Oil can

“ But in that year Mr Young, a chemist at Manchester, discovered that by distilling some petroleum, which he obtained from a spring at Riddings in Derbyshire, he was able to procure a light oil, which he used for burning in lamps, whilst the heavier product which he also obtained proved a most useful lubricant for machinery. This naturally distilled oil was soon found to be similar to that oil which was noticed dripping from the roof of a coal-mine. ”

“ They are viscid and of a pale yellow color, lighter than water, and therefore float upon it, and are very combustible. Oils are used for a multiplicity of purposes: for burning in lamps, for making paints and varnishes, preventing the friction of machinery, in making soap, and numerous other processes. Oils are generally divided into fixed and volatile oils; as an example of the first, linseed oil may be selected; of the last, oil of lavender.
Some of the fixed oils are called drying oils, and it is this kind that are used for varnish making ”

“ It is a good practice to pour into the pot a quantity of water, so that the oil may be lifted from the bottom of it, as all the impurities of the oil sink into the water, and do not again mix when it is stirred. When of the consistency above mentioned, the oil is separated from the water, and being put into a bottle, is subjected to heat till it becomes fluid again, when all remaining impurities will sink, and the oil, being carefully poured off from the sediment, forms what is termed "fat oil." ”

“ The light oils which are produced in the refining of petroleum and commonly called gasoline are typical solvents for fat and oil. Instead of extracting the oil by the pressure process, as described above, a practically complete extraction may be secured by successive treatments with the light petroleum oils. The principle of the process is exactly that of the extraction of sugar from sugar beets by hot water in the process of the manufacture of beet sugar. ”

“ Petroleum has largely superseded other oils, and is still gaining ground, as a lubricant for machinery and railway rolling-stock, either alone or in admixture with fixed oils. The more viscous descriptions of mineral oils have also been found suitable for use in the Elmore process of ore-concentration by oil. ”

“ We may obtain oil from such material, but it is utterly different from any kind of mineral oil, while, on the other hand, by distilling natural bituminous shales, or cannel coal, or peat, we obtain a crude oil almost identical with natural petroleum, and the little difference between the two is perfectly accounted for by the greater rapidity of our methods of distillation as compared with the slow natural process. We may go on approximating more and more nearly to the natural petroleum by distilling more and more slowly. ”

“ The refining of crude oil as it is produced from the earth, consists in the classification of its various hydrocarbons by means of fractional distillation, into the various products which so largely enter into our commercial and domestic life of to-day. The refined products, in the order in which they are received by distillation, are: motor spirit, illuminating oils, solar oils, lubricating oils, fuel oils, residuum, etc.—the first mentioned being the lightest and the last the heaviest in specific gravity. ”

“ The crude oil is heated to the desired temperature in pipes or retorts set in a primary furnace, the hot gases of combustion from which are utilized to heat the distillation chamber proper. Entering the vertical cylinder at the top, the oil is spread over and through perforated plates falling on a cone-shaped plate to divert the continuous stream of oil to the sides of the still, down which it flows in a thin film. ”

“ The treatment or washing of the oil to remove the impurities that cannot be eliminated by distillation, consists in stirring the oil by compressed air for a given time in an iron vessel, with a fixed quantity of sulphuric acid, allowing it to settle, and running off the heavy mixture of tar and acid which separates. ”

“ The main point to be attended to in order to extract the greatest quantity and the best quality of oil, is that it should be well kneaded, and that the proper proportion of hot water for the extraction of the oil should be used; it is always safer to be sparing of it than to be too profuse. ”

“ So hurriedly had the well been "doctored" in fact, that the oil was freshly splashed all over the sides, and when the Commissioners came and saw what had been done, they tested the oil and pronounced it "dead"—that is, oil that had been in a barrel a long time before being poured down the hole. "Live" oil, just from the earth, is readily recognizable on account of its tendency, to bubble when first brought to the surface, and to develop "rainbow" hues. ”

“ I know little beyond the fact that the crude oil arrives by pipe from the oilfields by means of several pumping stations and that it is cooked or distilled over furnaces and converted into different grade oils from petrol to heavy fuel oil. ”

“ The oil from the press should run to a receiving tank, as many being used as is necessary to keep the different grades of oil separated. Where oil is being made in large quantities it is always advisable to have the receiving tank hold sixty tierces, or a car load of oil, for if smaller receivers are used the oil is likely to be irregular. ”

“ The raw petroleum of different localities differs in each case in the amount of solid paraffins and olefines dissolved in the liquid paraffins. Other substances also are dissolved in it in variable amount—such as benzene, acetylene, camphene and naphthalene. The fact that the oil, when reached by a boring, is often found to be under a considerable pressure, so that it rises and flows from the surface of the well, or even may shoot up as a great fountain, is an important feature in the oil-seeking industry, though the supply depends largely on pumping and not necessarily on natural flow. ”

“ The stearessence of anise-seed oil absorbed at its liquefying temperature, in the space of two years, 156 times its volume of oxygen gas, and disengaged 26 times its volume of carbonic acid gas. An oil which has begun to experience such an oxidizement is composed of a resin dissolved in the unaltered oil; and the oil may be separated by distilling the solution along with water. To preserve oils in an unchanged state, they must be put in phials, filled to the top, closed with ground glass stopples, and placed in the dark. ”

“ The two chief uses of the distillates from crude petroleum are for illumination and lubrication, but the various fractions in many cases have special applications. Rhigolene is used as a local anaesthetic; petroleum ether is employed as a solvent for caoutchouc, fatty oils, and plant principles, and for carbureting air in gas machines; gasoline is employed in the extraction of oil from oil seeds, in carbureting coal gas, in gasoline lamps, stoves, and plumbers' lamps. ”

“ Oils for medical purposes, as CASTOR OIL, COD-LIVER OIL &c., must not be subjected to any process beyond mere clarification by subsidence, filtration through Canton flannel or porous paper, or, at the utmost, washing with warm water, as otherwise their active and valuable properties, if not wholly removed, will be considerably lessened. ”

“ The crude oil is allowed to settle for twelve or more hours at a temperature sufficiently high to separate any water that may have passed the test at the retorts, and after this water has been run off, the oil is fed into the centre boiler of a battery of oil boilers. The lightest fraction of the oil—ultimately motor spirit and illuminating oils—is distilled off the feeding boiler and condensed in a coil of cast-iron pipes immersed in water in a tank, cold water being continuously run into the tank, while heated water is run off. ”

“ The washed oil is drawn off to a distillation still, which is a cast iron vessel homogeneously lead coated, 1.5 m. in diameter and 2 m. deep, fitted with a lead heating coil and connected through a spiral lead condenser and receiver to a vacuum pump. The water is distilled from the oil at a pressure of from 62 to 70 mm. absolute pressure. When dried, the oil is sent by vacuum to a mixing vessel, similar in most respects to the washing vessel, in which it is mixed with an appointed quantity of solvent, which, in this factory, was usually chlorobenzene but occasionally carbon tetrachloride. ”

“ The fixed oils, except where otherwise directed, are obtained from the bruised or ground fruit or seed, by means of powerful pressure, in screw or hydraulic presses, and are then either allowed to clarify themselves by subsidence or are filtered. Both methods are frequently applied to the same oil. In some cases the impurities are removed by ebullition with water, and subsequent separation of the pure oil. Heat is frequently employed to increase the liquidity of the oil, and thus lessen the difficulty of its expulsion from the mass. ”

“ The resinifying or drying property of oils is greatly increased by boiling them, either alone or along with some litharge, sugar of lead, or white vitriol, when the product forms the ‘boiled oil’ or ‘drying oil’ (oleum desiccativum) of commerce. The efficacy of the process, according to Liebig, depends on the elimination of substances which impede the oxidation of the oil. The following formulæ are adopted for this purpose:—
1. Linseed oil, 1 gall.; powdered litharge, 3⁄4 lb.; simmer, with frequent stirring, until a pellicle begins to form ”

“ The local cheapness of labour is an additional argument in favour of preparing the oil at the places where the nut grows. The extraction of the oil is very simple. In Jamaica, Polynesia, and the East Indies, 50 per cent. is obtained by boiling the kernels in water; by reducing the kernels to meal, heating in a water-bath, and placing the mass in bags under hydraulic pressure, the yield is about 60-66 per cent. The shells are themselves excellent fuel. The oil is completely clarified by mere filtration. ”

“ Thirty factories produce about 40,000 litres of the oil daily. Turpentine, creosote, acetic acid, charcoal, coal-tar oils, and other useful substances, are also obtained from the same materials as is the wood-oil. ”

“ That material is used by the fertilizing companies and they add to it the requisite amount of ammonia or phosphoric acid, or potash, or what is required for particular kinds of agriculture.
One of the chief products is oil, and the analysis of the crude oil obtained from the process is as follows:
The crude oil is a very dark thick-looking substance, very much like what you would see lubricating any bearing of engines, and very much like the crude oil that is obtained from the oil wells of this country. ”

“ A purified linseed oil is thus produced which is bright, clear, and slightly yellowish in colour, though somewhat paler than the ordinary oil. It is important that the strength of the oil should not exceed that degree of concentration which is sufficient for the purpose for which it is intended. The oil having been so treated, and the impurities separated by subsidence or otherwise, it is next submitted to the bleaching and oxidising treatment. ”

“ Some of the oils produced are of excellent quality, but others are inferior, and do not ascend the wick in sufficient quantity to afford a constant light. None of the native petroleums contain carbolic acid and other impurities which exist in the oils distilled from coals and shales; hence their purification is simple and comparatively cheap. “The oil prepared1143 from petroleum is almost colourless; it has a specific gravity of about ·810, and when of good quality only a slight and rather aromatic odour.” (Payen.) See Petroleum, and above. ”

“ The quantity of oil which a given territory can yield is often very great, since some sand will hold as much as one-eighth of its bulk in oil under pressure. This means that there is 1.5 inches of oil to every vertical foot of oil-sand, or about 5000 cubic feet per acre.
Character and Composition. Petroleum is a liquid of varying color, being black, brown, red, amber, or straw, and by reflected light often appearing greenish in tint. The black oils in the United States are obtained from the Trenton limestone of Ohio and from California; the Pennsylvania oils are of amber tint. ”

“ The man who now handles your kerosene does not handle your sugar. He is a specialist.
In every town in America of more than one thousand people is a Standard Oil agency. The oil is delivered from tank-cars into iron tanks. From there it is piped into tank-wagons. This wagon comes to your door, and the gentlemanly agent sees that your little household tank is kept filled. All you have to do is to turn a faucet. Aye, in this pleasant village of East Aurora is a Standard Oil agent who will fill your lamp and trim the wick, provided you buy your lamps, chimneys and wicks of him. ”

“ I think he will be very successful in obtaining oil from flax or linseed. For a beginning, and for persons that never saw oil made before, which is the case with the workmen who are making it—they knew nothing about making oil—I think they have done extraordinary well. ”

“ Grating it down nicely, leaving out the ugly red spots liberally, and adding the utmost oil as a lubricant, it is as much as I can do to persuade the mess to shut their eyes and bolt it, like Mrs Squeers’ molasses and brimstone at Dotheboys Hall. ”

“ There was nothing for it but to go back to the kitchen, get some kerosene, pour it into the lock, and so oil the rusty contrivance. Every minute was as precious as life itself. I made the trip at desperate speed, returned with a small bottle full of oil, and saturated the lock. After another five minutes of fruitless twisting, suddenly the key turned. ”