On the economical applications of charcoal to sanitary purposes : a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, on Friday evening, March 2, 1855 / by John Stenhouse.

  • Stenhouse, John, 1809-1880.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the economical applications of charcoal to sanitary purposes : a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, on Friday evening, March 2, 1855 / by John Stenhouse. 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.

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    kind of destructive distillation, the object in view being to char the mass with as small a diminution of its carbonaceous portion as possible. During this operation a considerable amount of volatile products are evolved, consisting of smoke, einpyreuniatic, oils, tar, &c, about sixteen per cent, of charcoal being obtained when the process is pro- perly conducted. The charcoal produced in this way constitutes a black shining mass, which retains the form of the pieces of wood employed in its preparation. In this country, where wood has a comparatively high value, charcoal is usually manu- factured by distilling wood in cast-iron cylinders— the smaller branches of oak, birch, ash, and the harder kinds of wood being used for this purpose. By employing cast-iron cylinders much waste is avoided, and large quantities of vinegar or pyrolig- neous acid, as it is called, creosote, wood-spirit, &c, are also obtained Peat charcoal is manufactured by precisely simi- lar operations. It is much more friable than wood charcoal, and is therefore very easily reduced to the state of fine powder. Animal charcoal is usually obtained by the de- structive distillation of bones in cast-iron cylinders. It contains very little carbonaceous matter—sel- dom more than about twenty per cent. It has long been known that the various kinds of animal and vegetable charcoal, especially when dry, possess the power of absorbing effluvia, and the greater number of gases and vapours. This subject was first investigated by M. Lowitz, a German