FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   >>  
, I ascertained that there was no new structure present; but in manipulating I found that these spots absorbed water more rapidly than the rest of the paper. On applying litmus, these spots were found to have a powerful acid reaction. On submitting the matter to a chemical friend, he ascertained that the acid in question was the sulphuric, or oil of vitriol. Experiments were then made with a dilute solution of this acid on {237} clean paper, and spots were produced similar to those of mildew. The acid does not naturally exist in paper, and its presence can only be accounted for by supposing that the paper has been bleached by the fumes of sulphur. This produces sulphurous acid, which, by the influence of atmospheric air and moisture, is slowly converted into sulphuric, and then produces the mildew. As this may be shown to be an absolute _charring_ of the fibres of which the paper is composed, it is to be feared that it cannot be cured. After the process has once commenced, it can only be checked by the utmost attention to dryness, moisture being indispensable to its extension, and vice versa. I do not know whether these facts are generally known, but they would seem to be very important to paper-makers. T.I. _Pilgrims' Road to Canterbury_ (Vol. ii., p. 199.).--Your correspondent PHILO-CHAUCER, I presume, desires to know the old route to Canterbury. I should imagine that at the time of Chaucer a great part of the country was uncultivated and uninclosed, and a horse-track in parts of the route was probably the nearest approximation to a road. At the present day, crossing the London road at Wrotham, and skirting the base of the chalk hills, there is a narrow lane which I have heard _called_ "the Pilgrims' road," and this, I suppose, is in fact the old Canterbury road; though how near to London or Canterbury it has a distinct existence, and to what extent it may have been absorbed in other roads, I am not able to say. The title of "Pilgrims' road" I take to be a piece of modern antiquarianism. In the immediate vicinity of this portion there are some druidical remains: some at Addington, and a portion of a small circle tolerably distinct in a field and lane between, I think, Trottescliffe and Ryarsh. In the absence of better information, you may perhaps make use of this. S.H. _Abbe Strickland_ (Vol. ii, p. 198.), of whom I.W.H. asks for information, is mentioned by _Cox_, in his _Memoirs of Sir Robert
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   >>  



Top keywords:

Canterbury

 
Pilgrims
 

portion

 
ascertained
 

mildew

 

London

 
moisture
 

distinct

 

produces

 

absorbed


information

 
sulphuric
 

present

 

narrow

 

desires

 

called

 

suppose

 
imagine
 

nearest

 

approximation


uninclosed

 

uncultivated

 

Chaucer

 

Wrotham

 

crossing

 
country
 
skirting
 

antiquarianism

 
Trottescliffe
 

Ryarsh


absence
 

Strickland

 

mentioned

 

Robert

 
extent
 

modern

 

Memoirs

 

Addington

 
circle
 

tolerably


remains

 
druidical
 

presume

 

vicinity

 

existence

 
produced
 

similar

 
dilute
 

solution

 

naturally