New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-07-02
Production and DistiIlhtion of Turpentlne'
Ana It's Various Products. =

y
ming at the solicitation of your worthy presl-
dent, DR. Copes, for the purpose OF deliver,
ing a short address on the production and
distillation of turpentine and It's various
products When tell you that was born
in Edgecombe county, North Carolina, and
how pleasant was its climate, how rlcn lts
soil, and how ignorant were its people,
hope you will extend to HE your charitable
sympathies for any errors or shortcomings
/ may make in this address. Edgecombe
county had 1900 voters, l425 of whom were
Democrats and seventy-five Wings. Nine
hundred men in the county could neither
read nor write, and 1900 voted against free
schools-an ignorant but happy people forty
years ago.
North Carolina was the pioneer State in
the turpentine business, and Edgecombe was
one of the very first counties to engage in
it. Boxes were cut about two and half
feet above the ground, and cultivators
thereby lost at least two feet OF the best
part of the tree as boxes should be cut near
the ground. AT that time trees were Guilt
waited by hacking the face of them with a
sharp hatchet-a very poor and slow
process Of obtaining the crude article.
But since that time, many scientific i'm
provements have been made, particularly
in tools for working, such as the turpentine
axes-which are long and narrow, from
eight to twelve inches long. and about
three inches wide, with rounded pole-also
the round shave or hacker, which is used
for hacking or scraping the tree.
The good people of North Carolina put
their spirits of turpentine into small bar
rels, and put these into large ones tightly
hooped and filed with water to prevent the
spirits from leaking out. After while some
genius discovered that turpentine had no
effect on glue, and they glued the inside of
the large barrels and put the spirits in
them. Glue was made of hides by distil-
| e l.. L. Ill
eighths of pound of glue. This should at
ways he dissolved by steam and not by d.
rect application of fire, as the fire process
three times repeated would entirely de-
stroy it. In 1852 / went to the st. Ste
phen's land office and entered 1000 acres of
pine land in Monroe county, Alabama, and
commenced cutting boxes in January, 1853.
Boxes should be cut just four inches above
the ground, thirteen inches from corner to
corner, seven inches deep and three inches
horizontally. This will just hold one quart.
They should all be cut one size, and, if
properly cultivated, will all fill at one time
and be ready for the dipper
A mans task to cut is seventy-fve boxes
per day, although some hands will cut as
many as one hundred or one hundred and
twenty-five. The turpentine dipper is like
a large spoon mashed perfectly fat, except
| that the handle is a socket instead of being
fat A mans task is to dip five barrels per
day, and that is not hard work, as l have
myself dipped six gallons in eight minutes.
Men have to do this work, as boys and
women can not perform the labor.
Eleven thousand boxes is mans task TO.
cultivate where the land is level; but it is
very hard work the first year, as it rec uires
constant stopping all day. Ten thousand
boxes is a fair task where the land is hilly.
Each hand has to 60 over and chip these
boxes once a week. Crude turpentine
nd from tho nf fba wood for
four or five days. Then it is necessary to
cut the tree afresh, as the pores close up in
about that time.
Take, for instance, twenty barrel still
and twenty hands to cultivate H., 900
boxes: four hands to dip twenty barrels per
day; one wagon and four mules TO haul
twenty barrels per day: one stiller to work
up twenty barrels per day, one hand TO as
sist in various ways, such as pumping
water into the tank, glueing barrels, etc,
! and two coopers to make rosin barrels; and
if the superintendent is business man,
everything will work like clock. The
cultivator can dip twenty barrels per day,
haul twenty and still up twenty; and there
is no waste by leakage. Economy is abso-
lutely necessary i'll this business, as in
| many others.
In the distillation of turpentine it is
necessary TO get good copper still, with
bottom tive-eighths of an inch thick and
sides three-eighths to one-half an inch. My
experience shows it is best to have eight
tiues under your still. Commence with a
| two inch tiue, then four, six and eight inches,
increasing the size OF tiues as yOu recede
from the chimney where the main fue leads
off the smoke and such heat as may escape.
A two inch tiue will take out as much heat
near this as an eight inch will seven or
| eight feet off This will prevent the bottom
| of the still from burning. In distllllng
| crude turpentine drive off the spirit and
| pyroligneous acid in the form of vapor,
| which is condensed into fluid, and both
! pass into the tub from the still worm. The
acid being the heavier, sinks to the bottom,
and the spirit floats on top. There is
| brown sediment floating between the two,
which | do not know any name for. The
| spirit is dipped from the top of the tub
and funneled into barrels ready TO receive
| it, and the acid is drawn off through an
auger hole near the bottom of the tub and
| thrown away, as it is considered worthless
| by interior distillers, though have lately
| learned it is used for setting colors in
| dyeing cloth
Mix one gallon OF spirits of turpentine
with three gallons of hot liquid rosin, and
| it makes fine bright varni>h, suitable for
| decks of boats and other craft. When there
| has been run off about two gallons and a
half of spirits per barrel from crude turpen,
| tine, which eXhausts all the water or pyro-
lgnous acid originally held in solution, the
still will boil very low. Immediately turn
pure water into the still from barrel pre-
pared for the purpose, through a small
| trough leading into a funnel inserted into
the top of the still. Without this supply of
water it is impossible to extract all the
spirit from the rosin. Take common class
tumbler and catch the spirit as it runs from
the worm, and you can tell when it is all
| extracted from the rosin as there will be
very little spirit floating ON the acid, leaving
| 1t about as thick as cream. Immediately
! take of the still cap, first drawing out all
| ire from under the still, and with a wire
SKINNER skim off all the trash YOU can get,
then place your wire sleeves made of wire
cloth of from forty threads to one hundred
and twenty threads to the square inch) over
the rosln tank, and discharge your rosin
| through the sleeves into the tank As soon
as the rosin coOls off little, draw it off into
barrels, and it will be hard in from four to
ten hours, according to the temperature of
the weather.
Resin is used for various purposes. mixing
WIN spirits OF turpentine for making var
nlsh, with tar for making pitch for sizing
cloth, for stitfening wall paper las, being
lmpervious to moisture, it keeps the paper
dry and in good order) is used for making
common and fancy soaps. and is distilled at
temperature of six hundred degrees of
neat into Oil, naphtha and rony pitch,
tne pest pitch known in naval circles
Naphtha is used for dissolving India rub
per, ana enters largely into the chemical
preparations of medicine. 1t is said also TO
oe one OF the very best remedies known for
rheumatism. Common rosm is the best for
making Oil, and is worth in this market
from % to 81 per barrel. From two hun