Reports by the juries. Class IV. Animal and vegetable substances chiefly used in manufactures, as implements, or for ornaments / Richard Owen, Edward Solly, reporters.

  • Owen, Richard, Sir, 1804-1892.
Date:
[1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports by the juries. Class IV. Animal and vegetable substances chiefly used in manufactures, as implements, or for ornaments / Richard Owen, Edward Solly, reporters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    30/198 (page 190)
    Palm Oil. Olive Oil. Castor Oil. Cwts, Tuns. Cwts. Western Africa - - - 475,364 1 _ United States - - - 13,349 _ 290 Naples and Sicily - - 14 9,661 - East Indies - - _ _ 9,315 Canary Islands - - - 3,719 - - Malta - - - - - - 2,237 - Turkish Empire - - - 1,712 - Tuscany - - - 832 - Spain - - - - - - 753 - Brazil - - - - - 525 - _ Ionian Islands - - - _ 506 - Morocco - - - - - 368 _ Madeira - - 353 _ _ Sardinia - - - 333 11 Miscellaneous - - 7 461 65 Total - - 493,331 16,864 9,681 An interesting and valuable series of specimens of cotton seed, and the oil and cake obtained from it, after the expression of the oil, is shown by R. Burn, of Edinburgh (Class III., 68). The oil of cotton seed has been made in small quan- tities for a considerable number of years. In 1785, the Society for the Encourage- ment of Arts and Commerce, offered a prize for its manufacture on a large scale ; but it does not seem to have been then taken up extensively, probably in conse- quence of the difficulty of purifying it. It has, however, been extracted for some time in Eg}q)t, America, and India. Of late years this oil has attracted a good deal of attention ; and means have been devised of purifying it, and removing the dark colour which it possesses in the raw state. Very large quantities of cotton seed are destroyed every year ; as far more seed is produced than is required for the next year’s crop; this, for the most part, has hitherto been thrown away as useless, or used as manure ; its value is now, however, so far acknowledged, that in some places it is collected and exported for the manufacture of oil, and oil-cake. The oil seems to be well worthy of attention. The Jury consider the specimens shown by Mr. Bum, valuable and instmctive, especially as they are accompanied by much useful information, and they therefore awarded to him a Prize Medal. Some very good samples of rape, olive, and almond oil, are exhibited by Messrs. W. Brotherton and Co. (23), including specimens of rape-seed, both of English and foreign growth, in its natural state, and as prepared for pressing. The exhibitor has found good rape oil to be better suited than any other oil, for the lubrication of machinery, when properly purified from the mucilage, &c., which it contains in the raw state. Rape-oil is now used extensively for locomotives, for marine engines, and also for burning in lamps. It is stated that a locomotive consumes between 90 and 100 gallons of oil yearly ; and the annual consumption of oil by the London and North Western Railway, for this purpose alone, is more than 40,000 gallons. Mr. Brotherton finds, that good English-grown rape yields oil of superior quality to any foreign seed which he has tried ; and he consequently recommends its cultivation to agriculturalists ; he states that an acre of land yields nearly five quarters of seed, worth at present 50s. per quarter. The inferiority of the oil obtained from Indian or colonial seed, probably depends on the want of sufficient care’ being paid to the purity and cleanliness of the seed