184 COTTOX CULTURE. 



cotton seed oil, and cotton seed cake. After the oil has 

 cooled down to atmospheric temperature, and the floating 

 impurities have separated from it and settled to the bottom 

 of the tank, it is of a deep red color, and weighs about 

 seven and a half pounds to the gallon. This quality of 

 oil found a market among oil refiners, who, usually by 

 very simple processes, removed the mechanical impuri- 

 ties and destroyed the coloring matter so as to produce an, 

 oil of a rich olive color, sweet and agreeable to the taste. 

 Much of this found its way to the tables of our first-class 

 hotels and private families. As a substitute for olive oil, 

 it has no equal, and when flavored by the addition of 

 genuine olive it is much superior to any other adulteration 

 yet produced. The chief consumers of the cotton seed 

 oil, however, are the soap-makers. The oil was purchased 

 by manufacturers in its crude state, and from it was pro- 

 duced almost every grade of soap, from the cheapest fam- 

 ily, to pure white castile, and the finest and most highly 

 perfumed toilet soaps. The Philadelphia manufacturers 

 were among the first, and always the largest, consumers 

 of cotton seed oil in soap-making. The single house of 

 Thain & McKeone, afterwards McKeone, Van Haagen & 

 Co., consumed more than one-half of all the cotton seed 

 oil that was used under its true name and in a pure state. 

 These gentlemen discovered a very simple and cheap 

 method of refining and bleaching the oil, and were thus 

 enabled to produce a quality of cotton seed oil as clear and 

 as limpid as pure water. Every grade of the oil was 

 thoroughly tested in this establishment, and efforts were 

 made to apply it to every possible use. At one time the 

 proprietors hoped to make it one of the most profit- 

 able articles of trade, but, after the most thorough and 

 persistent trials, wherein it was used in making every qual- 

 ity of soap and in adulterating all of the vegetable and 

 some of the heavier animal oils, tested as a lubricator, as 

 an illuminator, as a paint oil mixed with linseed oil, and as 



