KKPOIIT ON WOOD-CKKOSOTK OIL 
By Wl LLIAM 11. B] \ BY, 
Captain of Engineers, U. S. A. ; 
Member of tli<' American, British, and French Societies of Engineers; 
Member of the American and British A. A. S. 
rhe Southern Pine ( Pintis paluslris, Linn.) has already made a brill- 
iant record for itself in the past through its valuable products in the 
shape of turpentine, pitch, tar,and rosin ; but there remains for it a much 
more brilliant career in the future through its newer products wood- 
creosote oil and pine-leaf fiber, the oil being used mainly for preserving 
lumber, and the fiber for the manufacture of pillows, mattresses, and 
carpet matting. * 
The wood creosote oil industry is at present carried on in the South 
mainly by the Carolina Oil and Creosoting Coaipany, and Creosote- 
Lumber and Construction Company, of Wilmington, N. C, and the fol- 
lowing description of the products and processes is based upon the 
practice of the latter manufactory. 
Creosote is a general name applied to the oil products obtained by 
the destructive distillation of wood, coal, and other carbonaceous fuels 
after the temperature has risen above 200° or 300° F. If obtained by 
the distillation of coal, or coal-tar, this creosote is termed "dead, oil," or 
coal-tar creosote-oil ; if obtained from the distillation of wood, or wood- 
tar, it is termed wood-creosote oil. 
Heavy resined, "fatty pine" wood, subjected to a heat of from 200° 
to 700° F., within closed iron cylinders, yields by distillation and con. 
densation : (1) a wood-gas ; (2) a small amount of wood naphtha ; (3) 
a large amount of pyroligncous acid ; (4) a large amount of wood-creo. 
sote oil; (5) a small amount of wood bitumen ; and (G) a large amount 
of charcoal. Niue cords of good wood will yield a few gallons of naphtha 
and bitumen, 14 barrels of oil, 10 barrels of acid, and 1G8 barrels of 
charcoal. 
The wood-creosote oil produced by this process is a dark, brownish, 
black oil, slightly heavier than water (3° to 4° Baume), with a strong 
creosote odor, and possessing valuable antiseptic properties. Upon an- 
alysis it is found to contain about 5 per cent, of tar acids, about 15 per 
cent, of lighter oils, and 80 per cent, of heavy oils, which are insoluble 
in ether, fresh, brackish, or salt-water. This oil is an efficient poison to 
minute animal and vegetable life, and possesses an odor apparently in- 
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