144 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



ment of Science, August, 1886, at Buffalo, and exhibited about half 

 an ounce of cotton-seed oil which I had drained, by a simple method, 

 from a sample of oleomargarine. 



When I test for^cotton-seed or benne oil in oleomargarine or other 

 butter substitute I boil about six ounces of the samj^le and allow it 

 to cool and granulate, the object of which is to facilitate the escape of 

 the oil through the interstices formed by the fatty granules. Having 

 thus secured the most favorable conditions for drainage, I remove the 

 oil by means of a Bunsen filter-pump. (See Plate VII. ) By this means 

 I have procured within a few hours, at a temperature of about 78° F. , 

 about a gill of cotton-seed oil from three-fourths of a pound of oleo- 

 margarine. When the oil is in excess it may be drained at a lower 

 temperature. The oil of butter may be removed in this way to a 

 great extent, but requires a higher temperature to operate well. 

 About 78° F. is suitable for some varieties of butter. Butter oil, 

 cotton-seed, benne, and other oils may be readily distinguished one 

 from the other by well-known tests. At 65° F. oil of butter is fluid. 

 Cotton-seed and other oils used in oleomargarine are liquid at a much 

 lower temperature than oil of butter. When a foreign oil is found 

 in a substance sold as pure butter the substance thus compounded is 

 an oleomargarine under the law. 



THE BUNSEN FILTER-PUMP. 



Plate VII represents the ordinary Bunsen fdter-pump. The pump 

 at A is firmly attached to a faiK^ot which has a good now of water. 

 The water flows through to B, thereby exhausting the air from the 

 bottle C, through the tube E, and in turn from the bottle D through 

 the connecting tubes F. The oleomargarine, previously boiled and 

 freed from water by decantation and cooled, is put into the funnel G, 

 into which a coarsely perforated platinum cone, filled with absorbent 

 cotton, has been fitted. The water is now turned on and the appa- 

 ratus set to work. As the air is exhausted from the two bottles the 

 oil in the oleomargarine is forced through into the bottle D. The 

 identity of the oil is then tested. Two bottles are used, so that in 

 case of any inequality in pressure or flow the water backs into C and 

 not into D, thus preserving the oil resulting from the operation free 

 from water or any foreign substance. 



COTTON-SEED OIL USED IN OLEOMARGARINE. 



The United States Dispensatory thus describes cotton-seed oil, 

 which is used as a constituent of oleomargarine in some factories: 



Bleached cotton-seed oil is perfectly transparent and has a pale straw color, a 

 bland, nut-like taste, and a neutral reaction. Its specific gravity at 15^ C. (59° F.) is 

 .925— .927 (.920— .930, U. S. P.); that of crude oil .930— .932. It is very sparingly 

 soluble in alcohol, but dissolves readily in ether, chloroform, benzine, &c. Near 5° C. 

 (41° F.) the oil begins to deposit palmatin, but it does not congeal until cooled to —1° 

 or —2° G. (30' or 28.4° F.). Exposed to the air the oil gradually thickens, but it does 

 not solidify. Cotton-seed oil consists chiefly of olein and palmatin. 



BENNE OIL. 



The following characteristics of benne oil, used in the manufacture 

 of oleomargarine, are also from the United States Dispensatory: 



Benne oil has a yellow color, usually of a deeper hue than expressed alinond oil, 

 ifl thinner at ordinary temperatures than most other fixed oils, is nearly inodorpuu, 



