, 1889-08-23
MAKING COD LIVER OIL.
METHOD OF EXTRACTING THE USE.
Full ARTICLE DESCRIBED.

Production at n Maine Factoky-Oils from
Norway and Newfoundland Rank as the
Best-The Fumes Arising from the yats
Sometimes Cure Consumption.
American cod liver oil is made here.
TIL livers of the cod, paddock, pollock,
hake and cusk are used in the manufac-
ture. Only about one-third of the Ameri-
can output of this oil is procured from
cod livers.
From September until March the liv-
ers are fat and in the best condition. A
bucketful of livers will her yield about
six quarts of oil. Only four quarts of
this, however, can be made suitable for
medicinal purposes; the remaining two
quarts is of an inferior quality and is
used by curriers'.
From March to June the livers are
thin and inferior and will yield only
one-half as much oil. Cod liver oil for
medicinal purposes must be made from
livers of fish that nave not been dead
over forty-eight hours. Fishing vessels
on their long trips to the banks gave the
fish livers in hogsheads and sell them to
the oil manufacturers for thirty cents
per bucketful. From these livers an in
ferior quality of oil is made, that is used
by tanners.
srEAM1NG II LTvERS.
Up to about fifteen years ago the most
primitive means were used for obtaining
oil from hvers. The results were very
unsatisfactory and the best portion of
the livers was wasted. The old method
was to expose the livers to the action of
the sun until the oil was dried out. Only
n small percentage of oil was thus Sc
cured. and the residue was thrown away
as useless. Now every portion of the
liver is used. The method is to put the
livers into a large tin lined vat having a
coil of perforated steam pipes in the bot
tom. A pressure of thirty pounds of
steam is put IN the boiler, and the steam
escaping through the perforations in the
pipes saturates the livers with hot steam
and thus tries out the oil. In half an
hour after steam is turned. on all the
oil that can be procured by trying
out will have risen to the surface. The
~livers, now termed '~'blubber," will have
sunk to the bottom OF the vat. The oil is
bailed off and put into barrels to cool and
settle, after which it is refined by being
allowed to FIRE exc till it is of the consist
ency of thick mush, when it is put into
drilling bags and the pure oil pressed out
in n heavy iron press.
The oil hat is pressed through the
drilling is considered refined, and after
being put up in new barrels of ~forty-fve
gallons each is sold to the wholesale
druggists for about thirty-six cents per
gallon. From these it passes to the re-
tail druggists, who sell it for 81 or So per
gallon. Running the oil through char
coal and sand has been tried as a refining
process, but it was found to be vastly in
ferior to the freezing and pressing pro-
cess. Refined cod liver oil. when sub
jected to the same temperature at which
the crude oil was frozen, will change its
color and assume a milky appearance.
The refining Process leaves in the bags a
substance resembling lard in color and
consistency. 1t is stearine, or tanners
grease" and is used as a dressing for
morocco.
The blubber left in the bottom of the
vat after the trying out is allowed to
work and ferment for forty-eight hours,
n is then pressed. After the pressure
has continued for fourteen hours all the
oil is secured that remains in the blub-
Der. 1t is inferior oil, of which there
are six grades; it is worth about twenty
five cents per gallon, and is used by cur-
riers in dressing, tanning and coloring
leather. There is left in the bags a sub
stance of the color and consistency Of
dry mud called SCRAP" which is sold to
farmers as a fertilizer at so per ton.
STRUCK THE RIGHT SPOT
The best quality of cod liver oil comes
from Norway. 1t is much clearer and
whittier than the American oil. 1t is put
up in tin casks holding thirty gallons