54 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
even miles from the place where it is made, to he 
burned. The success in gas making depends upon 
using the proper amount of heat to convert into gas 
as much as possible of the volatile matter of the 
coal. A lower -degree of heat slowly applied, 
produces from the coal but very little gas, but what 
would have otherwise been gas, is obtained as a 
thick'tarry oil. This is the first step in preparing 
the coal oils, and by refining this crude oil, several 
products are obtained. Sulphuric acid (oil of vit¬ 
riol) is added to the crude oil which helps separate 
the tar and other impurities, then lime is added to 
neutralize the acid, and the thinner portions of the 
liquid are poured off and distilled. This liquid con¬ 
tains several distinct oils which have different boil¬ 
ing points. In the distilling processes the heat is 
applied very gradually; at about 80°, a very volatile 
liquid is obtained and as the heat is increased, other 
oils having higher boiling points are distilled, the 
last of these requiring a heat of over 500° to con¬ 
vert them into vapor. 
The liquids first*obtained, which boil at so low a 
degree, are unsafe to use for illumination. They are 
known as Naptha and Benzine, and are of great 
value in the arts. They have the power of dis¬ 
solving all greasy and resinous substances, and are 
used for cleaning clothing, dissolving India rubber, 
mixing with paint in place of turpentine, etc. 
After these very volatile oils have distilled, 
others are obtained, having higher boiling 
points, and these are used as burning oils, 
and are known as Kerosene, and by a number 
of other trade names—all being essentially the 
same thing, but differing in their color, density and 
boiling points. The oils which are obtained by 
distilling at a high temperature are used for greas¬ 
ing machinery. There is deposited from the oils 
after distillation, a whitish substanse which is col¬ 
lected, purified, melted, and made into cakes. This 
is Paraffine ; it looks something like white wax, 
and is made iuto beautiful candles of great illumina¬ 
ting power. It melts so readily that it cannot be 
used pure for candles, hence those sold as Paraffine 
candles are in part composed of spermacetti and 
other substances, to render them firm in warm 
weather. Great quantities of illuminating oil are 
obtained from the Petroleum or oil from the oil 
wells. Here the first step in the process is done by 
nature, and crude oil is furnished ready for the re¬ 
fining process. The illuminating oils from Petro¬ 
leum, known as Carbon Oil, and by other names, 
are essentially the same as those made from 
coal. All these consist of mixtures of oils, hav¬ 
ing different boiling points, and those are the 
safest which have the least admixture of naptha. 
Kerosene and similar oils, when properly prepared 
and burned in suitable lamps, are not liable to form 
explosive vapors, but if from carelessness or fraud 
on the part of the manufacturer, they contain 
much naptha, they are dangerous. No oil is safe 
to use which will give off an explosive vapor be¬ 
low IKK The coal oils in the market generally 
form an explosive vapor when heated to 180° or 
140°, and those from petroleum do so at 100° to 
120°. The density or weight of a sample of oil is 
no indication of its freedom from explosive qual¬ 
ities ; this can only be ascertained by experiment. 
Apparatus is made and sold for the purpose; but 
a sufficiently correct test can be made by putting 
a little of the oil iu a tin cup, which is to be placed 
in a large vessel containing water A thermometer 
is placed in the water, and the whole put upon the 
stove, and allowed to heat very slowly. A lighted 
match is applied from time to time to ascertain 
when the oil in the cup forms an explosive vapor, 
the temperature at which this takes place is indica¬ 
ted by the thermometer. The light should not be 
applied to the oil, but should be held just within the 
edge of the cup. It is wonderful to think as we sit 
by the cheerful coal fire and read by the light of a 
Kerosene lamp, that we are enjoying the same light 
and heat which came to the earth ages and ages ago. 
The plants which produced the coal and rock-oil 
grew by the aid of the sun’s rays, and—as every plant 
is now doing—locked up a portion of light and heat 
in their stems and leaves. Whether-we burn the 
wood -which has grown within our own observa¬ 
tion, or that which grew longer ago than we can 
calculate, and has become coal, we only set free the 
light and heat which the sun furnished it to en¬ 
able it to grow. Then how wonderful the human 
skill which takes these “ black diamonds” from the 
dark mine, and by aid of chemistry makes them to 
shine and fill our homes with their brilliancy. 
Tim Bunker on Extravagance. 
“ Forty-five thousand dollars for jewelry iu New- 
Yovk, at one store, in one morning!” said Mrs. Bunk¬ 
er as she took off her specs, and laid down the 
Times, iu which she had just read that account. 
“And how many stores do you ’spose they’ve 
got in New-York, where they sell them ’ere fixins,” 
inquired Mrs. Seth Twiggs, who had dropped in 
with her knitting, and sat in a meditative mood, 
while Mrs. Bunker read the war news. (Seth used 
to take the daily paper himself, but since the rise in 
price, he says he can’t afford it. Twelve dollars a 
year for a daily paper, he says, is a leetletoo mighty 
for a poor man who works for his living. That 
would more than buy a barrel of flour, and it only 
takes two barrels to carry his little family through 
the year. I have noticed, however, that he and his 
wife are more neighborly than common, since they 
stopped the daily paper. I am not particularly 
sorry, for Seth is good company, if it wasn’t for his 
everlasting pipe, which I abominate, as all sensible 
people should. What upon earth a man should 
want to make a chimney of his nose for, I never 
could see. We are kind o’ lonesome, since Sally 
got married, and John went off to the war, and 
neighbors don’t come amiss. Seth also has a son in 
the war, and we have a considerable fellow feeling.) 
“ There’s a hundred of them stores at least,” re¬ 
plied Mrs. Bunker. 
“ You don’t mean a hundred on ’em!” exclaimed 
Mrs. Jacob Frink, whom the neighbors all call 
“ Polly,” for short—except a few of us older people, 
who say “ Aunt Polly.” 
“What a sight of silver spoons and forks, tea¬ 
pots and tureens, fruit knives and porringers, they 
must, have down there, if all the stores sold as 
much as that ’ere one you read about.” 
“It would make four millions and a half of dol¬ 
lars, spent in gewgaws in one morning,” said I, 
willing to increase Aunt Polly’s astonishment. 
“You don’t say so, Squire Bunker!” said she. 
“ That is more than Jacob could carry iu his cart.” 
“Well Iguessit is. It would line Broadway with 
silver, from the Battery to Central Park,” said I. 
“ Provided you did’nt lay it on too thick,” added 
Mrs. Bunker, squirming in her chair, at the extrav¬ 
agant expression. 
“ I said line it, Sally, not cover it.” I responded. 
“Wa’ll, it is an awful sight of money any way !” 
said Aunt Polly. “ I fear I should covet, if I see it.” 
“And where do you suppose it all comes from?” 
asked Mrs. Twiggs. 
“I can tell you where some of it comes to,” an¬ 
swered Aunt Polly. “You see Kier has just got 
home from the war, wounded in his left arm. And 
he stopped in New-York jest to see the sights, and 
to get something to bring home to the old folks, 
and to his family up at the White Oaks. And don’t 
you think he brought me home a pair of gdld specs 
and a gold thimble for his wife, and a silver trump¬ 
et for his boy, Jacob Frink jr., who aiut more than 
six months old. Now we didn’t need these things 
any more than a cat needs tew tails. I had a pair 
of steel-bows that Jacob got me five years ago, and 
they are jest as good as new, and I can see in ’em- 
jest as well as in the new ones, and a trifle better. 
And then his wife had thimbles enough, rather 
more than she used, any way, judging by the looks 
of Kier, when he used to drive the coal cart. She 
never kept him tidy, and I don’t believe gold thim¬ 
bles will help her case, if she had a cart load of’em. 
And then as to that boy, he won’t be big enough 
under a year to blow a squash leaf squawker, to say 
nothing of t rumpets. A silver trumpet! It is the 
only article of silver in the whole neighborhood of 
the White Oaks, barring the small change they’ve 
got stowed away in their stockings, agin it comes 
into fashion agin. Now, Kier paid ten dollars for 
that ’ere trumpet, and he had no more use for it 
than his wife has fora pianny. Yon see, he had 
just got paid off, and he had never seen so much 
money before in one pile, in all his life. He want¬ 
ed to make a sensashun in the White Oaks, and I 
guess he did it, when he bought that article. Not 
less than twenty five dollars, the price of blood as 
it were, all spent for nothin. I was riled when I 
see him onpack the things. Ah, if he had only got 
a raw hide for that youngster there would have been 
some sense in it.” 
Aunt Polly paused for breath, and looked red in 
the face as she doubtless remembered the wallop¬ 
ings she had bestowed upon Kier in his juvenile 
days. But there is a deal of sense in what the old 
lacly says. You see this war has made money aw¬ 
ful plenty, such as it is, among a certain class of 
people. It has got into new hands, and they are 
itching to let the world know that they have got it. 
I know of some fellows that have gone to the war 
that are earning more money for their families than 
they ever did before, There are Tucker’s twobo3 r s 
that never did any thing but hunt, fish, and loaf, 
but they are now earning their rations and thirteen 
dollars extra, a thing they never did before, without 
the extra. There are hosts of contractors for steam¬ 
boats, for iron-clads, for army clothing, for horses, 
for mules, for forage, for flour, for rations of all 
kinds, that are getting a big slice, and piling up 
money by the hat full. This money is distributed 
all through the couutiy, and farmers come in for 
their share. Well now, it is mighty natural when 
folks that have been stinted for a good while, when 
they get hold of the cash, to make it fly. So it goes 
for jewelry, for bonnets, and silver trumpets, and 
all sorts of jimcracks that tickle the women and 
children, and don’t do any body much good. 
You see, George Washington Tucker jr., that en¬ 
listed in the beginning of the war sent home fifty 
dollars to his intended, Miss Almeda Georgiana 
Bottom, and told her she might swell for once, as 
she had never had a fair chance in life. The next 
Sunday I rather guess there was a sensation in the 
Ilookertown Meeting House that kept sleepy folks 
awake, if the sermon didn’t. She had on a pair of 
ear-rings, a big gold-washed watch-chain, and brace¬ 
lets like Col. Smith’s daughter, a monstrous swell 
of hoop skirts, one of those two story bonnets 
with pink flowers in the second story and a top 
knot of feathers, and to top all, or rather to bottom 
all, a pair of new calf skin shoes that squeaked like 
a cider mill. She came sailing in to meetiug just 
after the first hymn, when Mr. Spooner was reading 
scripture where it says “Behold the lilies of the 
field,” etc. The shoes made such a squeaking that 
he had to stop until the young woman got seated. 
Some of the young folks in the pew behind me 
tittered, and an old lady in my own pew put a 
handkerchief to her mouth. I suppose she wanted 
to cough just then, and didn’t like to disturb the 
meeting. Mr. Spooner looked astonished, as if he 
had seen a vision. 
Now you see this sort of thing is going on all over 
the country, and there is a good deal of extrava¬ 
gance in folks buying jewelry and knick-knacks 
that they do not have any use for. I suppose it is 
rather worse than common just now, but there has 
always been a good deal of it. If a man buys what 
he dou’t need, I call him extravagant, whether it is 
an extra acre of land, a two story bonnet, or a bo¬ 
gus gold watch chain, without any watch. If a man 
can do his business with a wheel barrow, he should 
not invest in a horse and cart. If his farm only af¬ 
fords occupation for one horse and cart, he should 
not buy a yoke of oxen and cart. If he has only 
capital to -work twenty acres to advantage, he is 
very extravagant to purchase fifty. If he has only 
feed for six cows, he should not keep eight. This is 
one of our greatest faults as a people, and I am 
afraid this war, if it ends in the triumph of the 
government, as we hope it will, will not remedy the 
evil. Wc buy cargoes of silks, and jewelry, wines, 
and brandies, that we have no need of. Miss Alme¬ 
da Georgiana Bottom is not the only sinner among 
us, not by many a hundred, I tell you. 
Hookertoum , ) Yours to command, 
Jan. 1st, 1863. ) Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
