;-NRLF
WHERE INDUSTRIAL LIQUIDS
C'O v :: FROM AND WHERE THEY GO
GIFT OF
Professor Fritz
FORISTRY
LCC'J Of..:'. AGRICULTURE
Where Industrial
Liquids come from
and where thetg go
Standard Tank Car Company
Offices:
New York Pittsburgh St. Louis
\\oolworth Bldg. Union Arcade Bldg. Arcade Bldg.
Works: Sharon, Pa.
Chicago
Peoples Gas Bldg.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER. PAGE.
INTRODUCTION.
The Service of the Tank Car H
PETROLEUM.
I. History of Petroleum and its Products Tracing the Development of
Their Uses; Production, Refining and Transportation; Occurrence
of Petroleum in the United States and Foreign Countries 16
CASINGHEAD GASOLINE
II. The Effect of the Automobile on the Production of Gasoline 36
COAL-TAR.
III. Development of the Manufacture of Dyestuffs, Refined Drugs and
Chemicals 40
TURPENTINE AND ROSIN.
IV. Their Production as the First American Industry; How the Pine
Forests Are Tapped for these Products and their Wide Usage 44
ALCOHOL.
V. Ethyl and Methyl 49
SULPHURIC ACID.
VI. The Making and Use of this Most Important of Commercial Chemicals. 55
MURIATIC ACID.
VII. Another Primary Ingredient of Many Industries 59
NITRIC ACID.
VIII. The Importance of Nitric Acid in the Manufacture of Explosives 61
CHLORINE.
IX. The Use of Chlorine in the Development of Modern Bleaching 63
CAUSTIC SODA.
X. Its Service in the Manufacture of Many Products and as a
Sterilizer 67
POTASH.
XI. The Great Demand for Potash and the Recent Efforts to Increase
Production in the United States.. 69
666425
CHAPTER.
ACETONE.
XII. The Employment of Acetone in Explosives and as a Solvent.
ETHER.
XIII. An Anaesthetic, and an Ingredient in Smokeless Powder
AMMONIA.
XIV. The Use of Ammonia in Refrigeration
EXPLOSIVES.
XV. The Part of Explosives in the Pursuits of Peace; Liquids that Go
to Make Them. .
TANNIC ACID.
XVI. Processes in the Making of Leather
CASTOR OIL.
XVII. A Medicine, and a Lubricant for Delicate Machinery
COTTON SEED OIL.
XVIII. How This and Other Oils Are Used in the Manufacture of Compound
Lard and Oleomargarine
CORN OIL.
XIX. A Fine Edible Oil from Indian Corn. .
LINSEED OIL.
XX. The Value of this Oil from Flax Seed in the Manufacture of Paint
and in Other Industries
NUT OILS.
XXI. How Cocoanut and Peanut Oils Contribute to the World's Foods
SOYA BEAN OIL.
XXII. A New Product for America that is Useful in Manufacturing Food-
stuffs and as a Substitute for Linseed Oil
OLIVE OIL.
XXIII. Its Long History and the Reasons for its Great Value.
WHALE OIL.
XXIV. Methods of Whale Fishing and the Uses of the Oil; Other Fish Oils. .
SOAP.
XXV. The Uses of Fats, Oils and Alkalies in Making Soap ; Different Kinds
of Soap
LARD.
XXVI. A Great Food Product from Hogs
PAGE.
72
73
74
78
81
87
90
93
95
98
100
102
104
107
112
CHAPTER. PAGE.
LARD OIL.
XXVII. A Valuable Oil Expressed from Lard 114
GLYCERIN.
XXVIII. The Source of Glycerin and Its Application in Medicine and Manu-
facturing 115
SILICATE OF SODA.
XXIX. Its Use in Soap and for Preserving Eggs 116
CALCIUM CHLORIDE BRINE.
XXX. A Salt Solution Used in Preserving Fish, Meats and Vegetables 117
OXALIC ACID.
XXXI. An Acid Used in Dyeing and Printing Textiles 118
CARBON BISULPHIDE.
XXXII. An Important Industrial Solvent 120
ZINC CHLORIDE.
XXXIII. Another Useful Solvent 122
ARSENIC SOLUTION.
XXXIV. Employed to Kill Weeds on Railroad Roadbeds 123
LACTIC ACID.
XXXV. An Agent in Dyeing and in the Chrome Process of Tanning Leather. . 124
MOLASSES.
XXXVI. How it is Made as a By-Product of Sugar Refining 125
GLUCOSE.
XXXVII. The Base of Corn Syrups and of Many Preserves, Jellies and
Confections 129
VINEGAR.
XXXVIII. Simple Methods of its Manufacture for the Table and the Importance
of Acetic Acid in Industry 132
WINE.
XXXIX. The Art of Fermenting Wine and a Description of the More Famous
Kinds 135
WATER.
XL. How the Tank Car Answers the "S. O. S." Call for Water 140
XLI. Ideals of Business Expressed in Standard Tank Cars 141
7
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
TITLE PAGE
Acetic Acid Condensers 133
American Planes in Battle Formation 39
America's First Sugar Beet Refinery 126
Anaesthetics in the War 73
Arteries Which Distribute Fuel, Power and
Light, The 17
Bleeding a Rubber Tree in South America.. 120
Calking a Wooden Ship 47
Cavalry of the Power Plant, The 25
Colorado Hog Farm, A 113
Completing the Panama Canal 79
Cooking for Black and Red Tar Products.. 41
Cotton in Flower and in Fruit 90
Drake, Col. E. L., Portrait of 19
Dyeing Silk 124
Explosives in Agriculture 62
Filling Tubs with Pure Lard 112
First Oil Well, The 22
Flax Field in Wyoming, A 95
Gathering Sugar Cane in Cuba 125
Handling Crude Soap 110
Harvesting Grapes in California 135
Harvesting Kelp on the Pacific Coast 69
Helping America Feed the World 24
Helping Man Remodel the Earth 78
How a Transportation Problem was met in
East Africa 121
Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives 102
Kansas Salt Mine, A 68
Keeping Fish Fresh 74
Lard for Lard Oil 114
Liquid Transportation in Arabia 101
Louisiana Turpentine Still, A 45
Making Soap 107
Making Tannic Acid 82
Making Wall and Floor Tile 63
Missouri Apple Orchard, A 132
Modernizing the Oldest American Industry. 46
Modern Sugar Cane Mill, A 127
Modern Way Dreadnaughts Get Fuel, The. 29
Moving Liquids on the Nile 86
FACING
TITLE PAGE
Oklahoma Soya Bean Field, An 100
Opening a Gusher in the Tampico Fields... 26
Packing Salt Fish 117
Partners in the Nation's Prosperity 28
Preparing Coal Tar Dyes 40
Preparing Goat Skins for Water Transpor-
tation 106
Preparing Plate Glass 55
Primitive Method of Transporting Oil, A... 116
Producing the Bathroom Article Ill
Raising Castor Beans in Florida 87
Saving Time in Unloading Tank Cars 23
Scene on a Peanut Plantation, A 99
Service which Brought in the Oil Age 16
Source of Naval Stores, The 44
Standard Tank Car Company Works at Sha-
ron, Pa 141
Standard Type Standard Tank Car, A 5
Supplying Industry with its Indispensable
Lubricant 30
Supplying Liquids in Palestine 103
Tank Cars at a Loading Rack 31
Tank Cars in France 72
Tanks that Make Our Highways Smooth for
Commerce, The 27
Through Snow and Storm the Tank Car Car-
ries On 1 34
Turning By-products from Waste into
Wealth 115
Typical Corn Field in Nebraska, A 94
Uncle Sam's Seal of Approval 75
Vats for Tanning Leather 83
View in a Cottonseed Oil Mill, A 91
View of the Occurrence and Mining of Gas
and Oil 18
Way Cocoanuts Grow, The 98
Whales for Oil and Food 104
When Norfolk, Va., Went Dry 140
Where Power and Speed Depend on Tank
Car Service 38
Where West Meets East at the Golden Gate. 105
Wood Alcohol Manufacturing Plant 54
PREFACE
"Standard Tank Car Journeys" is a sequel to
"All About Tank Cars."
The earlier book is a guide that should be at the
elbow of every tank car lessee and owner; it in-
cludes detailed specifications for all types of tank
cars, full information on mileage earnings and tank
car accounting, the text of the Master Car Builders
and government requirements, and much other de-
tailed and general information one should have to
secure the most economical and satisfactory oper-
ation of cars.
"Standard Tank Car Journeys" takes in a
broader field. It is a non-technical account of the
parts played in industry by the many commodities
handled in Standard Tank Cars and tank cars in
general. It is presented as an interesting and in-
structive treatise on the vital service of tank cars,
with the hope that each and all of us connected with
the wide and important employment of liquids
in industry may gain a clearer view of our func-
tions as they are related to the work of the nation
and the world, and secure some larger measure of
inspiration from our daily tasks.
COPYRIGHT 1920
STANDARD TANK CAR COMPANY
NEW YORK, PITTSBURGH, ST. Louis, CHICAGO
Prepared and written by
D'ARCY ADVERTISING COMPANY
ST. Louis
INTRODUCTION
The Service of the Tank Car
HE man who wants to know what the industrial
world is doing today, with the new post-bellum
vision before us, could not get a Cook's guide, but
he can find a directory to the vital spots no less accurate than
the sophisticated gentlemen who lead our school girl parties
to the Old World seats of history, romance and art. The
itinerary, covering the whole country, would be traced in
the journeys of the railroad tank car.
It is remarkable how one unit in our vast industrial system
can so closely weave itself into the warp and woof of the
whole. The tank car, the common carrier of liquids, is as
vital in its sphere as the coal car is to the activities it serves.
Moreover, the tank car has in its construction such engineer-
ing features as prohibit substitutes placing it in this respect
in a class among railway transports comparable only to
refrigerator cars for perishable foodstuffs.
Just as to know American industries one must follow the
tank car, to know the tank car one must consider the indus-
tries.
Obviously, the first on the list is the petroleum industry.
This industry brought the tank car into existence and caused
11
its development to its present perfection. Its demands have
had a tremendous effect on the growth of other liquid indus-
tries and, through its employment of the tank car, it revealed
to all of them efficient methods of transportation.
The petroleum industry feeds power to innumerable
motors that have revolutionized civilized life, turns the
evening into lighted hours in even the remotest abodes of
mankind. It lubricates the world's machinery, supplies
fuel to giant furnaces and engines on land and to the ships
of our Navy and Merchant Marine, and provides an ever
increasing number of products for various benefits all
made possible largely through the efficiency of the tank car.
Do you know the story of how millions of dollars annually
were wasted in cotton seed before the manufacture and uses
of cotton seed oil were developed? This valuable oil, now
the base of many foods, is brought to market in the tank car,
an 8,000 gallon tank car being the standard of measure of
quantity on the Eastern Market.
Cotton seed oil is but one of many valuable vegetable oils
with which the tank car serves industry.
Manufacturers of paints and varnishes, weavers of silk
and fine cotton goods, producers of soap, makers of roofing,
builders of streets and roads, tanners of leather, foundries
and rolling mills and a long list of other industries depend
upon the tank car to deliver to them the necessary quantities
of commercial liquids.
12
The tank car is handling more and more foodstuffs, in-
cluding molasses, wine, vinegar, pickles, skimmed milk and
water.
You can point to scarcely a manufactured article about you
that the tank car has not had a part in the making of. Take
the glass in the window before you. The tank car carried the
sulphuric acid and other ingredients that went into its mak-
ing. The printed sheet before your eyes rosin and linseed
oil, shipped in the tank car, helped make the paper and the
ink.
Chemistry, which has played such a dominant part in the
development of petroleum, has built an industrial world with
other products acids, salts and alkalies. Through the
mastery of the tank car over dangerous liquid chemicals,
industrial America is served with many of its primary ingre-
dients.
America no longer is dependent on the old world for
aniline dyes. By-products from coal have given these
materials and many other commodities that are essential to
many manufactories, and you must have the tank car to
transport coal-tar and its distillates.
The tank car's use is measured by industry itself. Its
influence does not stop with the cities but touches every
town and hamlet, even the most isolated farm. America's
dependence on the tank car is far greater than most men
realize.
Just suppose for a moment that the tank car was elimi-
nated.
13
Some years ago an impending strike of coal miners in
England threatened a parallel case. The late William T.
Stead, famous English journalist, cabled a dispatch to
American newspapers which began with this terse sentence :
"England today is on the brink of Hell."
English industry could not live without coal and the
nation could not live without its industries. Just so with
the tank car there would be a stopping of wheels and a
halting of manufacturing and business if the tank car did
not "carry on."
The future of the tank car is great as the futures of
the petroleum industry, industrial chemicals, vegetable oils
and the great kingdom of industrial liquids are great; for
the tank car is not of that class of machinery which time soon
makes obsolete. Fundamentally, the tank car is as stable
as the box car; and as it has been adjusted to meet the
peculiar requirements of each industry it serves, so it
improves with each new demand for it.
The consciousness of the scope of this vital service is
expressed in the engineering and mechanical perfection of
Standard Tank Cars. Adjustments adapt them to the
whole wide variety of liquid transportation always with
reliability.
"Standard Tank Car Journeys," while a study of the use
of tank cars in general, actually is an account of the employ-
ment of Standard Tank Cars. Every industry requiring
modern liquid transportation has commanded the study and
14
effort of the Standard Tank Car Company to supply its
particular need.
The journeys are many, each with its own distinct inter-
est where the various commodities come from and where
they go. Glimpses of each of the separate routes finally
combine to form the full and complete picture of the services
of Standard Tank Cars a picture that tells the story of
tank cars in general.
16
CHAPTER I
Petroleum
History of Petroleum and its Products, Tracing
the Development of their Uses Occurrence
of Petroleum in the United States
and Foreign Countries
HERE is no magic in the "Arabian Nights" like the
true story of petroleum. Known since the begin-
ning of recorded history, it remained for our own
time and largely to our country to win its great wealth and
speed industry into what many term the "Oil Age."
Petroleum has relieved human hands of much onerous
toil and provided many delights that are personified in the
motor boat and the automobile. Yet the thought that grips
the imagination strongest is of the huge fortunes that come
to those who discover the great reservoirs of crude oil that
are hidden deep down in the crust of the earth.
We learn of the ancient history of petroleum from Hero-
dotus, who refers to the oil pits near Babylon, and from
Pliny, who mentions illuminating oil from Sicily. The
ancient Chinese and Japanese used it for heating and light-
ing and for medicinal purposes, calling it "burning water."
The American Indians knew of its possibilities as a fuel
16
and used it for healing purposes 300 years ago, securing
their supply by skimming pools and creeks. But time made
little impression on its use until the latter half of the nine-
teenth century.
The swift movement of the industry to its present state is
shown most graphically by what it has done to some of the
ancient race of Red Men who first discovered the oil in
America. An example is the Osages, who were shipped
to a reservation that now is a part of Oklahoma. A tribe
of more than 2,000 draws an annual royalty of more than
$5,000 each from oil lands that have been leased through the
government.
Geological science, which now speaks with authority on
the sources of petroleum, played a minor part in the dis-
covery of most of the world's supply. Chance, the spirit of
adventure and common sense, those qualities that have given
the white man dominion over the earth, revealed the great
oil fields. The conflict between the two viewpoints con-
tinues today, for while geologists claim that the sources are
limited and rather clearly defined, especially in the United
States, many successful oil men believe that before many
years oil will be discovered in every State in the Union.
As to the origin of the oil, the explanation of the geologist
prevails, though the subject long was in dispute between
scientific minds. The theory is that petroleum is the product
of distillation within the crust of the earth of marine organ-
isms, sometimes vegetable and sometimes animal, and under
normal temperature and pressure. These organisms sank
in death, perhaps millions of years ago, to the bottom of the
17
sea and under the pressure of water were covered over with
ooze and sand. Through the centuries they decomposed
and were distilled. The great geological changes in the
crust of the earth raised sea bottoms to wide plains, uphea-
vals made mountains and valleys.
The great pressure from these changes forced the oil from
the rocks and sand where it was absorbed and made pools
of it.
The force of gases from the liquid caused great pressure
on the walls of these subterranean pools and the first dis-
coveries of petroleum were the result of oil oozing out on
the earth's surface. Even great pools were laid bare to the
sky, as evidenced by the Trinidad asphalt lake. This won-
derful lake, scientists tell us, is a petroleum pool from which
the volatile oils have evaporated.
A point of more human interest is a means of discovering
petroleum deposits that have not revealed themselves on the
earth's surface. Long ago the known oil fields have been
taken up. The rapidly increasing demand for the oil and
its products have shifted the opportunity of large profits to
the discovery of new fields. Geologists have evolved the
theory of "anticlines and synclines," by which oil is located
in anticlines. The anticlines do not reveal themselves to
the layman eye, but they are what once were mountains that
time has eroded. A study of the rock formations identify
them, the anticlines being the stumps of former mountains
and the synclines the valleys. The oil is in the anticlines
because gravity forces it above water that extends to the
18
Courtesy of Oil News, Chicago.
COL. E. L. DRAKE
The man who drilled the first oil well and who now is honored
with anniversary celebrations by oil men.
synclines. Often several pools exist one beneath the other,
separated by strata of sand and rock.
The first reference to petroleum in America was an obser-
vation of its use by the Indians by a Franciscan missionary
in 1627. After collecting it from the surface of creeks and
pools, they boiled it in kettles and used it as a cure for
sprains, swelling and rheumatism. What the white man did
about it is not known until 1826, when it was collected in a
manner similar to that of the Indians, strained through
woolen fabrics, and used on sores in the manner pointed
out by the Indians.
The value of the oil grew rapidly in appreciation. The
knowledge of the ancients that it was suitable for illumina-
tion was rediscovered, and crude processes of refining and
purification were evolved. Along Paint Creek, Johnson
County, Kentucky, they dug shallow canals to catch the
sand and water from the creek and got the oil from the top
by stirring the flow with poles. Efforts were made to mine
the oil by hand-dug wells where petroleum was evident.
Hand-dug wells played an important part in its early indus-
try in Russia and Rumania. In Rumania they sunk wells
of this type, which were some five feet in diameter, as deep
as 450 feet. The oil was baled out in earthen and leather
vessels by means of a windlass.
Simple methods of refining that were in practice before
the dawn of the eighteenth century were greatly improved
before the real beginning of the oil industry. The Cossacks
distilled the product from the Caucasus before using it for
19
combustion. Crude petroleum was experimentally distilled
in the United States in 1833. An insufficient supply of the
raw material was the great drawback, and to get supplies of
illumination oil, a considerable industry in distilling coal,
or shale, oil was developed on Long Island.
The impetus to the modern industry came in 1859, when
E. L. Drake, a railroad conductor from New York, went out
prospecting in Pennsylvania and struck oil in a well on
Oil Creek.
Drake employed the plan of modern drilling. He had
sunk a well 69 feet when suddenly the tools dropped into a
crevice. The crevice was a pool of petroleum, which for a
time produced 25 barrels a day but rapidly declined. Never-
theless, he opened the way to the great supply, and from that
date the industry has grown and still is growing by leaps
and bounds.
The following table gives an idea of the progress in sup-
plying crude petroleum in the United States :
1859 2,000 barrels
1869 4,215,000 barrels
1879 19,914,146 barrels
1889 35,163,513 barrels
1899 57,084,428 barrels
1906 126,493,936 barrels
1918 345,500,000 barrels
There has been no hit or miss policy in refining petroleum
and applying it to usage. Here science, especially chem-
istry, has held undisputed sway, expanding its market with
20
the progression of the years so that nearly always, as par-
ticularly today, the supply has been below the demand.
Its first use as a medicine still is approved by physicians
in the wide employment of "Vaseline," a salve, and "Nujol,"
a clear liquid for the treatment of constipation. Similar
products to these have a wide application in medicine.
Next came its use as an illuminant. Drake's discovery
virtually put the coal oil industry out of business, but the
shale oil machinery was adapted to handling petroleum and
served as the forerunner of modern refineries. This early
method of providing illumination oil caused kerosene for
a long time to be called "coal oil." For forty years kerosene
served as the principal petroleum product. There is no finer
commentary on American business than the world-wide use
of American kerosene, extending to the remotest parts of
China and India. Wherever the traveler may roam he will
find the tin container, frequently adapted to various domes-
tic uses, showing that the American oil merchant has pre-
ceded him.
Along with the manufacture of kerosene was the produc-
tion of lubricants. Some of the more viscous oils were suit-
able as lubricants without refining. Refining and further
treatment quickly brought them to the point of industry's
principal supply of lubricants. Today it virtually would
be impossible to provide suitable substitutes. Vegetable
and animal oils thicken and rust with use, serving satisfac-
torily in most machines only when blended with petroleum
products. A moment's reflection on this phase of petro-
21
leum's usefulness is illuminating. Proper lubricants are as
vital to modern industry as the power that drives the wheels.
It was obvious from the beginning that petroleum was
suitable as a fuel. The difficulties of providing a uniform
fire were overcome by the invention of oil burners, by means
of which the crude oil, and later the heavier oils from the
refineries, were sprayed into furnaces by steam or compressed
air. Oil fuel saves labor in firing furnaces and adds to con-
venience. Oils are more easily transported than coal. In
certain parts of the country, particularly the Southwest and
California, coal was inadequate and inaccessible to the
industries that have grown up. Because they give to war-
ships the maximum fuel, which tends to high speed and
more effective range of action, fuel oils have come into great
use in the navies of the world. Our late dreadnaughts are
oil burners. In the construction of our Merchant Marine
the future of fuel oils is expanded. To the other advantages
is added the reduction of crews and availability of greater
space for cargoes.
Something of what the future still holds is indicated by
the growing use of the crude oil engines, which use plain
petroleum in internal combustion.
The possibilities of illumination, lubrication and fuel
from petroleum had been grasped and applied before the
greatest present demand of petroleum was understood that
of gasoline. Most encyclopedias and dictionaries that we
have in our bookshelves don't even contain the word "gaso-
line." In the earlier petroleum industry the more volatile
oils were designated as naphtha. In the quantities in which
22
Courtesy of Oil News, Chicago.
THE FIRST OIL WELL
The well was drilled by Col. Drake on Oil Creek, Pennsylvania,
in 1859. It produced 25 barrels a day for one year, although
it was only 69% feet deep. In the foreground is Col Drake,
the man with the silk hat, talking to his friend, Peter Wilson.
The photograph was taken by John A . Mather on August 17, 1861.
C "5
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v y ~
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Vi C
they came off in the production of other petroleum products
they were regarded as commercially worthless, and many oil
companies burned vast quantities to get rid of them.
The invention and development of the internal com-
bustion motor transformed the industry. Petroleum is the
only source of gasoline, whence comes the power for auto-
mobiles, tractors, airplanes and hundreds of other types of
motors for innumerable purposes. Gasoline is a distinct
component of petroleum and naphtha is the name of the
next most volatile grade of oil. Means are being improved
for employing naphtha and even the heavier kerosene in
internal combustion motors. But when we get away from
petroleum there is no other source of power for these
engines. During the war, the Germans, with a shortage of
petroleum, diligently sought substitutes, but neither they
nor anyone else have been successful.
We have reviewed the great uses of petroleum and its
products. Minor ones are numerous, increasing from day
to day as scientists give more and more study to the subject.
The time long since has arrived when no part of petroleum
is thrown to waste. While the demand for gasoline taxes
heaviest the supply, the need of the world for the other prod-
ucts is sufficient to keep up the maximum production of
gasoline without loss on the other products. The progress
of the industry has been so swift in recent years that the
government has stepped in with the watchword, "conser-
vation."
The gas from petroleum, whether from gas or oil wells, is
consumed in lighting, heating and cooking. Gas oils are
23
used in the production of "air gas," oil gas and for the
enrichment of coal gas. Gasoline is employed in cleaning
processes.
The residuum from petroleum distillation is valuable.
What it is depends upon the crude petroleum used, there
being three distinct types, determined by the base. Some
petroleums have paraffin as a base, some have paraffin and
asphalt mixed, and some have asphalt. The oils of Penn-
sylvania and Texas have a paraffin base while those of Cali-
fornia and Mexico have an asphalt base.
Paraffin is a wax and is used in making candles and wax-
ing paper, in protective paints, as an adulterant in candy
and chewing gum and for many household purposes.
Asphalt is employed in highway construction, the more
or less pure asphalt being utilized in paving and the more
oily substance being most useful as a road oil. A large
amount is consumed in the manufacture of roofing.
As a final residuum a high grade coke may be obtained,
which is used in making carbons for electric batteries and
arc lights.
Between the source of petroleum and the consumption of
its products is the petroleum industry itself. The industry
is divided into three great branches the extraction of the
oil from the ground, the refining processes and transporta-
tion. The three go hand and hand together, having devel-
oped simultaneously, each supporting the other, during
sixty years of strenuous history.
24
=<:
^5 ^3
7-1? 5
On the heels of Drake's discovery, there came into being
what is now familiarly known as an oil field a landscape
studded with high tapering derricks for the suspension of
the drilling rigs.
The wells are about eight inches in diameter and the first
ones were drilled by the percussion method ; that is, the drill-
ing tools were suspended on a cable and a walking beam
kept the tools pounding away through the strata.
The modern method of drilling is the rotary system. The
debut of this system was made in Texas some fourteen years
ago, and, because of its speed and efficiency, no less than
20,000 wells have been drilled with it. The system simply
is a rigid stem of iron pipe rotating a fish-tail drilling bit,
very much as a screw makes its way into wood.
While in the percussion system the tools have to be re-
moved from the well to clean it, in the rotary system the pul-
verized strata are forced up by a stream of water reaching the
head of the drill. Sometimes, when the walls of the well are
likely to cave, pressure-fed mud is used in the place of the
water. This mud serves the double purpose of removing
the debris and plastering the walls of the well. The walls
of a well always should be lined, and this is properly done
with iron piping.
When a field is discovered, the landscape soon is filled
with the tapering derricks. If the land is divided into small
holdings, as in a town, or no restraints are imposed, wells
sometimes are sunk as thick as space will permit. There
are many stories in oil districts of fabulous sums being
25
offered for small plots that were regarded as sacred, such
as church lots and cemeteries. In oil towns people do not
hesitate to bore wells in their own front yards. Neverthe-
less, authorities agree that one well to an acre is as close as
they should be. The great trouble is that the proper spot
for drilling can not be determined with accuracy, and the
hope of winning oil often tempts men to ridiculous efforts.
The wells vary in depth from a few hundred to several
thousand feet. What dramatic possibilities there are in
bringing in a gusher, a well that flows out at the top, is illus-
trated by the famous "Dos Bocas" well which was drilled
by a British company in Northern Vera Cruz, Mexico, in
1906.
The rotary drill had gone down 1,800 feet when a heavy
gas pressure developed. In a few minutes a great stream
of oil flung the heavy drill out and put the well absolutely
beyond control. Fissures appeared in the ground some
distance from the well, one opening at the fire box and
starting a fire. It is said that the flames shot up to 1,000 feet
in height. For fifty-eight days this "mad gusher" burned
in fury, its glare being visible from many miles at sea.
Millions of gallons of oil went to waste. One of the efforts
to preserve the precious fluid was by building up dirt banks
to hold it in ponds.
The same company brought in another well in Mexico
which ranks as perhaps the largest in the history of the
industry. This well, "Protero del Llano," had a daily flow
of over 125,000 barrels.
26
Copyright liy Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
OPENING A GUSHER IN THE TAMPICO FIELD
The dream of the oil miner is realized when a well flows as a
gusher. It means the discovery of a rich field. Soon the area
is covered with numerous wells, for the great demand for petroleum
products makes a ready market for all the crude oil that can
be 'produced.
I
1 1
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Set
8 !!
On the other hand thousands of wells have been drilled
that proved entirely dry. This is the cause of the hazard
in the business. To drill a deep well at the present time will
cost from $50,000 to $100,000. The opportunities for strik-
ing shallow deposits yearly become more rare.
Sometimes wells produce only gas, and frequently purely
gas fields are developed. The history of all producing oil
wells is a diminishing supply to the point of exhaustion, the
result being that in a developed field more and more wells
are required to keep up the supply.
Large oil companies have sought to eliminate as much as
possible the element of chance in drilling for oil. They
maintain staffs of trained geologists and usually spend
money for drilling only in proved fields. Drilling in un-
proved fields is known as "wildcatting" and, while great
quantities of oil have been found through such ventures,
the work is carried on largely by small operators.
Much of the drilling is done on leased lands. The de-
posits in the Indian reservation are worked in this way. The
terms are a royalty on the oil produced.
Properly conducted oil companies have tanks built in
advance in which to store the flow from a possible gusher.
Producing wells may be sealed up, but someone else may
tap the same reservoir a short distance away and extract
much of its content. When pipe lines and tank cars to con-
duct the oil to a refinery are not immediately available, big
iron tanks are built to store it.
27
In studying the exhaustion of wells, the United States
Bureau of Mines has announced the conclusion that from
twenty to ninety per cent of the oil in tapped reservoirs
remains absorbed in rocks and sand. A practice with oil
men, when a well slows down to an unprofitable point, is to
"shoot" the well with explosives. Vacuum pumps and
compressed air are used to increase the flow. Government
investigation probably will lead to still better methods of
reviving dead fields.
The early method of refining petroleum was to distill frac-
tionally the crude petroleum, that is, the separation of its
various components.
The compound petroleum is made up of gas and liquids
of various boiling points. The principal liquids, in the
order of their volatility, are gasoline, naphtha, kerosene, a
range of lubricating oils, fuel oils and road oils.
Different liquids evaporate at different rates under the
same conditions. Heat speeds the evaporation. Fractional
distillation is to take off the gasoline first and follow it up
with the less volatile oils, the final residue being asphalt or
paraffin.
Originally this distillation was accomplished in big metal
stills with fires underneath. The fires greatly affected the
product, causing caking of the material at the bottom of the
still, so superheated steam was introduced, the steam carry-
ing off the vapors as soon as they are freed.
The whole refining industry was revolutionized by the
introduction of the cracking process. This process was dis-
28
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covered by the observation that many distillates were not
the same as appeared in the original composition. The frac-
tional distillation had caused a certain chemical as well as
a physical decomposition. Through the accidental over-
heating of a still, it was found that distinct heavy oils were
broken up into lighter oils. Since the desire of the refiner
was to secure as much gasoline and lighter oils as possible,
because of their higher value, the cracking process imme-
diately was developed. Its possibilities are by no means yet
exhausted.
The principle of cracking is to distill the oil in a heat
greater than its boiling point. A simple application is to
have the top part of a still relatively cool. As the vapors
rise they strike the cool area, condense and drop back into
a heat that is higher than their boiling point, and are cracked
into smaller units.
There are a number of methods for applying the crack-
ing process. One, owned by The Standard Oil Company,
is known as the Burton process. Another is called the
Rittman process. Their details vary, but with none of them
is the refining of petroleum products completed. Gasoline
and kerosene especially need further treatment.
This is done by successive treatment with sulphuric acid
and caustic soda, followed by washing with water. The
acid and the soda eliminate the suspended hydrocarbons,
the fats, acids, tarry bodies and other impurities, the sul-
phuric acid removing some and the caustic soda taking the
remainder along with whatever sulphuric acid has been left
in the oil. Lubricating oils also are similarly treated for
29
adaptation to the wide variety of their usage. The oils used
in medicines are products of still more delicate refining.
In the treatment of paraffin oils, there are methods of
cooling and solidifying the paraffin and removing it as a
wax.
An old source of waste that has been corrected was the gas
that comes off as the first product of distillation. This gas
is treated to take from it its gasoline content, a process that
is described under "Casinghead Gasoline." The gas is then
employed for heating and lighting.
The third vital phase of the petroleum industry is trans-
portation. It has had a bearing of no less importance than
refining.
With the first development of the wells in Upper Burma,
they followed the crude method of carrying the oil from the
wells to the river in earthen vessels and pouring it into the
holds of ships. The Russians early conceived the idea of
pipe lines and built a famous aqueduct of bamboo, but the
wastage from leaks soon proved it useless. The Asiatics
resorted to simple man-drawn carts on which they would
load oil in earthen vessels.
Transportation of oil in America passed through the
stages of barrels on horse-drawn vehicles and the use of
wooden containers on river barges. The lack of adequate
roads greatly handicapped the horse-drawn wagons and the
barges depended on freshets to swell the streams. Floating
barrels of oil down creeks even was resorted to in the early
days of the Pennsylvania field.
30
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Other industries in which it plays a necessary part are as
follows :
The manufacture of printing inks, and in lithography ; the
manufacture of patent leathers; as a solvent for waxes in
shoe and leather polishes, and in floor varnishes and furni-
ture polishes ; as a solvent for waterproofing, for rubber and
similar substances; in refining petroleum illuminating oils;
as an ingredient in belting greases; as an insecticide; in
laundry glosses, washing preparations, stove polishes and
sealing wax ; a raw material in synthetic camphor and, indi-
rectly, celluloid, explosives, fireworks and many medicines ;
in the manufacture of disinfectants, liniments, poultices,
medicated soaps, ointments and internal remedies; in pro-
ducing terpineol, and last, but not least, as an indispensable
article in the family medicine chest.
The greatest use of rosin is in the manufacture of soap
and in surfacing writing and printing paper. Other uses
are in the manufacture of varnishes and paint driers, in
waterproofing compounds, in roofing materials, in leather
dressings and shoe polishes, in sealing wax and shoemakers'
wax, in the making of linoleum and oil cloth, in dry batter-
ies and electrical insulations, as a lubricant for high speed
machinery, in steel hardening, floor waxes and polishes, in
disinfectant sweeping materials, in cements, in printing inks,
in rubber substitutes, axle grease, to dust molds in foundries,
in many pharmaceutical preparations, and for innumerable
minor purposes.
Turpentine requires a clean tank car. Some shippers paint
the inside of the cars with white enamel to show off the qual-
47
ity of the spirits, but most of them merely shellac the interior
to prevent the metal from discoloring the turpentine.
For rosin a standard car without coils is used.
For pitch a coiled car must be used in order to melt it
with steam before unloading it. After once having been
used for pitch, the cars are unfit for anything else but crude
and fuel oils, as they are very difficult to clean.
48
CHAPTER V
Alcohol
Ethyl and Methyl
WO kinds of alcohol play a big part in industry
today ethyl alcohol, or the spirit of fermented
liquors, and methyl alcohol, or wood alcohol.
While the former is much more useful, efforts of govern-
ments to circumscribe its use for beverages for a long time
greatly retarded its commercial development and caused
methyl alcohol frequently to be substituted for it. The great-
est restriction on its production was a heavy tax; but this
tax on denatured alcohol was removed on January 1, 1907,
by an act of the United States Congress, and now even unde-
natured alcohol pays no excise duty, when it is to be used,
under license, in medicine and drugs and for the manufac-
ture of explosives.
Denatured ethyl alcohol generally is known as industrial
alcohol. It is a light colorless liquid, secured from vege-
table sources. The process of manufacture is its conversion,
through fermentation and distillation, from starchy and
saccharin matter, the product being separated, concentrated
and rectified.
49
There is a wide range of materials from which alcohol
may be obtained; namely, corn, rye, barley, rice, sugar beets,
both white and sweet potatoes, and sugar-cane molasses. The
main sources for production on a commercial scale, how-
ever, are corn and sugar-cane molasses. Alcohol may be
made from sugar beets, but the beet molasses is more suit-
able as an ingredient of cattle feed.
The first step in its manufacture is to clean the material
of all dirt, stone, trash, et cetera. Then a mash is made, and
after the first stages of fermentation have been reached, cul-
tured yeast cells are put in. The chemical action is that the
starch and saccharin matter are turned to sugar, and the
yeast attacks the sugar, splitting it into alcohol and carbon
dioxide.
The fermentation virtually is the same as that which takes
place in the making of wine, except that cultured yeast cells
are added, while the must of grapes supply their own, and
the making of alcohol is not nearly so delicate a matter as
the fermenting of a wine that must have a particular taste
and quality.
Long as fermentation has been employed by man, it is
only in recent years that its chemistry has been understood.
Pasteur propounded the theory that "it was life without
air." He considered that the action of the yeast on the sugar
was caused by its thirst for oxygen. The theory now accepted
is that there is a substance in the yeast known as enzym,
50
which acts upon sugar like digestive juices. This has been
proved by expressing the juice from the yeast cells and then
applying it to sugar, with the result of fermentation.
But the analogy to wine ends with the fermentation, for
the alcohol is obtained from the mash by distillation. It is
purified and rectified by a repetition of the process of dis-
tillation. Its volatility being of a different degree to that
of water, fusil oil and the other elements with which it is
mixed, it can easily be separated by distillation to a state of
purity of from ninety to ninety-five per cent. If absolute
alcohol is required, it can be secured through the use of
quicklime, metallic sodium or other chemicals, but for gen-
eral uses distillation carries it far enough.
Its denaturing is accomplished by the addition of wood
alcohol, benzol or such other liquid as will destroy its char-
acter as a beverage and make it unfit for use as a medicine.
The denaturing liquids are usually poisonous and very
unpleasant to the taste. Government regulations specify
their proportions. The alcohol can again be purified but
it is far easier to make raw whiskey than to go through the
process.
Valuable as it is in industry, ethyl alcohol has many prop-
erties that as yet are but little utilized. Except for cheaper
petroleum and coal products, it would serve as an illuminat-
ing oil, as power for motors, and for heating and cooking.
Though it is not now a competitor of gasoline, some day it
may be.
Alcohol is required in quantities in the manufacture of
smokeless powders. Mercuric fulminate, one of the most
51
useful high explosives known, is formed by the action of
mercurous nitrate on alcohol. This form of explosive is
employed principally in cap composition, fuses and deto-
nators.
Alcohol's greatest use in industry and in the arts is due
to its power as a solvent. It readily dissolves most organic
compounds, resins, fatty acids, many metallic salts and
hydrocarbons. This property gives it high value in medi-
cine, particularly since in composition of ten per cent and
more it is an antiseptic. Many liniments are largely alco-
holic. If applied to the skin, alcohol evaporates rapidly,
having a cooling effect that reduces fever, expands the blood
vessels and produces a mild counter-irritant. It also has
an effect on the secretion of the juices in the stomach which
tends to relieve pain.
Alcohol, of course, is the intoxicating quantity in beers,
wines and liquors.
It is important in the manufacture of varnishes and lac-
quers. Shellac gum with alcohol makes spirit varnish. Other
uses are in making of sulphuric and acetic acid, ether,
chloroform, photographic films, both dry plates and papers ;
aniline colors and dyes and flavoring extracts.
Human suffering has been greatly alleviated by the uses
of ether and chloroform as anaesthetics. Ether also is
employed in smokeless powder, to manufacture artificial silk
and for refrigerating purposes.
52
The government has not discontinued its supervision of
alcohol, and for its shipping very tight tank cars with seal-
ing devices are required.
Wood Alcohol
Wood, or methyl, alcohol is secured through the destruc-
tive distillation of wood. It is called destructive distilla-
tion because the process destroys the wood, dividing it into
its distillates and charcoal. The favorite woods for mak-
ing this product are maple, birch and beech, and the dis-
tilleries are located where such woods are available.
The process is dry distillation. The wood, cut into uni-
form blocks, is packed into steel cars and rolled into big
ovens. The distilled spirit passes out through the neck of
a huge retort and charcoal is left in the cars. To prevent
the charcoal from bursting into flames when it is removed
in a high state of heat, it is placed in compartments to which
air has no access.
The product of the first distillation contains many ele-
ments and it must be distilled again and again to obtain any-
thing like pure methyl alcohol. In the second distillation,
wood naphtha and crude acetic acid come off, leaving tar,
creosote and heavy fuel oils. The tar and heavy fuel oils
are sufficient to furnish heat for the operation of the dis-
tillery. They are burned by a jet of steam which sprays
the heavy liquid over the furnace, just as the heavy oils
from petroleum are used for fuel. The distillate is now
neutralized with lime and again distilled. This time wood
naphtha comes off and leaves acetate of lime. From this
53
latter product chloroform, acetic acid and acetone are made,
which have a use in the manufacture of explosives and in
various other industries.
Heavy and tarry bodies are further removed from the
wood naphtha by distillation, and then it is sent to a refinery
where it is purified with lime and other alkalis, the final
product being wood alcohol.
In modern methods a cord of wood will yield some twelve
gallons of wood alcohol.
Highly refined methyl alcohol is hard to distinguish from
ethyl alcohol, except that it is poisonous and very distasteful.
Abroad it is the favorite denaturing agent for ethyl alcohol.
For many purposes it is a good substitute for ethyl alcohol.
Its consumption also is embraced in the manufacture of
formaldehyde, in aniline dyes, and in the preparation of
different varnishes.
54
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Sulphuric Acid
The Making and Use of this Most Important of
Commercial Chemicals
ECAUSE of the quantities in which it is produced
and the multifarious uses to which it is put, sul-
phuric acid is the most important of all commer-
cial chemicals. In fact, it has been said that the degree of
a nation's industrial progress can be measured by its con-
sumption of sulphuric acid.
The essentials in the production of the acid are the burn-
ing of sulphur, or sulphur dioxide, and combining the sul-
phur dioxide thus formed with more oxygen and water. In
industry this is accomplished by a number of processes;
sometimes for the direct production of sulphuric acid but
often as a by-product, as in the smelting of sulphur ores.
Sulphur is found in considerable quantities in the free
state as brimstone, especially in Louisiana. Brimstone is
easily burned; once started it will continue without any
extraneous help. It gives off fumes in the form of sulphur
dioxide. These fumes are collected in a dome over the kiln
and conducted by a flue into chambers for further treatment.
55
To be converted into sulphuric acid, the sulphur dioxide
must have added two parts of oxygen and two parts of
hydrogen. Water will supply the hydrogen and one part
of the oxygen. To give the needed part of oxygen, an
oxide of nitrogen or some other oxygen carrier is intro-
duced. One of the principal materials used is vapor of
nitric acid.
The reactions that follow are very complicated, though
it is well understood how they must be conducted. An im-
portant feature is that the chambers must be constructed
of sheet lead, for the acid would attack and destroy almost
any other material, and they must be of large proportions.
Several chambers usually are connected, with the fumes to
be treated sent in at one end and certain waste gases allowed
to escape at the other. The water is introduced as steam.
The liquid acid that forms is good commercial sulphuric
acid.
Means have been devised for conserving nitric acid and
using it over again.
There are many variations in the machinery in which
the fumes from the brimstone are converted into sulphuric
acid. Many refinements have been invented, particular
effort being directed to reducing the lead chambers. Never-
theless, the principles of all are virtually the same.
But a much larger percentage of sulphuric acid is pro-
duced from pyrites copper, iron and zinc sulphides than
from free brimstone. As a by-product of smelting, sul-
phuric acid has become both necessary and very profitable.
56
A copper smelting plant was established at Ducktown,
Tenn., some years ago to handle the product of pyrites
mines there. No attention was given to the escaping sul-
phur fumes. Very soon there were strenuous protests from
the farmers about. The fumes were killing all forests,
crops and vegetation over a wide area.
The result of the situation was the passage of a State law
requiring the fumes to be confined. The company con-
formed to the requirements, and now its production of
sulphuric acid is a more important item than that of copper.
The first part of the smelting of pyrites ore consists in
roasting it, that is, the oxidation of the sulphur and iron.
Started with coke, it will continue through the power of its
own heat. Sulphur dioxide passes off in fumes. In large
plants a number of kilns are arranged in a row with an
arch-shaped roof to conduct the fumes to a common flue.
The kilns or burners are regularly recharged with ore so
as to give a constant flow of the fumes. The fumes are
collected and conducted into chambers for the treatment,
which has been described, that converts it into sulphuric
acid.
Pure sulphuric acid is a colorless, odorless liquid of an
oily consistency. It is poisonous. It will attack most metals
and to be transported must have tank cars of special con-
struction. For a weak solution the tanks must be lead lined
and for strong solutions there are special compositions for the
lining. The acid is unloaded by compressed air through a
pipe extending from the dome to the bottom of the tank.
57
Great quantities of sulphuric acid are used in purifying
most kinds of oils. It clears them of all sorts of suspended
and extraneous matter. Many vegetable oils, such as cot-
ton seed oil, are made fit for food through purification by
sulphuric acid. It takes away the odor and leaves the oils
bright and clear. It is used to "sweeten" gasoline by per-
fecting the work of distillation.
It cleans or "pickles" iron in its preparation for tinning
or galvanizing.
In the manufacture of artificial dyes and coloring matter
from coal-tar products, it is employed as a dryer.
In fertilizers it serves as a solvent for phosphate.
It is most useful in the production of nitric acid, and
with nitric acid in the forming of nitroglycerin and nitro-
cellulose, which are in great demand for explosives.
Through its quality of separating acids from their salts,
we have its use in the manufacture of soda ash, soap, glass
and bleaching powder.
The modern method of making fuming sulphuric acid is
known as the contact process. Sulphur dioxide and air are
passed over finely divided platinum at a suitable tempera-
ture, when they combine to form sulphur dioxide. The
dioxide is dissolved in sulphuric acid, making the fuming
acid.
58
CHAPTER VII
Muriatic Acid
Another Primary Ingredient of Many
Industries
HE production of muriatic acid, known in chem-
istry as hydrochloric acid, by the action of sul-
phuric acid on salt, was in progress before its
commercial value was appreciated. The industry was the
manufacture of salt cake or sodium sulphate, which largely
was consumed in the making of glass. In this process salt
or brine was heated with concentrated sulphuric acid.
Sodium sulphate was formed and the freed muriatic acid
gas escaped as fumes.
This was years before the Ducktown experience with sul-
phuric acid, and it was in England, but a similar situation
developed. The fumes killed the vegetation and the English
Government passed a law requiring that they be confined.
This law led to a large scale production of muriatic acid
and its principal source as a commercial article still is a
by-product in the production of salt cake, in the United
States as well as in England.
The confined fumes are conducted to water and there
absorbed, for water greedily assimilates it. The solution is
the commercial form of muriatic acid.
59
Another process for its manufacture is known as Har-
greave's process. This consists in passing a mixture of
sulphuric dioxide, air and steam over highly heated salt.
Sodium sulphate and muriatic acid again are formed and
the acid is absorbed in water, as in the salt cake method.
In neither case is the acid pure, but in industry it seldom
is required in an absolutely pure state. The making of the
pure acid can be achieved by distilling pure salt and sul-
phuric acid in platinum retorts.
Here are its principal uses in industry :
In the making of chlorine for the manufacture of bleach-
ing powder; to produce chlorates; in color and dyeing
industries; in purifying coke, iron ores and clay; in a simi-
lar use to sulphuric acid in "pickling" sheet iron by re-
moving dirt and rust and making a clean surface for the
zinc to adhere to in galvanizing; in preparing clay for
the potter, and in producing gold chloride for use in
photography.
Muriatic acid eats the resin out of wood and penetrates
steel. Standard Tank Cars in which it is shipped are con-
structed of wooden tanks inside steel shells, with a compo-
sition of tar and asphalt about two inches thick between
the tanks and the shells. There are no outlets at the bottom
of the tanks, the acid being syphoned out through the dome.
The acid, which is colorless, is comparatively cheap
because there is a greater demand for sodium sulphate than
for this by-product.
60
CHAPTER VIII
Nitric Acid
The Importance of Nitric Acid in the Manufacture
of Explosives
ITRIC ACID, as is shown in the chapter on "Explo-
sives," is the base of the various nitro compounds,
and, therefore, is one of the most important of the
materials for the manufacture of explosives.
Nitric acid is a combination of nitrogen and oxygen.
Because of the abundance of these elements, it easily is
obtainable in unlimited quantities. The very air we breathe
is made up of nitrogen and oxygen, in other proportions.
This fact led to long and diligent efforts to make nitric acid
from air, and finally they have met with considerable success.
It was found that the passage of electric sparks through
moist air produced nitric acid. The principle was applied
industrially, by shooting currents of air through arcs of
electric current of high voltage. This produces nitric oxide,
which is enriched with more oxygen and converted into
nitric acid by being conducted to a stream of water.
Other methods of obtaining nitric acid from air are the
burning of phosphorus in a confined volume of air and by
61
evaporating liquid air. Free nitrogen first is secured and
the nitric acid is prepared by a treatment with water.
Nitric acid also is produced by distillation processes. The
materials used are sulphuric acid and compounds contain-
ing nitre, such as potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate and
Chile saltpetre.
The oxidation of any nitrogenous matter in the presence
of water produces nitric acid.
Under "Sulphuric Acid" it was shown that nitric acid is
used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid from the fumes
of roasting pyrites. Other uses are in the preparation of
coal-tar dyes and to form various nitrates. The most impor-
tant, of course, is in the manufacture of explosives.
Nitric acid is handled in a regular acid tank car in a solu-
tion of about seventy per cent, by weight, of water.
62
=5 5 S.--5
5- 2. s;.*
s ' a <
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
MAKING WALL AND FLOOR TILE
One of the many uses of muriatic acid is in the preparation oj
potters' clay for the making of all sort* of tile and pottery.
CHAPTER IX
Chlorine
The Use of Chlorine in the Development of
Modern Bleaching
OLLOWING the chemical cycle from sulphuric
acid to muriatic acid, we get chlorine from muri-
atic acid. Chlorine is an element, a greenish-yel-
low gas, of a pungent and suffocating smell. While it i?
secured from muriatic acid by combining the hydrogen in
the compound with oxygen, leaving pure chlorine, it also
is obtained by other methods, namely, the ammonia-soda
process of alkali manufacture and by electrolyzing sodium
and potassium chlorides. It is by the last named method
that most of the commercial chlorine is obtained.
Chlorine is liquified under cold and pressure and shipped
in small tanks inside wooden box cars. It may be handled
in large tank cars of special construction, the tanks having
been tested to a pressure of 360 pounds to the square inch.
Chlorine is used in the working of gold into manufac-
tured articles but it plays a far more important part in
industry in the manufacture of bleaching powder. Indeed,
63
it was first introduced in industry as an adjunct to bleach-
ing and its addition there revolutionized that industry.
Bleaching is not only applied to textile fabrics, but it is
used to whiten paper pulp, beeswax, certain oils and other
substances. Without the bleaching of textiles, however,
womankind and mankind, too would be denied the van-
ity of gorgeous raiment, for cotton, wool, silk, flax and the
like are saturated with foreign matters which must be
removed to make them white and prepare them for the dye-
ing that will give them color. Without bleaching the
housewife would be deprived even of white linens.
Bleaching undoubtedly is as old as civilization itself,
because of the obvious fact that continuous washing and
exposure to sunlight of a fabric cleans and whitens it. We
know that in the day of the glories of ancient Egypt, her
white and colored linens were in high repute; and the
Phoenicians must have had a rather perfected process for
bleaching, since the fame of their brilliant purples has come
down to us.
Up until shortly before Americans ceased to be colonists
of the British Empire, Holland had a virtual monopoly of
bleaching. The brown linen of the British Isles was sent
there in March and was not returned until October. The
Dutch method was first to steep the cloth in waste lye and
then give it a week's treatment with boiling potash lye.
After that the cloth was washed and put under pressure in
buttermilk for five or six days, when it was taken out and
spread upon the grass for exposure to sunlight during the
summer months.
64
The treatment of flax was cruder still in Scotland. They
steeped it in cow's dung for the "souring" process, and
wool was treated in stale urine.
The first step toward modern methods was the substitu-
tion of dilute sulphuric acid for the sour milk. It raised a
storm of protest on the grounds that it would injure the
fabrics. Then came chlorine, through the discovery that
it would destroy vegetable coloring and take the place of
the long treatment by sunlight. Yet it was not very suc-
cessful at first because of prejudice against its effect on the
cloth and also because of the difficulties of working with
the dangerous chlorine gas. In 1799, Charles Tennant, of
Glasgow, introduced chloride of lime, or bleaching powder.
The hazards of using chlorine were removed, and all the
essentials of modern bleaching were available.
The treatment of cotton, wool, linen, silk and the other
textiles all differ, both in method and in the machinery
employed. Nevertheless, the principles necessarily are the
same and modern machinery has eliminated the tedious-
ness of nature's slow processes.
The production of chlorine from muriatic acid depends
on the oxidization of the acid, the usual agent being man-
ganese dioxide. Bleaching powder is then prepared by the
absorption of the chlorine in lime. The reactions in
bleaching are secured by the effect of sunlight, or by warm-
ing.
The great demand for chlorine has led to its preparation
as a by-product in the ammonia-soda process of alkali manu-
65
facture. Essentially, this process is the breaking up of salt
by subjecting it to an ammonia vapor and carbon dioxide.
The modern electrolytic process is to pass a current of
electricity through common salt brine. The chlorine gas
at once arises, leaving a residue of caustic soda. The gas
is condensed into liquid chlorine and the soda is purified
for commercial use. During the closing days of the war,
the government was producing 100 tons of chlorine and
112 tons of caustic soda a day at the Edgewood Arsenal.
Great quantities of chlorine were needed for toxic gases
and the plant at Edgewood is the largest chlorine and caus-
tic soda factory in the world.
Bleaching liquids also are made direct by the electrolytic
process but they have in no wise supplanted the bleaching
powder made from chlorine and lime.
CHAPTER X
Caustic Soda
Its Service in the Manufacture of Many Products
and as a Sterilizer
HE modern method of manufacturing caustic soda
is the electrolytic process, as explained under
"Chlorine." However, older methods of alkali
manufacture still are employed to some extent. The oldest
is the Leblanc process, invented in France in 1791, which
was the first method provided to get soda and potash from
their salts.
Before Leblanc's invention the world's sources of soda
and potash were confined to wood and seaweed. Leblanc
won a prize from the French Academy but later died by
his own hand in a workhouse, with no material reward for
his great idea. While his process is more or less obsolete
today, still he was the first to give the world materials for
cheap soap, cheap glass and cheap bleaching.
Another method of manufacturing caustic soda is the
ammonia-soda process.
All three processes the Leblanc, the ammonia-soda and
the electrolytic aim at the same thing, that is the breaking
67
up of salt. The first two require a complicated chemical
treatment of the salt while electrolysis divides the salt into
the desired products almost directly. Through the develop-
ment of cheap electric current from water power, it also
has become the most economical.
Pure caustic soda is a crystalline solid, but it readily dis-
solves in water and is handled in tank cars in a weak solution.
The part it plays in the manufacture of soap is explained
under "Soap." It also is used in the manufacture of paper
textile fabrics, in the preparation of alizarin dyes and of
other coloring matters, in purifying gasoline and other oils
and liquids, and as a sterilizing agent.
68
Copyright by Underwood & l T nderwood, N. Y.
". - - - - '
/ - * ' &i* ' ' *- " ~- ; -
^ KANSAS SALT MINE
You may think of salt only as a condiment, but from it we get
materials for soap, glass and bleaching powder. Two salt
products employed in these industries and transported in tank
cars are chlorine and caustic soda.
CHAPTER XI
Potash
The Great Demand for Potash and the Recent
Efforts to Increase Production in
the United States
OTASH has a considerable use in industrial chem-
istry, but it is most valuable as a fertilizer. What
is meant by potash in chemistry is potassium car-
bonate. It is handled in two forms; hydrated, which is
combined with water, and calcined, which is dried through
heat. The potash for fertilizer is in the form of potash salt.
Potassium carbonate is used in the manufacture of glass,
in the place of sodium carbonate, and in the making of
chromates of potassium, salts employed in the chrome
process of tanning leather. Caustic potash, which is pro-
duced from potassium carbonate in the same way that caus-
tic soda is prepared from sodium carbonate, is in demand
in the making of soap, especially certain soft soaps.
If potash products instead of soda products are desired
in alkali manufacture, the change is made by substituting
potassium chloride for sodium chloride, or in other words,
potassium salts for sodium salts. But until recently Ger-
many virtually had a monopoly of potash manufacture,
69
principally on account of possessing superior raw material.
Practically all potash used in this country was imported
from Germany. Our imports amounted to about 1,000,000
tons a year.
The war, however, brought a great change. Under
stimuli from the United States Government, great efforts
have been made to manufacture our potash supply in this
country. Despite many difficulties, considerable success
has been attained, although the shortage still is acute.
Potash is vital to the production of suitable truck vege-
tables of the South and a lack of it results in a decrease in
the production of cotton and corn. Where the soil is weak
in potash deposit, all crops suffer. Potash is taken out of
the soil and assimilated in the growth of plants.
Most of the potash produced in this country is supplied
by natural brines. A number of small shallow lakes in the
sand hill region of Nebraska have been found to contain
paying deposits. The sub-surface sands are impregnated
with brine and pumped into plants for treatment.
The largest plant in the country is at Searless Lake, Cali-
fornia, operated by the Trona Corporation. Other plants
are located there also. Searless in reality is not a lake but
a salt incrusted valley floor, covering approximately twelve
square miles. The salt is deep and it is estimated that it con-
tains millions of tons of potash.
The Salduro Salt Marsh of Utah, covering 125 square
miles, resembles Searless Lake, and preparations are under
way to work that deposit. Deposits of alunite near Marys-
vale, Utah, also are being worked for potash. Another
source is the great Salt Lake of Utah.
Some potash is being secured from the dust incurred in
the manufacture of cement, and small quantities are a by-
product of the making of explosives. Wood ash, molasses
residue and many other materials contain small amounts.
Feldspar and other silicates are being worked for it. Gold
probably is not sought more eagerly than commercial quan-
tities of potash.
The kelp, a seaweed, which grows in great quantities
along the Pacific Coast, has long been known as a valuable
fertilizer, and now potash is being produced from it to the
extent that the quantity is second to that from brines. The
Hercules Powder Company has a plant in California which
consumes great quantities of kelp, from which is produced
potassium chloride, acetone, iodine and ethyl products.
Handled in a weak solution, potash is not injurious to
tank cars.
71
CHAPTER XII
Acetone
The Employment of Acetone in Explosives
and as a Solvent
E have seen how acetate of lime is obtained in the
process of distilling wood alcohol. From it acetic
acid is obtained. Some acetone may be procured
in this process of fractional distillation, but on a large scale
it is prepared by the dry distillation of calcium acetate.
Another method of manufacture is by the passing of the
vapor of acetic acid through pumice and precipitated
barium carbonate. The crude acid may be purified by fur-
ther chemical combinations and distillation.
The most important use of acetone is in the manufacture
of cordite, an explosive. To secure this product the crude
acid is distilled over sulphuric acid and fractionated. Ace-
tone also is used to produce chloroform and sulphenol and
as a solvent. It has a considerable value in the manufacture
of a number of chemicals, such as artificial indigo and
iodoform.
Acetone is a colorless mobile liquid with a pleasant odor,
but it has a biting taste and is very inflammable. It is another
of those chemicals whose transportation would be a per-
plexing problem except for such refinements as are pro-
vided in Standard Tank Cars.
72
Copyright by Gqfnijifof &oi-l?ii*>!i* ]r\S(fy
Undertfood '&*irdtrw.i6d/N. V;
''-'' ANAESTHETICS IN THE WAR
A photograph of an actual operation aboard the Hospital Ship
Mercy during the war. Tank cars are uxed to .thip ether and
the material. // t/rind/ii// 11/1 the kern fix of cotton-
xi'cil and syui'rziiuj mil the nil iri/li the prc.wx. It ?'.v used in
the preparation of compound lurd, oleomargarine and other
The process of manufacture is to hull the seeds and press
the oil from the kernels. The cakes, left after the oil is
extracted, are ground into a greenish yellow meal, which
has a high value both as a feed for cattle and hogs and as
a fertilizer. The hulls are a good substitute for hay.
The oil is a heavy liquid, the most valuable of the cotton
seed products. It is produced in great quantities in mills
scattered widely over the cotton belt. The rich oil contains
fatty solids which give it a tendency to solidify in cold
weather. It is cleared of these particles by being chilled;
the mushlike mass is then pressed and the solid matter
removed. The oil secured is known as "winter yellow" and
remains clear in winter weather. The original oil is known
as "summer yellow."
Further refining is done, according to the purposes for
which the oil is to be used. The winter yellow is prepared
into substitutes for olive oil as an edible oil. The summer
yellow is employed in the preparation of compound lard.
The lard is a compound of the summer yellow oil and
oleo-stearine, frequently with a part of hog lard. Other
vegetable oils nut oils and corn oil may be added or
substituted altogether for the cotton seed oil. Oleo-stearine
is the solid part of choice beef fat after the oil has been
extracted. The process of boiling the fat and then extract-
ing the oil leaves the oleo-stearine a solid mass with a
tendency to crystallize. There is a wide variety in the
proportions of the various oils in the final mixture. They
largely are determined by the sort of finished product
desired. The compound, after heating and thorough mix-
ing, is congealed by artificial cooling, and the compound
lard formed is ready for packing for the market.
The oleo-oil extracted from the beef fat is used with high
grade hog lard and other ingredients to make a butter substi-
tute, known under the name of oleomargarine. This prod-
uct was invented as a result of the siege of Paris in the
Franco-Prussian war. The oleo-oil may be diluted with
cotton seed oil, but such vegetable oils as cocoanut oil and
peanut oil are better for the purpose. One well known
method in preparing this product is to churn pure oleo-oil
in unskimmed milk or even pure cream.
Refined cotton seed oil is used to pack sardines. The
poorer grades of the oil are employed in the manufacture
of soap, candles and phonograph records.
Great quantities of cotton seed oil are transported in tank
cars.
Most of the mills are small and widely scattered. The
crude oil is hauled in tank cars from the mills to the refiners.
Tank cars also serve to carry the refined oil to the manufac-
turers of cotton seed oil products. Standard Tank Cars in
this service are provided with steam coils.
92
CHAPTER XIX
Corn Oil
A Fine Edible Oil from Indian Corn
ORN OIL, formerly an unimportant by-product,
has come into prominence in the last decade as
another food oil. It exists in the small germ por-
tion of the common Indian corn. Were it not for the fact
that this germ is separated in the preparations of cornstarch
and brewer's grits, and sometimes in the making of meal and
other corn products, it probably would be unknown as a
commercial commodity. For, although the germ is more
than half oil, the oil proportion of the entire kernel is only
from 3 to 6.5 per cent.
If the germs are left in the corn product, the oil soon
becomes rancid and the product is made unfit for food.
Therefore, hominy and cornmeal that are to be kept for any
length of time, and cornstarch always, must be degerm-
inated.
There are two methods of accomplishing this. The older,
known as the wet method, is to soak the kernels in a dilute
sulphureous acid. In this way the germs are toughened so
that they won't become mangled when the corn is cracked
up. Being lighter than the starchy portions of the corn,
93
they are separated in water. The second method is a
mechanical one known as the automatic degerminator.
The oil is then extracted by processes similar to those
used in securing cotton seed oil.
The wet process yields more oil but the effect of the acid
is to make it rancid. The oil from the dry process is fit for
table use with little or no refining.
Corn oil is now available in small retail packages as a
table and cooking oil. Large quantities are used for techni-
cal purposes and for lard substitutes. It is also used for
making cores in foundry work.
A clean Standard Tank Car is the most suitable transport
for the oil.
94
CHAPTER XX
Linseed Oil
The Value of this Oil from Flax Seed in the Manu-
facture of Paint and in Other Industries
INSEED OIL, like cotton seed oil, stands as a com-
mentary on the bounties of nature. We get it almost
as largess in the cultivation of flax for linen, just
as we get cotton seed oil in the production of cotton.
Thus two of nature's best materials for clothing mankind
give also two of the most plentiful and valuable of oils.
The artist, the commercial painter, the printer and the
lithographer all depend for their materials on linseed oil.
It is the most valuable of the drying oils and finds its greatest
use in the preparation of paints and varnishes. Also it is a
principal ingredient in printing and lithographic inks.
Linseed can be grown in both tropical and temperate
climates, but there is considerable difference in the seed of
the two latitudes for oil purposes. In the tropics the seeds
grow larger and contain a greater volume of oil, but the
temperate climate seeds give a higher quality of oil.
The ancient Greeks and Romans used linseed as a food.
The Abyssinians today, it is said, eat linseed roasted. In
95
certain parts of Poland and Hungary and in Russia, the
oil is used to some extent as a food. An old remedy for
wounds was a linseed poultice, but medical authorities today
condemn the poultice on the ground that the linseed favors
the growth of micro-organisms.
To manufacture the oil the linseed is ground into a fine
meal. The oil is extracted by steel presses, with or without
the aid of heat. If pressed without heat the product is a
golden-yellow oil of the type that is used as an edible oil.
When heated the oil is a deeper and darker color, and
although it is secured in greater quantities, it must be put
through a process of refining. If stored for a long time in
tanks it purifies and has a high value as "tank oil." Time
in this refining process is saved by a treatment with sul-
phuric acid, the acid charring and carrying down the bulk
of impurities. The highest grade of oil, known as "artist's
oil," is refined by exposure to sunlight in pans with glass
covers.
The paint industry uses both crude and boiled linseed oil,
the boiled oil being the base for most oil varnishes. The
boiling is done in iron or copper boilers where, after a cer-
tain time, dryers are added. Among the dryers are lead
acetate, manganese borate, manganese dioxide, zinc sulphate
and other compounds.
For the making of ink it is boiled down to the point when
it is inflammable and then covered over and left until it
becomes of such consistency that it may be drawn in threads.
The cake that is left of the meal, after the oil has been
extracted, is used as cattle feed.
96
The oil is employed for water-proofing fabrics for rain-
coats and similar wearing materials.
Because of its high value linseed oil is subject to many
falsifications. Often cheap seeds are put with the linseed
before the oil is extracted. The oil may be adulterated with
cotton seed oil, niggerseed and hempseed oil. These adul-
terations are difficult to detect, except in the applications of
the oil, and dealers take many precautions to prevent them.
Tank cars for the shipment of linseed oil have unusually
large domes, as the oil is loaded at high temperature. The
tanks are coiled that the oil may again be heated to flow
freely in unloading it.
97
CHAPTER XXI
Nut Oils
How Cocoanut and Peanut Oils Contribute to the
World's Foods
N supplying the world with foodstuffs, certain nuts
are coming more and more into general use. Prin-
cipal among these are the cocoanut and the peanut.
Cocoanut oil comes from the nuts of the cocoanut groves
of the tropics. It is pressed from the white meat of the
cocoanut and is not the milky liquid inside the nut. The
American supply is imported largely from the Philippines,
Java and Ceylon. It is consumed in butter and lard substi-
tutes, in the manufacture of soap, and to some extent as a
heavy lubricant.
Impetus was given the growing of peanuts by the ravages
of the boll weevil in the lower sections of the cotton belt.
Technically, the peanut is known as the ground nut, as it
grows in the ground on the root of a small vine. There are
many varieties of peanuts, the best for oil production being
the Spanish variety. The nut was grown by the aborigines
of the Western World, it probably being a native of Brazil,
and was introduced to Europe by early explorers.
98
Copyright l>y I'nderwood & l"n a ~. ~
11 r?
.
a 2 A. ^
.s-?r ^
lle< ^
Cs-' 1 ' 2' "t
llrss
s ?
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N* Y.
''.LIQUID TRANSPORTATION IN ARABIA
e' Bedouin women are shown in the service of their tribe
which tank cars perform for more advanced peoples; they are
carrying water in goat skin*.
adaptations being about the same as corn. It has a large
yield of seed and a fine quality of foliage, and is free from
insect enemies and plant disease. The beans are largely
used by Asiatic people for food, being very rich in protein.
Owing to the strength of the meal, it has been found best
to mix it with some less concentrated food before feeding
to cattle or farm animals.
In the extraction of the oil, a cake is left which is ground
into soya bean meal.
The oil is used by soap makers, by some oleomargarine
manufacturers, sometimes for lubricating purposes, and
recently it has been discovered to be a fair substitute for lin-
seed oil in the manufacture of paint.
101
CHAPTER XXIII
Olive Oil
Its Long History and the Reasons for its
Great Value
OIL stands today as it has through the ages
since the glory of Greece and the grandeur of
Rome one of the earth's luxuries. The olive
branch won its place as the emblem of peace because of the
value of the oil and the necessity, among ancient nations, of
victory before the oil could be secured from the groves of
people and conveyed to the seats of the mighty. The ancient
Greek warriors anointed themselves with it after the bath,
and a proverb of luxury and happiness among the Romans
was, "wine within and oil without."
The fruit, too, was appreciated in ancient times, both ripe
pickled olives and the green ones, steeped in brine. In the
ruins of Pompeii, preserved olives have been found.
Around the Mediterranean coast the olive tree grows wild,
but the value of its fruit and oil long since has resulted
in an extensive cultivation of it. Italy holds first place in
production, though from the time of the earliest settlers
groves were planted in many South American countries, in
102
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
JERUSALEM AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
The age-old fame of olive oil is evidenced by its manufacture from
tk trees of the Mount of Olives in the days of the Bible. Scien-
ti ts say there are trees in the Holy Land that have been bearing
fruit since the Roman Empire.
WPPLYIXa LIQl'IDS I\ PALKSTIXK
Here again the nneront irork of liquid tran.f/xtrldtion fall* HJMIH
the iromen, earthen rexxelx deinij tin' receptacles employed.
MMMMM
California, Florida and other Southern States. However,
the supply of both the fruit and the oil still is largely
imported.
The wild trees are scraggy. The cultivated plants are
among the longest lived of trees. It is claimed in Italy that
some of the trees date back to the Roman Empire. The
cultivated trees grow considerably larger than the wild ones,
the trunks of the old trees attaining considerable diameter,
but they rarely grow over thirty feet in height .
Olive oil is the most popular of the edible oils. It is
employed in making fine soaps, articles of toilets, in butter
substitutes, and for many other purposes.
103
CHAPTER XXIV
Whale Oil
Methods of Whale Fishing and Uses of the Oil;
Other Fish Oils
HALE OIL is obtained from the blubber, the fat
beneath the skin of the whale, and, therefore, the
industry begins with whale fishing.
Whale fishing has a history that dates back more than a
thousand years. All modern maritime nations have had
their whale fishing. It is probable that men first discovered
the value of this great sea animal from stranded individuals.
Just when they took to the sea for them is not known.
Oil is not the only valuable commodity taken from the
whale; whalebone brings good returns, and sometimes
ambergris, a most valuable substance for the manufacture of
perfumes, is found in the sperm whale. The oil of the sperm
whale, taken from its head, is the best of the whale oils. It
varies in color from a bright honey-yellow to a dark brown.
When refined it is an excellent lubricant for small and deli-
cate machinery. In times past, the flesh of the whale has
been thrown away to rot, but that isn't done any more. Parts
of it are good as a food and the rest is ground up and used
in fertilizers. The teeth are used as ivory.
104
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There are a number of varieties of whales and they inhabit
many waters, from the warm waters of the south to the icy
coasts of Greenland. The principal centers of the whaling
industry in America are New Bedford, on the east coast,
and San Francisco, on the west coast.
Around Greenland, the fishing still is done with the old-
fashioned harpoon. When the whale is sighted it is shot
with a harpoon from a cannon. The harpoon is attached
to the boat with a strong rope. Then small harpoons are
hurled into the whale by hand.
Where the industry is more developed, the harpoon has
an explosive cap with a time fuse in its head, and the explo-
sion takes place inside the whale. The ships employed vary
from small sailing craft to steamboats. Usually the whale
is towed to land before it is cut up for its valuable parts.
The fat is cut out and the oil then expressed and refined.
But no matter how the oil is handled, it always retains an
unpleasant fishy smell. It is very difficult to get the smell
out of tank cars, once they have been filled with the oil, and
prevent them contaminating other liquids that might be
transported. The best plan is to use the cars exclusively in
the fish oil trade.
Fish oil proper is less valuable than whale oil and some-
times is used to adulterate it. Its principal source is the
menhaden fish, a small fish that appears in great schools
along the northeastern coast of America, and is caught in
quantities for its oil and the use of the meat in fertilizers.
Menhaden oil also is used to adulterate linseed oil or as a
105
substitute for it. To extract the oil, the whole fish is boiled
in water and the oil then is pressed out.
Other minor sources of fish oils are cod-liver, shark-liver,
porpoise and blackfish blubber.
The uses of the whale and fish oils are in oiling wool
for combing, in batching flax and other vegetable fibres, in
currying and chamois leather making, and as a lubricant
for machinery.
106
Copyright by Underwot
PREPARING GOAT SKINS FOR WATER
TRANSPORTATION
The importance of liquid transportation all over the earth is
evidenced by this extensive effort to ttiipply rexitelif for carrying
water in the Holy Land.
Copyright by Brown Bros., N. Y.
MAKING SOAP
Thitt illustration, and two succeeding ones, picture three .tfayex
in the manufacture of soap. The men are mixing alkalies, fats
and oils ingredients of soap.
CHAPTER XXV
Soap
The Use of Fats, Oils and Alkalies in Making Soap;
Different Kinds of Soap
T is evident to one who has scanned these pages
that the uses of various commodities handled in
tank cars overlap. The story of an oil or an acid
is not a distinct thing that stands separate and apart. The
functions usually are performed in conjunction with some
other liquid, also handled in tank cars. The most striking
illustration of this perhaps is in the manufacture of soap.
The principal raw materials required for soap are fats ; but
these fats may be from animal matter or Vegetable oils,
embracing the range of most animal and vegetable oils
handled in tank cars, as follows:
Oils from the by-product fats of packing houses, castor
oil, cotton seed oil, corn oil, linseed oil, peanut and cocoanut
oils, soya bean oil and olive oil.
In addition, tank cars handle caustic soda and caustic
potash, glycerin, rosin and silicate of soda as contributions
to soap making.
107
You must go far back in history to find the origin of soap,
but the memory of living Americans antedates its present
intensive and extensive use. We know this by a comparison
of the bathrooms of a modern home with the toilet devices
of an ante-bellum mansion, to say nothing of historic
European castles. Yet the soap industry is far bigger than
the supplying of toilet articles to individuals. Soaps are
important in textile manufacturing and for sanitation.
The Bible mentions soap, though it is now considered
that the references were to the ashes of plants and similar
purifying agents. According to Pliny, the Germans
invented it, primarily to give a brighter hue to the hair.
The Romans got it from them, and its use continued on
down through the centuries. But the chemistry of its mak-
ing was unknown until the early nineteenth century, due
to discoveries by Chevreul, a Frenchman, and with that a
new impetus was given to the business.
The manufacture of soap is the result of interaction of
fatty oils and fats with alkalies. It first was made from goat
tallow and beech ash, and for a long time it was thought
that the product was merely a physical compound of a fat
and an alkali. Chevreul's discovery was of the chemical
action that takes place, thus forming an entirely new matter.
Fatty oils and fats are composed of glycerin and fatty acids.
Treated with an alkali, usually under heat, the acid com-
bines with the alkali, forming soap.
Fats for soap come from abattoirs and packing houses,
one of the chief sources being from ground bones.
108
Caustic soda and potash are the alkalies most generally
used, and they are largely secured direct from alkali manu-
facturers.
But the manufacture of soap does not end so simply. It
must have other ingredients and considerable treatment
before it is fit for commercial use. The various kinds
depend upon the raw materials used and the methods of
manufacture.
The hard yellow and primrose soaps are made from beef
and sheep tallow, with rosin added. Cheaper mottled and
brown soaps have for their base bone fat. Lard oil is applied
to hard toilet soaps. Dyers of silk and cotton fabrics use
soaps from vegetable oils, while fuller's fat is the material
from which soft soap comes.
Usually mixed oils are used. Cocoanut and castor oil will
react on the alkali and make a soap without heating. Castor
oil will yield a transparent soap. Cocoanut oil is used for
certain hair washes. Either, however, is better employed
when combined with cotton seed oil, fat oil or some other
oil. Crude palm oil, with bone fat, produces a brown soap.
The curd soaps are made by boiling the fat with alkali and
removing the excess alkali. In using olive oil, in this
method, the French originated Castile soap. Palm oil is a
favorite for soap in England. We have a famous toilet soap
in this country produced from a combination of palm and
olive oils.
Ordinary soap, you know, is of no service with salt water.
That is because it is insoluble in salt water, its precipitation
109
in its process of manufacture having been caused by the
addition of common salt. Certain soaps are soluble in brine,
and for this reason they are known as marine soaps. Cocoa-
nut oil soap is typical of marine soaps.
The odor of soaps may be regulated by the addition of
perfumes to the soapy mass. It is desirable that the goods
contain a large proportion of water and yet remain solid
and firm. This is aided by the addition of a strong solution
of silicate of soda, which also adds something to the cleans-
ing power of the soap.
Soap can be cut out or moulded in any size or shape,
according to the wishes of the manufacturer. It can be
made to float by aeration, that is, mixing air with the hot
liquid soap. Transparent soap is made by dissolving ordi-
nary soap in alcohol and then distilling off most of the
alcohol.
Some of the most popular soaps are glycerin soaps.
They are obtained by the addition of glycerin to pure hard
soap. The soap is melted and the glycerin poured in and
stirred. When the compound is poured into forms and
cooled, it forms a transparent mass. An excess of glycerin
makes a fluid soap. A small proportion produces a tenacious
lather, a trick that many a child has been taught when blow-
ing soap bubbles. This quality makes glycerin valuable in
shaving soaps.
Authorities are not wholly agreed as to the causes of the
cleansing power of soap. The most generally accepted
theory is that of its emulsifying power on oil and its property
no
Copyright by Brown Bros., N. V.
HANDLING CRUDE SOAP
A more advanced step in it* manufacture. The grinding process
preparatory fo molding into
Copyright t>y Brown Bros., \. V.
PROI)l'('L\G THE KATII-ROOM ARTICLE
The hint step in xoap manufacture ron.ti.vtts of molding