Commercial notes and scientific information. 101 



oil is present the degree is not affected, because those substances remain behind 

 in the residue. 



Tortelli's method bears some relation to the familiar sulphuric acid test 1 ) of 

 Maumene, which is used in the examination of fatty oils. The reaction was applied 

 to essential oils by R. Williams' 2 ) over 20 years ago, but it did not prove reliable and 

 was consequently abandoned for this purpose. After this experience we regard it as 

 very doubtful whether, either in the form recommended by Tortelli or by Massy, this 

 method will acquire a lasting place among the processes for testing oil of turpentine. 



Massy has treated the subject in greater detail in a pamphlet bearing the title 

 "A la recherche cl'un procede- simple d'essai de Vessence de terebenthine" (Bordeaux 1913) a ). 

 In this publication the author also deals exhaustively with a method for the detection 

 of adulterations which has already been recommended by him on a previous occasion, 

 and in which he tests the behaviour of the oil, distilled by the method mentioned 

 above, towards 80,7 p. c. alcohol. We have already mentioned this matter in our 

 Report of April 1911 (p. 115). 



The differentiation of turpentine oil from camphor oil is referred to on p. 38. 



On the detection of petroleum in turpentine oil see p. 129. 



It may be stated that H. Wolff 4 ) has found the mean coefficient of distension of 

 turpentine oil to be 0,00100 per 1°. The correction required in determining the refrac- 

 tion is 0,00037 per 1°. Coste 5 ) had already given the same correction. 



An American trade journal ) discusses a Report of the Forestry Division of the 

 Department of Agriculture which deals with the possibility of obtaining turpentine oil 

 and other naval stores from the trees which in the United States are known as the 

 Western Pines. The labour-question plays an important part in the matter, seeing 

 that in Arizona and California the people are quite ignorant of the methods of tapping, 

 and that it would be too expensive to bring labour from the South-Eastern States. 

 Moreover, the severe winters of the Western States are unfavourable for the production 

 of turpentine. But until experiments have been made on a large scale, it is impossible 

 to form a judgment of the prospects of the production of turpentine there. 



In connection with the above report we may here refer to an article by 

 A. W. Schorger 7 ) in which he enumerates the characters and the constitution of the 

 turpentines and turpentine oils of some of the Western pines. From the turpentine 

 of Pinus ponderosa, Laws. (Western Yellow Pine) the author obtained 18,5 p. c. of a 

 volatile oil possessing the following constants: di 5 o 0,8625, [«] D — 14,39°, n Dir ,o 1,4772. 

 He found the oil to contain the following constituents: about 5 p. c. Z-«-pinene (nitrol- 

 piperidine, m. p. 118°), 60 to 70 p. c. l-ft-pmene (nopinic acid, m. p. 126°), and 20 to 25 p. c. 

 /-limonene (tetrabromide, m. p. 104°). Pinus ponderosa scopulorum , Engelm., a degenerate 

 species of the last-named which occurs in the Rocky Mountains, yields a turpentine 

 containing 19,6 p. c. oil with the following constants: d u , 0,8639 to 0,8672, [«] D + 12,86 

 and +13,03°, n D:5 o 1,4727. It contained 60 to 70 p. c. of ^-«-pinene (nitrosochloride, 

 m. p. 103°), 5 p. c. /?-pinene (nopinic acid, m. p. 125°) and 20 to 25 p. c. limonene 



x ) Compt. rend. 92 (1881), 721. — 2 ) Chem. News 61 (1890), 64; Chem. Zentralbl. 1890, I. 73o. — s ) From 

 a copy kindly sent to us. — *) Farbenztg. 17 (1912), 2692; Chem. Zentralbl. 1912, II. 1363. — 5 ) Analyst 33 

 (1908) 209 to 230; Chern. Zentralbl. 1908, II. 731. — 6 ) Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter 83 (1913), No. 1 p. 36. — 

 7 ) U.S. Uep. of Agrieult. Forest Sere. Bull. 119. Washington 1913. From a copy kindly sent to us. 



