- 9 8 - 



G.Weigel 1 ) has recently examined a sample of a turpentine from 

 Eastern Asia. This showed the usual viscid consistency, a brownish 

 yellow colour, and the characteristic pinene odour; acid no. 145,45; 

 sap.no. 149,38. On steam - distillation it yielded about 14,5 °/ oil, 

 « D +39°9' 2 )- 



The granular-crystalline Mexican turpentine has, according to 

 the same author, a faint lemon -yellow colour, and a limonene - like 

 odour; acid no. 107,54; sap. no. 115,12. When distilled with water 

 vapour, it yielded about 14 °/o oil with a pleasant aroma, «d -[~33°44'. 



In view of the steadily increasing consumption of turpentine oil, a 

 work by G. B. Frankforter 3 ) on the pitch and the terpenes from the 

 Norway pine (Pinus resinosa) and the Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga taxifolia) 

 is of particular interest. These two conifers, which are largely distributed 

 chiefly in the North and West of North America, are up to the present 

 only used as lumber. Wood containing too much turpentine is either 

 burnt, or simply thrown aside. The utilisation of such waste products for 

 the manufacture of turpentine has not yet been found sufficiently remun- 

 erative in those districts, and for this reason almost all the turpentine 

 oil used in the North and West must be obtained elsewhere. The box- 

 system universally employed in the South for the production of tur- 

 pentine is not appliable in the North and West. It was therefore 

 necessary to work out first of all a method for the industrial utilisation 

 of the waste products suitable for the prevailing conditions. Frank- 

 forter has in his studies come to the following results: — 



1. Pinus resinosa. The water-white turpentine had been obtained 

 partly by the box-system, and partly from stumps of trees and other 

 waste material, by means of extraction, distillation by steam and dry 

 distillation. The examinations showed that the working up of these 

 waste products is remunerative, not only for the production of oil of 

 turpentine, but also of tar and other by-products. Lean wood yielded 

 on the average 6,2 °/ , average quality 8,6 °/ turpentine. Stumps 

 yielded 19,4, pitchy wood 39,1, and very pitchy wood even 42,6 °/o 

 turpentine. Its constants were: d2o° 0,8137 (erratum?); [«]p20° — | — 4-°J 

 n D 1,47869; it contained 22,1 °/ oil of turpentine, 77,3% colophony, 

 and 0,6 °/ water, and on being left standing it became in one or two 

 months' time either semi -solid or solid, according to the content 

 of oil. 



2. Douglas Fir. The turpentine - content was, in very lean 

 wood n,6°/ , in lean wood 13,5%? medium quality 19,8%, rich 



x ) Pharm. Centralh. 47 (1906), 866. 



2 ) Comp. Reports April 1905, 78; October 1905, 67; also Gildemeister 

 and Hoffmann, The Volatile Oils, p. 253. 



3 ) Journ. Amer. chem. Soc. 28 (1906), 1467. 



