4317. Oil of Turpentine

4317. Oil of Turpentine. Oil or spirits of turpentine is obtained by distilling crude turpentine along with water. The remainder left in the still after distillation is resin. It congeals at 14°, and boils at 312° Fahr.; its specific gravity is about 870°. It is very inflammable, and becomes resinous by exposure to the air. "When purified, by redistilling with 3 or 4 times its volume of water, it produces the camphene of commerce.

4318. Venice Turpentine

4318.     Venice Turpentine. A liquid resin which exudes from the larch tree. The Venice turpentine usually met with is a factitious article composed of 2 gallons oil of turpentine added to 48 pounds melted black resin. (Cooley.)

4319. To Purity Turpentine

4319.    To Purity Turpentine. However carefully the oil of turpentine may have been distilled, it always leaves, after evaporation, a disagreeable odor, firmly adhering to the goods that have been treated with it. The same is the case with benzine and the lighter petroleum oils. This may be obviated, according to Bremer, by distillation over tannin. Articles treated with oil of turpentine that has been distilled in this way, are heated to 150° Fahr., when they lose every trace of odor. Bremer adds that this preparation is less inflammable, cheaper, and more agreeable to the workman than benzine.

4320. Benzine

4320.    Benzine. This is the name given in the United States to one of the products distilled from petroleum, having a specific gravity of about .73, or 65° of Baumé's light hydrometer. (See No. 1527 (To Purify Petroleum).) It has not yet been frozen, and is dangerously volatile at all temperatures. (See No. 346 (Cautions about Benzine).) Benzine scarcely attacks asphaltum or pitch, and cannot (like benzole), be converted by nitric acid into nitro-benzole. It is consequently useless for the preparation of aniline. Benzine consists of about 84 per cent, carbon and 16 per cent, hydrogen. (See No. 440 (To Re-Distill and Purify Benzine).)

4321. Benzole

4321.    Benzole. In 1825, Faraday discovered a peculiar liquid which was deposited by condensation by ordinary coal-gas, and gave it the name of bicarburet of hydrogen. Some years afterwards Mitscherlich, of Berlin, obtained the same liquid from benzoic acid, and proposed for it the name of benzine. Faraday objected to this name, as too similar to the distinctive names of the alkaloids, as strychnine, morphine, etc., and decided to call it benzole. The French, however, adhered to Mitscherlich's name, and continue to call it benzine, causing considerable confusion; as benzole, from coal-tar, is a different liquid from benzine, obtained from petroleum. (See No. 1527 (To Purify Petroleum).) Benzole has a specific gravity of .85, and freezes at 37° Fahr; it dissolves asphaltum or pitch rapidly, is volatile at all temperatures, but less so than benzine. Benzole can be converted by nitric acid into nitro-benzole, and, by further treatment, into aniline. (See No. 2552.) It contains about 92.5 per cent, of carbon, and 7.5 per cent, of hydrogen.