FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
182 
the charge. The steam takes tip the cam¬ 
phor, and the camphor-laden steam passes 
through a special condensing apparatus, 
where it is condensed to water. 
The only complicated process is the re¬ 
moval of the camphor gum from the con¬ 
denser. Any modification of the cop¬ 
per worm which turpentine people are 
familiar with, is not practical because the 
camphor is solid and congeals. The ma¬ 
chine we have, to all intents and purposes, 
is an ice-cream freezer. It has two fixed 
paddles instead of one. 
The product as it comes away from the 
condenser consists of three things; the 
major portion of it is water; probably 
outside of the ten or (fifteen minutes, 
practically 95 per cent of the material that 
comes away from the condenser is water. 
The camphor oil and gum are practically 
insoluble in water and they float on the 
surface of the water. 
An, automatic separator permits the 
water to flow away and the material float¬ 
ing on the surface is retained. By a re¬ 
fining process the oil is removed. Dur¬ 
ing the latter part of the distillation pro¬ 
cess, all of the oil is eliminated and we get 
nothing but the crude camphor gum. The 
sample I have here represents practically 
the conditions under which we turn this 
product over to the market. We do not 
refine at the plantation, as our output is 
too small to justify the installation of a 
plant to do this work. 
This sample is to all intents and pur¬ 
poses a commercially refined camphor. It 
is a product which the refiners themselves 
have no difficulty in turning over to the 
market, under the same conditions as the 
imported refined product. 
Here is a sample of the oil which has 
been deposited. It is a by-product in a 
way, and yet it is a commercial product, 
also. That oil as you see it in the last 
container, consists of three commercial 
products. One is known as the light oil 
of camphor, which enters into the manu¬ 
facture of linens largely, also to a slight 
extent in the manufacture of some var¬ 
nishes. 
After you reach the point at which the 
light oil begins to decrease in quantity, 
camphor begins to distill. The oil is dis¬ 
solved, practically its own weight in cam¬ 
phor. 50 per cent is gum camphor dis¬ 
solved in the oil. At this point the cam¬ 
phor begins to distill until you reach a 
point of 225 centrigrade, when oil be¬ 
gins to come over. This is then stopped 
and the solution is put on to the market 
as the heavy oil. It contains a large per¬ 
centage of the same constituents as that 
in the oil of sassafras. It is the presence 
of these constituents that causes the oil 
to enter into commerce as a blending 
agent. Sassafras has the peculiar property 
of mixing well with other principals, and 
especially those which are delicate and 
not very lasting. The sassafras takes hold 
of them and blends with them so that the 
perfumery stays with the safro as soon 
as the safro is present. 
Now, as to whether the production of 
camphor in this country is a success. At 
the present time I cannot say definitely 
that it is. So far as the oil is concerned, 
there is no question but that it should be 
a success. So far as the product is con¬ 
cerned, there is no question but that it 
is a success. If we had nothing but that 
