Books › The violin, how to make it, 1880 › scan 141
Scan 141
The violin, how to make it, 1880
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 135. See the scan on archive.org.
1pieces have the most value, as the clear semi-transparent pieces can be easily imitated by copal or other gums.
3To the varnish-maker, the most transparent are equally valuable, as the milky-colored pieces are used chiefly by the carver and turner.
5By friction it becomes negatively electrical, indeed, so much so, that the workmen in turning it are often affected by nervous twitchings, and are frequently obliged to change the pieces they are handling. Many animal and vegetable remains are to be often found embedded in some of the pieces, as insects, leaves, etc., specimens of which are to be found in our national museums. When heated, it exhales a fragrant odor, hence its being a favorite with the meerschaum pipe-maker; it burns with a yellowish flame, leaving a shiny bituminous deposit. Amber is found on the beach in Norfolk, Suffolk, Isle of Wight, and North of Scotland, as well as in parts of America and India, and in Prussia mines exist of this singular substance. It is also exported from Japan.
7It is somewhat brittle, and breaks in conchoidal fragments. Absolute alcohol extracts about one-ninth of its weight of pulverised amber, and in pure chloroform it is dissolved readily, whilst ether dissolves from ten to twelve per cent. of it; it is also entirely soluble in a mixture of alcohol and spirits of turpentine heated in a close vessel. Amber, after having been kept in a close vessel, at a high temperature, becomes completely soluble in alcohol.
9BENZOIN, or BENJAMIN, is a somewhat costly gum-resin, and is but little used in varnishes. It is brittle, breaks with a conchoidal fracture, and fuses at a gentle heat. It readily dissolves in alcohol, to which it imparts an agreeable odor. It is obtained from a tree which grows abundantly in the islands of Sumatra and Java, also in Cochin-China and on the coast of Malabar. The white tears, or those pieces possessing the least color, should preferably be selected for varnish-making.
11CANADA-BALSAM is obtained from a tree of the same name, which is very abundant throughout Canada. It is perfectly transparent, having an agreeable odor, and is wholly soluble in rectified oil of turpentine.
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