Oil (chemistry)

“ Acids act powerfully upon oils, but very differently, according to the nature of each. Alkalies also combine with oils, and the less thin and volatile they are, the more easily are they soluble in alkalies. The union of alkali and oil makes soap. All oil dissolves sulphur, and with it makes what is called a balsam. Oils also dissolve metallic substances, but most sensibly copper and lead. United with the calx of lead, it is used in painting. ”

“ Not exactly; for the process does not appear to consist so much in the oxygenation of the oil, as in the combustion of a portion of its hydrogen, and a small portion of its carbon. For when resins are artificially made by the combination of volatile oils with oxygen, the vessel in which the process is performed is bedewed with water, and the air included within is loaded with carbonic acid. ”

“ When hydrogen and charcoal are combined together, without the intervention of caloric, to bring the hydrogen into the state of gas, they form an oil, which is either fixed or volatile, according to the proportions of hydrogen and charcharcoal in its composition. The chief difference between fixed or fat oils drawn from vegetables by expression, and volatile or essential oils, is, that the former contains an excess of charcoal, which is separated when the oils are heated above the degree of boiling water ”

“ If we put a quantity of this animal oil, we rectified, and consequently clear, limpid, and transparent, into a bell-glass filled with oxygen gas over mercury, in a short time the gas is much diminished, being absorbed by the oil, the oxygen combining with the hydrogen of the oil forms water, which sinks to the bottom, at the same time the charcoal which was combined with the hydrogen being set free, manifests itself by by rendering the oil black. ”

“ Almost every topic relating to petroleum has been considered, beginning with the kinds of rocks in which petroleum is found, in the United States and in the Baku district, and taking up in succession the chemistry of petroleum, the construction of wells, methods of transporting crude petroleum, the manufacture of commercial products and their transportation, methods of testing oils and paraffine in considerable detail, followed by a sketch of the progress of invention in oil-lamps. ”

“ Petroleum Fuels.—Petroleum is defined by Prof. William Robinson as, in the widest sense of the term, comprising not only the mineral oils found in the earth's crust, but also the oils obtained by the destructive distillation of coal and bituminous shale. These complex liquid hydrocarbons vary in appearance from that of clear, light kerosene oils to heavy, dark-greenish slush or semi-fluid slime. After the volatile or lighter oils have been driven off from crude petroleum, the heavy oil left is known as residuum in America ”

“ 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. ”

“ Others are deprived of a part of their more volatile constituents by spontaneous evaporation, or by distillation, in vacuo or otherwise, at the lowest possible temperature. Such are known as “reduced oils”.
In most petroleum-producing countries, however, and particularly where the product is abundant, the crude oil is fractionally distilled, so as to separate it into petroleum spirit of various grades, burning oils, gas oils, lubricating oils, and (if the crude oil yields that product) paraffin. ”

“ 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. ”

“ What happens at the ordinary temperature slowly goes on rapidly in the steam cylinder, where a new condition is reached. The oils are subjected to the heat of high pressure steam, which dissociates or frees these acids from their base, and in this condition they attack the metal and hence destroy it.
This applies as well to vegetable as to oils of animal origin, fish or sperm oil included. Petroleum and oils derived therefrom (generally called mineral oils) are entirely free from this objection. Petroleum contains no oxygen, and hence it cannot form an acid, and therefore cannot attack metal. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ If Oil be distilled by itself, the thickest and heaviest part remains charred, as it were, in the retort, the inside of which is lined with a crust of coal, that is to the last degree fixed: this therefore always occasions a diminution of the Oil. ”

“ OIL-GAS. A mixture of several gaseous hydrocarbons, obtained by passing common whale fat, resin, the heavy petroleum or shale oil, or the tarry residues left after the distillation of these two latter substances, or other cheap animal oil, through red-hot tubes, or by allowing it to fall in drops on red-hot stones or bricks arranged in an iron retort, or other suitable apparatus. The gas has great illuminating power, requires no purification, and is quite free from the ammoniacal and sulphur compounds which vitiate coal-gas. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ As to the existence of water in Oils, it appears plainly when they are decomposed by repeated distillations, especially after mixing them with absorbent earths. Lastly, when an Oil is destroyed by burning, a certain quantity of earth is constantly left behind. ”

“ When water is heated to 212° it is converted completely into a gas, which gas returns to the fluid state without any loss on cooling below 212°. In like manner if we raise an essential-oil, such as turpentine, to 320°, or oil of peppermint to 340°, or orange-peel oil to 345°, or patchouli to 489°, and other such oils to various other temperatures, they pass into a state of vapor, and these vapors, when cooled, recondense into their original form of liquid oil without alteration. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Edward Orton, of Ohio, was the most prominent investigator in this field. In all regions where petroleum occurs the strata are not only disturbed, but they are bent into anticlinal or arch-shaped folds. If the rocks are porous the gas tends to collect at the summit of the anticlinal fold or arch, while the oil collects in the flanks of the fold. Salt water is usually associated with the gas and oil, and, being heavier, accumulates in the flanks of the anticlinal or in the neighboring synclinal folds. There is little use of searching for oil in regions where the strata are flat ”

“ 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 ether solution is then drawn off, and the ether in the one case and petroleum spirit in the other are separated from the dissolved oils by distillation, the last traces of these volatile liquids being separated by blowing a current of filtered air through the flask containing the neutral oil, which is then weighed and its percentage on the original sample calculated.
All animal and vegetable oils yield a small quantity--about one per cent.--of unsaponifiable fatty matter, which must be deducted from the result obtained. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Astral oil and mineral sperm oil are special illuminating oils of high flashing points. Crude petroleum is much used for fuel purposes in engines. Along the Pacific Coast, especially in southern California, where good coal is scarce, the locomotives consume large quantities of crude oil. Paraffin residue is placed on the market for medicinal purposes under the name of vaseline, petroleum ointment, and cosmoline. ”

“ If, when Oil is dispersed in a body, of which it is only one component principle, and consequently mixed with many saline, aqueous, and earthy parts, that are not inflammable, but, on the contrary, make the Oil less so, the Oil nevertheless takes fire, and burns when agitated by a sufficient degree of heat ”

“ He that cannot see the virtues of this Salt, is destitute of Eagles eyes, beholding the Rays of the Sun with an unmoved aspect, and hath the eyes of an Owl, which can see somewhat in the dark, but is blind at Noon-day. Truly, it is a thing to be admired, that an Oil so combustible, in the space of a few hours, should be reduced to that state, that it should glow and burn in the fire like a Coal. Therefore let it not seem strange to any man, that any Wood abounding with much combustible Oil, should in a long progress of time, by the help of this Salt, be transmuted into a Stone. ”

“ Crude petroleum as it comes from the earth is a liquid, formed from the decay of plants and animals long ago buried underground. It is obtained by sinking wells, or pipes, into oil-bearing rock, which is very porous. ”

“ Coincident with the discovery of petroleum, its inseparable companion, natural gas, came into prominence as a source of both light and heat, or this became true, at least, after it was ascertained that natural gas regions existed which could be tapped by wells, and made to give forth their gaseous product independent of the oil that may have at one time existed near or in connection with it. ”

“ 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 ”