The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-12-18
Misnamed Articles.

An exchange says: Why should
trade not have a johnson or a Webster
to classify and correct the mass of in
consistencies that go to make up its
nomenclatureP We not only tax our
brains to invent fantastic names to
every new fabric varied perhaps only
by thread or q shade from what our
grandparents wore century ago, but
there are in use positive misnomers for
many staple articles of merchandise.
The following imperfect list, culled
from sources ready at hand, will give
a faint idea of them:
Acid (sour) applied in chemistry to a
class of bodies to which sourness is
only accidental, and by no means a
universal characteristic. Thus rock,
crystal, quartz, flint, ETC., are chemi-
cal acids, through no particle of acidity
belongs to them.
Black lead does not contain single
particle of lead, being composed of
carbon and iron.
Brazilian grass does not come from
Brazil, or even grow there; nor is it
grass at all. 1t consists of strips of
palm leaf (cham9rops arge,ateGJ and is
imported chiefly from Cuba
Burgundy pitch is not pitch, nor is it
manufactured in or exported from
Burgundy. The best is a resinous sub
stance prepared from common frank
incense and brought from Hamburg;
but by far the greater quantity is a
mixture of resin and palm oil.
China, as name for porcelain,
gives rise to the contradictory express
sions, British china, Dutch china,
Chelsea china, etc., like wooden mile
stones, iron milestones, brass shoe
horns, iron pens, steel pens.
Cutie bone is not bone at all, but a
structure of pure chalk, once embodied
loosely in the substance of certain ex-
tinct species of cuttlefish. 1t is in
closed in a membraneous sac, within
the body of the fish, and drops out
when the sac is opened, but it has no
connection whatever with the sac or the
cuttlefish.
Galvanized iron is not galvanized. 1t
is simply iron coated with zinc; and
this is done by dipping it in zinc bath
containing muriatic acid.
German silver is not silver at all, nor
was the metallic alloy called by that
name invented by German, but has
been in use in China time out of mind.
Honey soap contains no honey, nor is
honey any way employed in its manu-.
facture. 1t is mixture of palm-oil
soap and olive-oil soap, each one part,
with three parts of curd soap or yellow
soap, scented.
Japan lacquer contains no lac at all,
but is made from a kind of nut tree
called anacardiace9.
Kid gloves are not made from kid
skin, but of lamb or sheep skins. Atpres
ent many of them are made of rat skins.
Meerschaum is not petrified "sea.
foam." as its name implies, but is 8
composition of silica, magnesia and
water.
Mosaic gold has no connection with
Moses or the metal gold. 1t is an alloy
of copper and zinc, used in the ancient
museum or tessalated work.
Mother of pearl is the inner layer OF
several sorts of shells. 1t is not the
mother of pearl, as its name indicates,
but in some cases the matrix of pearl.
Pen means a feather Uatin pen,,a, a
wing). A steel pen is not very choice
expression.
Salad oil is not oil for salad, but oil
for cleaning sallades, I. e., helmets.
Whalebone is not bone at all, mol
does it possess any of the properties OF
bone. 1t is a substance attached to
the upper jaw of the whale, and serves
to strain the water which the creature
takes up in large mouthfuls.