118 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCO VERY. 



PURIFYING COTTON SEED FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF OIL AND 



OIL CAKE. 



Heretofore the efforts made to render the seed of the cotton plant available 

 for the production of Oil, or for the purpose of feeding man or domestic animals, 

 have not been productive of perfect results, owing to the nature of the sheU 

 by which the kernel of the seed is inclosed, as some fibres of the cotton 

 adhere to it, and both the shell and the fibres of cotton absorb a considerable 

 portion of the oil, and also render the cake unsuitable for feeding purposes. 



A patent has recently been taken out by Daniel "W. Messer, of Boston, 

 Mass., for an improvement in preparing cotton seed, having for its object the 

 removal of the above evils. The nature of this improvement consists in the 

 separation of the shell of the seed from the kernel, previous to expressing the 

 oil, by which a greater quantity of oil is obtained from the same amount of 

 seed, whilst the residuum, or oil cake, is left free from shell and cotton fibre, 

 and is therefore rendered much superior for feeding cattle. This he accom- 

 plishes as follows : 



The shell of the cotton seed is first softened by soaking it in water, or by 

 subjecting it to the action of low steam. When boiling water is employed, 

 about five minutes' immersion of the seed in it is sufficient ; when cold water 

 is employed, a much longer time is necessary ; and the time required to soften 

 different varieties of seed, varies with the amount of moisture in the seed. 

 After the seed is thus softened, it is passed through proper rollers, or sub- 

 jected to gentle pressure in a press in small quantities. By this means the 

 shell is broken, and the kernel is forced out. Both the kernels and shells of 

 the seed are then dried in the sun, or by very low artificial heat. If the oil 

 is to be used fc%culinary purposes, great care must be taken not to dry the 

 kernels under a high heat. "When dry, the kernels and seeds are separated 

 from one another by sieves, and the oil is then expressed from the clear 

 kernels by passing them between revolving pressure rollers, or any suitable 

 oil pressing mill. The residuum, or skin, of the pure kernels forms beautiful 

 oil cakes for feeding cattle. 



Oil from Cotton Seeds. The following is the claim of a patent recently 

 granted to Dr. A. A. Hayes, of Boston, for extracting oil from the cotton 

 seed : " I do not claim any mode of crushing the matured seed or expressing 

 the oil from the kernels. I claim the maturing of the cotton seed, after it 

 has been separated from the cotton by heat, artificially applied so as to render 

 the husk brittle and easily separable from the kernel." 



NEW DRAWING AND SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS. 



New Drawing Instrument. A new instrument has been invented by Mr. 

 "W. J. Kammerhueber, of "Washington, for facilitating the draughtsman in the 

 construction of linear perspectives. It consists in providing the sides of the 

 drawing board with raised edges of circular form, the sweep of the circle cor- 

 responding with the distance of the vanishing point. The lines are drawn 

 with a common T-square, the base or cross piece of which is provided with ? 



