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TECHNICAL TREATISE ON SOAP AND CANDLES.

MATERIALS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAPS.

BUTTEE OF NUTMEG OK OIL OF MACE. Extracted from the kernel of the nutmeg, fruit of the nutmeg tree, Myrislica aroma tica, M. officinal/'st M. mosehata. Pure butter of nutmegs lias a pale yellow color; ita odor and taate are strong and swaet ; it is composed of— Concrete oil, similar to tullow .... 43.07 Yellow butyroas oil 58.08 Volatile oil 4.85 106.00 By pressure, in filtering paper, and by repeated solutions, and crystallizations in ether, a solid matter is extracted from the butter of nutmeg, called myrisiin. Submitted to distillation it yields about one-eighth of its weight of volatile oil. The nutmeg contains two oils, one volatile, and the other fixed and concrete', the first is a whitish-yellow, lighter than water, with an acrid and pungent tastej and an odor of nutmegs; the second is white without taste and odor. It gives by analysis:— "White insoluble sul)Btance (stearin) . . . 24.00 Bulyrous insoluble colored substance . . . 7.60 Volatile oil 6.00 Acid (by approximation) 0.80 Fecula 2.40 Gum 1.20 Ligneous residuum 54 00 Loss 4.00 100 00 The mace or outside envelop of the nutmeg contains also two different oils, one fixed and the other volatile. This butter is principally prepared in Holland in the following manner: Fresh nutmegs are crushed in a mortar and are slightly heated until reduced to a, paste; they are then introduced into cotton bags, and pressed between metallic plates previously heated. TALLOW OF VIROLA. Extracted from the fruit of the Myristim sebifera. This kind of vegetable tiillow is found in commerce in the form of square masses, similar to cakes of soap, but not so long nor so thick. They are often covered with a kind of efflorescence of a nacreous appearance, which exudes in the Btime manner as benzoic acid. This tallow melts at 43° C. (109.4° F.),and is soluble in alcohol and ether. The mode of extinction consists in crushing the kernels and boiling the paste in water; the fatty substance separates and collects on the surface, where it solidifies on cooling. OIL OF LAUBEL. Extracted by expression from the berries of the laurel of Apollo, Lanrus nobilis. The oil of laurel found in commerce is green, with a buty-roua consistency, and slightly granular, similar in appearance to half-solidified olive oil. It contains a volatile oil which gives it a disagreeable odor. It melts by the heat of the hand at about 4soap it has not been largely used, though it would make a superior soap for toilet purposes. CARAPA OIL, or vateria tallow, is the product of the kernel of a epeeies of j>ersoiiia, a palm-tree, met with in Bengal and Coromandel. It is of a bright yellow color, and known as pine tallow. MALABAR TALLOW, obtained from the fruit of the Valeria indicant* a white, candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax-like tallow, melting at 35° C. (95° F.); it is natural to Mozambique, and but little known in Europe or the United States. GOA BUTTER, a fat from the seed of Brindonica Xndica, is used by the natives as butter. It is white, of pleasant taste, and melts at 40;' C. (104° F.); it is also used in medicine. GRAFE-SEED OIL. The seeds from wine leee yield about 10 or 12 per cent, of a pale-yellow oil that might be utilized for soap. It is now used in the countries of production as a table oil. OIL OF TOBACCO SEEDS has been used for various purposes. It is perfectly bland, and resembles poppy-seed oil. OIL OF BELLADONNA SEEDS is similar to that from the tobacco seeds, and is used in some parts of Germany as a lamp oil. MATERIALS USED IN THE MAUUFACTUJSE OF SOAP3. 125 Beescandleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax.—"Wax is the substance secreted by tlie bee, an ?insect belonging to the family of the Mell$ca, order of the ?Ifymenoptera. As it exists in the tiombs and after purification, candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax is a solid fatty body, compact, of a yellow color, more or less dark, insoluble in water, soluble in fixed oils, in £0 per cent, of boiling alcohol and ether, and in spirit of turpentine ; it has no taste; its odor is aromatic and similar to that of honey. Wax is dry, not greasy, to the touch, tenacious, yet brittle. Yellow candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax melts at 62° C. (148.6° F.) to 63° C. (145.4° F.). Ita sp. gr. is 0.9750. It burns without leaving any residuum. There are two kinds of candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax, the yellow candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax, the properties of which we have just described, and the white candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax. which is the bleached yellow candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax. The white candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax is obtained by melting the yellow candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax and reducing it to thin plates, like ribbons, and exposing them to the sun and air for several days, until perfectly white. It is white, slightly diaphanous when thin, without taste, nearly without odor, hard and brittle at 0° O. (32° F.), and very malleable at 30° C. (8tf° F.); it becomes softer when heated ; at 65° O. (149° F.) it is completely liquid, but it cannot be boiled without decomposition. Like yellow candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax, it is insoluble in water, partly soluble in alcohol, but dissolves very well in ether and in lixed and essential oils. Its sp. gr. is from 0.960 to 0.966. Its fracture is slightly granular; it sticks to the fingers when kneaded; it is inflammable, and burns with a white flame without leaving a residuum. Beescandleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax has but little application for soaps, though it is customary to add a little to the finest soap to improve its appearance and consistency. Palm-tree Wax. — Produced by the Ceroxylon audicofa, which ia very abundant in New Granada. It is obtained by scraping the epidermis of the tree. The scrapings are then boiled in water, and the candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax floats on the surface without melting. In a crude state it has the form of a gray-white powder. Purified by treatment with boiling water and 1-6 TECHNICAL TREATISE ON SOAP ANI) CANDLES. alcohol, it is yellowish-white, but slightly soluble in boiling alcohol, and precipitates by cooling. It melts at 72° C. (161.6° F.). Carnauba Wax is produced by a palm tree which grows abundantly in the provinces of the north of Brazil. To obtain it, the leaves are cut and dried in the shade, and soon the candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax is separated in the form of thin scales which are melted. This candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax is soluble in boiling alcohol and in ether ; by cooling it crystallizes; it melts at 88.5° C. (191.5° F.); it.is very brittle, and is easily red need to powder. Myrtle Wax is obtained by boiling in water the berries of several sj>ecies of Myrim, especially the Myrica cerife.ra, a tree very common in the Southern States. These berries give 25 per cent, of their weight of candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax. The crude candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax is green and may be saponified. Purified by treatment with boiling water and cold alcohol, this candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax is greenish-yellow, and melts at 47.5° C. (117.53 F.). Ocuba Wax is obtained from a Myrislica in the province of Para, and in French Guiana. This tree produces a fruit with a stone covered with a thick crimson pellicle, which colors water red. To extract the candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax, the stones are crushed, reduced to a pulp, and boiled for some time with water; the candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax floats on the surface, Thi3 candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax is yellowish-while, soluble in boiling alcohol, and fusible at 3fi.4° C. (97.7° F.). The candleshop.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=soforreal">wax of bicnyda, obtained from the Myristh-a bicuyda, is yellowish-white, soluble in boiling alcohol, and melts at 35° C. (95° F.). It is but little known to commerce. Rosiit OR COLOPHONY. "With the name *' rosin" we designate a group of bodies which appear in nature solid, brittle, and again in semi-solid substances; they are nut soluble in water, but soluble in ether, alcohol, and sulphuret of carbon, they are rich in carbon, poor in oxygen, and free from nitrogen, and burn with a fuliginoua flame. None of the rosins are a chemical elementary body, but, like all immediate matters furnished by the plant, a complicated mixture of substunces. The integral MATERIALS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAPS. 127 components of rosin are the resinous acids, carbonate containing substances, which eject from carbonate of alkalies the carbon, and combine with the alkalies. Besides the abietic acids there are in the natural rcisiiis volatile oils, gums, often cinnamonic acid and benzoic acid. They are divided into three principal groups: 1st, common ro9ins; 2d, balfams ; and 8d, gum resins. The latter are distinguished from the common rosins by their contents of gum. The balsams are generally solutions of roBJns in volatile oila, or mixtures of volatile oils and rosin. That the resins belong to the most extensive vegetable substances, ia well known, and has been proved by numeroua chemical experiments and investigations. These substances have been found in all classes of the vegetable kingdom, yea, even in the tissues of the fungi; also in all organs of plants, and in all known vegetable tissues their presence lias been proved. All resinous matters are products of a so-called regressive metamorphosis of matter. Notwithstanding the extraordinary distribution of the resins in the vegetable kingdom, the number of the plants which furnish applicable resins is proportionately small, and the number of the families to which these plants belong is also relatively limited. For soap manufacturers only that rosin haB interest which is furnished by most of the Finns species, and is presented in commerce under the name of common rosin or colophony. The balsams of the abies, hence of the pines, tire, etc., are called turpentines. They-originate partly in the bsirk, partly in the young wood of the trees. In the bark it seams to be prevalent in the pith, >'. e., the .starch grains which are inclosed in the pith of the reel nous fibres; while in the wood substance it appears to be the parenchyma which furnishes the material for the formation of rosin. The rosin, or bal-earn, ducts of tho abies, wherein tlie turpentine often gathers in masses, and is conducted outside or to tie wood substance, is found in all the treed of this family. They appear least in the bark, frequently though alao in the wood substance, mul 128 TECHNICAL TREATISE ON SOAP ASD CASDLE3. originate either by transformation of entire tissue-cords or by separation of the respiration tissues. Turpentine is the origin of the productions known as oil of turpentine, pine-tree rosin, black pitch, and colophony, and is especially produced in !North America and Europe. The resin is either accidentally exuded, or the yield of rosin is the object of a planned operation of the rosin scraper or pitch maker, whereby the rosin is caused to flow from the trees by intentional incisions in the same. The turpentine, which flows spontaneously from the trees and is dried by the atmosphere, contains but little oil; while the fresh exuded oil, on the other hand,contains almost all of its oil. If the turpentine is distilled with water, the oil passes over, and a rosin mass remains as a residue, the " boiled turpentine." If rosin is melted without water, until it becomes clear^ then the colophony or rosin remains. All rosins destitute of oil, originating from turpentine, either by spontaneous exudation, or by distillation of the volatile oils, are as common rosins, despite tlieir difference of origin, brought into one category, namely, tlie pine-tree rosin. Up to the moat recent period, it 1ms been endeavored to prove the existence of several different ttbietic acids in rosin, i. e., an amorphous combination, piiiiu acid (C^H^O,,), and another crystallizing in rhombic prisms, thesylvinie acid (C^II^O,). According to Streaker the first is only the amorphous modification of the latter. According to the investigations of Laurent, French turpentine is said to contain a combination of great affinity with 3ylviuic acid, which he called pimar acid ; and, according to Unverdorben, there is in colophony a specific abietic acid, which originates from the sylvinic acid by heating, viz., eolopholic acid. Kiit in opposition to this are the investigations of Maly, who in turpentine, in fir-tree rosin, and in colophony proves but one acid, to wit, the alietic acid (C^H^O,), which in the substances named appears either as such, or is substituted by its anhydrite. The resinous trees form the anhydride. If this is exposed to the air, it is transformed by absorption of water into abietic acid. By melting the always crystallizing acid MATERIALS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAPS. 129 changes into itsamorphous anhydrid. Fir-tree rosincontains, therefore, according to Maly, abietic acid ; colophony, on the other hand, its anhydrid. The amorphous substance of the fir rosin is soluble in 72 per cent, of alcohol. It is an indifferent substance. It was formerly termed the gamma rosin or turpentine, in contradistinction to the two acidy combinations of the pine-tree rosin, which were formerly called alpha and beta rosins. Besides its application in the fabrication of soap, common rosin finds varied uses. The most important of these employments are the manufacture of varnishes, lacquer, cements, brewers' and bottlers' pitch, and for lubricating wagons and machinery. For the purposes of soap-making it is sometimes desirable to have a very light rosin. This may be attained hy artificial bleaching. The rosin is melted in a kettle and allowed to settle until all dross baa gathered on the bottom, which is performed in about half an hour. The cleax rosin is scooped over into another kettle, and to each 100 pounds of it 20 pounds of salt solution of 9° B. are added. This entire masa ia left boiling for one hour, when the fire is diminished. As soon as the boiling ceases, the rosin settles upon the bottom, and the salt lye separates as a brownish -fluid on the surface. This salt lye is ladled out, the salt water renewed, and again boiled. If the rosin is not yet sufficiently discolored, the operation is repeated for the third time. Kosin is employed as well in the fabrication of hard as of soft soaps; but never worked up alone, always in conjunction with some fata. Soap of pure rosin never becomes solid, but even for a soft soap it cannot be applied alone, inasmuch as it never attains the peculiar consistency which is expected of a good soft soap. 130

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