What fibres were used in cloth-making in Europe before cotton was employed?What textiles are of necessity made of cotton?What is a spinning jenny?—a Jacquard loom?What are the specific differences between cotswold and merino wool?Why were most of the cloth-making mills of the United States built at first in the New England States?How is the silk-making industry encouraged in the United States?What are the chief linen manufacturing countries?
What fibres were used in cloth-making in Europe before cotton was employed?
What textiles are of necessity made of cotton?
What is a spinning jenny?—a Jacquard loom?
What are the specific differences between cotswold and merino wool?
Why were most of the cloth-making mills of the United States built at first in the New England States?
How is the silk-making industry encouraged in the United States?
What are the chief linen manufacturing countries?
FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE
Obtain specimens of the cotton seed, boll, raw cotton (sea island, Peruvian, and ordinary), cotton thread, calico, gingham,domestic, canvas, and some of the fancy textiles such as organdie, lawn, etc.Obtain specimens of the cocoons of the silk-worm, raw silk gros-grain cloth, pongee, and tussar silk cloth.Obtain also specimens of merino cloth, cashmere, cheviot, and other similar goods; compare them and note the difference.Examine the fibres of cotton, silk, and wool under a microscope and note the difference.
Obtain specimens of the cotton seed, boll, raw cotton (sea island, Peruvian, and ordinary), cotton thread, calico, gingham,domestic, canvas, and some of the fancy textiles such as organdie, lawn, etc.
Obtain specimens of the cocoons of the silk-worm, raw silk gros-grain cloth, pongee, and tussar silk cloth.
Obtain also specimens of merino cloth, cashmere, cheviot, and other similar goods; compare them and note the difference.
Examine the fibres of cotton, silk, and wool under a microscope and note the difference.
BRANCH OF COFFEE TREE, WEST BRAZILBRANCH OF COFFEE TREE,WEST BRAZIL
COFFEE PLANTATION NEAR JOLO, PHILIPPINE ISLANDSCOFFEE PLANTATION NEAR JOLO,PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
COFFEE DRYING FIELD, BRAZILCOFFEE DRYING FIELD, BRAZIL
It may be assumed that practically all beverages derived from plants owe their popularity to the stimulant effects they produce. In coffee, tea, cocoa, and maté, the stimulant principle is identical withcafein, the active principle of coffee; in liquors it is a powerful narcoticalcohol; non-potable substances, tobacco, opium, etc., owe their popularity also to narcotic poisons.
Coffee.—The coffee "beans" of commerce are the seeds of a tree (Coffea arabica) probably native to Abyssinia, but now cultivated in various parts of the world. It was introduced into Aden from Africa late in the fifteenth century, and from there its use spread to other cities. Rather singularly its popularity resulted from the strong efforts made to forbid its use.
It was regarded as a stimulant and therefore it was forbidden to followers of Islam.[34]But its power to prevent drowsiness and sleep during the intolerably long religious exercises was a winning feature, and so its use became general in spite of the fulminations against it.
Coffee culture was confined to Arabia until the close of the seventeenth century; it was then introduced into the Dutch East Indies, and for many years the island of Javabecame the main supply of the world. At the present time, Java is second only to Brazil in coffee production. In the Old World it is now also cultivated along the Guinea coast of Africa, in Madagascar, India, and Ceylon. In the New World the chief areas are Brazil, Venezuela, the Central American States, and the West Indies.
COFFEE PRODUCING REGIONSCOFFEE PRODUCING REGIONS
The coffee-tree may be cultivated in almost any soil that is fertile; it thrives best, however, in red soil. Old, decomposed red lavas produce the choicest beans. Coffee grows in any moist climate in which the temperature does not range higher than 80° F. nor lower than 55° F. An occasional frost injures but does not necessarily kill the trees, which grow better in the shade than in the sunlight. For convenience in gathering the crop, the trees are pruned until they are not higher than bushes.
The fruit of the coffee-tree is a deep-red berry not quite so large as a cherry. A juicy pulp encloses a double membrane, or endocarp, and within the latter are the seeds which constitute the coffee of commerce. Normally there are two seeds, but in some varieties there is a tendency forone seed to mature, leaving the other undeveloped; this is the "peaberry" coffee of commerce. The so-called Mocha coffee is a peaberry.
In their preparation the berries are picked when ripe and deprived of their pulp. After pulping they are cured in the sun for about a week and then hulled, or divested of the endocarp, a process requiring expensive machinery. The coffee is then cleaned, and sacked.
The value of the product depends on two factors, age and the care with which it is sorted. Formerly, in the Dutch East Indies, coffee-growing, for the greater part, was a government privilege, and the crop was kept for several years in storage before it was permitted to be sold—therefore the term "Old Government" Java. Other coffee was designated as "Private Plantations." The quality of coffee is greatly improved with age. Brazilian and other American coffee-beans are rarely seasoned by storage.
American coffees are almost wholly sorted by machinery. This process, however, merely collects beans of the same size; it still leaves the good and the bad beans together, though it is to be said that among the largest beans there are fewer poor ones. In the coffees handled by the Arab dealers all the sorting is done by hand, the very choice grade selling in the large cities of Europe for the equivalent of nearly three dollars per pound. All machine-sorted coffee is greatly improved by a subsequent hand-sorting to remove the imperfect beans.
The naming of the different kinds of coffee is somewhat arbitrary. Thus, Brazilian coffees are commercially known asRiobecause they are shipped from the port of Rio de Janeiro; the same name is applied to the product shipped from Santos. Nearly all Venezuela coffees are calledMaracaiboalthough they differ much in kind and quality; most Central American coffee is sold asCosta Rica; mostpeaberry varieties are known asMocha; and most of the East India product is popularly calledJava, no matter whence it comes.
COFFEE PRODUCTIONCOFFEE PRODUCTION
Of the American coffees Rio constitutes about half the world's product. After sorting, the larger beans are often marketed as Java coffee, and when the beans have been roasted it is exceedingly difficult to tell the difference. The best Maracaibo is regarded as choice coffee, but its flavor is not liked by all coffee-drinkers. The best Honduras and Puerto Rico coffees take a high rank and command very high prices, retailing in some instances at sixty cents per pound. A very choice peaberry is grown in the volcanic soils of Mexico to which the name ofOaxacais given; most of it is sold in the United States as a choice Mocha.
Mocha is the commercial name of a coffee at one time marketed in the Arabian city of that name. Since the completion of the Suez Canal, Hodeida has been the chief centre of the Arabian coffee-trade. Formerly most of this coffee was grown in the Province of Yemen, but now it is brought to Hodeida, from Egypt, Ceylon, and India.
About all the product is hand-sorted. The choicest is sold in Constantinople, Cairo, and other cities near by, in some instances bringing five dollars per pound. Very little, and only that of the most inferior quality, ever finds itsway into western Europe or the United States. Even the best Mocha is not superior to fine Oaxaca coffee.
Java coffee is renowned the world over for its fine flavor. The best quality was formerly that which had been held in storage to season for a few years. The government coffee was generally the better, but some of the private plantations crop is now equally good. Some of the Sumatra coffees are equal to the best Java beans.
The Liberia coffees have never been favorites in the United States on account of their flavor. In Europe they are used for blending with other varieties.
Of the entire coffee-crop of the world, the United States consumes more than three-quarters of a billion pounds—a yearly average of very nearly eleven pounds for each inhabitant. This is nearly three times as much per inhabitant as is consumed in Germany, and almost fifteen times the average used in Great Britain. Nearly all the world's crop is consumed in the United States and western Europe.
Chicory, parched grain, pease, and burnt parsnip are sometimes added as adulterants to ground coffee. Of those, chicory most nearly resembles coffee in flavor and taste. It is harmless and usually improves the flavor of inferior coffee. A tariff recently placed upon chicory has somewhat lessened the use of it.
Tea.—The tea of commerce consists of the dried and prepared leaves of an evergreen shrub (Thea chinensis) belonging most probably to thecamelliafamily. Tea has been a commercial product of China for more than fourteen hundred years, but seems to have been carried thither from India about five hundred years before the Christian era; for its virtues were praised by (the probably mythical) Chinung, an emperor of that period.
The cultivated plants are scarcely higher than bushes, but the wild plant found in India is a tree fifteen ortwenty feet in height. The cultivated plant is quite hardy; severe winters kill it but ordinary freezing weather merely retards its growth. It thrives best in red, mouldy soils; the choicest varieties are grown in new soils. The leaves are not picked until the plants are three or four years old.
Two general classes of tea are known in commerce—the green and the black. Formerly these were grown on different varieties of the plant, but in the newer plantations no distinction is made in the matter of variety; the color is due wholly to the manner of preparation.
The plants are watched carefully during the seasons of picking, of which there are three or four each year. The April picking yields the choicest crop of leaves, and only the youngest leaves and buds are taken.[35]A single plant rarely yields more than four or five ounces of tea yearly. Each acre of a tea-garden yields about three hundred and fifty pounds.
After picking, the leaves are partly crushed and allowed to wilt until they begin to turn brown in color. They are then rolled between the hands and either dried very slowly in the sun, or else rapidly in pans over a charcoal fire—a process known as "firing." The former method producesblack, the lattergreen, tea. The color of the latter is sometimes heightened by the use of a mixture of powdered gypsum and Prussian blue. In the black teas the green coloring matter of the leaf is destroyed by fermentation; in the green teas it remains unchanged.
The greater part of the Chinese tea designed for export is packed rather loosely in wooden chests lined with sheet-lead, the folds and joints of which are soldered in order to make the cover both air-tight and moisture-tight. A full chest contains seventy-five pounds of tea. The Japanproduct is also packed in moisture-tight wrappers, the original parcels being usually ten-pound, five-pound, and pound packages. Similar devices are used in preparing the India and Formosa teas for ocean shipment.
The chief tea-producing countries are India (including Ceylon) China, Japan (including Formosa), and Java. A successful tea-garden is in operation near Charleston, S.C. A small amount is grown in the Fiji and Samoan Islands. The Ceylon and Formosa teas take a very high rank.
AREA OF TEA PRODUCTIONAREA OF TEA PRODUCTION
Great Britain and her colonies consume the bulk of the tea-crop. The average yearly consumption per person is eight pounds in Australia, six in Great Britain and Cape of Good Hope, and more than four in Canada. In the United States and Russia it is less than one pound per person.
Before the opening of the Suez Canal, in 1869, most of the crop for the English market was despatched by way of Cape of Good Hope. So important was it to get the consignments to London without loss of time, that fast clipper ships were built especially for carrying tea. Since the opening of the canal the crop has been shipped mainly by the Suez route.
A part of the tea required for the United States reaches New York by way of the Suez Canal, but the movement is gradually changing since the building of the fast liners that now ply between Asian and American ports. These steamships carry it to Seattle, or to Vancouver, whence it is distributed by rail. The increased cost of shipment by this route is more than offset by a gain of from five to seven days in time.
In some respects the Russian "caravan route" is the most important channel of the tea-trade. The tea is collected mainly at Tientsin, and sent by camel caravans through Manchuria to the most convenient point on the Siberian railway. Not only the shipments of brick tea[36]for the Russian market, but the choicest products for western Europe also are sent by this route. It is probably an economical way of shipping the brick tea, but a more expensive method of shipment for the latter could not be found easily; it is preferred from the fact that, no matter how carefully sealed, the flavor of tea is materially injured by an ocean voyage.
It is evident, therefore, that for the tea product alone the Siberian railway will soon become an important factor in the commerce of Europe. Shipments of tea are also sent from Canton to Odessa, Russia, but this route is not less expensive in the long run than the Cape route, and the tea suffers as much deterioration from the shorter as from the longer voyage.
Cacao.—Cacao, the "cocoa" of commerce, consists of the prepared seeds of several species ofTheobroma, the greater part being obtained from theTheobroma cacao.The name is unfortunately confused with that of the cocoa-palm, but there is no relation whatever between the two.
The seeds of the cacao were used in ancient America long before its discovery by Columbus, and the latter carried the first knowledge of it to Europe. By the middle of the seventeenth century it was much used in Spain, and less than a hundred years later it had become the fashionable drink of western Europe.
The cacao-tree, originally native to Mexico, is now cultivated throughout tropical America and the West Indies. It is not cultivated to any extent in the Eastern continent. The fruit consists of large, fleshy pods, which are cut from the trees usually in June and December. The seeds are then piled in heaps, or else packed in pits, and allowed to undergo a rapid fermentation for a period of several days, to which process their flavor is mainly due. The roasted and broken seeds are the cocoa-nibs of commerce. The husks are known as cocoa-shells.
A very large part of the cacao product comes from Ecuador, Guayaquil being perhaps the chief market of the world. The Venezuelan and Brazilian products, however, are the choicest; these are known in commerce respectively as Caracas and Trinidad cacao. Spain, Portugal, and France are the chief purchasers, and in the first-named country the consumption per person is five or six times as great as in other countries.
Cacao is not only a stimulant beverage, but a food as well; about one-half its weight is fat, and about one-third consists of starch and flesh-making substances. The stimulant principle is the same as that occurring in tea and coffee, but the proportion is considerably less. In preparing the cocoa for the market, much of the fat is intentionally withdrawn. The fat, commercially known as "cocoa-butter," and "oil of theobroma," does not turn rancid.
Chocolate consists of cocoa ground to a paste with sugar and flavoring matter, and then cast in moulds to harden. It is used mainly in the manufacture of confectionery. Most of the chocolate is made in France, Spain, and the United States. More than forty million pounds of cocoa are yearly consumed in the United States.
Maté.—Maté, yerba maté, or Paraguay tea, is the leaf of a shrub, a species of holly, growing profusely in the forests of Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. In many instances, the shrub is cultivated. The leaves are prepared in much the same manner as tea-leaves are, but instead of being rolled, they are broken by beating.
The maté of commerce has a stimulant principle identical with that of tea and coffee, which is the only reason for its use. The consumption, about fifteen thousand tons a year, is confined almost wholly to the countries named.
Tobacco.—The tobacco of commerce is the prepared and manufactured leaf of several species of plant, belonging to the nightshade family. Most of the product is derived from the species known as Virginia tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and the Brazilian species (Nicotiana rustica). The former is cultivated in the United States, West Indies, the Philippine Islands, and Turkey; the latter has been transplanted to central Europe and the East Indies.
The use of tobacco was prevalent in the New World at the time of Columbus's first voyage, and was quickly introduced into Europe. The prepared leaf contains a substance, nicotine, which is one of the most deadly of poisons when swallowed, and an intense narcotic stimulant when inhaled. On account of the evil effects arising from its introduction, its use was forbidden by the Church and also by sovereigns of several European states. The latter, however, finding that its use was becoming general, made it aCrown monopoly. In Great Britain its cultivation was forbidden in order to encourage its cultivation in Virginia.
Tobacco does not thrive best in a poor soil, but the latter produces a thin, half-developed leaf, which in other plants would be called "sickly." It grows in almost any kind of soil, but requires warm summer nights. In many instances the tobacco of temperate latitudes yields a more salable leaf when grown under cover. The flavor is due partly to soil and climate, and partly to skill in curing. The choicest product is obtained in only a few localities of limited area. It sometimes happens that the products of two plantations almost side by side, and similarly situated, are very unlike in character and quality.
TOBACCOTOBACCO
The choicest cigar-tobacco is grown on the Vuelta Abajo district in the province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba; another very choice Cuban leaf is known as Partidos. Cuban-made cigars of fine quality are commercially "Havana" cigars, although tobacco from Manila and Porto Rico is apt to be largely used in their manufacture. In order to avoid the very heavy duty on cigars, which is not far from six dollars per pound, a great deal of the Havana tobacco is exported to points along the Florida coast, mainly Key West and Tampa. The unmanufactured tobacco pays a comparatively small duty, and the cigars made from it are commercially known as "Key West."
In some parts of Mexico a fine-flavored tobacco is grown, but as the cigars are not uniform in quality they are not popular. Some of the Brazilian tobacco is a high-class product, but not much is exported. Porto Rican leaf has a fine flavor, but is not popular because of its dark color. The demand for it in the United States is growing, however. Of the leaf grown in the East, that from Sumatra and the Philippine Islands is by far the best, and the exports are heavy. Cuban manufacturers purchase the Manila leaf; the Sumatra wrappers are purchased in the United States.
The choicest cigarette-tobacco is grown in Asiatic Turkey, Transcaucasia, and Egypt. It is selected with great care, and is "long-cut." The common grades are made of chopped Virginia tobacco, or of chopped cigar-trimmings. The cheapest grades consist of refuse leaf mixed with half-smoked cigar-stumps. The United States leads in the manufacture of cigarettes, and a large part of the product is sold in China, India, and Japan. Most of the world's product of snuff is made in the United States, and nearly all of it is sold abroad.
The United States produces yearly about seven hundred million pounds. A large part of this is sold to European countries. Great Britain purchases about four-fifths of the tobacco there consumed from the United States. The latter country purchases from Europe (mainly the Netherlands) about half as much as it sells to Europe. Louisville, Ky., is probably the largest tobacco-market in the world. New York, Baltimore, Richmond, Manila, and Havana are the chief shipping-ports.
In almost every civilized country tobacco is heavily taxed. In the United States there is not only a heavy import duty, but an internal revenue in addition. In Austria, France, Italy, Japan, and Spain the manufacture andsale is in the hands of the government. The consumption of tobacco varies greatly. In the Netherlands it averages about seven pounds a year to each individual; in the United States it is more than four pounds; in central Europe, three pounds; in Spain, Sweden, Great Britain, and Italy, it is less than two pounds.
Opium.—The opium of commerce is the hardened juice obtained from the seed capsules of several species of the poppy-plant. A variety having a large capsule (Papaver somniferum) is most commonly cultivated for the commercial production of the substance. Half-a-dozen times during the season the capsules are scratched or cut; the juice exuding when hard is picked or scraped off and pressed into cakes.
Opium is not only a narcotic poison, but it has the property of lessening the pain of disease, and this is its chief use in medicine. In Mohammedan countries where the use of alcoholic liquors is forbidden as a religious custom, opium is used as a substitute. In Turkey, Persia, Arabia, and Egypt the production of opium is an important industry connected with social and religious life. In British India it is a political factor, being extensively cultivated as a government monopoly to be sold to the Chinese, who are probably the chief consumers of it. The Indian Government derives a revenue sometimes reaching twenty million dollars from this source.
The best quality of opium is marketed at Smyrna, and most of this is purchased by the United States. A considerable amount of Chinese opium is imported for the use of the Chinese, and a larger amount is probably smuggled over the Canadian and Mexican borders. Laudanum is an alcoholic tincture, and morphine an extractive of opium; both are used as medicine.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Consult a good physiology and learn the effects of coffee, tea, tobacco, and opium.Where and what are the following: Mocha, Java, Maracaibo, Yokohama, Amoy, Canton, Oaxaca, Hodeida, Rio Janeiro, Santos, Havana; how is each connected commercially with this chapter?From the map, Fig. 1, trace the route of a cargo of tea overland from China to Great Britain.Consult an English history or a cyclopædia and learn about the opium war.
Consult a good physiology and learn the effects of coffee, tea, tobacco, and opium.
Where and what are the following: Mocha, Java, Maracaibo, Yokohama, Amoy, Canton, Oaxaca, Hodeida, Rio Janeiro, Santos, Havana; how is each connected commercially with this chapter?
From the map, Fig. 1, trace the route of a cargo of tea overland from China to Great Britain.
Consult an English history or a cyclopædia and learn about the opium war.
FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE
Obtain samples of the following, preserving them for study and inspection in closely stoppered vials: Mocha, Java, Rio, and Sumatra coffees; green, black, and gunpowder tea. Soak a tea-leaf a few minutes in warm water; unroll the leaf and attach it to a white card, for study.Obtain samples of gum opium, laudanum, and morphine; note the odor of the first two and the taste of the last. Remember that they are poisonous.Unroll a cheap cigarette and note the character of the tobacco in it, using a magnifying glass.
Obtain samples of the following, preserving them for study and inspection in closely stoppered vials: Mocha, Java, Rio, and Sumatra coffees; green, black, and gunpowder tea. Soak a tea-leaf a few minutes in warm water; unroll the leaf and attach it to a white card, for study.
Obtain samples of gum opium, laudanum, and morphine; note the odor of the first two and the taste of the last. Remember that they are poisonous.
Unroll a cheap cigarette and note the character of the tobacco in it, using a magnifying glass.
Most vegetable juices exposed to the air harden into firm substances, commonly calledgum. Some of these dissolve, or at least soften, in water; these technically are known as "gums," and usually are so designated in commerce. Others are insoluble in water, but dissolve readily in alcohol, in naphtha, in turpentine, or in other essential oils; these are designated as "gum-resins." Still others yield oils or pitchy substances on distillation; these are known as "oleo-resins." There are many other dried vegetable juices, however, that in commerce are not classified among the gums and resins, and of these the most important is the substance commonly known as india-rubber.
Rubber and Rubber Products.—"Caoutchouc" is approximately the name given by Indians of the Amazon forests to a substance that had also been found in India. Some of it was brought to Europe from the Amazon region as early as 1736, and for nearly one hundred years no general purpose was discovered for which it could be used, except to erase lead-pencil marks—hence the name india-rubber, which has held ever since.
Common rubber is the prepared juice of a dozen or more shrubs and trees, all of which grow in tropical regions.[37]The belt of rubber-producing plants extends aroundthe world and includes such well-known species as the fig, the manihot (or manioc), and the oleander; indeed, it is a condition of sap rather than a definite species of plant that produces rubber, and the latter is a manufactured rather than a natural product. The process of preparing the juice is practically the same in every part of the world.
The rubber-gatherer of the Amazon, who is practically a slave, wades into the swamp, makes several incisions in the bark of the tree, fashions a rough trough of clay under it, and waits till the sap fills the clay vessel. When the sap has been gathered he makes a fire of the nuts of the urucuri palm and places an inverted funnel over it to concentrate the smoke. He first dips the end of a wooden spindle into the juice and then holds it in the smoke until the juice coagulates; this process is repeated until there has formed a ball of rubber weighing from five to ten pounds. The smoke of the palm-nuts is a chemical agent that converts the juice into the crude rubber of commerce.
Crude gum, however, is lacking both in strength and elasticity. The process that makes it a finished product is known asvulcanization. The crude rubber, having been exported to the manufacturer in the United States or Europe, is shredded, washed, and cleansed, and partly fused with varying proportions of sulphur. For a very soft product, such as the inner surface of tires, only a small proportion is used; where the wear is considerable, a larger proportion is employed.[38]White clay is sometimes added to give body to the product; coloring matter is also sometimes added.
By far the greater part of the crude rubber comes fromthe Amazon forests. Brazil produces about one-half, but a considerable quantity is obtained in Acré, the territory formed where the borders of Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru meet, and now ceded to Brazil. Nearly all this product, that of the Ceará region excepted, is marketed at Pará and is known as Pará rubber. It is the best produced. The African product, mainly from the forests of the Kongo, and Madagascar, and nearly all the East Indian product is sent to Europe.
REGIONS YIELDING RUBBERREGIONS YIELDING RUBBER
The world's product is about one hundred and thirty-three million pounds of crude rubber. Of this product the United States takes nearly one-half. The greater part is used in the manufacture of pneumatic tires, hose, and overshoes. A large part is used for making water-proof cloth,[39]and considerable is made into the small elastic bands for which there is a growing use.
Gutta-Percha.—Gutta-percha is obtained from the juices of several plants (chieflyDichopsis guttaandSupota mülleri) both of which abound in the Malay peninsula and the East Indies. It is prepared in a manner somewhat similar to that employed in making crude rubber; it is also easily vulcanized by heating with sulphur. It is used to a limited extent in the manufacture of golf-balls, but mainly as the insulating cover of copper wires used in ocean telegraph cables. For this purpose it has no known substitute, and its essential merit is the fact that it is not altered by salt water. Nearly all the product is shipped from Singapore to England.
Pine-Tree Products.—The various members of the pine and cone-bearing trees yield valuable essential oils and oleo-resins that are very important in the arts and sciences. These, in nearly every instance, are prepared from the sap of the tree.
Oil of turpentineis known as an "essential oil," and in chemical structure and properties it does not differ from the various essential oils, such as lemon, orange, peppermint, etc. Commercial turpentine is generally made from the sap of the long-leafed pine of the Atlantic coast-plain.
The bark of the tree is cut near the foot, and the sap that oozes from the scar quickly hardens into a gum. The gum, generally known as "crude turpentine," is distilled and yields about one-fourth its weight of oil or "spirit" of turpentine. It is a staple article of manufacture in Europe, India, and the United States, and is used chiefly to dilute the oil paints and varnishes used in indoor work. The United States supplies about two-thirds of the world's product, a large part of which is shipped from Savannah and Brunswick, Ga., to Great Britain.[40]
Resinis the substance remaining after the crude turpentine has been distilled. It is used in the manufacture of varnish, sealing-wax, and soap. Finely powdered resin is also mixed with wood-pulp in the manufacture of wrapping-paper. It gives the latter a glazed surface and renders it almost water-proof. Most of the world's product of resin comes from the turpentine district of the United States, and about four-fifths of it is exported to Europe.
When resin is subjected to distillation at a still higher temperature,resin oil, a very heavy turpentine, is given off, and a viscous substance known aspitchremains. A considerable amount of this is still made in the United States, but the greater part comes from the pine-forests of Russia and Scandinavia. When pine-wood is distilled,taris the chief product. In Russia tar is generally made by burning green logs covered with turf, over a pit.Creosote, or wood preservative, is made from tar. The various pine-tree products, creosote excepted, are commonly known as "naval stores," the tar being used in water-proofing the rigging of vessels, the pitch in calking the seams in between planks, in the decks and hulls.
Other Resins and Gums Used in the Arts.—Most of the gums and resins used in the arts and sciences are the hardened sap of plants—in some cases exuding by natural means from the bark, in others resulting from the puncture of the bark.
Thelacof commerce is due to the puncture of the young branches of a tree, frequently a fig (Ficus religiosa) growing in the tropical forests of India. The hardened sap incrusts twigs formingstick-lac; when crushed, washed, and freed from the woody matter it isseed-lac; when melted and cooled in flakes it isshell-lac, the form best known in commerce. It is the chief ingredient in sealing-wax,and is extensively used as a varnish. It is also used in fireworks on account of its inflammability.
Dammaris the product of a tree growing in the East Indies; it is the basis of a very fine white varnish.Copalis a term applied to oleo-resins soluble in turpentine, and used almost universally as varnishes. They come from the tropical regions of South America, Africa, and from the East Indies.Kauriis the fossil gum of a cone-bearing tree dug from the ground in northern New Zealand.Amberis the fossil gum of extinct cone-bearing trees found mainly along the Baltic coast of Prussia. It is used chiefly for the mouth-pieces of tobacco-pipes and cigar-holders; the inferior product is made into varnish. It is sold wherever tobacco is used.Sandarach, found on the north African coast, is used principally in Europe, being employed as a varnish. The United States and Great Britain consume most of the foregoing products.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Name any elastic substance you know about that is in every way a substitute for rubber.What has been the relation between rubber and good roads?Describe the structure of a bicycle tire.Why are tar, pitch, and turpentine called naval stores?—and what determines the locality in which they are made?What is varnish, and for what purposes is it used?
Name any elastic substance you know about that is in every way a substitute for rubber.
What has been the relation between rubber and good roads?
Describe the structure of a bicycle tire.
Why are tar, pitch, and turpentine called naval stores?—and what determines the locality in which they are made?
What is varnish, and for what purposes is it used?
FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE
Obtain specimens of crude rubber, vulcanized rubber, and hard rubber; note carefully the characteristics of each.Burn a very small piece of cheap white rubber-tubing in an iron spoon or a fire-shovel; note the character of the residue.Obtain specimens of gutta-percha, resin, pitch, turpentine, shellac, copal, dammar, and creosote for study and inspection.
Obtain specimens of crude rubber, vulcanized rubber, and hard rubber; note carefully the characteristics of each.
Burn a very small piece of cheap white rubber-tubing in an iron spoon or a fire-shovel; note the character of the residue.
Obtain specimens of gutta-percha, resin, pitch, turpentine, shellac, copal, dammar, and creosote for study and inspection.
The economic history of nearly every country that has achieved eminence in modern times dates from its use of coal and iron; and indeed the presence of these substances in workable deposits means almost unlimited power. The present era is sometimes called the Age of Steel, but the possibilities of producing steel in enormous quantities, at less than one-fifth its price at the beginning of the nineteenth century, depended mainly upon the use of mineral coal instead of charcoal in its manufacture.
Coal consists of accumulations of vegetable matter that were formed in prior geological ages. Under the action of heat and moisture, and also the tremendous pressure of the rock layers that afterward covered them, the vegetable matter was converted to mineral coal.
The aggregate coal-fields of the United States are not far from two hundred thousand square miles in extent, but of this area not much more than one-half is workable. In Europe there are estimated to be about one hundred thousand square miles of coal-lands, of which about half are productive at the present time. Of this Great Britain has 12,000 square miles, Spain 4,000, France 2,000, Germany 1,800, and Belgium 500. In Canada there are about 20,000 square miles of coal-land; a part of this is included in the Nanaimo field on the Pacific coast, but the most important are the Nova Scotia beds, which form about the only supply for the British naval stations of America. China has extensive coal-fields.
In character coal is broadly divided into two classes—anthracite or hard, and bituminous or soft, coal. Anthracite coal occurs in folded and metamorphic rocks. It is hard and glassy, and does not split into thin layers or leaves. The beds have been subjected to intense heat and pressure, and the coal has but a very small amount—rarely more than five per cent.—of volatile matter; it burns, therefore, with little or no smoke and soot, and on this account is very desirable as a fuel in cities. Two areas in Colorado and New Mexico produce small quantities of pure anthracite; practically all the commercial anthracite comes from three small basins in Pennsylvania. In quality it is known as "red ash" and "white ash," the former being the superior.
The yearly output of the anthracite mines is upward of fifty-five million long tons a year, or somewhat less than five million tons per month. In winter the rate of consumption is somewhat greater than that of production. A shortage in the summer production is therefore apt to be keenly felt in the winter. Before shipment to the market the coal is crushed at the breakers, sorted in different sizes, and washed.
Most of the anthracite coal-mines are owned by the railway companies centring at New York and Philadelphia, or else are operated by companies controlled by the railways. About one-fourth of the output is produced by independent operators who, as a rule, sell their coal to the railway companies. The Reading, Pennsylvania, Central of New Jersey, Lackawanna, Lehigh Valley, Ontario & Western, Erie, and Delaware & Hudson are popularly known as "coalers" because the larger part of their eastern business consists in carrying anthracite coal.
A VIEW OF THREE COLLIERIES IN THE ANTHRACITE COAL BASIN NEAR MAHANOY CITY, PA.A VIEW OF THREE COLLIERIES IN THE ANTHRACITE COAL BASIN NEAR MAHANOY CITY, PA.
Formerly much of the coal was shipped by canals, but the latter were not able to compete with the railways, and most of the coal-canals have been abandoned. The price of anthracite at tide-water (New York) varies from $3.20 to $4.50 per long ton. At Philadelphia the price is about one-fourth less. Buffalo is the chief lake-port for anthracite. Steam sizes are about two-thirds the price of house fuel.
COAL FIELDS IN UNITED STATESCOAL FIELDS IN UNITED STATES
Bituminous, or soft coal furnishes the larger part of the house fuel in the United States, and nearly all the house coal used in other parts of the world. It contains from fifteen to more than forty per cent. of volatile matter, burning with a long and smoky flame. The coal which contains twenty per cent. or less of volatile matter is a free-burning coal that may develop heat enough to partly fuse the ash, forming "clinkers"; it is therefore called "caking" coal, and is not only well adapted for use as fuel and steam-making, but it is also a good smelting coal.
Coal which contains more than thirty per cent. of volatile matter is known as "fat" coal and is generally used in the manufacture of coke and illuminating gas. Western Pennsylvania produces the largest amount of fat coal, butit is found here and there in nearly all soft-coal regions. A so-called smokeless bituminous coal occurs in various localities; its low percentage of volatile matter makes it an excellent house fuel.
Bituminous coal is mined in twenty-five States of the Union, Pennsylvania, Illinois, West Virginia, and Ohio heading the list. In about half the mines the coal is cut from the seam by means of machinery and is known as machine-mined coal. A very large part of the product is consumed within a short distance of the mines, and this is especially true of the region about the upper Ohio River.
COAL PRODUCTIONCOAL PRODUCTION
Most of the product is shipped to the large manufacturing cities of the middle west, where it is used for steam as well as fuel; a very large amount also is sent down the Ohio in barges to the lower Mississippi River. The spot value of bituminous coal varies from $0.80 to $1.60 per ton; the product of the Pacific coast mines, however, is from $3 to $5.
The output of the mines of the United States aggregates about two hundred and forty million long tons yearly, and this is about one-third of the world's product. For many years there has been an export trade to Canada, the West Indies, Central and South America, amounting in 1900 to 8,000,000 tons. Within a few years, however, the decreased cost of mining due to machinery, and the low ratesof transportation to the seaboard has developed an export trade to Russia, Germany, and France.
COALCOAL
A small amount of coal is imported into the United States. A superior quality of Australian coal finds a ready market in Pacific coast points as far north as San Francisco, and large quantities of Nanaimo, B.C., coal are sold in Oregon, Washington, and California. A small quantity of the "slack" or waste of the Nova Scotia mines is imported to Boston to be made into coke. The Canadian fields supply a considerable part of the coal used in Montana.
Coke and Coal-Tar Products.—In the manufacture of iron and steel a fuel having a high percentage of carbon free from volatile matter is essential. The great cost of wood charcoal forbids its use, and so a charcoal made from soft coal is used. Fat coal is heated in closed chambers until the volatile matter is driven off. The product is "coke"; the closed chamber is an "oven." The ovens are built of stone or fire-brick, in a long row. They are usually on an abrupt slope, so that the coal can be dumped into the top, while the coke can be withdrawn from the bottom, to be loaded into cars.
About three thousand one hundred and forty pounds of coal are required to make a short ton of coke; from three thousand to five thousand cubic feet of illuminating gas, together with varying amounts of coal-tar and ammonia, are driven off and generally wasted. In a few instances "scientific" ovens are in use for the purpose of saving these products; but in the coal-mining regions such devices are the exception and not the rule. The great waste of energy-products in the manufacture of coke is partly offset by the employment of refuse and slack, which could not be otherwise used.
There are more than five hundred and eighteen thousand coke-ovens in the United States, of which eighty per cent. are in use. Most of them are in the region about the upper Ohio River, and nearly half the total number is in the vicinity of Connellsville. The region around Birmingham, Ala., ranks next in number. The coke product of the United States is more than twenty million short tons a year. This is considerably less than the product of Great Britain, which is upward of twenty-five million tons.
Most of the "scientific" ovens are near or in large cities where the gas, after purification, is used for illuminating purposes. In some instances the coke, and not the gas, is a by-product. The coal-tar is used in part for fuel, but a portion of it goes to the chemical laboratory, where it is made to yield ammonia, benzine, carbolic acid, and aniline dyes to the value of nearly seven million dollars.
Graphite.—Graphite, plumbago, or "black lead," as it is popularly named, is found in many parts of the United States, but only a few localities produce a good commercial article; these are Ticonderoga, N. Y., which yields from six hundred to two thousand tons a year, and Chester County, Pa., which yields a small but increasing amount; a good quality is mined near Ottawa, Canada. It is extensively mined in Ceylon, and this island produces the chief bulk of the world's ordinary product. The finest grade comes from the Alibert mine in Siberia. A good article is manufactured artificially at Niagara Falls.
Graphite is used as a stove polish and for crucibles; in the main, however, it is employed in the manufacture of lead[41]pencils; for this purpose only a very soft mineral,absolutely free from grit, is employed, and the Siberian output is used almost wholly. One German firm and two American firms supply most of the pencils used.
Petroleum.—Petroleum is the name given to a natural liquid mineral from which the well-known illuminating oil "kerosene" is derived, and to obtain which it is mined. Petroleum is a mixture of various compounds known as hydrocarbons. Some of these compounds are gaseous, some are liquid, and some are solid; all of them are articles of commercial value. The petroleum from different localities differs greatly in appearance and composition.
The pitch that coated Noah's ark, the slime of the builders of the Tower of Babel, and the slime-pits of the Vale of Siddim all refer to mineral products associated with petroleum. Under the name of "naphtha" it has been known in Persia for thirty centuries, and for more than half as long a flowing oil spring has existed in the Ionian Islands. The Seneca Indians knew of a petroleum spring near the village of Cuba, N.Y., and used it as a medicine long before the advent of the white man.
As early as 1850 illuminating oil, known as "coal" oil, was made in the United States by distilling cannel coal, but this product was supplanted within a few years by the natural petroleum discovered in Pennsylvania. In 1859 Colonel Drake completed a well bored in solid rock near Titusville, Pa. The venture proved successful, and in a few years petroleum mining became one of the great industries of the United States.
Petroleum is known to exist in a great many parts of the world; the United States and Russia, however, produce practically all the commercial product; a very small amount is obtained from a horizon on the south slope of the Carpathian Mountains, situated in Rumania and Galicia,Austria-Hungary. There are also a few producing wells in Peru, Germany, Italy, Burma, Argentina, and Sumatra.