New Bedford, Massachusetts; its history, industries, institutions and attractions . ality, a huge ice chest, with a capacity for holding one thou-sand barrels. As much as thirty tons of ice are often used in a singleday, and the barrels remain here for about ten days, until the oilfreezes. The product, after the pressings, is the virgin winter oil,which runs limpid at a temperature ranging as low as twenty-eightdegrees below zero. In the coldest weather the oil is sometimes placedout of doors where the cold atmosphere effects the same results as ifthe oil were placed in the pits. After the fir
New Bedford, Massachusetts; its history, industries, institutions and attractions . ality, a huge ice chest, with a capacity for holding one thou-sand barrels. As much as thirty tons of ice are often used in a singleday, and the barrels remain here for about ten days, until the oilfreezes. The product, after the pressings, is the virgin winter oil,which runs limpid at a temperature ranging as low as twenty-eightdegrees below zero. In the coldest weather the oil is sometimes placedout of doors where the cold atmosphere effects the same results as ifthe oil were placed in the pits. After the first pressing, the sperm is again placed in hempen bagsand in the spring it is subjected to another pressing. The product isthe spring oil. In the summer, when the sperm has become dryer3et, it is again subjected to hydraulic pressure, and the result is a thinoil known as the summer oil. After the oil has been removed by repeated pressings, the spermis boiled with an alkaline lye, washed with water and moulded intoblocks, which are in appearance as white and lustrous as INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL. 185 On splitting these blocks, crystallized surfaces appear, resembling purequartz. From these blocks the candles are moulded. The wicks areadjusted by hand, and the candles are the best in use. Coloring mat-ter is introduced, in so small a quantity, however, as not to destroytheir beautiful transparency. Gamboge gives them a yellow tint, car-mine a red, and Prussian blue is used to produce the blue many paraffine wax candles are made at this factory, but theparaffine wax, being a hydro-carbon product, is purchased. The can-dles made here range in size from those so small that it requirestwelve to a pound, to single candles two pounds in weight. Betweenfive hundred thousand and six hundred thousand pounds of spermacetiand paralHne wax are made into candles every year. The candles aremade in machines and are cooled b}- water. Most of the paraflinewax candles are made
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidbedfordmassa, bookyear1889
