Oilcloth

“ At a high temperature the super-oxidation of the oil takes place more rapidly than in the winter, and I have seen fabrics that had only been impregnated with an oil varnish for a month cemented together in one sticky mass, and, of course, completely ruined.68 When the linseed oil is thickened by the addition of a gum resin, it is too thick for direct application, and is thinned down with a solvent, usually turpentine or a mixture of this with light petroleum. ”

“ Linseed oil has the power of drying when spread out in a thin layer, becoming of a resinous consistence like varnish, and upon this quality depends the drying powers of paint, for the other non-drying oils, as olive oil, may be exposed to the air for months without drying at all; the drying powers of linseed oil are greatly increased by boiling it with litharge (oxide of lead) . This forms the drying or boiled oil used in painting, and is employed in making varnishes, printers’ ink, and for other purposes. ”

“ Its excellence depends on the quality of the oil and the care with which it is kneaded. It should be kept in a damp cellar, in wet cloth or under water. Should it dry and become brittle, fresh oil must be added.
“To take hard old putty from glass window-panes, cover it with a mixture of one part of calcined lime, two of soda, and two of water” (Lehner) . Oxide of lead combined with oil makes an excellent but yellow putty. It sets very hard.
The white or grey oxide of zinc combined with linseed-oil or linseed-oil varnish makes a cement which is used for making glass adhere to wood or metal. ”

“ One method of hardening is to smear the blank with common yellow soap, heat it to a cherry red, and drop endwise into linseed oil. Petroleum is preferred by some to linseed oil, but, to tell the truth, I can see no difference in the action of linseed, petroleum or olive oil. Be sure and have enough oil to thoroughly cool the blank, and a deep vessel, such as a large-mouthed vial, is preferable to a saucer. The blank will now be found too hard to work easily with the graver, and we must therefore draw the temper down to that of fine spring steel. ”

“ In priming wood surfaces which are absorbent of oil, the best practice favours the putting on of a coat of pure oil, or oil thinned with turpentine, which shall penetrate the surface, and form a binder for the subsequent coats. With iron, the case is quite different, provided we have a paint which, from its very nature, can attach itself firmly to the surface, because it is out of the question for it to hold on to the surface of iron by any process of absorption into the pores of the metal, as linseed oil will not penetrate to any extent. ”

“ A simple method of obtaining an approximate result is to procure a sample of oil of known good quality, and to colour it with an aniline dye. A drop of this tinted oil will, when placed in the oil to be tested, indicate, by its sinking or swimming, the relative density of the liquid under examination. Freshly-extracted linseed oil is unfit for making paint. It contains water and organic impurities, respecting the composition of which little is known, and which are generally termed “mucilage.” ”

“ Owing to its expensiveness, it has given place to cheaper materials serving the same purpose. Oil-cloth is a coarse canvas which has received a number of coats of thick oil paint, each coat being rubbed smooth with pumice stone before the application of the next. Its surface is ornamented with patterns printed in oil colours by means of wooden blocks. Linoleum (linum, flax, oleum, oil) , patented by F. Walton in 1860 and 1863, consists of oxidized linseed oil and ground cork. ”

“ The mode of collecting it is this; the place where it is found bubbling up in the creek is surrounded by a wall or dam to a narrow compass, a man then takes a blanket, flannel, or other woollen cloth, to which the oil adheres, and spreading it over the surface of the enclosed pond, presses it down a little, then draws it up, and running the cloth through his hands, squeezes out the oil into a vessel prepared for the purpose; thus twenty or thirty gallons of pure oil can be obtained in two or three days by one man.—Cramer. ”

“ The nuts, when broken up with their coverings, yield about thirty-six per cent, of oil; cleared of their coverings, the kernels give sixty per cent. When cold-pressed, the oil is clear and amber-colored. When left to stand, it gives a solid deposit of a crystalline appearance. It makes a soap of excellent quality, and having a certain degree of hardness—a property which makes it valuable to mix with other oils that give too soft soaps. When refined, it makes an excellent lubricating oil, and gives a light that leaves nothing to be desired. ”

“ Though the oil gold-size can always be purchased of good quality, it may be well to describe the fat oil of which it is principally composed. Linseed oil, in any quantity, is exposed during the summer in the open air, but as much away from dust as possible, for about two months, during which time it must be often stirred, and it will become as thick as treacle. 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. ”

“ During the process of crushing, pressing, depositing and clarifying, too extreme cold chills the oil and checks its flow and clarification, and in cold weather it is desirable to have moderate artificial heat in the mill. When clarified, the oil should be put in a cool place, and in cool receivers, of which tanks of tiles, brick lined with marble, or glass, and the Italian glazed terra-cotta lined tanks are the best. ”

“ When oil-boilers were compelled to adopt some expedient to give a reddish-brown colour to the oil, they added a small amount of litharge, the introduction of which actually spoils the oil, and makes it unsuitable for many purposes to which it is otherwise applicable. Of late years, pale boiled oils have been more largely manufactured for special purposes. It is obvious that, for decorative house painting, in which delicate tints are a leading feature, they may be advantageously employed. ”

“ For exterior work, more oil can be used for building up the ground work than for interior. However, if the work is to be varnished, most of the oil should be cut out. A great many painters prefer not to varnish exterior work, but apply a coat of oil, rub off with a soft cloth and let the work remain with this finish. Where varnished work is used on the exterior, the graining should be done in distemper if possible, or the oil graining color should be allowed to stand until thoroughly hard before applying the varnish ”

“ The oil used is linseed, which by boiling attains setting or drying qualities and becomes better by keeping, its thick or heavy nature when loaded with mineral and metallic matters being reduced for working purposes by spirits of turpentine, a volatile spirit that is a mere aid to the spreading of paint. ”

“ Each firm keeps its own process for such substance a dead secret, but without prying into these we can learn enough to satisfy our legitimate curiosity. The first of the artificial fabrics was the old-fashioned and still indispensable oil-cloth, that is canvas painted or printed with linseed oil carrying the desired pigments. Linseed oil belongs to the class of compounds that the chemist calls "unsaturated" and the psychologist would call "unsatisfied." ”

“ An oil, generally linseed or poppy oil, which is ground up with the white lead or zinc-white until it becomes a soft paste. This is mixed with variable preparations of linseed oil and spirit of turpentine.
(3) A substance called dryers, or siccative materials; it may be linseed oil in which litharge is dissolved, or it may be linseed oil containing a compound of manganese.
Paint owes to the dryers its property of drying more rapidly than it would do without it ”

“ Do not plaster the hair with oil or pomatum. A white, concrete oil pertains naturally to the covering of the human head, but some persons have it in more abundance than others. Those whose hair is glossy and shining need nothing to render it so; but when the hair is harsh, poor and dry, artificial lubrication is necessary. Persons who perspire freely, or who accumulate scurf rapidly, require it also. Nothing is simpler or better in the way of oil than pure, unscented salad oil, and in the way of a pomatum, bear's grease is as pleasant as anything. ”

“ The French oil is of two kinds, a white cold-drawn oil, and a coarser oil obtained by a second expression and from inferior seed, the total yield being 40 per cent. The finer oil is fit for alimentary purposes, and is largely used to adulterate olive-oil; it is also employed as a lamp-oil, and very extensively by artists for grinding light pigments, as, though possessing less strength and tenacity than linseed-oil, it keeps its colour better. The pure oil has a golden-yellow tint and agreeable flavour ”

“ Constants and Characteristics of Oils and Their Effect upon Drying. An attempt has been made to give in this chapter a brief summary of the most important characteristics of those oils finding application in the paint and varnish industry. For methods of oil analysis, the reader is referred to standard works on this subject; the analytical constants herein being given only for comparative purposes. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There are produced from Texas crude oil which has an asphaltum base, and Pennsylvania crude oil which has a paraffin base, high boiling-point petroleum spirits which have come into wide use as paint and varnish thinners. ”

“ As delivered from the drying apparatus, the wool is bright and clean, but somewhat harsh and wiry to the touch, owing to the removal of the yolk which is its natural lubricant. To render it soft and elastic, and to improve its spinning qualities, the fiber is sprinkled with lard oil or olive oil. As the oil is a costly item, it is of consequence that it be equally distributed and used economically. To attain this end various forms of oiling apparatus have been invented, which sprinkle the oil in a fine spray over the wool, which is carried under the sprinkler by an endless cloth. ”

“ The latter are better for ordinary woodworking tools. The India oilstone, an artificial stone, Fig. 77, p. 58, cuts even more quickly than the natural stones. It is made in several grades of coarseness. The medium grade is recommended for ordinary shop use. Oil is used on oilstones for the same purpose as water on a grindstone. When an oilstone becomes hollow or uneven by use, it may be trued by rubbing it on a flat board covered with sharp sand, or on sandpaper tacked over a block of wood. ”

“ If wool and cotton are blended together the wool must be oiled first, or the blend will not work to the greatest advantage. The oil may be best Gallipoli olive oil—which should not turn rancid—but there are many good oils—and unfortunately many bad oils—placed on the market at a reasonable rate which the really skilled judge may use to advantage. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 first step in the oil dressing, after the skins have been duly soaked to render them porous and absorptive, is to cover them with fish oil and place them in the stocks or fulling machines—huge wooden hammers with notched faces working in iron cases—where they are beaten and turned, and subjected to a uniform pressure until the oil is gradually absorbed. ”

“ When you foresee that you will remain a long time without having occasion to employ the lamp, pour the oil into a bottle, which can be corked up, and let the wick be destroyed, previously squeezing from it the oil which it contains.
It is indispensable to make use of none but new and good cotton ”

“ Railroad ties and street paving blocks are ordinarily protected by oil rather than paint. Wood is soaked in creosote oil until it becomes thoroughly saturated with the oily substance. The pores of the wood are thus closed to the entrance of air and moisture, and decay is avoided. ”