Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-04-20

And the Varied Uses 1t is Put to Now.
adays.
L rom st. Nicholas.

rom st. Nicholas.
where does this come FROM" asked
Sandy McLaurin, picking block Of cam
phor out Of a jar that stood on the coun-
ter.
The druggist at the corner near Sandy's
home was a good friend to all the boys
and they liked to ask him questions.
"Camphor? That's a long story" The
speaker and questioner sat down behind the
prescription counter. Have you ever no.
ticed that row Of lindens down on 4th
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 camphor tree becomes
so old and so large that it is a veritable
landmark. In 1891, for instance, a traveller
in Japan described tree he found that
was thirty-siX feet about the trunk. AL
most century and a half later the same
tree was said by another traveller to be fifty
feet around.
Did your grandmother ever make you
take few drops Of spirit of camphor?
You know what fiery taste it has then.
You wouldn't think that camphor and the
cinnamon sticks that you like so we'll are
first cousins; but they belong to the same
botanical family.
IF you take one Of the shiny green leaves
from camphor tree and rub 1t gently be-
tween two stones, you smell the same odor
as comes to you when you take the lid off
camphor jar. Every part of the tree con-
tains its part Of the gum, but the bulk of
1t 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 cam
phor Is driven out of the chips. Do you
know what l mean when l use the word
'volatile?' No? Well, thing is volatile
that seems to fly off in the air. Now, cam
phor Is volatile; 1t is capable of being
changed into vapor When heat is applied
10, TO the iron vessels the camphor is volatil-
lied. but 1t condenses almost at once; that
Is, 1t Is changed to a multitude of tiny
little Jumps of solid camphor, which fasten
themselves on the straw that lines the
cover. 1t is then scraped from the straw
refined and pressed into blocks"
rs camphor used for anything but medi-
cine and to keep off moths?" asked Sandy
Il was just coming to that Strange as it
may seem, we can get a substance from 1t
that looks almost like ivory-hard and beau
tifully white. Go out to the first showcase
on the left, and bring me a white comb
and one of those nd-mirrors with a white
back"
Sandy looked puzzled as he obeyed.
MS material, tapping the back of the
mlrrir, is called celuloid, and it is made
from camphor and cotton 1t is used for
hair brushes, soap boxes, knife handles and
many other articles. In another field we
ma that 1t plays its part in changing the
map OF the world or shaping the destiny of
nation. Camphor Is used in making
smokeless gunpowder. Our country GER
tainly learned the value of it in the summer
why" Sandy ventured, Il should think.
with all the big armies everywhere. that
most OF the camphor would be used for
powder
"A great deal of II is. That is why cam
phor has been dear for number of
years past -
Couldn't tar camphor be used?'
On, no! Tar camphor is really not cam
phor at all, though somebody discovered.
ABOUT twelve years ago. that it would take
the place of camphor in preventing the raw
ages or moths: For many years it was
thrown away; it was puzzle to get rid of
1t. 1t comes in q roundabout Way. from
b1tuminous coal. When this kind of coal is
heated In. a certain way 1t is split up into
gas (used for lighting). a heavy, black
liquid Goal tar, and coke; and 1t is from
the coal tar that tar camphor is made. I
couldn't begin to tell you all about coal la
in one night Sandy. Some other time Wen
talk about 1t again"