Formerly Bandannah handkerchiefs were in the highest estimation, and no gentleman's toilet was thought complete without one. The pattern was of the simplest kind, consisting only of white spots on a red or other coloured ground. These spots were produced in a very ingenious manner by Messrs. Monteith, of Glasgow, by pressing together many layers of silk with leaden plates perforated with holes; a solution of chlorine was then poured upon the upper plate, and pressure being applied it penetrated the whole mass in the direction of the holes, bleaching out the colour in its passage. This important commercial result may be imitated on the small scale by placing a piece of calico dyed with Turkey red between two thick pieces of board, each of which is [Page 136] perforated with a hole two inches in diameter, and corresponding accurately when one is placed upon the other. The pieces of board may be squeezed together in any convenient way, either by weights, strong vulcanized india-rubber bands or screws, and when a strong solution of chlorine gas or of chloride of lime is poured into the hole and percolates through the cloth, the colour is removed, and the part is bleached almost instantaneously by first wetting the calico with a little weak acid, and then pouring on the solution of chloride of lime. On removing and washing the folded red calico it is found to be bleached in all the places exposed to the solution, and is now covered with white spots. (Fig. 135.) [Illustration: Fig. 135. A. Circular hole in the upper piece of wood, a similar one being perforated in the lower one. B B. The strong india-rubber bands. The bleaching solution is poured into A.] IODINE. Iodine ([Greek: _Iôdês_], violet coloured). Symbol, I; combining proportion, 127.1; specific gravity, 4.948. Specific gravity of iodine vapour, 8.716. In the previous chapter, devoted to the element chlorine, little or nothing has been said of that inexhaustible storehouse of chlorine, iodine, and bromine--viz., the boundless ocean. Some one has remarked that, as it is possible the air may contain a little of everything capable of assuming the gaseous form, so the ocean may hold in a state of solution a modicum of every soluble substance, in proof of which we have lately read of some very important experiments resulting in the separation of the metal silver from sea water, not certainly in any profitable quantity, but quite enough to prove its presence in the ocean. No elaborate research is necessary to ascertain the presence of chlorine, when it is remembered that Schafhäutl has calculated, that all the oceans on the globe contain three millions fifty-one thousand three hundred and forty-two cubic geographical miles of salt, or about five times more than the mass of the Alps.