Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-06-29
dence Of THE EVENING SrAn.

LABoR-sEwISG-MAcHIsEs FOR THE coN6o-A
HUGE DUCK FARM AID rrs MANAGEMENT.
Correspondence Of THE EVENING srAn.
Boston, June 27.-Big dealers in castor oil
here, who sell that interesting product by
thousands of gallons for helping to print textile
fabrics and for lubricating the leather with
which Boston's neighborhood manufactures
shoes for half the United States, assert posi-
lively that they have no knowledge whatever
of the reported combination for elevating the
price of the commodity. rise in it would
undoubtedly be felt in this vicinity more seri-
ously than anywhere else, owing to its enormous
consumption by local mechanical industries.
A score of towns hereabout are given up to the
making Of boots and printcloths and castor
oil to them is one of the necessaries of exist
| ence.
| THE NATIVE BEAN.
| Until within a very few years all the castor
oil used on this side Of the Atlantic was i'm
ported from the Bombay District of India. The
tariff since placed uponat IS cents gallon. is
| practically prohibitiye, Ind it comes over now
only in the shape Of beans, on which the duty
is IS cents bushel. Less and less of these,
steadily increasing crops Of the valuable plant
raised in Kansas and the southwest. 1t is culti-
waited with great success there, and the domes-
| tic product will soon be sufficiently large to
supply the demand. The native oil is always
| OF even and excellent quality, and will bring
higher price in any market than the foreign,
much Of which 10 black and worthless. Some
Few beans come from South America, but
nearly all OF those imported are brought via
Calcutta. The plant is indigenous to India,
| which exports it in vast quantities.
| MAKING CASTOR OIL.
| The process of manufacturing the oil is very
simple. The beans are ground up fine and put
in horsehair bags. In this shape they are
crushed under powerful press. giving out in
| oil about one-third of their weight. The dry
pulp, called ''pumice," is sold for fertilizing.
The oil is filtered and finally bleached, if for
| medical use, by exposure to the suns rays
under glass. The amount of castor oil en-
ployed for medicine, however is trifing COM
pared to the quantity consumed in mechanical
crafts. For lubricating leather it is unequaled,
while its properties as an ''alizarine assistant
are incompatible. Alazarine is an element
found in coal-tar, from which all the brilliant
''madder-colors" are obtained by chemical
| means. These coal-tar tints are used for print
ing textile fabrics, with an admixture of castor
| OIL to make their working easier.
In India castor oil is used for burning in
lamps. The art of making it from the beans
is OF recent discovery. The ancients were ac-
customed to administer the seeds whole for
medicine. At first heat was employed in
| the crushing of the beans, but this injured the
quality of the oil, while during the process a
volatile principle escaped SO irritating that the
workmen were compelled to wear protecting
masks.
A COOKING WONDER.
It has never been seriously contended that
the aboriginal New Highlander knew anything
about cooking beyond the bare elements of the
| science. Even at the present day the descend
ants of the early Puritans are far from being
| epicures. And yet, curiously enough. this part
of the country may almost be said to supply
the world with improvements in the mechanics
| Of cooking. If you see a new kind of labor
saving egg-beater it is sure to bear the patent
mark of Yankee genius, and there is not a
| novelty in brOilers or stew-pans in the market
but has its origin hereabout. At this very mo-
ment the women OF the modern Athens are
| in compton fits over freshly-devised sort of
automatic housewife, which cooks a course din
ner all by itself at an expense for fuel of about
one-tenth of a cent per hour. The lamp
which supplies the heat is a curiosity in it
| self. 1t has brass fan inside of it, which
sends continuous stream Of oxygen-laden air
through the flame. This "blow-pipeH arrange
ment produces an intense heat. The lamp is
| placed beneath tripod, on which rests the
cooker, cylinder Of very light sheet-iron,
divided by wire disks into. three compartments,
one on top of the other. In each compartment
| fits a saucepan-shaped tin vessel, and the whole
| affair is closed up tightly by door.
Now, suppose you wish to cook your dinner
| with steam-not in it. mind you, but by the
| agency of that medium. You place the lamp
under the tripod and fit on top of the latter a
big shallow iron saucer, into which you pour
| half a cupful of water. Then you lift the CYL
inder and set its bottom into a circular groove
| in the saucer. The water flows around in the
| groove and makes an hermetical sealing at that
point, which keeps in the heat. Next you
open the door of the cylinder and place OH the
first wire shelf a tin covered saucepan contain
ing pair OF nice young dressed chickens. On
the next shelf above you put an uncovered tin
saucepan with vegetables in it. Finally, on
the third shelf is set another tin covered sauce
pan holding small pudding dish, encircled
| by fair-sized fish. Alli now ready, so shut
the door and cover up the whole business with
big tin drum. This retains the heat SO per-
fectly that the outer drum does not
even get warm while the cooking
is going on within the inner cylinder. The
| process is self performing and exceedingly
simple. The water in the iron saucer is turned
| quickly to steam, which fills the cylinder,
browns the chickens, boils the vegetables, does
| the fish and cooks the pudding. The steam is
given off at only 220 degrees Fahrenheit; but it
| is claimed that the temperature inside the
| cylinder, owing to a conversion of mysterious
latent heat, rises to nearly 900 degrees actually
| Having thus arranged your dinner, you can go
off to the baseball match, and returning two
hours and half later find everything perfect
| ly done and ready to put on the table. If it is
| desired to do the cooking with dry heat, the
saucer Of water is omitted and the process con-
Quoted in all other RESPECTS as before de-
| scribed.
The inventor of the device, by the way, does
quite business in selling small portable sew
ing-machines to the untutored savages of the
| Congo basin. The instruments are conveyed
on mule-back, six to a beast, over the 220
miles from the mouth of the river to the end of
the series of cataracts at Stanley Pool Thence
they are transported inland by boat. The ma
tives are wild to buy the machines, and will
pay big sums in ivory for them. In the track
| of the machine-sellers are sent agents with
cheap print cloths, which the negroes purchase
for sewing, usually into queer-looking, bag like
garments. Funny, is Il not, to think of the I'M
conventionalized female of Uganda or Unyan-
| yembe exercising the pedal and running up q
seam in an abbreviated calico petticoat or per-
| chance primitive shirt?
| DUCK FARM.
| Not far from this city, in the town of Easton,
| is situated the largest duck farm in the world
For years past the business of raising ducks for
market has been carried ON upon an enormous
scale in this neighborhood. The biggest estab-
lishment devoted to the industry used to be
| found along the shore, it being supposed for
| merly that the web-footed birds could not Dos
sihly thrive without ulenfv of vafar IN auv;,,s l.;