complete. This is the most readily effected by stirring them well together until they form an apparently homogeneous powder, and then passing this powder through a very fine sieve. Those which contain volatile substances should be preserved in closely corked wide-mouth bottles, and those which contain acidulous or gritty matter should not be frequently employed. ”

“ The high-grade powder used in warfare in these days is known in this country as "brown powder," because of its color. In Europe such powder has a dozen or more names, generally called after the men who have invented each kind. There are only two places in this country where the powder used in our big guns is made. ”

“ Chaptal (Elements de Chimie) has some judicious remarks on the exsiccation of powder.
The experiment made at Essonne near Paris, by M. Champy, in 1808, on a contrivance for the drying of powder, was satisfactory. This experiment may be seen in page 242 of Bottée and Riffault.
5. Dusting, (Epoussetage.) This operation is confined merely to the sifting. It is nothing more than the separation of the dust from the grain, which we have before noticed. The dust is put in the mortars, and worked over. ”

“ Aromaticus, and as much Labdanum; beat the whole into a very fine powder, and sift it through a lawn sieve. Add four grains of Ambergrise, and half an ounce of Mahaleb or Musk Seeds; mix them with the rest of the powder, and keep the whole in a bottle close stopped for use. You may put any quantity you please of this Perfume into common powder, to give it an agreeable flavour. ”

“ As it is most certain that gun-powder is capable of being improved, I shall not omit any particular that may be of service to such 16 ingenious gentlemen as are willing to make experiments; for which reason we shall here insert another composition for powder, mentioned by an author on this subject, whose name I have forgot, but the composition is thus: Refined salt-petre five pounds, sulphur one pound four ounces, and charcoal seven ounces and a half. ”

“ The white powder you sent me is something very different from the drug you prescribed; it is the powder from which the wine of the Sabbath, the Vinum Sabbati, was prepared. No doubt you have read of the Witches' Sabbath, and have laughed at the tales which terrified our ancestors; the black cats, and the broomsticks, and dooms pronounced against some old woman's cow. ”

“ Corned or grained powder was adopted in France in 1525, and in 1540 the French utilized an observation that large-grained powder was the best for cannon, and restricted the manufacture to three sizes of grain or corn, possibly of the same composition. Early in the 18th century two or three sizes of grain and powder of one composition appear to have become common. The composition of English powder seems to have settled down to 75 nitre, 15 charcoal, and 10 sulphur, somewhere about the middle of the 18th century. ”

“ This powder is so greedy for water that it will absorb the moisture from the air around it. Even in the bags, it begins to harden as soon as it gets some moisture; and as soon as it hardens, it is of no use. ”

“ A black powder has changed the military art, and in a great degree the manners of mankind. Why may not the same science which produced it, produce another powder which, inflamed under a certain compression, might impell the air, so as to shake down the strongest towers and scatter destruction. ”

“ Comparative merits of foreign and English gunpowder.The Continental powder is usually very soft in [22] its grain, dusty, and quickly absorbs moisture from the atmosphere; its density is below the English powder, on account of its never being subjected to pressure; consequently it is not so durable, and forms a good deal of dust in transport; a great amount of residue is generally left in the gun, and its strength, as a propelling agent, is far inferior to our powders. ”

“ The excellent preservative qualities of English and American powders are largely due to their high densities,—the standard being about 1.75. A certain degree of density is absolutely essential to grain powder to prevent the inflamed gases from penetrating the pores of the powder and flashing off the whole mass to the destruction of the gun. In the manufacture of powder the density depends, first, upon the amount of trituration to which the ingredients are subjected in the incorporating mill ”

“ The process of dilution is carried on in the same way as the attenuation of the powder was done; each successive dilution with alcohol reducing the medicine to a hundredth part of the quantity of that which preceded it. In this way the dilution of the original millionth of a grain of medicine contained in the grain of powder operated on is carried successively to the billionth, trillionth, quadrillionth, quintillionth, and very often much higher fractional divisions. ”

“ I have made a large number of analyses of Royal Baking Powder, and have found it to be an absolutely pure cream of tartar powder, entirely free from alum, ammonia, and all adulterations and impurities. In leavening power it is of the very highest. ”

“ If what I have here claimed for the above smokeless powder be true, it would appear that it may be taken as really an ideal smokeless powder. Why, then, has it not already been universally adopted? Surely such a powder is just what every government is seeking. In reply to this, let me say that, in order for the above compound to be an effective and successful smokeless powder, with the manifestation of the many desirable qualities which I have recited, a great many other conditions are necessary, some of which I will mention. ”

“ Then beat them into powder, mix them with the like quantity in weight of common salt, and so distil it after the way above mentioned, and you will get a volatile spirit of great vertue: and every such spirit is to be used for such special part or member of the Body, as the Metal is proper for, out of which the spirit is made. ”

“ Experience has established the fact, that James’s Powder is less active than its imitation; it affects the bowels and stomach very slightly, and passes off more readily by perspiration; in general however the difference is so inconsiderable, that we need not regret the want of the original receipt. [618] 459As it is quite insoluble in water, it should be given in powder, or made into pills. It is diaphoretic, alterative, emetic, or purgative, according to the extent of the dose and the state of the patient; in combination it offers several valuable resources to the intelligent practitioner. ”

“ I boiled 10 grains of this powder in 4 ounces of clean water, and then, passing the decoction through a filter, divided it into five equal parts, which were put into as many glasses—into one glass I poured a few drops of spirit of sal ammoniac, into another some of the lixivium of tartar, into the third some strong spirit of vitriol, into the fourth some spirit of salt, and into the last some syrup of violets. ”