name of “buffum.” In 1864, owing to the serious aspect of the prevalent adulteration, a union of traders was formed under the name of the “Linseed Association.” This body samples all linseed oil arriving in England and reports on its value.
Linseed oil, the most valuable drying oil, is obtained by expression from the seeds, with or without the aid of heat. Preliminary to the operation of pressing, the seeds are crushed and ground to a fine meal. Cold pressing of the seeds yields a golden-yellow oil, which is often used as an edible oil. Larger quantities are obtained by heating the crushed seeds to 160° F. (71° C.), and then expressing the oil. So obtained, it is somewhat turbid and yellowish-brown in colour. On storing, moisture and mucilaginous matter gradually settle out. After storing several years it is known commercially as “tanked oil,” and has a high value in varnish-making. The delay attendant on this method of purification is avoided by treating the crude oil with 1 to 2% of a somewhat strong sulphuric acid, which chars and carries down the bulk of the impurities. For the preparation of “artist’s oil,” the finest form of linseed oil, the refined oil is placed in shallow trays covered with glass, and exposed to the action of the sun’s rays. Numerous other methods of purification, some based on the oxidizing action of ozone, have been suggested. The yield of oil from different classes of seed varies, but from 23 to 28% of the weight of the seed operated on should be obtained. A good average quality of seed weighing about 392 ℔ per quarter has been found in practice to give out 109 ℔ of oil.
Commercial linseed oil has a peculiar, rather disagreeable sharp taste and smell; its specific gravity is given as varying from 0.928 to 0.953, and it solidifies at about −27°. By saponification it yields a number of fatty acids—palmitic, myristic, oleic, linolic, linolenic and isolinolenic. Exposed to the air in thin films, linseed oil absorbs oxygen and forms “linoxyn,” a resinous semi-elastic, caoutchouc-like mass, of uncertain composition. The oil, when boiled with small proportions of litharge and minium, undergoes the process of resinification in the air with greatly increased rapidity.
Its most important use is in the preparation of oil paints and varnishes. By painters both raw and boiled oil are used, the latter forming the principal medium in oil painting, and also serving separately as the basis of all oil varnishes. Boiled oil is prepared in a variety of ways—that most common being by heating the raw oil in an iron or copper boiler, which, to allow for frothing, must only be about three-fourths filled. The boiler is heated by a furnace, and the oil is brought gradually to the point of ebullition, at which it is maintained for two hours, during which time moisture is driven off, and the scum and froth which accumulate on the surface are ladled out. Then by slow degrees a proportion of “dryers” is added—usually equal weights of litharge and minium being used to the extent of 3% of the charge of oil; and with these a small proportion of umber is generally thrown in. After the addition of the dryers the boiling is continued two or three hours; the fire is then suddenly withdrawn, and the oil is left covered up in the boiler for ten hours or more. Before sending out, it is usually stored in settling tanks for a few weeks, during which time the uncombined dryers settle at the bottom as “foots.” Besides the dryers already mentioned, lead acetate, manganese borate, manganese dioxide, zinc sulphate and other bodies are used.
Linseed oil is also the principal ingredient in printing and lithographic inks. The oil for ink-making is prepared by heating it in an iron pot up to the point where it either takes fire spontaneously or can be ignited with any flaming substance. After the oil has been allowed to burn for some time according to the consistence of the varnish desired, the pot is covered over, and the product when cooled forms a viscid tenacious substance which in its most concentrated form may be drawn into threads. By boiling this varnish with dilute nitric acid vapours of acrolein are given off, and the substance gradually becomes a solid non-adhesive mass the same as the ultimate oxidation product of both raw and boiled oil.
Linseed oil is subject to various falsifications, chiefly through the addition of cotton-seed, niger-seed and hemp-seed oils; and rosin oil and mineral oils also are not infrequently added. Except by smell, by change of specific gravity, and by deterioration of drying properties, these adulterations are difficult to detect.
LINSTOCK (adapted from the Dutch lontstok, i.e. “matchstick,”
from lont, a match, stok, a stick; the word is sometimes
erroneously spelled “lintstock” from a supposed derivation
from “lint” in the sense of tinder), a kind of torch made of a
stout stick a yard in length, with a fork at one end to hold a
lighted match, and a point at the other to stick in the ground.
“Linstocks” were used for discharging cannon in the early
days of artillery.
LINT (in M. Eng. linnet, probably through Fr. linette, from lin,
the flax-plant; cf. “line”), properly the flax-plant, now only
in Scots dialect; hence the application of such expressions as
“lint-haired,” “lint white locks” to flaxen hair. It is also
the term applied to the flax when prepared for spinning, and
to the waste material left over which was used for tinder.
“Lint” is still the name given to a specially prepared material
for dressing wounds, made soft and fluffy by scraping or ravelling
linen cloth.
LINTEL (O. Fr. lintel, mod. linteau, from Late Lat. limitellum,
limes, boundary, confused in sense with limen, threshold; the
Latin name is supercilium, Ital. soprasogli, and Ger. Sturz), in
architecture, a horizontal piece of stone or timber over a doorway
or opening, provided to carry the superstructure. In order
to relieve the lintel from too great a pressure a “discharging
arch” is generally built over it.
LINTH, or Limmat, a river of Switzerland, one of the
tributaries of the Aar. It rises in the glaciers of the Tödi range,
and has cut out a deep bed which forms the Grossthal that
comprises the greater portion of the canton of Glarus. A little
below the town of Glarus the river, keeping its northerly direction,
runs through the alluvial plain which it has formed, towards the
Walensee and the Lake of Zürich. But between the Lake of Zürich
and the Walensee the huge desolate alluvial plain grew ever in
size, while great damage was done by the river, which overflowed
its bed and the dykes built to protect the region near it.
The Swiss diet decided in 1804 to undertake the “correction”
of this turbulent stream. The necessary works were begun in
1807 under the supervision of Hans Conrad Escher of Zürich
(1767–1823). The first portion of the undertaking was completed
in 1811, and received the name of the “Escher canal,” the river
being thus diverted into the Walensee. The second portion,
known as the “Linth canal,” regulated the course of the river
between the Walensee and the Lake of Zürich and was completed
in 1816. Many improvements and extra protective works were
carried out after 1816, and it was estimated that the total cost
of this great engineering undertaking from 1807 to 1902 amounted
to about £200,000, the date for the completion of the work being
1911. To commemorate the efforts of Escher, the Swiss diet in
1823 (after his death) decided that his male descendants should
bear the name of “Escher von der Linth.” On issuing from the
Lake of Zürich the Linth alters its name to that of “Limmat,”
it does not appear wherefore, and, keeping the north-westerly
direction it had taken from the Walensee, joins the Aar a little
way below Brugg, and just below the junction of the Reuss
with the Aar. (W. A. B. C.)
LINTON, ELIZA LYNN (1822–1898), English novelist, daughter
of the Rev. J. Lynn, vicar of Crosthwaite, in Cumberland, was
born at Keswick on the 10th of February 1822. She early
manifested great independence of character, and in great measure
educated herself from the stores of her father’s library. Coming
to London about 1845 with a large stock of miscellaneous erudition,
she turned this to account in her first novels, Azeth the
Egyptian (1846) and Amymone (1848), a romance of the days of
Pericles. Her next story, Realities, a tale of modern life (1851),
was not successful, and for several years she seemed to have
abandoned fiction. When, in 1865, she reappeared with Grasp
your Nettle, it was as an expert in a new style of novel-writing—stirring,
fluent, ably-constructed stories, retaining the attention
throughout, but affording little to reflect upon or to remember.
Measured by their immediate success, they gave her an honourable
position among the writers of her day, and secure of an
audience, she continued to write with vigour nearly until her
death. Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg (1866), Patricia Kemball (1874),
The Atonement of Leam Dundas (1877) are among the best
examples of this more mechanical side of her talent, to which
there were notable exceptions in Joshua Davidson (1872), a bold
but not irreverent adaptation of the story of the Carpenter
of Nazareth to that of the French Commune; and Christopher
Kirkland, a veiled autobiography (1885). Mrs Linton was a
practised and constant writer in the journals of the day; her
articles on the “Girl of the Period” in the Saturday Review
produced a great sensation, and she was a constant contributor
to the St James’s Gazette, the Daily News and other leading newspapers.
Many of her detached essays have been collected. In
1858 she married W. J. Linton, the engraver, but the union was
