NANT1VKKT 



NAPHTHA 



expended on harliour-works, but the rise since 184.1 

 of tin- port til St Nazaire (q.v.), near the month 

 of tin- Loire, nnil tin- increasing difficulty in the 

 navigation M tin- river, have combined with deures- 

 ion of trailr to reduce tin- commercial importance 

 of Nantes : I" restore which is tlio object of the 

 ship canal (1891) In-tween tin- two places. The 

 chief exports are hardware, cereals, and preserved 

 Iirovisimis, the chief iiii|Ktrts sugar, iron,_ cocoa, 

 and wines; and their value res|icctively in 1872 

 was 2,200.(Mio and 2,800,000, in 1889 only 360,000 

 and 2, 100,000. Shipbuilding also IIM greatly 

 fallen (ill', l)iit still is one of the leading industries, 

 together with the preparation of sardines, urn! the 

 manufacture of sugar, leather, iron, nets, soap, 

 machinery. \c. ; whilst 10 miles below Nantes is 

 the vast government steam-engine factory of Indret, 

 employing from -.'INMI to :)00 hands, and familiar to 

 every reader of Daudet's Jack, Pop. of Nantes 

 ( 1872 ) 1 12,947 ; ( 18!ll ) 1 15,008. The Portvs Ai 

 net um of the Romans, and the former capital 

 of Brittany a rank it disputed with Kennes 

 Nantes has witnessed the marriage of Anne of 

 Itrittany to Louis XII. (1499), the embarkation of 

 the Young Pretender (1745), the 'noyades' of the 

 execrable Carrier (q.v.), the fall of the Vendean 

 leader Catbe.lineau (1793), and the arrest of the 

 Duchess of Herri (1832). Kouche was a native. 

 See works by Travcrs (1844) and Mcllier ( 1872). 



Xantucket, an island (15 miles long) off the 

 (south e.i-t coast of Massachusetts. On the north 

 shore is Nantucket town (pop. 3006), with a 

 nearly landlocked harlmur. It was formerly a 

 great seat of the whale -fishery, but is now mainly 

 noted as a summer-resort. 



Nantwich. a market town of Cheshire, on the 

 Weaver, 4 miles S\V. of Crewe. It has some 

 quaint old timber houses; a line cruciform parish 

 church, Early English to Perpendicular in style, 

 with a central octagonal tower, 110 feet high; a 

 Gothic town-hall (IS.-.S); a market hall (1867); a 

 grammar-school (1611); and brine baths (1883). 

 The llalen Gwyii ('white salt town') of the 

 AVeUli, Nantwich was once the second largest 

 town in Cheshire, the seat of 300 salt-works in 

 Iceland's day, a number reduced to 100 through 

 the discovery of lietter brine-pits in other parts of 

 the Weaver's valley in 1624, since which date the 

 industry has gradually quite died out. Boot and 

 slmc making now i- the principal industry. A 

 great lire ( 1.183), and its siege by the royalists 

 nnder Lord Byron (1644) are the chief events in 

 11- history. Pop. ( 18.11) 5424; (1881) 7495; (1891) 

 741'J. See works by Platt ( 1818) and Hall (1885). 



\apllllia is derived from the Persian word 

 mifiit'i, 'in exude,' and was originally applied to 

 liquid liydrocarlMins which exude from the ground 

 in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea; in like 

 manner it was applied to the natural oils found 

 more or le-ss plentifully in nearly all countries of 

 the world, and al-n tu the oil distilled from Bog. 

 he-id mineral in Scotland. But the inconvenience 

 and danger of classing all these oils indiscrimin- 

 ately as naphthas liccaiiie apparent after the 

 Scotch paralhn ami the American peindenm refined 

 oils liegan to be used for domestic illumination. 

 The word naphtha is still used in a very general 

 ami vague sen-,., and hits no s|>cific application 

 either s,.j,. M tilically or commercially to any par- 

 ticular liquid ; but since the more general applica- 

 tion of the words panillin and petroleum to mineral 

 oils the sense in which the word naphtha is used 

 has been narrowed considerably. The various 

 British Petroleum Acts since 18(12 have also aided 

 in the interest of public safety in emphasising 

 the wie distinction now made lietween the heavier 

 and safe hydrocarbon oils on the one hand, and the 



volatile and unsafe hydrocarbon spirits or naphthas 

 on the other. 



Commercially, naphtha is now understood to 

 apply to the inflammable distillates of crude 

 mineral oils and coal-tar. For tiadc convenience 

 the volatile distillates of iMroleum and shale oil 

 are known respectively ns petroleum spirit and 

 shale spirit, to distinguish each from the other, 

 and Iwith from coal 'ar naphtha. The term naphtha 

 also embrace)* distillates of india rublier, bones, 

 pent, and wood, the last of these being known as 

 wood-spirit or methyl alcohol. A few winds with 

 regard to each of these naphthas may serve to indi- 

 cate more particularly the nature and method of 

 production, and also 'the uses to which they are 

 applied. 



Petroleum spirit is obtained from crude ]>etro- 

 leuni in the process of relinement by distillation. 

 The first or lightest portion of the oil w Inch pauses 

 over from the still, being highly inflammable, is 

 not allowed to mix with the burning oil, but is run 

 into a separate or naphtha tank. American crude 

 petroleum vields from 15 to - J<i per cent, of crude 

 naphtha, which in some of the refineries is separ- 

 ated into gasoline, sp. gr. -r.10 to (.K) ; benzine, 

 sp. gr. '670 to '710 ; and ben/oline or deodorised 

 spirit, sp. gr. '710 to 'I'M. Kiissian crude iietrolenm 

 yields a comparatively small proportion of naphtha, 

 alxnit 5 or 6 per cent., which is separated into light 

 benzine and heavy lieimnc. varying in sp. gr. 

 from '730 to 775. " Shale spirit is a product of the 

 crude oil distilled from shiile. vhich is one of the 

 important mining and chemical industries of Scot- 

 land. This crude oil contains 4 to .1 per cent, of 

 naphtha, having a sp. gr. of '71.1 to '74(1 ; but some 

 of the shale-oil works pioduce :i small quantity of 

 gasoline with a sp. gr. of '640 to TiS(. Coal-tor 

 naphtha is distilled from the tar obtained from 

 coal in gas-works. The' production of tar is 10 

 to 12 gallons per ton of coal put through the 

 retorts. This tar on distillation yields from 5 to 

 20 per cent, of naphtha according to the quality 

 of coal used. Gas-tar from Newcastle coal gi\es 

 only 5 per cent, of naphtha, while the tar from 

 some canncl coals yields as much as 20 per cent. 

 Coal tar naphtha has a sp. gr. varying from '850 

 to '950, and is thus much heavier than the 

 naphthas obtained from crude mineral oils. Coal- 

 tar naphtha may lie fractionated into a variety of 

 hydrocarbons with boiling points ranging I'mm 17-"' 

 to 350; but the two of the greatest commercial 

 importance are lienzole and ordinary naphtna. 

 Caoutchine is a naphtha obtained by ihe destruc- 

 tive distillation of caoutchouc or india-rubber. It 

 also may lie fractionated into >, numlier of hydro- 

 carbons of different densities and boiling points. 

 Bone naphtha is obtained by the distillation of 

 bones in the manufacture of animal charcoal. It 

 is known also ns bone oil. or I lippel's animal oil. 

 Owing to some neutral or nitrogenous substance as 

 yet unknown, it possesses a peculiarly offensive 

 smell, and until some easy means is di-covered of 



removing this very objectionable feature bone-oil 

 can never become of much use as a naphtha. The 



crude naphthas obtained from these various sou 

 are all refined or purified by similar processes viz. 

 simple redistillation by means of steam, as in 

 America, for the lightest fractious; but for the 

 heavier spirits a treatment with sulphuric acid 

 and then with caustic soda, and a subsequent 

 washing with water are necessary previous to 

 redistillation. 



The uses to which in the industrial arts the 

 different qualities of naphtha are applied are very 

 numerous. The lighter spirits, such as lienzole and 

 ben/ine, lieing solvents of grease and oil, are used 



for detergent purposes. Ben/oline WILM for sc ! 



years burned pretty generally by the poorer classes 



