'pie Qnadian ijorticcltcrist 



Volume XXVIII 



MAY, 1905 



Number 5 



NEW FORMS OF KEROSENE EMULSION 



FRANK T. SHUTT AND \V. T. MACOUN, C. E. F.. OTTAWA.* 



-^ I "^ HE value of kerosene or coal oil for 

 1 the destruction of scale insects as 

 Avell as for all soft bodied and sucking forms 

 has long been recognized. It cannot, how- 

 ever, be used without admixture or dilution, 

 for its high price precludes its general ap- 

 plication on dormant wood, and its injurious 

 action on foliage forbids its em'plo}-ment 

 during the summer season. 



Kerosene will not mix with water, but 

 special pumps have been devised for throw- 

 ing an atomized spray of kerosene and 

 water, provision being made for regulating 

 the proportion of each constituent. These 

 pumps, however, have not proved entirely 

 satisfactory, the difficulty, apparently, beiiig 

 in obtaining a spray of uniform strength. 



It is as an emulsion that kerosene has been 

 found most valuable and most •widely appli- 

 cable. The satisfying agent almost univer- 

 sally used is a soap solution, though milk 

 and certain other fluids with more or less 

 viscosity have occasionally been employed. 

 It may be held that whale oil soap and soft 

 soap so used adds to the elBciency of the re- 

 sulting emulsion as an insecticide, but it 

 seems clear that for the most part the soap 

 simply serves as the vehicle for distributing 

 the kerosene (the real killing agent) in a 

 very finely divided state. 



This being the case, it seems desirable to 

 learn if other emulsifying materials cannot 



*I bee to state that while I was associated with Mr. Shutt in the experiments described, to him is due full credit for the discovery of 

 the value of flour in making a kerosene emulsion. — (W. T. Macoun). 



165 



be used which would not only lessen the ex- 

 pense of the spray, but at the same time 

 obviate the necessity of the application of 

 heat, without which the various soap emul- 

 sions cannot be satisfactorily made. A 

 notable advance in this direction was made 

 last year by Professor Close, of the Dela- 

 ware Experiment Station, who has pub- 

 lished the results of certain experiments 

 w hich show that lime has the power of hold- 

 ing kerosene in suspension and forming a 

 perfect emulsion. Prepared according to 

 direci:ians, it makes a fairly stable mixture, 

 homogeneous, /. e., of uniform strength 

 throughout, one easy to spray, and which 

 does not clog the nozzle. Briefly described. 

 Prof. Close's directions are as follows : 

 mix into a " thin sloppy mass " one pound 

 of " Limoid " (an American preparation 

 sold for the purpose) or slaked lime with 

 one quart of kerosene. For a 10 per cent, 

 emulsion, two gallons (imiperial measure) 

 are added and the whole emulsified by 

 churning for, say, five minutes, best effected 

 by means of a pump and a Bordeaux nozzle. 

 No free kerosene, he states, will appear for 

 several weeks, and though there may be a 

 separation on standing into limey layers 

 these will readily, if stirred, again produce 

 the emulsion without deterioration. This 

 emulsion, known as K-L mixture, may be 

 ■used with ordinary Bordeaux (K-L-B), 



