The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-10
WHERE CAAKPHOR COMES FROM.
And the Varied Uses 1t In Put to
Nowadays.

Nowadays.
A page Of the March St. Nicholas IS
filled with a paper by Ralph Benton en-
titled Talking of Camphor."
''Where does this come FROM" asked
Sandy McLaurin, picking block of cam
phor out of jar that stood on the coun-
ter.
The druggist at the corner near SAM
dy's home was a good friend to all the
boys. and they liked to ask him ques-
tions
"Camphor? That's long story The
speaker and questioner sat down behind
the prescription counter. Have you ever
noticed that row of lindens down on
Fourth street, near the Grammar School?
Well, the tree that produces camphor
looks very much like any one of those It
grows in China, Japan, and other parts
of Eastern Asia. Occasionally a cam
phor-tree becomes so old and so large
that it is a veritable landmark. In 1891
for instance, traveller in Japan described
tree which he found that was thirty-six
feet about the trunk. Almost a century
and half later the same tree was said
by another traveller to be fifty feet
around.
Did your grandmother ever make you
take a few drops of spirit of camphor?
You know what a fiery taste II has then.
You wouldn't think that camphor and
the cinnamon sticks that you like so well
are first cousins; but they belong to the
same botanical family.
IF you take one of the shiny green
leaves from a camphor-tree and rub it
gently between two stones you smell the
same odoT as comes to you when you take
the lid off camphor-jar. Every part OF
the tree contains its part of the gum but
the buik of it comes from the root, trunk
and branches. The first step is to reduce
tree to chips, and these are put into iron
vessels having a cone-shaped cover lined
with rice straw Then the vessels are
heated, and the camphor is driven out OF
the chips. Do you know what l mean
when l use the word volatile? No? We'll
thing is volatile that seems to fly on
in the air. Now, camphor is volatile; 1t
is capable of being changed into vapor.
When heat is applied to the iron vessels
the camphor is volatilized, but it con-
denses almost at once; that is, it is chang
ed to multitude of tiny little Jumps OF
solid camphor, which fasten themselves
on the straw that lines the cover. IL
is then scraped from the straw, refined
and pressed into blocks"
as camphor used for anything but med
icine and to keep off moths?' asked San
dy.
II was just coming to that Strange as
it may seem, we can get a substance from
1t that looks almost like ivory-hard ana
beautifully white. Go out to the first snow
case on the left. and bring me white
comb and one of those hand-mirrors VITA
a white back"
Sandy looked puzzled as he obeyed.
This material" tapping the back OF
the mirror, lis called celluliod and 1t IS
made from camphor and cotton. 1t Is
used for hair-brushes. soap-boxes, knife
handles, and many other articles. In an
other field we find that 1t plays its part
in changing the map of the world OF
shaping the destiny of a nation. Camphor
Is used in making smol1eless gunpoWder'
Our country certainly learned the Value
OF 1t in the summer of 49,"
why" Sandy ventured, II shoulu
think, with all the big armies everywhere,
that most of the camphor would be useu
for powder"
"A great deal OF It Is That IS why
camphor has been 30 dear for nuihDei
of years past"
Couldn't tar camphor be usedf
"Oh, mol Tar camphor Is really NO.
camphor at all, though somebody dlsc"F.
cred. about twelve years ago, that
would take the place OF camphor ln -
venting the ravagcB OF moths. For NM
years II was thrown away II was ~
gle 20 get rid OF II. IL comes, 80 I0 ,.,.,
about way, from bituminous coal W.,
this kind OF coal ~ heated ~ co.,
way II IL split Up into gas FUSED ioI "sa
ing), a heavy. black iiquid (ooal-inrl -,
coke; and Il - from the ooal-ihf ~.
tar osmDhor Is made. couldn't
20 tell you ail about coai-tar IN one 30
Sandy. Some other time ven talA A''
Il again"