120 



has just been formed to extract potash from Maryland 

 felspar by a process said to be commercially profitable. 



Oil Chemist's Work. 



43. This was practically a new branch and is a very 

 interesting and important departure, both in itself and 

 its probable developments. The Oil Chemist was 

 employed on various analyses and experiments on fish 

 oils and soaps both at the Indian Research Institute, 

 Bangalore, and, by the courtesy of the authorities, at the 

 Agricultural College, Coimbatore ; these need not be 

 detailed though important to the department and 

 hereafter to the industry. The work at Tanur from 

 September was disappointingly cut short by the almost 

 entire absence of sardines (paragraph 5 supra) so that 

 the experimental investigation of improvements devised 

 to improve the oil and prevent rancidity could not be 

 carried out. The good effect of ordinary caustic lime 

 on the effluent water, in place of the expensive chlo- 

 ride of lime, was partly, but as yet insufficiently, 

 demonstrated ; this is an important result as the effluent 

 water is apt to be a nuisance. 



But the making of fish-oil soap was the main duty 

 of the oil chemist. At Bangalore he got in touch with 

 the Agricultural and Military authorities and at their 

 request experimented in special soap making, using 

 Tanur fish-oil and stearine as the fatty constituents ; the 

 Agricultural authorities required the soap for insecticidal 

 work ; the Military demanded a good harness soap. 

 Owing to the absence or great costliness of potash by 

 reason of the war, the chemist was forced to use soda 

 and succeeded in making a soap which was found 

 highly insecticidal, both for bug and scale on coffee, for 

 tea pests such as the bark louse, mildew, etc., and — 

 very diluted — for mango hoppers ; the solution also kills 

 larger insects such as ants and grass-hoppers, but though 

 thus inimical to insect and fungoid pests it is wholly 

 innocuous to plant life. Experiments are also being 

 tried on the fungoid pests of the areca nut, etc. Two 

 soaps are made for planters' requirements, viz., a pure 

 fish-oil soap, and a fish-oil rosin soap ; the latter merely 

 requires admixture with water to form a spraying solution, 

 thus relieving planters of the trouble of dissolving their 



