CHAP. XIIII. How to extract oyle out of Gums, condensed juices, and rosines, as also out of some woods.
ALL oyles that are drawne out of Gummes, oyely woods and mettalls, are extracted by that vessell which we vulgarly terme a Retort. It must bee made of glasse, or jugges mettall well Leaded, and of such bignesse as * 1.1 shall be convenient for the operation you intend, though commonly it should be made to hold some gallon and an halfe of water; the necke thereof must be a foote and an halfe, or at least a foote long. The receiver is commonly a viall whereinto the necke of the Retort is fitted and inserted. Then the Retort shall bee set in an earthen pan filled with ashes, or sand, and so set into a furnace, as you may see by the following figure.
Of gummes some are liquid, some solide; and of the solide, some are more solide than othersome; those that are solide are more troublesome to distill than the liquide, * 1.2 for they are not so easily dissolved or melted, neither doe they yeeld so well to the fire, so that oft times they are burnt before they bee dissolved; whence it is that some for every pound of solide gumme, adde two or three pounds of most cleare and liquide oyle of Turpentine. Besides, liquide things are also hard to be distilled, be∣cause when as they come to be throughly hot at the fire, they swell up so much, that * 1.3 they exceed, or runne out of the Retort, and so fall into the receiver, as they were put into the Retort, especially if so be that the fire be too hot at the first. Many to shunne this inconvenience, adde to the things put into the Retort, some sand, as it were, to balast it withall.
A. Shewes the fornace.
B. The earthen pan, or vessell to set the Retort in.
C. The Retort or Cucurbite.
D. The receiver.
Oyle of Rosin and Turpentine is thus made; take two or three pounds of Turpen∣tine, and put it into a Retort of such largenesse, that three parts thereof might re∣maine * 1.4 empty, and for every pound of Turpentine adde three or foure ounces of sand; then place the Retort in an earthen pan, filled with sifted ashes, and set it upon the fornace as is fit, and to the necke thereof fit and closely lute a receiver. Lastly, kindle thereunder a soft fire at the first, least the contained materialls should runne over; encrease this fire by little, and little, and take heed that the things become not too hot on a suddaine. At the first a cleare and acide liquor will drop out, where∣in a certaine sediment uses to concreat; then will flow forth a most cleere oyle, some-what resembling the watry and phlegmaticke liquor; then must the fire be some what encreased, that the third oyly, cleare, thinne and very golden coloured liquor may rife and distill; but then also a clearer and more violent fire must be raysed, that so you