SAPAN WOOD

is a species of the Cæsalpinia genus, to which Brasil wood belongs. It is so called by the French, because it comes to them from Japan, which they corruptly pronounce Sapan. As all the species of this tree are natives of either the East Indies or the New World, one would imagine that they could not have been used as dye-stuffs in Europe before the beginning of the 16th century. Yet the author of the article “Brasil,” in Rees’ Cyclopædia, and Mr. Southey, in his History of Brasil, say that Brasil wood is mentioned nearly one hundred years before the discoveries of Columbus and Vasco de Gama, by Chaucer, who died in 1400; that it was known many ages before his time; and that it gave the name to the country, instead of the country giving the name to the wood, as I have stated, with Berthollet and other writers on dyeing. The Cæsalpinia sappan , being a native of the Coromandel coast, may po ibly have been transported along with other Malabar merchandise to the Mediterranean marts in the middle ages; but the importation of so lumbering an article in any considerable quantity by that channel, is so improbable, that I am disposed to believe that Brasil wood was not commonly used by the dyers of Europe before the discovery of the New World. SARD; see Lapidary . SATIN (Eng., Fr., and Germ.); is the name of a silk stuff, first imported from China, which is distinguished by its very smooth, polished, and glo y surface. It is woven upon a loom with at least five-leaved healds or heddles, and as many corresponding treddles. These are so mounted as to rise and fall four at a time, raising and depre ing alternately four yarns of the warp, acro the whole of which the weft is thrown by the shuttle, so as to produce a uniform smooth texture, instead of the chequered work resulting from intermediate decu ations, as in common webs. See Textile Fabrics . Satins are woven with the glo y or right side undermost, because the four-fifths of the warp, which are always left there during the action of the healds, serve to support the shuttle in its race. Were they woven in the reverse way, the scanty fifth part of the warp threads could either not support, or would be too much worn by the shuttle.