The Hardwood Distillation Industry in New Yorh 31 



The modern hardwood distillation plant, therefore, is 

 usually the oven retort plant. This was a decided advance 

 in the manufacture of wood distillation products. As noted 

 above, it is largely a labor saving device, and although the 

 initial cost is considerably greater the operating charge per 

 cor^ is so much smaller than with the round retort that it is 

 being universally introduced. The ovens are rectangular in 

 cross section and may be anywhere from 25 to 56 feet in 

 length. The common form is an oven 52 feet in length, 8 

 feet 4 inches in height and 6 feet 3 inches in width. These 

 ovens are usually arranged in pairs similar to the process 

 followed with the round retort. The cars, each loaded with 

 about two cords of wood, are run in on standard or narrow- 

 gauge tracks directly into the ovens. They are heated in a 

 manner similar to the round retorts, that is, by means of a 

 fire box underneath, although there may be fire boxes at one 

 or both ends, and the fuel in the Pennsylvania and southern 

 New York regions is usually either coal or natural gas. In 

 the Delaware county section the fuel consists of coal from the 

 Scranton region. The vapors pass out from one or two large 

 opening's at the side or at the end and are condensed through 

 a large copper condenser. The process of distillation re- 

 quires from 22 to 24 hours with the oven retorts, and when 

 the doors are unsealed and opened, a cable is attached to the 

 first car and they are drawn from the ovens directly into the 

 first cooling oven which is of the same type of construction 

 and shape as the heating oven. The capacities of the oven 

 plants vary with the number and size of the ovens. In the 

 Lake States there are some oven plants that now consume as 

 high as 200 cords a day. The largest plant in New York 

 (State has 8 ovens which consumes 80 cords of wood per day 

 and has an annual capacity of 24,000 cords. 



Whereas the charcoal is emptied from the round retorts 

 into round containers, sealed tightly to cause the slow cooling 



