Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-06-02
COTTON SEED OIL.
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF IT'S Manu-
FAcTURE NEAR ATLANTA


FACTURE NEAR ATLANTA
Huber. Heater and Press-Crude Oil
in the Tank-A Summary Of the Bust
moss.
"Cotton seed OIL" said Mr. A E. Thornton,
Of the Atlanta mills, sis one of the most valu.
is, neither acid nor alkali. and can be made
to form the body of any other oil 1t assim-
Hates the properties of the oil with which II
is mixed. For instance, olive oil Cotton
seed oil is taken and little extract Of olives
put in. The cotton oil takes up the proper
ties Of the extract, and for all practical pur-
poses it is every bit as good as the pure olive
oil Then it Is used in sweet oil, hair oil
and, in fact, in nearly all others. A chemist
cannot tell the prepared cotton oil from olive
oil except by exposing a saucerful of each.
and the olive oil becomes rancid muck
quicker than the cotton oil. The crude oil Is
worth thirty cents gallon, and even as it is,
makes the finest of cooking lard, and enters
into the composition of nearly all lard"
A visit to the mills showed how the oil is
made. From the platform where the seed is
unloaded it is thrown into an elevator and
carried by a conveyor-an endless screw in a
trough-to the warehouse. Then it is dis
tributed by the conveyor uniformly over the
length of the building-about 200 feet. The
warehouse is nearly half filed now, and
thousands and thousands Of bushels are lying
in store Another elevator carries the seed
up to the ''sand screen" This is revolving
cylinder made of wire cloth, the neshes
are inside the cylinder, but tho sand and dirt
escape. Now the seeds start down an ~
clined trough. There Is something else to be
taken out, and that is the screws and nails
and rocks that were too large to be sifted
out with the sand and dirt. There is hole
in the inclined trough, and up through that
hole II blown current of air by suction
fan. If it were not for the fan the cotton
seed, rocks, nails and all would fall through.
The current keeps up the cotton seed, and
they go on over, but it is not strong enough
to keep up the nails and pebbles, and they
fall through. Now the seed, free Of all else
is carried by another elevator and endless
screw conveyor to the "inter" This is
really nothing moro than cotton gin, with
ali automatic feed.
"HULLER" AND "HEArERs.n
Then the seed is carried to tho "huIler, ,
where it is crushed or ground into rough
meal about as coarse as the ordinary corn
''grits." The next step is to separate the
hulls from the kernels, all the oil being in the
kernel, so the crushed seed is carried to the
separator" This is very much on the style
Of a sand screen, being revolving cylinder
of wire cloth. The kernels, being smaller
than the broken bulls, fall through the
broken meshes, and upon this principle the
hull is separated and carried direct to the
furnace to be used as fuel The kennels are
ground as fine as meal, very much as grist is
ground, between corrugated steel "rollers,"
and the damp, reddish coiored meal is car
ried to the "heater."
The 'heater" is ono iron kettle within an.
other, the six inch steam SPACE between the
kettles being connected direct with the boil.
ers. There are four Of these kettles side by
side. The meal is brought into this room by
an elevator, the first heater is filed, and
for twenty minutes the meal is subjected to
packet being under pressure Of forty-fve
pounds Inside the inner kettle is ''stirrer, "
a revolving arm attached at right angles to
a vertical shaft. The stirrer makes the heat
ing uniform, and the high temperature drives
of all the water in the meal while the invol-
atile oil all remains.
In five minutes the next heater is filled, In
five minutes the next, ETC.
Now there are four heaters" and as thu
last heater is filled-at the end of twenty
rlinutes-the first heater is emptied Then
at the end Of five minutes the first heater is
filed, and the one next to it is emptied, and
the rotation is kept up, each heater full of
meal being dry cooked" for twenty min
uteS
Corresponding to tHe four heaters are four
presses. Each press consists Of six iron pans,
shaped like baking pans, arranged one above
tbs other, and about five inches apart. The
pans are shallow, and around the edge of
each is a semi-ctrcular trough, and at the
lowest point Of the trough is a funnel shaped
hole to enable the oil to run from one pan to
the next lowest, and from the lowest pan to
tho receiving tanks" below.
PRESSING OUT TIE OIL.
AS soon as "heater" is ready to be emp
tied, the meal is taken out and put into siA
hair sacks, corresponding to the six pans in
the press. There are six hair mats about one
foot wide and six long, one side of each being
coated with leather The hair mat is about
an inch thick. Now the hair sack containing
ten and half to eleven pounds of heated
steaming meal is placed on one end of the
mat. and the meal distributed SO as to make
pad or cushion Of uniform thickness. The
pad Of meal is not quite three feet long, q
foot wide, and three inches thick, and the
hair mat is folded over, sandwiching the pad
and leaving the leather coating of the pad
outside. In this form the six loads are put
into the six pans, and by means of a power
pressed together The OIL begins trickiing
out at the side, slowly 1t first, and then sud-
denly it begins running freely The pressure
on the .'loads" Is $50 tons. After being
pressed about five minutes, The pressure is
eased of and the 'loads" taken out. What
had been a mushy pad three inches thick is c
hard, compact cake shout three-quarters of
an inch thick, and the sack is literally glued
to the cake. The crude oil has a reddish
muddy color as it runs into the tanks.
To one side were lying great heaps Of sacks
of yellowish meal-the cASss which have been
broken and ground up into meal That as
explained above, forms the body Of all fertil-
izers The following is q summary of the
work for the eight months season at the At
lsnta mills:
Fifteen thousand tons Of seed used give:
Fifteen million pounds Of hull.
Ten millions, three hundred and thirty-ore
thousand, two hundred and City pounds of
meal
-Four millions, dx hundred and sixty eight
thousand, seven hundred and fifty pounds of
oil
Three hundred thousand pounds Of lint