DISTILLING WOOD OF PINE. 165 



wood showed similar results. In the attempt made at Mobile by Mr. Maas, about fifteen years 

 past, in connection with a sawmill — soon abandoned, however — the results were about the same. 

 From a cord of green slabs 12 gallons of turpentine were distilled and 150 gallons of tarry and oily 

 substances. The rectified spirits of turpentine was found not to differ sensibly from the product 

 of the rosin. At the works of the Yellow Pine Wood Distilling Company at Itfew Orleans, 

 worked under the patent and superintendence of Mr. E. Koch, every kind of mill refuse, pine 

 knots, stumps, branches, etc., are used. The patentee has kindly furnished the following infor- 

 mation about the apparatus employed and the way it is being worked: The material is cut in short 

 pieces, loaded in iron cars, which are run into steel retorts, 20 feet long and 8 feet in diameter, 

 provided with rails, and holding 3 cords of wood; doors are closed tight, superheated steam is let 

 in, and at the same time a moderate fire is started in the furnace. The distillation proper of the 

 spirits begins in about six hours at a temperature of 300°, increasing during the next four hours 

 to 350o, un tii the distillate ceases to run; at this stage the steam is shut off and the destructive 

 distillation by the open fire is proceeded with; under the gradual increase of the temperature from 

 350 to 900 degrees the distillation is continued through the following fifteen hours, the whole 

 operation consuming about twenty four hours. The residue in the retort is a charcoal of good 

 quality. The quantity of spirits of turpentine obtained from 1 cord varies from 5 to 18 gallons, of 

 heavier oils and tarry products known as dead oil or creosote from 60 to 100 gallons, and of 

 stronger acid (of a specific gravity 1.02) 60 gallons, or of weaker acids 120 gallons. The gas 

 produced is used for fuel. The capacity of this plant is 6 cords of wood in twenty-four hours. By 

 the increase in the value of dead oil that has taken place during the past five or six years the 

 destructive distillation of the wood of the longleaf pine is placed financially on a more promising 

 basis than ever before. If the enormous amount of raw material be considered, which has hereto- 

 fore gone to waste at the sawmills and in the forest, but by this process may be turned to a profit- 

 able use, this industry is capable of the widest extension, and can not fail to add other resources 

 of income to those already derived from the forests of longleaf pine. 



With the augmenting demand for the mixture of heavier hydrocarbons and chryselic (phenylic) 

 compounds known in the trade as dead oil, creosote, or pine oil for the impregnation of timber for 

 the purpose of preventing its decay and destruction by the teredo, the distillation of the wood of 

 the longleaf pine is at present carried on with the main object of securing the largest yield of dead 

 oil. According to the statements of Mr. Franklin Clark (see Columbia College Quarterly), made 

 in his paper on the subject, for this purpose the most resinous wood is preferred with which the 

 retorts are charged. 



These retorts, cylindrical in shape, made of wrought-iron or steel plates, and about three times 

 as long as they are wide, are of a capacity to receive little over a cord of the perfectly air-dried 

 wood. The distillation is effected by the open fire and the condensation of the distillate by the 

 ordinary worm condenser. The light oils running over first at a temperature of from 350 to 500 

 degrees, of a specific gravity of 0.88 to 0.90, are of a dark-red color; as soon as their density has 

 increased to the latter figure they are caught separately. After twelve or fifteen hours, when the 

 temperature has reached 000 degrees and the density of the oil is 0.98, with the formation of the 

 chryselic compounds the aqueous distillate at this stage shows a higher percentage of acetic acid, 

 increasing with the rise of the specific gravity of the oil. The operation is generally finished at a 

 temperature not exceeding 900 degrees. The process is terminated at the end of twenty-four hours. 



The charge of the retort, averaging 4,575 pounds of resinous, air-dried wood (little more than 

 a cord), yields — 



Light oil (of sp. gr. 0.875 to 0.95) gallons.. 13 



Heavy pine oil or dead oil (sp.gr. 0.95 to 1.04) do 73£ 



Pyroligneous acid (sp.gr. 1.02) do 185 



Or a mean yield of— 



Pyroligneous acid (sp.gr. 1.02) 1,527 pounds, or 34.37 per cent. 



Total of oily products 729 pounds, or 15.94 per cent. 



Charcoal 1,511 pounds, or 33.04 per cent. 



Gas 761 pounds, or 16.64 percent. 



On settling, the pine oil— that is, the whole of the oily products of the wood— separates from 

 the acid as a black or red oil, with a specific gravity from 0.97 to 1*30. For the purpose of 



