Volume 4, Slice 1 Part 30 (1/2)
BLOW-GUN, a weapon consisting of a long tube, through which, by blowing with the mouth, arrows or other missiles can be shot accurately to a considerable distance. Blow-guns are used both in warefare and the chase by the South American Indian tribes inhabiting the region between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, and by the Dyaks of Borneo. In the 18th century they were also known to certain North American Indians, especially the Choctaws and Cherokees of the lower Mississippi. Captain Bossu, in his _Travels through Louisiana_ (1756), says of the Choctaws: ”They are very expert in shooting with an instrument made of reeds about 7 ft. long, into which they put a little arrow feathered with the wool of the thistle (wild cotton?).” The blow-guns of the South American Indians differ in style and workmans.h.i.+p. That of the Macusis of Guiana, called _pucuna_, is the most perfect. It is made of two tubes, the inner of which, called _oorah_, is a light reed in. in diameter which often grows to a length of 15 ft. without a joint. This is enclosed, for protection and solidity, in an outer tube of a variety of palm (_Iriartella setigera_). The mouth-piece is made of a circlet of silk-gra.s.s, and the farther end is feruled with a kind of nut, forming a sight. A rear open sight is formed of two teeth of a small rodent. The length of the _pucuna_ is about 11 ft. and its weight 1 lb. The arrows, which are from 12 to 18 in. long and very slender, are made of ribs of the cocorite palm-leaf. They are usually feathered with a tuft of wild cotton, but some have in place of the cotton a thin strip of bark curled into a cone, which, when the shooter blows into the _pucuna_, expands and completely fills the tube, thus avoiding windage. Another kind of arrow is furnished with fibres of bark fixed along the shaft, imparting a rotary motion to the missile, a primitive example of the theory of the rifle. The arrows used in Peru are only a few inches long and as thin as fine knitting-needles. All South American blow-gun arrows are steeped in poison. The natives shoot very accurately with the _pucuna_ at distances up to 50 or 60 yds.
The blow-gun of the Borneo Dyaks, called _sumpitan_, is from 6 to 7 ft.
long and made of ironwood. The bore, of in., is made with a long pointed piece of iron. At the muzzle a small iron hook is affixed, to serve as a sight, as well as a spear-head like a bayonet and for the same purpose. The arrows used with the _sumpitan_ are about 10 in. long, pointed with fish-teeth, and feathered with pith. They are also envenomed with poison.
Poisoned arrows are also used by the natives of the Philippine island of Mindanao, whose blow-pipes, from 3 to 4 ft. long and made of bamboo, are often richly ornamented and even jewelled.
The principle of the blow-gun is, of course, the same as that of the common ”pea-shooter.”
See _Sport with Rod and Gun in American Woods and Waters_, by A.M.
Mayer, vol. ii. (Edinburgh, 1884); _Wanderings in South America_, &c., by Charles Waterton (London, 1828); _The Head Hunters of Borneo_, by Carl Bock (London, 1881).
BLOWITZ, HENRI GEORGES STEPHAN ADOLPHE DE (1825-1903), Anglo-French journalist, was born, according to the account given in his memoirs, at his father's chateau in Bohemia on the 28th of December 1825. At the age of fifteen he left home, and travelled over Europe for some years in company with a young professor of philology, acquiring a thorough knowledge of French, German and Italian and a mixed general education.
The finances of his family becoming straitened, young Blowitz was on the point of starting to seek his fortune in America, when he became acquainted in Paris with M. de Falloux, minister of public instruction, who appointed him professor of foreign languages at the Tours Lycee, whence, after some years, he was transferred to the Ma.r.s.eilles Lycee.
After marrying in 1859 he resigned his professors.h.i.+p, but remained at Ma.r.s.eilles, devoting himself to literature and politics. In 1869 information which he supplied to a legitimist newspaper at Ma.r.s.eilles with regard to the candidature of M. de Lesseps as deputy for that city led to a demand for his expulsion from France. He was, however, allowed to remain, but had to retire to the country. In 1870 his predictions of the approaching fall of the Empire caused the demand for his expulsion to be renewed. While his case was under discussion the battle of Sedan was fought, and Blowitz effectually ingratiated himself with the authorities by applying for naturalization as a French subject. Once naturalized, he returned to Ma.r.s.eilles, where he was fortunately able to render considerable service to Thiers, who subsequently employed him in collecting information at Versailles, and when this work was finished offered him the French consuls.h.i.+p at Riga. Blowitz was on the point of accepting this post when Laurence Oliphant, then Paris correspondent of _The Times_, for which Blowitz had already done some occasional work, asked him to act as his regular a.s.sistant for a time, Frederick Hardman, the other Paris correspondent of _The Times_, being absent. Blowitz accepted the offer, and when, later on, Oliphant was succeeded by Hardman he remained as a.s.sistant correspondent. In 1873 Hardman died, and Blowitz became chief Paris correspondent to _The Times_. In this capacity he soon became famous in the world of journalism and diplomacy.
In 1875 the duc de Decazcs, then French foreign minister, showed Blowitz a confidential despatch from the French amba.s.sador in Berlin (in which the latter warned his government that Germany was contemplating an attack on France), and requested the correspondent to expose the German designs in _The Times_. The publication of the facts effectually aroused European public opinion, and any such intention was immediately thwarted. Blowitz's most sensational journalistic feat was achieved in 1878, when his enterprise enabled _The Times_ to publish the whole text of the treaty of Berlin at the actual moment that the treaty was being signed in Germany. In 1877 and again in 1888 Blowitz rendered considerable service to the French government by his exposure of internal designs upon the Republic. He died on the 18th of January 1903.
_My Memoirs_, by H.S. de Blowitz, was published in 1903.
BLOWPIPE, in the arts and chemistry, a tube for directing a jet of air into a fire or into the flame of a lamp or gas jet, for the purpose of producing a high temperature by accelerating the combustion. The blowpipe has been in common use from the earliest times for soldering metals and working gla.s.s, but its introduction into systematic chemical a.n.a.lysis is to be ascribed to A.F. Cronstedt, and not to Anton Swab, as has been maintained (see J. Landauer, _Ber_. 26, p. 898). The first work on this application of the blowpipe was by G. v. Engestrom, and was published in 1770 as an appendix to a treatise on mineralogy. Its application has been variously improved at the hands of T.O. Bergman, J.G. Gahn, J.J. Berzelius, C.F. Plattner and others, but more especially by the two last-named chemists.
The simplest and oldest form of blowpipe is a conical bra.s.s tube, about 7 in. in length, curved at the small end into a right angle, and terminating in a small round orifice, which is applied to the flame, while the larger end is applied to the mouth. Where the blast has to be kept up for only a few seconds, this instrument is quite serviceable, but in longer chemical operations inconvenience arises from the condensation of moisture exhaled by the lungs in the tube. Hence most blowpipes are now made with a cavity for retaining the moisture.
Cronstedt placed a bulb in the centre of his blowpipe. Dr Joseph Black's instrument consists of a conical tube of tin plate, with a small bra.s.s tube, supporting the nozzle, inserted near the wider end, and a mouth-piece at the narrow end.
The sizes of orifice recommended by Plattner are 0.4 and 0.5 mm. A trumpet mouth-piece is recommended from the support it gives to the cheeks when inflated. The mode of blowing is peculiar, and requires some practice; an uninterrupted blast is kept up by the muscular action of the cheeks, while the ordinary respiration goes on through the nostrils.
If the flame of a candle or lamp be closely examined, it will be seen to consist of four parts--(a) a deep blue ring at the base, (b) a dark cone in the centre, (c) a luminous portion round this, and (d) an exterior pale blue envelope (see FLAME). In blowpipe work only two of these four parts are made use of, viz. the pale envelope, for oxidation, and the luminous portion, for reduction. To obtain a good _oxidizing flame_, the blowpipe is held with its nozzle inserted in the edge of the flame close over the level of the wick, and blown into gently and evenly. A conical jet is thus produced, consisting of an inner cone, with an outer one commencing near its apex--the former, corresponding to (a) in the free flame, blue and well defined; the latter corresponding to (d), pale blue and vague. The heat is greatest just beyond the point of the inner cone, combustion being there most complete. Oxidation is better effected (if a very high temperature be not required) the farther the substance is from the apex of the inner cone, for the air has thus freer access. To obtain a good _reducing flame_ (in which the combustible matter, very hot, but not yet burned, is disposed to take oxygen from any compound containing it), the nozzle, with smaller orifice, should just touch the flame at a point higher above the wick, and a somewhat weaker current of air should be blown. The flame then appears as a long, narrow, luminous cone, the end being enveloped by a dimly visible portion of flame corresponding to that which surrounds the free flame, while there is also a dark nucleus about the wick. The substance to be reduced is brought into the luminous portion, where the reducing power is strongest.
Various materials are used as supports for substances in the blowpipe flame; the princ.i.p.al are charcoal, platinum and gla.s.s or porcelain.
Charcoal is valuable for its infusibility and low conductivity for heat (allowing substances to be strongly heated upon it), and for its powerful reducing properties; so that it is chiefly employed in testing the fusibility of minerals and in reduction. The best kind of charcoal is that of close-grained pine or alder; it is cut in short prisms, having a flat smooth surface at right angles to the rings of growth. In this a shallow hole is made for receiving the substance to be held in the flame. Gas-carbon is sometimes used, since it is more permanent in the flame than wood charcoal. _Platinum_ is employed in oxidizing processes, and in the fusion of substances with fluxes; also in observing the colouring effect of substances on the blowpipe flame (which effect is apt to be somewhat masked by charcoal). Most commonly it is used in the form of wire, with a small bend or loop at the end.
The mouth blowpipe is unsuitable for the production of a large flame, and cannot be used for any lengthy operations; hence recourse must be made to types in which the air-blast is occasioned by mechanical means.
The laboratory form in common use consists of a bellows worked by either hand or foot, and a special type of gas burner formed of two concentric tubes, one conveying the blast, the other the gas; the supply of air and gas being regulated by stopc.o.c.ks. The _hot blast blowpipe_ of T.
Fletcher, in which the blast is heated by pa.s.sing through a copper coil heated by a separate burner, is only of service when a pointed flame of a fairly high temperature is required. Blowpipes in which oxygen is used as the blast have been manufactured by Fletcher, Russell & Co., and have proved of great service in conducting fusions which require a temperature above that yielded by the air-blowpipe.
For the applications of the blowpipe in chemical a.n.a.lysis see CHEMISTRY: _a.n.a.lytical_.