THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
SEPTEMBER,  1896. 
SOME  RESULTS  OBTAINED  IN  THE  DESTRUCTIVE 
DISTILLATION  OF  LINSEED  OIL.1  — 
WITH  REMARKS  ON  ITS  BEARING  ON  ENGLER's  THEORY  OF  THE  ORIGIN 
OF  PETROLEUM. 
By  Samuei<  P.  Sadti^kp. 
It  is  well  known  that,  in  boiling  linseed  oil  for  varnish-making 
and  similar  purposes,  inflammable  vapors  are  given  off,  the 
boiling  being  continued  often  until  they  burn  freely.  Very  little 
has  been  noted  with  regard  to  the  character  of  these  vapors,  and  I 
know  of  no  special  study  of  them.  During  the  past  winter,  in 
connection  with  the  examination  of  some  boiled  oil  driers  for  the 
Atlantic  Drier  Company,  of  Philadelphia,  I  was  surprised  to  find  some 
40  per  cent,  of  neutral  petroleum-like  oils  in  the  product.  The  natural 
explanation  of  adulteration  with  mineral  oils  being  out  of  the  ques- 
tion in  this  case,  I  was  led  to  ask  as  to  the  process  used  for  the 
preparation  of  the  boiled  oil.  I  found  that  it  was  boiled  under 
pressure,  and  that  considerable  quantities  of  a  liquid  distillate  were 
being  condensed  in  the  dome  of  the  large  still  and  returned  to  the 
material  in  the  still.  I  had  the  process  carried  out  for  me  specially 
and  so  arranged  that  I  could  collect  the  product  of  this  destructive 
distillation  of  the  linseed  oil,  for  so  it  proved  to  be. 
At  first  the  odor  of  acrolein  was  very  pronounced  and  powerful, 
showing  that  the  glycerin  of  the  glycerides  composing  the  oil  was 
being  decomposed  ;  later  the  odor  was  more  that  of  a  cracked 
1  Presented  at  the  Montreal  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Asso- 
ciation. 
(465) 
