Thanks Will, I just spent a good hour off on a tangent finding out about lightered stumps and Turpentine, etc. Is there a museum about this industry in your area, or is that all local knowledge? Peter On 1-Oct-09, at 11:52 AM, Will wrote:
> Rereading my response I don't think I answered Carolyn and some > others who asked what they gathered from the sap. What they gather > from the pines is not sap, but resin commonly called pine tar or > gum. Resin is produced in resin ducts within the wood. I think most > conifers produce resin, some more so than others. In the southern > pines, Slash is by far the most resinous followed by Longleaf and > then by maybe Pitch or Pond Pine. The other pines produce it, but > it doesn't flow enough to justify the collection of it. > > The resin is distilled into fractions with the lighter being the > various grades of turpentine and the remainder being the various > grades of rosin. The old fire stills so common throughout the deep > south were relatively small operations run by a stiller and a > couple hands. They would run off around 10 to 20 barrels of gum at > a time. It took several hours to run off a charge. They would dump > the raw gum, the charge, into a copper still pot and heat with a > fire built in the brick firebox under the still. As the gum heated > they would cap the still. Being a good stiller was an art as they > would have to judge the process carefully to control the heat, know > when to add water to keep the distillation process active. Like a > liquor still, there was a large copper condensing coil or "worm" > that was submersed in a large wooden tank that condensed the > distillate and they captured the water and turpentine as it > condensed. They would continually sample the condensate and judging > by the proportion of water to spirits and the color they would know > when to strike the fire so as not to degrade the rosin in the pot. > Once the fire was struck they had to wait to uncap the pot and draw > the rosin off. Draw it off to soon and you risked it flashing and > burning down the still or wait too late and it would no longer > flow. There was a fine line. The hot rosin was drawn off into long > wooden troughs covered with screening and cotton batting to filter > out the chips, bark, needles and other debris known as "dross" Once > the rosin cooled it was cut into blocks and bagged for shipment. It > was also graded by the USDA by color with "WW" water white being > the best. > > Turpentine is used in a large number of uses from paints, medicines > to cosmetics. Gum Rosin also has many uses from soap to fillers for > synthetics to even food products. > > There are three main ways turpentine, rosin and related pine > chemicals are produced. Gum Turpentine, which is the discussion at > hand, is the direct distillation of pine resin, Wood Turpentine > which is the steam extraction of lightered stumps and Tall Oil, a > fractional distillate from the paper industry. The gum turpentine > industry is gone from the US and is now concentrated in China and > to a lesser extent in Latin America. There is still one wood > turpentine plant in the US in Brunswick GA. Not sure where the > market has gone or if it is even much of a player anymore. And > finally the tall oil industry is still strong where pines are > pulped. I understand the quality of the product is related to the > process with the Gum providing the highest quality and the wood > process somewhat below and the tall oil process a low quality product > > Image #1 > This is an old lightered stump I dug out of my woodpile this > morning with an old gum box cut into it. These boxes were cut and > used before 1900 when the Herty cup (setting on top the stump) was > invented. The clay cup dates from before the first world war when > they were replaced by the rectangular tin cups. > > <afa turpentine.jpg> > > Image #2 > An old preserved fire still used up until about 1960. > > <AFA Turpentine Still.jpg> > > Image #3 > Some old ATFA calendars from out in my shed that show the modern > method of facing the trees with bark hacks and tin cups and > gutters. The young ladies where crowned Miss Gum Spirits of > Turpentine each year until the organization folded about 1995. Each > county would have a pageant at the county fair and they would > compete at the ATFA pageant in Valdosta. > > <afa turpentine queen.jpg> > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
