Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1884 — Tar. [ARTICLE]

Tar.

Prof. Peckham, in an interesting article on tar, has this to say in regard to its manufacture: It was known to the ancient Greeks, and Dr. Olarke, who describes the method of manufacturing it in the forests of Bothnia, says there is not the smallest difference between the processes then practiced and those of ancient Greece. Along the whole coast of the Gulf of Bothnia the inhabitants are very generally engagecLin this occupation. They make use or the roots of fir trees, with logs and billets of the same, which they arrange in a conical stack, fitted to a cavity in the ground, generally in the side of a bank. In the bottom of this cavity is placed a cast-iron pan, from which a spout leads out through the bank. The heap is covered over with turf and is then fired, as in making charcoal. Tar collects in the latter part of the process of charring, and runs off through the spout into barrels. In Sweden, where the business is also important, some peculiar methods are adopted to increase the yield of tar. Trees of no value for the saw-mill are partially peeled of their bark a fathom or two up from the ground, not enough to kill them, but only to check the growth. After five or six years, when cut down, the wood is found to be much richer in resinous matter, which produces tar. Along the coast of the Southern States, especially of North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia, the business is carried on upon a large scale in connection with the manufacture of turpentine, rosin, and pitch. Old trees which have ceased to produce turpentine, and dead wood which is rich in resinous matter, are selected for the coal-pits. The process there does not differ materially from that already described.— lnter Ocean.