SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
211 
greatly improved. This is effected by a variety of pro- 
cesses. If 100 lbs. of tallow be melted and 14 lbs. of lime 
suspended in water in the form of milk, be added and the 
whole stirred for two or three hours, the transparent layer 
of melted tallow on the surface will have been converted 
into a gray crumbly mass. This is a compound of the 
fatty acid with lime— is, in fact, a true lime soap.^ The 
glycerine liberated in the process remains dissolved in the 
water beneath, which is separated frona the soap and 
yields the glycerine of the drug shops. The fatty acids 
must now be liberated from the lime. This is effected by 
heating it with 18 1-2 per cent, of its weight of sulphuric 
acids (oil of vitriol) diluted with a large quantity (70 times 
the bulk) of water. The whole resolves itself into three 
distinct layers— fatty acids on top, water beneath and 
sulphate of lime (Plaster Paris) at the bottom. The fats are 
skimmed off and submitted to powerful pressure, by 
which the oleic acids is removed and the pearly white 
stearic acids remain, to be formed into candles. 
Ey another process the melted tallow is acted upon di- 
rectly by sulphuric acid, which separates the acid fats 
on top while the mineral acid and glycerine form a com- 
pound below. This mode is objectionable on account of 
the color imparted to the fat by the action going a little too 
far. A year or two ago, Mr, Tilghman, of Philadelphia, 
patented a process for obtaining the acids from fats of all 
kinds by means of water at a high temperature (that of 
melted lead) and under high pressure. He effects this 
change in a close vessel of sufficent strength, or by circu- 
lating the mi.xture through a long coil of strong tubing 
placed over the furnace. In either case, a complete separ- 
tion takes place; the fatty acids float and glycerine is dis- 
solved in the water. The latter is separated and the oleic 
acid expressed as before. The glycerine is extracted and 
thrown into market also. 
It is questionable whether any of these processes can be 
satisfactorily carried out on a small scale, and if it could, 
would it not be better for a large number of planters and 
farmers, in effect, by their patronage, to hire a man of ex- 
perience to erect the necessary machinery and conduct the 
process, they paying him partly in provisions and fuel, 
which he must necessarily consume, and the residue in 
crude material for the manufacture This is the way we 
get our meal, flour and lumber, and we find it much more 
economical than beating corn in a mortar or ripping plank 
eut of a log with a hnnd-saw. The manufacture of lard oil 
or soap should be combined with the production of candles 
to consume profitably the oleine and oleic acid, and the 
glycerine should be lecovered, at least in a crude state, for 
the manufacturing chemist. Such an establishnaent seems 
to be desirable in a favorable locality in Texas, where tal- 
low is a drug The Southern candle trade is an item of 
large importance, and should be supplied from our own 
resources. 
This is a subject, Messrs. Editors, not strictly agricultural 
in itself, butof interest, it seems, to a class of your readers ; 
and with a view to setting them right, it is offered, with the 
hope you may find it worthy a place. R. B. 
Rome, Ga. May, iS.bf). 
ADAMANTINE CANDLES— AGAIN. 
Epitors South rrn Cultivator — Are the recipes pub- 
lished in the public journals for making Star and Ada- 
mantine Cardies “sure fire” I I answer, for several rea- 
i*ons, they are not. First. Star and Adamantine Candles, 
without machinery and operose processes, cannot be 
made. The calling a hard tallow candle “adamantine” is a 
misnomer. If we must have a hard nanie^ call them dia- 
'/ufl-nd candles and avoid this confusion of names. Second- 
ly. The recipes (if indeed they are not wholly worthless) 
are so blindly and blunderingly given in most cases that 
they cannot be made available except by one who under- 
stands thoroughly the process, and hence needs no in- 
struction. Thirdly. Many of them involve a heavy ex- 
pense for materials, which at once condemns the process. 
Fourthly. A radical fault with most newspaper recipes, 
they spend so much time and space in extolling the ines- 
tiviable value of the remedy or process, that no opportunity 
is left to give the very necessary details of manipulation. 
The imagination of the reader is so wrought up in his 
unbounded expectations that his failure, from the want of 
these details, disgusts and disheartens him. 
Some smart fellow away at the North — Massachusetts 
I believe — has made the wonderful discovery that salt- 
petre and alum will harden fats — known for many genera- 
tions back. He extols greatly his recipe ; says it is worth 
S50 to him ; makes adamantine candles out of lard, &€., 
&c. He directs 12 lbs. lard, 1 lb. saltpetre, 1 lb. alum 
and 1 gill water. 
I tried his recipe with several other experiments, and 
here are the facts. I first of all struck out the adamantine 
part ; next weighed carefully into the heating vessel the 
requisite quantity of saltpetre and alum ; then the water; 
found the latter deficient and added two or three times the 
quantity (a little too much will not hurt) ; when the salts 
were dissolved, I added the lard. As the heat increased, bub- 
bles soon came to the surface and continued to rise until 
the operation was suspended, and would have continued 
probably until the whole was burnt to a coal. 
No change was perceptible in the lard, hot or cold, un- 
til the water was v/ell nigh all gone. The white opaque 
globules commenced rising and falling ; these increased in 
number until a white milky fluid covered the bottom, from 
which bubbles of vapor or gas still rose. This milky fluid 
gradually thickened until it assumed the consistence of a 
thick I'opy curd. At this stage the lard had assumed more 
of a redish cast. The heal was continued ; the curd be- 
came hard and granular and formed into irregular lumps 
like old, dry pine-apple cheese, but pure white in color; 
the lard was quite red and fumes of nitrous acid were es- 
caping to a small extent. Here the process was stopped 
and the lard spoiled for all purposes save the soap boiler. 
It had a strong, rancid, offensive odor. No scum of any 
consequence had risen to the surface — all the impurities 
present had attached themselves to the curd at the bot- 
tom. 
Secondly. The process was repeated v/ith fresh materi- 
al and stopped at the thick curd stage] lard poured off 
from the curd ; the latter was boiled in water, cooled and 
found to present 3 layers — lard at the top, water below 
and white granular deposit at the bottom. The water 
was tested and contained sulphuric acid (from decompo- 
sition of alum) in quantity; thus showing that the alum 
had been instrumental in effecting the change. The de- 
posit was decomposed by strong sulphuric acid and yield- 
ed fatty acids on top of the solution. These with many 
other experiments I need not detail, lead to the following 
conclusions : 
1st. Lard is considerably hardened by this process at 
the curd stage and changed (when cold) to a straw color 
which may be removed in a great measure by subsequent 
boiling in water. It may make a satisfactory candle for 
us in winter, but certainly will not in summer. 
2d. A longer continuation of the heat does not give any 
firmer consistence, while it greatly deepens the color. 
And if the heating process be much shortened the consis- 
tence is not attained at all. 
3rd. Alum alone does not harden fats, it only whitens 
them, and yet it is a necessary ingredient in the hardening 
process. 
