36 



BULLETIN 1003, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



state. In other words, the heat serves only to convert these oils 

 into vapors, which, after being cooled in the condenser, are col- 

 lected essentially as originally present in the wood. 



The three important constituents of acid liquor are acetic acid, 

 methyl (wood) alcohol, and acetone. Up to the present time these 

 products have been obtained almost exclusively from hardwood. 

 Owing to the greater amount of tarry substances present, softwood 

 acid liquor is extremely difficult to free from this constituent, and 

 the calcium acetate made therefrom is inferior in quality to that 

 from hardwood acid liquor. The yield, consisting of methyl alcohol 

 and acetone, is also substantially lower than that from hardwoods. 



The proportions of acid, alcohol, and acetone as found in these 

 western yellow-pine acid liquors (Table 17) were obtained by 

 analyzing a composite sample of acid liquor from each set of 

 charges run on the various kinds of wood. 6 



TABLE 17. Composition of add liquor*. 



"Tin- analyses of tin- arid liquors w.-iv made by V. E. (Jrotlis. h :iml C. <'. Sponcer, 

 I'.uivaii <>f riimiistry, I'nit.d States Department of 



