Perfumes and their preparation

by George William Askinson

As the piston rises, the troughs E sink into the pots, the escaping oil collects in the gutters d and thence passes into a receptacle. After pressing, the piston is allowed to sink back, the pots G are drawn aside (Fig. 8) to tabular surfaces, and other pots are substituted for the exhausted ones. These drop presses are suitable for the extraction of all fixed oils and also volatile oils present in orange and lemon peel, etc.

Distillation.

Many odors or essential oils possess the remarkable property that their vapors pass so largely with that of boiling water that they can be extracted in this way (by “distillation”) from vegetable substances, though the essential oils have a boiling-point far above that of water. Distillation can be employed for a large number of substances; for instance, the essential oils present in cumin, anise, lavender, fennel, mace, nutmeg, etc., are extracted exclusively in this manner.

Fig. 9.

For the extraction of odors in this way, according to the quantities of material to be worked, different apparatuses are used, some of the most important of which will be here described.

For manufacturers who run without steam and are obliged to use a naked flame, the adjoining apparatus (Fig. 9) will be advantageous.

It consists of a copper boiler A, the still, set in a brick furnace. The latter is so constructed that the incandescent gases strike not only the curved bottom of the still, but also its sides through the flues Z left in the brickwork. The still, whose upper part projects from the furnace, has an opening O on the left side, closed air-tight with a screw, which serves for refilling with water during distillation when necessary. To the margin of the still is fitted steam-tight the helm H, made of copper or tinned iron, having a prolongation, the tube R. The latter is joined to the conical projection v which terminates in the worm K. In some apparatuses this projection is omitted and the tube immediately joins the worm. The latter is made of tinned iron and, as the cut shows, is arranged in coils and supported by props t in the wooden or metal condenser F. The condenser bears above a short bent tube b, and below, immediately over the bottom, an elbow tube e, long enough to reach above the edge of the condenser, as indicated in the cut.

Fig. 10.