The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
"The binzole, you see, Ma'am, is so thin that the hyder-rometer drops
right down over head an' ears in it; but as it gits to be ile, it comes
heavier an' stouter, an' kind uv buoys it up, until at lin'th an' at
last the 60 deg. line comes crapin' up in sight. Thin I thry it by the
fire tist. I puts some in a pan over a sperit-lamp, and keep a-thryin'
an' a-thryin' it wid a thermometer; an' whin it's 'most a-bilin', I
puts a lighted match to the ile, an' if it blazes, there's still too much
binzole, an' I lets it run a bit longer. But if all's right, I cuts off
the binzole, and the nixt run is ile sech as you see it. The longer it
runs, the heavier it grows; and whin it gits so that the hyder-rometer
stands at 42 deg., I cuts off agin. Thin the next run is heavy ile, thick
and yaller, and that doesn't come in here at all, but is drawn from the
still, and mixed wid crude ile, and stilled over agin; and whin no more
good's to be got uv it, it's mighty good along wid the binzole to keep
the pot a-bilin' in beyant."
"You don't use the fire test in this building, I presume, do you?"
"Indade, no, Ma'am. There's niver a light nor yit a lanthern allowed
here."
"But you run all night. How do you get light in this room?" inquired Mr.
Williams.
"From widout. Did niver ye mind the windys uv this house?"
And the professor, dismounting from his stool, led the way to the
outside of the building, where he pointed to two picturesque little
windows near the roof, each furnished with a deep hood and a shelf, as
if Tommy had been expected to devote his leisure hours to the
cultivation of mignonette.
"See now!"
And the burly lecturer pointed impressively to a laborer at this moment
approaching with a large lighted lantern in each hand. These, placed
upon the mignonette shelves, and snugly protected from wind and rain by
the deep hoods, threw a clear light into the test-room, and brought out
in grotesque distinctness the arabesque pattern wrought with dust and
oil upon Tommy's broad visage.
"And that's how we gits light, Sir," remarked the professor, in
conclusion, as, with a dignified salutation of farewell, he disappeared
in the still-house.
Admonished by the lanterns and the fading glory of the west, Miselle and
her host now bent their steps homeward, deferring, like Scheherezade,
"still finer and more wonderful stories until the next morning."
At their next visit to the Refinery, the visitors were committed to a
little wiry old man, called Jimmy, who first showed them a grewsome
monster, own cousin to him who threw oil from Tarr Farm to Plummer. This
one was called an air-pump, and, with his attendant steam-engine,
inhabited a house by himself. His work will presently be explained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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