CELLINI 394 CELLULOSE ton in 1904. From 1907 to 1912 he was Minister to Argentina. In 1913 he be- came Italian Ambassador to the United States, an office which he held till his sud- den death following an operation, Oct. 20, 1919. CELLINI, BENVENUTO (chel-le'ne), a Florentine sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith, born in 1500. Of a bold, hon- est, and open charactei', but vain and quarrelsome, he was often entangled in disputes which frequently cost his an- tagonists their lives. At the siege of Rome (if we believe his own account, given in his autobiography) he killed the Constable of Bourbon and the Prince of Orange. He was afterward impris- oned on the charge (probably false) of having stolen the jewels of the Papal crown, and with difficulty escaped exe- h i BENVENUTO CELLINI cution. He then visited the court of Francis I. of France. He afterward returned to Florence, and under the patronage of Cosmo de' Medici made a Perseus with the head of Medusa in bronze, which is still an ornament of one of the public squares; also a statue of Christ in the chapel of the Pitti Pal- ace, besides many excellent dies for coins and medals. His works may be divided into two classes. The first, for which he is most celebrated, comprises his smaller productions in metal, the em- bossed de'corations of shields, cups, sal- vers, ornamented sword and dagger hilts, clasps, medals, and coins. The sec- ond includes his larger works as a sculp- tor, such as the Perseus mentioned above; a colossal Mars for a fountain at Fontainebleau ; a marble Christ in the Escurial Palace; a life-size statue of Jupiter in silver, etc. His life, written by himself, is very racy and animated. He died in Florence in 1571. CELLULOID, an ivory-like compound, which can be molded, turned, or other- wise maniifactured for various purposes for which, before its introduction, ivory and bone were employed. The process of manufacture is as follows: Paper, by immersion in sulphuric and nitric acids, is converted into nitrocellulose. This product, after washing and bleaching, is passed through a roller-mill, with the addition of a certain quantity of cam- phor. Celluloid softens at 176° F,, when it can be molded into the most delicate forms, to become hard when cold. It is very inflammable, unless blended with some chemical having an opposite prop- erty. The word celluloid as applied in the United States to this compound is a legally registered trademark. CELLULOSE. CeHioOs. A carbohy- drate which forms the main constituent of all vegetable tissues. It is the basis of our textile and paper-making indus- tries, and forms the raw material for artificial silk, nitrocellulose (gun-cotton) and celluloid. It may be prepared in a pure state by repeated treatment of a vegetable substance such as cotton or wood, first with alkaline solvents and then with weak oxidizing agents, such as calcium hypochlorite solution or potas- sium permanganate solution. In this manner, other constituents of the vege- table tissue are removed, leaving the more resistant cellulose as a residue. The purest commonly-occurring form of cellulose is bleached cotton. It is in- soluble in all common solvents, but dis- solves in a concentrated solution of zinc chloride and in a solvent prepared by dissolving copper hydrate in ammonium hydroxide. These solutions of cellulose have a number of commercial applica- tions, the most important being the prep- aration of carbon filaments for electric lamps, and the manufacture of artificial silk and of the so-called "Willesden" waterproof fabrics. On treatment with strong alkaline hydroxide solutions, cel- lulose acquires a luster and becomes silky to the touch. This reaction is the basis of the mercerized cotton industry. On fusing cellulose with caustic alkalies at high temperatures it is resolved into oxalic and acetic acids, and, on dry dis- tilling, charcoal, acetic acid, wood alco-
