a general name for the navy of a kingdom or state; as also the whole economy of naval affairs; or whatever respects the building, rigging, arming, equipping, navigating, and fighting ships. It comprehends also the government of naval armaments, and the state of all the persons employed therein, whether civil or military.
The history of the marine affairs of any one state is a very comprehensive subject, much more that of all nations. Those who would be informed of the maritime affairs of Great Britain, and the figure it has made at sea in all ages, may find abundance of curious matter in Selden's Mare Clausum; and from his time to ours, we may trace a series of facts in Ledward's and Burchett's Naval History, but above all in the Lives of the Admirals, by the accurate and judicious Dr Campbell.
MARINES, or MARINE FORCES, a body of soldiers raised for the sea-service, and trained to fight either in a naval engagement or in an action afloat.
The great service of this useful corps was manifested frequently in the course of the war before last, particularly at the siege of Belleisle, where they acquired a great character, although lately raised and hardly exercised in military discipline. At sea they are incorporated with the ship's crew, of which they make a part; and many of them learn in a short time to be excellent seamen, to which their officers are ordered by the admiralty to encourage them, although no sea-officer is to order them to go aloft against their inclination. In a sea-fight their small-arms are of very great advantage in scouring the decks of the enemy; and when they have been long enough at sea to stand firm when the ship rocks, they must be infinitely preferable to seamen if the enemy attempts to board, by raising a battalion with their fixed bayonets to oppose him.
The sole direction of the corps of marines is vested in the lords commissioners of the admiralty; and in the admiralty is a distinct apartment for this purpose. The secretary to the admiralty is likewise secretary to the marines, for which he has a salary of L. 300 a-year; and he has under him several clerks for the management of this department.
The marine forces of Great Britain in the time of peace are stationed in three divisions; one of which is quartered at Chatham, one at Portsmouth, and another at Plymouth. By a late regulation, they are ordered to do duty at the several dock-yards of those ports, to prevent embezzlement of the king's stores, for which a captain's guard mounts every day; which certainly requires great vigilance, as so many abuses of this kind have have been committed, that many of the inhabitants, who have been long used to an infamous traffic of this kind, expect these conveyances at certain periods as their due, and of course resent this regulation in the highest degree as an infringement of their liberties as British subjects.
The marine corps are under the command of their own field-officers, who discipline them, and regulate their different duties.—His late majesty in 1760 formed a new establishment of marine officers, intitled, the general, lieutenant-general, and three colonels of marines (one for each division), to be taken from officers in the royal navy. The two first are always enjoyed by flag-officers, the last by post-captains only. This establishment was formed to reward such officers who distinguished themselves in the service of their country.
Marine-Discipline, is the training up soldiers for sea-service, in such exercises as the various positions of the fireside and body, and teaching them every manoeuvre that can be performed on board ships of war at sea. See Exercise.
Marine-Chair, a machine invented by Mr Irwin for viewing the satellites of Jupiter at sea, and of course determining the longitude by their eclipses. An account of it is given in the Journal Étranger for March 1760. An account of its accuracy was published the year following by M. de L'Isle astronomer in the imperial academy of Petersburg; but notwithstanding the encomiums bestowed upon it by this gentleman, it hath never come into general use; and therefore we may conclude, that it is much inferior to the inventions of Mr Harrison for the same purpose. See Harrison and Longitude.
Marine-Surveyor, is the name of a machine contrived by Mr H. de Saumarez for measuring the way of a ship in the sea. This machine is in the form of the letter Y, and is made of iron or any other metal. At each end of the lines which constitute the angle or upper part of that letter, are two pallets, not much unlike the figure of the log; one of which falls in the same proportion as the other rises. The falling or pendant pallet meeting a resistance from the water, as the ship moves, has by that means a circular motion under water, which is faster or slower according as the vessel moves. This motion is communicated to a dial within the ship, by means of a rope fastened to the tail of the Y, and carried to the dial. The motion being thus communicated to the dial, which has a bell in it, it strikes exactly the number of geometrical paces, miles, or leagues, which the ship has run. Thus the ship's distance is attained; and the forces of tides and currents may also be discovered by this instrument; which, however, has been very little used.
Marine-Acid, a name given to one of the component parts of sea-salt. An account of various methods of procuring this acid from common salt, of most of its chemical properties, and of several uses it may be put to in the arts, is given under the articles Chemistry, Colour-Making, Bleaching, &c. M. Chaptal observes, that the marine acid cannot be obtained by distilling salt with powdered flints. He made the experiment by mixing ten pounds of flints with two pounds of sea-salt, but obtained only a mass of the colour of litharge, and the fumes were not perceptibly acid. Clay will decompose this salt for once, but not in the smallest degree if used a second time; which shows that in all probability the decomposition is owing to a portion of vitriolic acid contained in the clay.
In France there is a very impure kind of soda named Blanquette, which, according to M. Chaptal's analysis, contains 21 pounds of sea-salt out of 25; and yet, when treated with vitriolic acid, affords little or no spirit of salt, but abundance of volatile spirit of sulphur. Our author attributes this to the quantity of charcoal contained in the blanquette, which unites with the vitriolic acid and volatilizes it; and his conjectures appeared to be right; because, if the coal is destroyed by calcination, the blanquette yields marine acid in proportion to the quantity of common salt it contains.
Under the article Bleaching we have taken notice of the properties of the dephtlogiticated acid of sea-salt in whitening cloth: but though this has been often attempted, it does not appear likely to come into practice; nor does even the offer of a premium seem to encourage the bleachers of this country to make any serious endeavour to introduce it. This we can only account for in two ways: 1. From the very noxious and suffocating smell attending the operation, by which the health, and even the life of those who prepare this acid in an unskilful manner, as well as of the bleachers who make use of it, are greatly endangered. 2. From the excessive waste of vapour in the ordinary mode of preparation, which renders the liquid too dear for ordinary use.
To avoid these inconveniences, it has been recommended by chemists to force the vapour violently into larger quantities of water, and by compressing the fumes to a great degree, to render the liquid extremely strong, and then dilute it when it is to be used. By this means, however, the vapour forces out at the joinings of the distilling vessel in such a manner that no one can keep it in; at the same time that the liquor being impregnated with an over-proportion of gas, lets go the superfluous quantity as soon as the pressure is taken off, thereby losing its power, and annoying with its noxious and indeed poisonous smell every one who comes near it. The trouble attending this preparation may be easily judged from the following description of the process given by M. Chaptal.
"To extract this acid (says he), I place a large glass alembic, of one single piece, upon a sand-bath. To the alembic I adopt a small receiver; and to the receiver three or four small bottles nearly filled with distilled water, and arranged according to the method of Mr Woulfe. I dispose the receiver and bottles in a cistern, the places of junction being luted with fat lute, and secured with rags soaked in the lute of lime and whites of eggs. Lastly, I surround the bottles with pounded ice. When the apparatus is thus disposed, I introduce into the alembic half a pound of manganese of Cévennes, and pour upon it, at several repetitions, three pounds of fuming muriatic acid. The quantity of acid which I pour at once is three ounces; and at each time of pouring, a considerable effervescence is raised. I do not pour a new quantity until nothing more comes over into the receivers. This method of proceeding is indispensably necessary when the operator is desirous of making his process with a definite quantity of materials: for if too large a quan- tity of acid be poured on at once; it is impossible to refrain the vapours; and the effervescence will throw a quantity of manganese into the receiver. The va- pours which are developed by the effusion of muriatic acid are of a greenish-yellow colour, and they commu- nicate this colour to the water when they combine with it. When this vapour is concentrated by means of the ice, and the water is saturated with it, it forms a scum on the surface, which is precipitated through the liquid, and resembles a congealed oil. It is ne- cessary to assist the action of the muriatic acid by means of a moderate heat applied to the sand-bath. The secure luting of the vessels is also an essential circum- stance; for the vapour which might escape is suffo- cating, and would not suffer the chemist to inspect his operation closely. It is easy to discover the place where it escapes through the lutes by running a feather dip- ped in volatile alkali over them; the combination of these vapours instantly forms a white cloud, which ren- ders the place visible where the vapour escapes.
"The same oxygenated muriatic acid may be ob- tained, by distilling in a similar apparatus ten pounds of marine salt, three or four pounds of manganese, and ten pounds of sulphuric (vitriolic) acid.
"Mr Reboul has observed, that the concrete state of this acid is a crystallization of it, which takes place at three degrees of temperature below the freezing point of Reaumur. The forms which have been ob- served are those of a quadrangular prism, truncated very obliquely, and terminated by a lozenge. He has likewise observed hollow hexahedral pyramids on the surface of the liquor.
"To make use of the oxygenated acid in the arts, and in order to concentrate a greater quantity in a gi- ven volume of water, the vapour is made to pass thro' a solution of alkaline salt. A white precipitate is at first formed in the liquid; but a short time afterwards the deposition diminishes, and bubbles are disengaged which are nothing but the carbonic acid. In this case two salts are formed, the oxygenated muriate and the ordinary muriate. The mere impression of light is sufficient to decompose the former, and to con- vert it into common salt. This lixivium contains in- deed the oxygenated acid in a stronger proportion. The excrable smell of the acid is much weakened. It may be employed for various uses with the same success, and with great facility; but the effect is very far from corresponding with the quantity of oxygena- ted acid which enters into this combination, because the virtue of a great part is destroyed by its union with the alkaline basis.—The oxygenated muriatic a- cid has an excessively strong smell. It acts directly on the larynx, which it stimulates, excites coughing, and produces violent headaches."
The apparatus recommended by Mr Berthollet is on the same plan with M. Chaptal's, though the scale is much larger. Both are evidently troublesome; and cannot by any means be introduced into ordinary prac- tice, where the preparation, as well as the method of using the liquor, must be left to workmen of little un- derstanding and less attention. For these it is neces- sary to have an apparatus which may not readily be broken, which requires little trouble or dexterity in the using, and which may prepare great quantities at once. The principal difficulty is the condensation of the fumes. To attempt violently to force steam of any kind into water is always improper, and seldom an- swers any purpose, unless when for chemical experi- ments the liquors are wanted of extraordinary strength. Water naturally attracts a certain proportion of every kind of vapour; and when once this natural attraction is satisfied, it is vain to attempt to force more into it. In proportion to the quantity of surface exposed to the steam, water will imbibe it in shorter or longer time; and therefore a broad shallow vessel is always preferable to a round or narrow deep one where di- stillations of this kind are to be performed.
It must also be observed, that the vapour with which the water is to be impregnated, ought not to rush out of the distilling vessel with too great haste; as in this case a great quantity will unavoidably be lost, by rea- son of the water not having time to absorb it all. To avoid this, matters should be managed in such a man- ner, that, without sensibly interrupting the operation, the vapour may issue from the distilling vessel gradu- ally, and without sudden explosions; by which means the water will imbibe as fast as the vessel distils for a certain time; and in order to preserve all the vapour, there ought to be several receivers, one above the other, communicating by pipes, that the vapour which does not condense in one may do so in the other.—The following apparatus may be used with success:
1. For the distilling-vessel. A large bottle of common brown earthen-ware, such as is represented on the margin, is undoubtedly the cheapest, and most eligible distilling-vessel that can be made use of; as it is not liable to break, and may be used for a long time without being corroded. It may be placed in a sand-bath; or in case it is luted, it may be put on an open fire, which, how- ever, ought not to be raised to any great height.
2. The receivers ought to be large square cisterns of wood, covered over on the inside with white wax, on which the acid has no effect; and they may be pla- ced, for the greater convenience, one above the other, with cocks situated, that the water of the upper cisterns may be discharged into the lower ones as oc- casion requires. The lowermost cistern must also be furnished with a cock, for running off the liquor into the vessels in which the cloth is to be steeped.
3. The bottle must be furnished with a glass tube to convey the steam from it into the receiver; but to prevent any of the acid from getting amongst the liquor designed for bleaching, it will be necessary to have a small cask interposed between it and the recei- vers; which will also prevent the liquor from being dirtied by any sudden swell of the mixture in the bottle.
4. It will be convenient, and which may be easily accomplished in most bleaching-houses, to have a small stream of clear water running into it, higher than the level of the uppermost reservoir; by which means they can all be filled to a sufficient depth with very little trouble. The apparatus then will be as represented on Plate CCLXXX., where A is the bottle containing the mixture; B the sand pot, furnace, door, and air- hole; C the glass tube to convey the steam into the cask D, placed there on purpose to catch any acid which may distil, or small quantity of the mixture which may boil over. E is another glass-tube communicating with the lowermost reservoir d, into which it conveys the steam to be absorbed by the water lying in its bottom. The three cisterns communicate on their upper parts by means of the pipes m and n, by which the steam which does not condense in the lower reservoir is conveyed to the middle one e, and that which does not condense in the middle one is conveyed to the upper one f; in which a vent is finally given to it at g; or if it is found that three reservoirs are not sufficient, there may be one or more placed on the top of these, in a manner similar to what we have already described.
The operation is to be begun by putting into the bottle A, a quantity of strong spirit of salt diluted with at least four times its quantity of water, sufficient to fill somewhat more than one half of it. The manganese, reduced to as fine a powder as possible, is to be made up into small pellets or balls, with water, and thrown in at the lateral neck of the bottle. A few only are to be thrown in at once, and the mouth instantly stoppered with a cork; a brisk effervescence will immediately ensue, and a considerable quantity of vapours will come over without heat, passing through the pipes C and E into the reservoir d; from thence through m into the reservoir e, and from e into f; the small quantity which still remains uncondensed passing out at the vent g, which ought to be under a chimney, or to be fitted with an upright pipe going through the roof of the house.
A fire being applied, the vapour will begin to issue out through the pipes in greater quantities, but by the time the liquor has begun to boil, the dephlogisticated vapour will have entirely passed over. This may be easily known to be the case by the heat of the glass tubes. On this the cork is to be pulled out, and two or three more pellets of manganese are to be thrown in, and the mouth stoppered up as quickly as possible. The vapour from these will be quickly dissipated, and the operation must be repeated until no more effervescence arises upon throwing in the manganese. When this is the case, a fresh quantity of spirit of salt diluted, but not so much as the preceding, is to be added, and this again treated with more manganese as before; continuing the operation till the bottle be supposed as full as is convenient for the operation. The whole must now be allowed to cool; and it would be proper to have another furnace, land pot, and bottle, to join immediately to the reservoirs, that the operation may not be interrupted.—The water in the lowermost reservoir will always be most strongly impregnated, and may be known to be of sufficient strength when a few threads of flax put into it are visibly whitened in two or three minutes. It is then to be let off into the large reservoir for steeping the cloth; the water in the middle receiver, which is also partly impregnated with dephlogisticated gas, must be let down into the lowermost one by turning the cock of the pipe i, which runs off the water to the bottom. In like manner, the water in the upper cistern f is let down into the middle cistern e, by turning the cock belonging to the pipe b, while that in f is to be replaced by fresh water from the stream which runs into
The residuum of the distillation is a solution of manganese in common spirit of salt, from which the metal may be precipitated by caustic volatile alkali, and the liquid will afford sal ammoniac; the precipitate, by being calcined again till it grows black, may be used as fresh manganese; but considering the low price of this mineral, we can scarce recommend this process as worth the trouble. It is certain, however, that a great part of the marine-acid will remain undecomposed, even after we have added as much manganese as will excite any effervescence. This may be expeditiously recovered by pouring into the distilling vessel a small quantity of oil of vitriol. This expels the marine acid from the manganese with which it is united, and renders it again capable of acting upon more; but when the addition of a small quantity of this acid has no effect in producing the proper gas, we may then be sure that the operation is totally finished. The residuum is now a combination of manganese with vitriolic acid, and may be decomposed by volatile alkali, so that it can still be of use to the makers of spirit of hart's-horn and sal ammoniac.
Thus we see, that by a very easy process, without the smallest danger to the health of the workman, an unlimited quantity of dephlogisticated spirit of salt may be prepared of a sufficient strength to answer every useful purpose; and it is evident from the foregoing description of the process, that the most is made of the materials, so that we can scarce expect a cheaper method. The practice of mixing together the salt, oil of vitriol, and manganese, all together in the distilling vessel, is by no means to be commended; for thus the matter always runs into an hard lump, which cannot be got out without breaking the vessel; and the vapour is, besides, forced out with such rapidity, that great part of it is unavoidably lost.
The next and most important consideration is the method of using the liquor after it is distilled. And here, as the volatility of the gas is the principal obstacle to the preservation of its strength, it is indispensably necessary to have it to run from a covered spout into a covered vessel where the cloth is placed. It is likewise a matter of importance to have the cloth spread among the liquid in such a manner that the power of the gas may be equally diffused over its whole surface; for if it lies in folds upon one another, it will undoubtedly be spotted, let us do as we will. To prevent this in the most effectual manner, it is necessary to roll the cloth as is done by dyers to make their colours strike equally; for this operation we may account a kind of dyeing subtile; and the same precautions are undoubtedly necessary to make this colour equal as any other.* It is probable, that vessels and rollers might be so constructed, that a number of pieces of cloth might be whitened all at once; and the operation of driving the rollers might be performed by a machine driven by water.
With regard to the use of this liquid itself, it must be observed, that though very cheap when made as above directed, yet water itself is still cheaper; and whatever can be done by mere water, ought to be previously done to the cloth before it is immersed in the dephlogisticated liquor. With this view it ought to undergo a long continued but gentle fulling, a stream of warm water constantly running upon it all the while. Thus an incredible quantity of filth will be separated; and it will be matter of surprise to those who have not made the experiment, to be told, that they could not, in 24 hours, wash a piece of cloth as it comes from the weaver so clean in repeated quantities of water but that it would still render the last quantity dirty. Cloth, when treated in this manner for a considerable time, will be very nearly as well whitened as that which has been boiled in alkali. Boiling in water has not an effect nearly equal to that of gentle beating while the cloth is immersed in water, neither are violent strokes so useful as those which are gentle; and it might undoubtedly be worth while to contrive a machine for the purpose of giving this gentle fulling, which, without injuring the texture of the cloth, might be continued for a long time, and would be advantageous either on the old or new plan of bleaching.
If this method of fulling should not be adopted, that of streaming the cloth, or immersing it for some time in a stream of running water, would be of very considerable use as a preparation; but boiling with alkaline salt seems more advantageously to be omitted till after the cloth has undergone two or three operations in the dephlogisticated liquor; because this liquid, even when very weak, will cleanse considerably, and extract a great quantity of fords, which would load the alkali and destroy its force.
Having prepared the cloth in some of the methods above mentioned, it is to be put into the vessel designed for whitening, put over the roller, and a quantity of the liquid let into it. As the cloth whitens, the liquor gradually loses its fineness, and soon becomes incapable of giving any additional whiteness. This may be perceived by having a small door in the side of the vessel, which may be opened occasionally, and a bit of the cloth pulled out through it and looked at. When the first quantity of liquid, therefore, appears to have no more effect, it must be allowed to run off into another vessel; but is not yet to be thrown away, because it is still much more powerful than water, and will have a considerable effect upon cloths which have undergone the aqueous preparation.
After the first quantity of liquid is run off, another must be admitted from the lowermost reservoir, and is to be used in the same manner with the former; only it will now be somewhat longer before its strength is exhausted. When this is the case, a third quantity is to be employed, and so on till we find that the effect of the liquid is beginning to diminish. The cloth must then be taken out, fulled, and thoroughly cleaned of the acid by water, before the next operation, which is boiling with alkali. The lixivium ought to be of considerable strength, that the liquor may easily be evaporated, and part of the alkali recovered by a process related under the article Potashes; but as the cloth will necessarily retain a considerable quantity of this strong lixivium, it must be wrung out by a proper instrument for that purpose, and the liquid which falls from it saved and returned again into the kettle. The cloth, still retaining a quantity of alkali which could not be wrung out, must be thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, and allowed to remain there for a quarter of an hour; after which it is to be taken out and wrung as before. The water of the second cauldron will be slightly alkaline, and may be used as a preparation for cloth, or for filling up the vessel containing the strong alkali as it evaporates.
Before the cloth is returned into the dephlogisticated liquor, it is absolutely necessary that the alkaline salt be entirely taken out of it, which can only be speedily done by fulling, streaming, or at least steeping in repeated quantities of water. When all this is done, it will most probably be of a darker colour than before; but this will go off in a few minutes, and the cloth will become much whiter than ever. The remainder of the operation is only a repetition of the processes already described, and for which no other directions are requisite than that both alkali and acid, the latter especially, always loosen a quantity of fords, which, unless washed off, soon prevents their own operation. As soon, therefore, as the cloth is taken out of either the alkaline or acid liquor, there is a necessity for using every method consistent with the safety of its texture to clear it of this loose matter, which will allow the liquor into which it is next plunged to have the greater effect. It must be remembered, however, that the nearer the cloth approaches to perfect whiteness, the less effect has either of the liquids upon it; and therefore there is a necessity for increasing the strength of the dephlogisticated acid, or allowing it a longer time; but the latter is by much the preferable method: and, after all, it would be far from being improper to expose the cloth for a few days to the air, which will effectually prevent any change of colour afterwards, as frequently happens to cloths bleached after this manner.
Could a ready method be fallen upon to bleach flax by itself, it would be greatly in favour of the linen manufacture; as the strength of the threads are vastly increased by this method. The great difficulty in this operation arises from the filamentous nature of the flax; by which, when put into any liquid, it becomes matted together in such a manner as not to be separated afterwards by any means whatever so as to be spun with the same ease as before. The fairer and better dressed the lint is, the greater is this difficulty; and to obviate it, there seems to be no other possible method but that of using flax just as it comes from the mill, without any other dressing. Thus, indeed, the tow must be bleached as well as the flax; but when we consider, that thus it may be spun into much finer and stronger yarn than otherwise could be done, we cannot suppose this to be any disadvantage.
Another obstacle is the difficulty the liquid has in getting into the heart of the flax; so that the outside will be well whitened, when the inside is scarce altered. For this no other remedy seems adequate, besides the dividing it into many small parcels, tying them together in pairs, putting them over rods as candle-makers do their candles, and thus suspending them for a time in the liquid. They must be dipped in an hot solution of alkali in the same manner, afterwards for a considerable time in fresh water, to take out all the alkali; after which, they are to be again put into the acid liquor, and treated exactly as directed for the cloth. Thus, in two or three days, the flax will attain a surprising whiteness. It is then to be dressed and treated exactly as other flax, but must be dried without any kind of wringing or pressure. This method would appear to be useful, even though the utmost degree of whiteness should not be given, as the texture of the threads will be much less injured by the subsequent bleaching than if the flax had been spun in its natural state.
Mr Chaptal observes, that this acid may be applied to the whitening of paper and old prints; and by its means (he says) they obtain a whiteness which they never had before. Common ink disappears by its action, but it has no effect upon printer's ink.—It thickens oils, and calcines metals to such a degree, that the process may be much expedited by its means. It dissolves metals without effervescence, and precipitates mercury from its solutions, converting it into corrosive sublimate.—It acts, likewise, very vigorously upon metallic calces, forming with them salts more readily than other acids.
M. Chaptal observes, that the combination of the marine acid with vegetable alkali, named *febrifuge salt of Sylvius*, is found, though in small quantities, in seawater, plaster, and the ashes of tobacco. "The existence of this salt (says he) in the ashes of tobacco, might with justice have surprised me, as I had reason to expect the muriate of soda, which is employed in the operation called *watering*. Was the soda metamorphosed into pot-ash by the vegetable fermentation? This may be determined by direct experiments."