Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-05-31
Where Cnmphor Comes From.

Where Camphor Comes From.
A page of the st. Nicholas Is filled
with a paper by Ralph Benton entitled
Talking of Camphor."
"Where does this come FROM" asked
Sandy McLauren, picking a block OF
camphor out of jar that stood on the
counter.
The druggist at the corner near San.
dy's home was good friend to all
the boys, and they liked to ask him
questions.
"Camphor? That is 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 gram
mar school? Well, the tree that pro-
duces camphor looks very much like
any one of those. 1t grows in China,
Japan and other parts of eastern Asia.
Occasionally camphor tree becomes
so old and so large that it is verita-
BILE landmark. In 1851, for instance,
traveller in Japan described a tree
which he found that was sc feet about
the trunk. Almost a century and
half. later the same tree was said by
another traveller to be so feet around.
did your grandmother ever make
you take few drops of spirit of cam
phor? You know what a fiery taste
it 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 fam
lily.
If you take one of the shiny green
leaves from a camphor tree and rub
it gently between two stones, you smell
the same odor as comes to you when
you take the lid off a camphor jar.
Every part of the tree contains its
part of the gum, but the bulk of it
comes from the root, trunk, and
branches. The first step is to reduce
the 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 | mean when | use the word
volatile? No? Well, thing is vola-
tile that seems to fly off in the air.
Now, camphor is volatile; it is capable
of being changed into vapor. When
heat is applied to the iron vessels the
camphor is volatilized, but it condens-
es almost at once; that is, it is changed
to a multitude of tiny little Jumps of
solid camphor. which fasten them
selves on the straw that lines the COW
er. 1t is then scraped from the straw,
refined and pressed into blocks"
rs camphor used for anything but
medicine and to keep off moths?"
asked Sandy.
Il was just coming to that. Strange
as it may seem, we can get a sub
stance from it that looks almost like
ivory-hard and beautifully white. Go
out to the first show case on the left
and bring me a white comb and one of
those hand mirrors with a white back"
Sandy looked puzzled as he obeyed
This material" tapping the back Of
| the mirror, lis called celluloid, and 1t
is made from camphor and cotton. 1t
| is used for hair brushes, soap boxes,
knife handles, and many other arti-
cles. In another field we find that it
plays its part in changing the map Of
the world or shaping in the destiny Of
a nation. Camphor is used in making
smokeless gunpowder. Our country
certainly learned the value of it in
the summer of 49,"
why" Sandy ventured, 81 should
think with all the big armies every
where that most of the camphor would
! be used for powder"
"A great deal of it is. That is why
camphor has been so dear for a num-
Der of years past"
Couldn't tar camphor be used?"
"Oh, no. Tar camphor is really not
camphor at all, though somebody dis
covered about II years ago that it
would take the place Of camphor in
preventing the ravages of moths. For
many years it was thrown away; it
was a puzzle to get rid of it. 1t
comes in a roundabout way, from btu
minous coal. When this kind of coal
is heated in certain way it is split
up into gas (used for lighting), a
heavy black liquid (coal tar) and coke;
and it is from the coal tar that tar
camphor is made. | couldn't begin to
tell you all about coal tar in one night,
Sandy Some other time We'll talk
about it again