San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-12-18
TEXAS COTTON
IS USED IN
MANY WAYS
Food, Paint, Clothing and
Other Products Made
From Plant.
By L. w. BOSART, Phi. D.
Research Chemist. the Proctor and
Gamble Company.

Gamble Company.
In the whole economy of nature
there is perhaps no plant of equal
value with cotton. This is not so
much because nature has endowed it
above all other plants, but because it
has been subjected to greater devel-
opment. Its fiber is familiar to
everyone and its use well known for
the manufacture of clothing and all
manner OF textiles and paper. Many
other uses have been developed. In
combination with nitrogen and oxygen
it is used as kind of varnish, COLO
dion, and also as u high explosiv.
(gun cotton). Combined with acctic
acid it gives a non-flammable varnish
which is used for airplanes.
As the American cotton industry de-
veloped in the middle of the last CEN
fury, the disposal of the seed came to
be something of problem. This seed,
i'll most cases, was covered with lint
which had not been removed in the
ginning process, consequently it did
not make a good feeding material for
stock. Sometimes it was put back on
the land as fertilizer; sometimes it
was burned. Usually it was placed
in any convenient out-of-the-way place
where it was allowed to rot and thus
become q nuisance, or else il was
dumped into the nearest stream where
it was apt TO decompose and kill the
fish, again becoming u nuisance. Laws
were passed by some states to pre-
seed.
REMOVE LINT.
In the process of gaining the oil,
the lint had to be removed from the
seed. The lint found valuable uses
where long fibers were not needed,
and the press-cake and meal became
valuable feeding material as well
as fertilizer.
1t was not until about 1860 that
the cotton seed began to be utilized
for its oil. The Civil War paralyzed
the South so that this development
was slow, but gradually the pressing
of cotton seed and the refining of
the oil grew into q greater and ever
greater industry.
But this increased the amount of
liquid oils, and what was really need
ed was solid or plastic fats. There
were several reasons for this. In the
first place people were accustomed to
using plastic fat and found it more
convenient to use than an oil. More
over cottonsecd oil contains certain
fats which readily take up oxygen
from the air and become rancid. Cot
tOnseed oil was naturally a poor fat
for all cooking purposes because of
this ready oxidation. Nevertheless,
much of it has been used as a cook
ing fat.
MUCH OIL PRODUCED.
The fact that the production of this
oil amounted to l ,j53, 100000 pounds
in 1911 whereas in 1870 only u $50.
900 pounds were produced shows what
an enormous addition there was to
the amount of liquid fats through the
development of this industry alone.
This was taken care of, to some ex-
tent, by the simultaneous growth OF
the compound business.
In making compounds, tallow is
pressed to separate the harder from
the softer portion, the softer portion
being used in the manufacture of Oleo
margarine and the harder portion,
known as oleostearine, was added to
to cotton seed oil in such amount
that it acquired a plastic consistency,
similar to lard and was known as lard
compound or lard substitute. This
solved the problem only in part. There
was still an excess of liquid oils. More
over there was a growing demand for
cooking fat which did not contain any
animal fat. If there had been large
quantities of other vegetable oils such
as olive oil, this demand might have
been met to some extent, but olive oil
was too expensive for such use and
there were only comparatively small
amounts Of other oils on the mar
ket.
COTTON SEED OIL.
Cotton seed oil alone, although it
was TO be had in large quantities,
could not supply this demand. because.
like olive oil, it was liquid and in
convenient to use, but unlike olive oil
it was readily oxidized on heating
and easily became rancid on taking
up oxygen from the air.
Then the French chemist, Sabatier.
found that he was able to add hydro
gen TO such oils as cotton seed oil so
that they could be changed into n solid
mass. and a considerable amount Of
research was carried on, but it was IL
good many years before a commercial
process was developed. About 1908
the Proctor and Gamble Company. aft
ter q long series Of investigations.
found that they were able to apply
this principle on an industrial scale
and make hish-grade edible product.
This marked the beginning of the man
ufacture of compounds which We're
made entirely from vegetable fat. In
this case. hydrogen was made to com
bine with cotton seed oil in such pro-
portion that 1t gave n lard. like COM
pound which was entirely vegetable.
The chief drawback to such com
pound is that in keeping properties il
is scarcely better than the original
cotton seed oil. II still contains large
quantities Of those fats which readily
absorb oxygen from the air and b.
core rancid. This rancidity may also
develop when 1t is used as shorten
ing. For deep frying it is not mUcli
better than cotton seed oil and be
comes rancid with repeated use.
NEW FAT.
At this point the Proctor and Gam
Bile Company again developed an en-
tirely new kind Of fat, an all hydro
genated fat. technically known as 2
hydrostearoleinc. that is, by
drogenated stearin-olein mixture. IN
stead OF allowing the oil to Absorb
hydrogen until II became solid mas
and then mixing this with fresh oil
they decided 10 add hydrogen only ~
TO n given point, that is. m 10 ih'
point whore IL attains the most desIr