Skim′mer.
A perforated ladle or flat dish with a handle for taking the scum from a boiling solution, or from the water in which an object is boiled. Cane-juice and that of sorghum, the latter especially, abound in feculencies which rise as a scum as the liquid approaches a boiling temperature, the albumen becoming coagulated and carrying with it to the surface some of the mucilaginous matters. Fig. 5134 shows a provision in a sorghum-evaporator of a skimming-dish hinged to the side and retaining the scum, which tends to collect upon the cooler side of the pan which projects outside of the furnace wall. The scum is discharged by tipping the skimmer.2. (Founding.) A stiff bar of iron, the end of which for a few inches is flattened and curved slightly, like the blade of a saber. It is used at the time of pouring, to keep back the slag or sullage which floats on the metal in the ladle. The flat end of the skimmer is coated with loam, and dried to keep the metal from burning to the wrought-iron. Skimmers are usually about 4 feet long, but for craneladles they are often 12 to 16 feet.
