The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1878-04-27
ARIZONA SENTINEL.
The OIL Palm Tree-.-Its Product

The OIL Palm Tree---Its Product.
So many varieties of the palm are indig-
enous to the California Desert, bordering
on the Colorado river, that cultivation
there of the more valuable varieties seems
to be among possibilities of the near fu-
ture. List week we gave description of
the Date Palm and now give our readers
the following extract from the Rural New
Yorker
Of the multitudinous species of the palm
family, the products of few only have
found their way into American and Euro
pean commerce, the most valued being
those of the cocoanut, the date and the oil
palms. Of these the appearance of the
last is the least familiar to most persons
as, unlike the others, it has never hitherto
been accurately pictured in scientific and
popular works. In Western Tropical At
RIGA there are vast regions thickly covered
with the members of this Species and it is
from this torrid region, especially from
the River Bonny, that the largest quanti-
ties of palm oil find their way into the
American markets. The trade with the
natives is carried on chiefly by barter, glass
beads of various forms, sizes, and colors
being among the principal articles Of ex-
change.
The trunk of the tree from which palm
oil is obtained is seldom ov0r thirty feet
high, and is surmounted with tuft of long
pinnate leaves garnished with prickly
petioleS. The flowers are diGcious, and
borne in dense heads, sometimes two feet
l., 49,, e.,
ence. In these closely crowded spadices
the fruit is so cOmpactly clustered that
the punches bear strong resemblance to
large pine-apples. The individual fruits
are about an inch and a half long, some
what pear-shaped, and when fully ripe, Of
bright orange color. They consist of an
outer soft, pulpy substance from which
the best oil is obtained, inside which,
forming about one-fourth of the whole, is
q very hard, stony shell inclosing the seeds,
and yielding, when crushed, a clear, linn
pid product called palm-nut Oil. The fruit
when sufficiently ripe, is gathered by men,
boiled in large earthenware pots by women
and then crushed in mOrtars. They are
next placed III large clay watts filled with
water, and women tread out the oil which
rises to the surface and is skinned off 1t
is then once more boiled 10 get rid of the
halCI, anu EJdChCu AWAY Ill DdlTClS Ut cdShS
for expectation. 1t still retains the color
ing matter OF the fruit, which is removed
by subsequent processes in numerous fac
tories in Europe, either by bleaching in
shallow pans on the surface of hot water
or by various chemical methods of treat
ment.
Good palm oil is fatty substance of the
consistence OF butter, Of rich orange
color, a swedish taste, and an odor like
that OF viOlctS or orriS root. 1t is now eX-
tensive!y used III the manufacture Of can
dies, soap, and also as ar axle grease,
Chiefly for the wheels of railroad cars At
temperature OF from seventy. five degrees
to ninety five degrees F. it meits to Il very
thin fluid, and the older it is, the greater
the heat required to liquify it. By age and
exposure it becomes rancid and assumes q
whitish tinge. 1t is perfectly soluble in
ether, slightly so in cold alcohol, but readi-
ly dissolyes in hot alcohol, though on cool
ing it Solidities. 1t consists Of margarine,
oleine, aud d solid fat like stearine, which
IS called palmatine, and constitutes two
thirds of its weight
Palm oil is used more extensively for the
manufacture Of candles than for any other
purpose, and the process, though some
what lengthy, is highly interesting. Hav-
ing been melted by a jet of steam intro
ducei into the casks, and freed from all
impurities, it is mixed with from one sew
enth TO one-sixth of its weight of sulphur
ic acid and briskly agitated for about two
hours in copper boilers in which steam
maintains temperature of about $50 de-
grees. The sulphuric acid and the glyce-
rine, which is an ingredient of its CON-
ponent fats, are in this way decomposed
and escape partly in the form of carbonic
and sulphurous acids, and partly by Subse-
quent washing. The impure acids are
then distilled IN copper stills, steam heat
cd, to temperature of 900 degrees. The
dark residue in the boilers is made to yield
still more oil by heavy pressure. and the
black refuse that remains is used for fuel.
When cooled, the distilled fat is broken
into cakes eighteen inches long and about
An inch and three-quarters thick. These
are spread upon squares of cocoa-nut mat
ting and are then piled or top OF each
other and submitted to hydraulic pressure
at d temperature of seventy-fye degrees.
The fat obtained may be run at once into
candies for the European and American
markets, but for tropical use, it is again
submitted to pressure at temperature OF
40 degrees.