MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 99 



quantity about 25 per cent, of the rosin. "When the oil ceases to 

 flow, the temperature is raised to 600 Fahr., when more oil will be 

 produced, to the extent of about 12^ per cent, of the rosin; after 

 this, the fire may be extinguished. The residuum left in the still 

 resembles pitch, and may be put to similar uses ; it is run off by a 

 duct at the bottom of the still. The oil is partially purified as it 

 passes off, by the injection of steam by means of a pipe entering the 

 still near the top, and fitted with a rose. 



The patentee next proceeds to describe his processes for purifying 

 the oil, and qualifying it for lubricating purposes. The oil produced 

 at a temperature of 550 Fahr. is re-distilled, being mixed with 5 per 

 cent, of slacked lime. The heat is gradually raised to 550 Fahr. ; 

 but steam is injected by both of the pipes already mentioned, when 

 it is at about 300, and by this means the oil is bleached and purified. 

 It is, however, again passed through this process, caustic being substi- 

 tuted for the slacked lime. The oil is then placed in a bleaching 

 kettle, or pan of any convenient form, and heated to 225 Fahr. by 

 a steam pipe entering and coiled in the lower part of the kettle. 

 Steam is also injected through another pipe and rose, till the oil is 

 fused, when the coloring matter produced in it by the atmosphere 

 will be expelled, and the oil will be ready for use. 



The oil originally produced at a temperature of 600 Fahr., is treated 

 in the same way as that produced at 550, except that at 300 steam 

 is injected only by the lower of the two steam pipes it being 

 injected by the other at 600. The oil produced in this case is 

 called by the patentee, " currier's or tanner's oil." A still finer oil 

 for painters is obtained from oil originally produced at 650 the 

 same being treated as in the last process the steam being injected 

 by the upper pipe, only when the heat reaches 650. This oil is 

 afterwards boiled, and suitably prepared for admixture with pigments. 



NEW USE OF THE LEAVES OF THE PIXE, (PINUS SYLVESTRIS.) 



"\VE publish the following, as one of the scientific curiosities of the 

 year, without in any way vouching for its correctness. Our informa- 

 tion is, however, derived from a usually reliable source, the National 

 Intelligencer, of Washington. 



Xot far from Breslau, in Silesia, in a domain called the Prairie of 

 Humboldt, there exist two establishments as astonishino- for their 



^j 



produce as for their union. One is a manufacturer which converts 

 pine leaves into a sort of cotton or wool ; the other offers to invalids, 

 as curative baths, the waters used in the manufacture of that vegetable 

 wool. Both have been erected by M. De Pannewitz, inventor of a 



g 



chemical process by means of which it is possible to extract from the 

 long and slender leaves of the pine a very fine filaceous substance 

 which he has named woody wool, because, h'ke the ordinary wool, it 

 can be curled, felted, and woven. All the aucular leaves of the pine 

 fir, and of the conifer* in general, are composed of a bundle of fibrillas 

 extremely fine and tough, surrounded and held together by a resinous 



