Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/387

Rh surrounded by cold water, and conducted into different receptacles. The rhigolene is obtained by distilling the gasolene a second time. The crude oil remaining in the naphtha stills is then pumped into stills heated by direct fires underneath, and having a capacity of about 1,000 gallons. This charge is distilled to coke which remains in the still, to uncondensable gases which pass into the atmosphere, and to liquid oils which are condensed and separated, according to their density, into No. 1, crude burning oil; No. 2, intermediate oil; and No. 3, crude lubricating oil. Each of these numbers is again distilled by itself in apparatus of the same size as that used for the first distillation, and the distillate from each is again separated, as before, into lighter, intermediate, and heavy oils. No. 1 from this second distillation is thoroughly agitated with strong sulphuric acid, and then with solution of caustic soda. It is then redistilled, and yields from the still about 80 per cent. of finished kerosene and mineral sperm, and nearly 20 per cent. of dense oils. No. 2 is redistilled before treatment with acid and alkali, and yields principally crude lubricating oil. No. 3 is treated with sulphuric acid and then redistilled with caustic soda in the still. The dense paraffine oil that collects in the receiver is placed in wooden barrels in ice houses, where it remains for from seven to ten days, during which the paraffine wax crystallizes so that the mass retains the form of the barrel. The crude paraffine is put into strong cloth bags, which are piled with iron plates between them upon the bed of a powerful hydraulic press, and subjected to very heavy pressure. The crude paraffine is crystallized repeatedly from solution in naphtha until it is perfectly pure and white. (See .) The heavy oil is treated by the patent deodorizing process. This consists in carefully heating the oil in stills by fires placed underneath, and at the same time injecting steam, which is superheated by being passed through a coil contained within the still and covered by the heated oil. By this means 20 or 30 per cent. of the contents of the still is separated, and that which remains in the still when cooled is ready for sale as neutral lubricating oil. The highly colored last distillates that accumulate from all of these distillations are called “cokings,” and yield when distilled by themselves crude lubricating oil. The products of this establishment for 1873 were: naphtha (all grades), 300,000 galls.; kerosene, 1,250,000; mineral sperm, 250,000; neutral lubricating oil, 600,000; paraffine wax, 500,000 lbs. These amounts, large as they are, bear no comparison to the enormous quantities handled by some of the refiners nearer the oil regions, where the object sought is the largest possible production of kerosene. Of these the “Standard Oil Company” of Cleveland, O., and New York city, is the best example. The only articles produced by this company are the different grades of naphtha, kerosene, and paraffine

lubricating oils. Their works and apparatus are adapted to cracking the crude oil and treating the distillates in quantities estimated by millions of gallons. They manufactured during the year 1873 of naphthas (all grades), 12,424,006 galls.; kerosene, 68,518,424; paraffine lubricating oil, 1,540,716. Of this enormous production 77 per cent. is kerosene, which is sent to all parts of the world.—A modification of this method of conducting the business has been adopted in a few instances. The crude kerosene is distilled at or very near the wells. The petroleum is cracked, and the naphthas and residuum are either used as fuel or sold to manufacturers of gasolene and paraffine oils. The crude distillate is shipped in glued barrels to New York, and there treated. In this way freight is saved on all the impurities of the oil, and also on the light and heavy products which at best are worth no more than cost. There is also a further saving of loss by leakage, caused by the water acting on the glue with which the barrels are lined. The distillate is treated where it can be done cheapest and with least expense for transporting chemicals. An establishment at Hunter's Point, L. I., had a capacity for treating 700 bbls. of distillate daily, which was received from several distilleries in the oil regions. The entire product was exported.—No manufactured articles put upon the market vary more in quality than the products obtained from petroleum, especially kerosene. While new applications are constantly being found in the arts for the various grades of naphtha, still the purposes for which it can be used are comparatively few. Vast quantities of it have been burned under stills, and in some localities have been thrown away or sold at the purchaser's price. As a result, refiners of oil constantly labor under the temptation to throw the largest possible amount into the illuminating oil. If the only effect resulting from such a course was the increased rapidity with which the oil burned, and the consequent reduction in its value, the evil might be borne; but to this must be added the fact that to this cause may be traced all those calamities which follow explosions of kerosene lamps. Frequent and dreadful as these disasters are, it is with great difficulty that the public can be convinced that all grades of naphtha and all fluids containing them, when burned in any kind of lamp (explosive or non-explosive), are more dangerous than gunpowder, because so much more carelessly used. These inflammable and, under certain circumstances, terribly explosive fluids, are nearly worthless as articles of commerce, and they burn so rapidly that they are of comparatively little value to the consumer as materials for illumination. No more than 5 per cent. will render kerosene inflammable at all ordinary temperatures, and liable to produce an explosion at any time when the vapors become mingled with air in proper proportion. These properties that render naphtha dangerous are inherent in the constitution