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Mineral pitch; a black, tarry substance, burning with a bright flame; Jew's pitch. It occurs as an abundant natural product in many places, as on the shores of the Dead and Caspian Seas. It is used in cements, in the construction of pavements, etc. See Asphalt.

Any process in which advantage is taken of the fact that prepared bitumen is rendered insoluble by exposure to light, as in photolithography.

f mineral coal, of high luster, differing from bituminous coal in containing little or no bitumen, in consequence of which it burns with a nearly non luminous flame. The purer specimens consist almost wholly of carbon. Also called glance coal and blind coal.

Mineral pitch, Jews' pitch, or compact native bitumen. It is brittle, of a black or brown color and high luster on a surface of fracture; it melts and burns when heated, leaving no residue. It occurs on the surface and shores of the Dead Sea, which is therefore called Asphaltites, or the Asphaltic Lake. It is found als…

Bitumen. [Poetic] May.

Smeared with bitumen. [R.] "The hatches caulked and bitumed." Shak.

To treat or impregnate with bitumen; to cement with bitumen. "Bituminated walls of Babylon." Feltham.

Producing bitumen. Kirwan.

To prepare, treat, impregnate, or coat with bitumen.

Having the qualities of bitumen; compounded with bitumen; containing bitumen. Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed. Milton. Bituminous coal, a kind of coal which yields, when heated, a considerable amount of volatile bituminous matter. It burns with a yellow smoky flame. -- Bituminous limestone, a mineral of a…

With boiling or ebullition. And lakes of bitumen rise boiling higher. Byron.

Consisting of, or containing, lime and bitumen. Lyell.

Mineral coal charred, or depriver of its bitumen, sulphur, or other volatile matter by roasting in a kiln or oven, or by distillation, as in gas works. It is lagerly used where [Written also coak.] Gas coke, the coke formed in gas retorts, as distinguished from that made in ovens.

The act of depriving of bitumen.

To deprive of bitumen.

An impure earthy or coaly bitumen, which emits a highly fetid odor when burning.

over easily from shocks and trials; as, elastic spirits; an elastic constitution. Elastic bitumen. (Min.) See Elaterite. -- Elastic curve. (a) (Geom.) The curve made by a thin elastic rod fixed horizontally at one end and loaded at the other. (b) (Mech.) The figure assumed by the longitudinal axis of an originally str…

color, occurring in soft, flexible masses; -- called also mineral caoutchouc, and elastic bitumen.

in Syria and Egypt as a pot herb, and in India for its fiber. -- Jew's pitch, asphaltum; bitumen. -- The Wandering Jew, an imaginary personage, who, for his cruelty to the Savior during his passion, is doomed to wander on the earth till Christ's second coming.

A variety of bitumen, viscid and tenacious, like pitch, unctuous to the touch, and exhaling a bituminous odor.