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+      The history of a pot of varnish. | Project Gutenberg
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77263 ***</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>
+THE HISTORY<br>
+<span style="font-size:small">OF A</span><br>
+POT OF VARNISH.
+</h1>
+
+<hr class="r5" style="margin-top: 6em">
+<p class="center">FROM SCRIBNER’S MONTHLY.</p>
+<hr class="r5">
+
+<p class="center p4">
+PUBLISHED BY<br>
+<span style="font-size: large">MURPHY AND COMPANY,</span><br>
+VARNISH MAKERS.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center">
+  Copyrighted, 1880, by <span class="smcap">Murphy &amp; Co.</span>, Newark, N. J., and Cleveland, O.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_HISTORY_OF_A_POT_OF_VARNISH">
+    THE HISTORY OF A POT OF VARNISH.
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<figure class="figright illowp50" id="image001" style="max-width: 28em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image001.png" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      Murphy &amp; Co.’s Varnish Factory, Newark, N. J.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="upper-case">Together</span> with their love of the practical
+in the industrial arts, Americans
+have a ready faculty of discovering an interest
+touching almost on the romantic in
+the origin and production of what pass
+ordinarily for useful and prosaic things.
+Herein lies a part of the secret of their
+great success in mechanical pursuits. This
+inborn mechanical curiosity has led many
+a young American to take apart his mother’s self-winding tape measure, or the family
+sewing machine, just “to see how the thing was made.” We seldom, any of us,
+lose the desire to visit machine-shops and factories, and see with our own eyes how
+the work of creation, in a limited way, is carried forward, by men who, from habit,
+look upon their work as dull routine, while to our fresh eyes, every deft movement is
+filled with grace, and each stage in the transformation of the material into the manufactured
+object is a new wonder.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody knows something about the bright, amber-colored fluid called varnish,
+but few persons, probably, know how varied and interesting a story is wrapped up in
+this subtle substance, which lends beauty and durability to almost every product of
+the workshop and studio. Varnish factories are comparatively few, and their doors
+seldom stand wide open. But there is nothing secretive about varnish. It speaks to
+the nostrils of close companionship with turpentine,—the pungent aroma of which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span>some affect to like, and most persons find very disagreeable. The linseed oil in the
+varnish cannot be detected by a novice; and thousands who are not practical
+painters, and only use the fluid as household amateurs, have doubtless wondered
+what could be the nature of the illusive material that gives to the varnish its sticky
+quality and elastic body. This third ingredient is the resinous juice of a tree. It is
+analogous to the little lumps of pitch that boys sometimes find on a pine board that
+has been exposed to the sun, and once in their lives discover to be a very sticky
+substitute for chewing-gum, which, in itself, is a kind of resin. Varnish resins are
+few in number compared with the vast number of resins of one kind and another.
+They are not got from the tree that produced them, but are mined a little below the
+surface of the earth, where they have lain and ripened for hundreds, perhaps thousands,
+of years. This is true especially of gum copal, the commercial name of the
+most valuable of the varnish resins. These three ingredients, gum copal, linseed oil,
+and turpentine are brought to the door of the varnish maker. It is his province to
+mix them by applying formulas which are the result of years of experiment and hard-earned
+experience.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="image002" style="max-width: 28em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image002.png" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      Murphy &amp; Co.’s Varnish Factory, Cleveland, Ohio.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<figure class="figright illowp50" id="image003" style="max-width: 14em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image003.png" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      Surfacer Department Mills.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Varnish making is one of the new and growing industries of the United States.
+This is as it ought to be, for Americans use more artificial varnish than any
+other people, and even before they have reached the point of fully supplying
+themselves, begin to think seriously of providing their neighbors and transatlantic
+friends with a better article than can be sold abroad for the same money. Fifty years
+ago we relied mostly upon England and France for the vast quantities of varnish
+employed in the industrial arts of this country. Varnish manufacture was somewhat
+understood, but for many years the Americans were content to make for themselves
+only the coarse varieties of the article, while they went abroad for the higher
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span>grades needed to impart luster to their coaches and pianos and to fine furniture.
+Finally came the ability and the desire to excel in this industry as in every other. Varnish
+materials were at hand. The enterprising traders of New-York and the once flourishing
+New England sea-ports, during
+their East India and African voyages,
+were not slow to discover in gum
+copal a profitable article for the return
+cargo, and to-day more than half of
+the varnish gums of commerce are
+brought to this country. Three large
+houses have almost a monopoly of
+the trade. It is further estimated that
+about two-thirds of the artificial varnish
+product of the world is used in the
+United States. In the main this is a
+matter of national congratulation. It
+is another proof of the unexampled
+growth of American manufactures,
+of the rapid increase of population
+and wealth, and of a wide-spread
+and active state of refined society.
+In no other country can be found so
+many comfortably furnished houses,
+in which the piano and other musical
+instruments, as well as furniture of
+equal adornment and use, are the
+rule rather than the exception. In
+no other part of the world does so
+large a part of the population ride
+in its own carriage; and in the matter
+of railway cars, those of America
+surpass the whole world in number
+and finish. All of these mechanical
+contrivances and articles of use require
+coats of varnish to render them attractive
+to the eye and proof against early
+decay. But from another point of
+view, the aspect of the immense varnish
+trade of this country is not so pleasing.
+It tells of national extravagance and
+wastefulness, and of the fragile character
+of many manufactured articles.
+Americans are the greatest carriage
+and furniture breakers in the world.
+They have more furniture, and replace
+it oftener, than citizens of the same relative classes in other countries. In Europe,
+the breaking of a carriage on account of the horses taking fright is a very rare
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span>occurrence. American horses have extra wildness of spirits, and runaways and
+splintered carriages are every-day occurrences.</p>
+
+<p>I was initiated into the mysteries of varnish manufacture at the factory of Murphy
+&amp; Co., located in Newark, New Jersey, a great industrial city, which owes its growth
+and prominence to its nearness to the metropolis, its water and railroad facilities, <span id="and">and</span>
+its ability to give cheap and comfortable houses to its working-men. A thirty-minute
+ride from New-York, by the Pennsylvania Railway, placed me at the Chestnut street
+dépôt in Newark, whence it was a three minute walk to McWhorter street, where
+goats and children were taking life pleasantly together in the September sunshine.
+Somber brick walls, surrounding plain brick buildings, succeeded one another along
+the street and gave tokens of activity within. I knew that Murphy &amp; Co. were
+classed by the trade as one of the great varnish-making firms in the United States,
+and reaching No. 238, which appeared to be the beginning of the end of McWhorter
+street, the exterior of the long, rather low brick building made a very modest impression
+of the extensive out-buildings, warehouses, workshops and great chimneys which
+were concealed behind it. Fine shade trees added grace to the prim exterior, and
+the generally unkept street had suddenly assumed an air of care as well as of prosperity.
+The factory seemed to consume its own noise, for the street was very quiet,
+the stillness being broken only by a picturesque little colored boy in a peagreen
+jacket, and with his trousers rolled up to his knees, who was standing in the middle
+of the street, yelling “Pa!” at regular intervals, until a sturdy African put his head
+out of a warehouse door and soothed his offspring. Here was a coincidence: copal
+gum and the ebony descendant of the copal digger, in their distant wanderings from
+Africa, had found a home together at a varnish factory in Newark, New Jersey.</p>
+
+<p>The office of the Factory, reached by a most unassuming street entrance, was
+commodious, elegant, and pervaded by a sense of order and business activity. The
+history of the firm is rather remarkable, and is an excellent illustration of American
+pluck, enterprise and method in business matters. From very small beginnings, the
+firm has attained its present growth and reputation in a short space of fourteen years.
+A solid foundation was laid at the beginning. They realized at the outset that the
+only road to success was by the closest personal supervision, and devotion to the
+principle that if they took care to attain a uniform perfection of quality in their
+products, the profits would take care of themselves. During the early years of the
+business, Mr. Murphy worked constantly over the kettles, and to-day every practical
+detail has his personal supervision. Having begun free from the set ways and
+prejudices of varnish-makers, he was the better prepared to discover and adopt
+improved methods. To-day they have, as a result of their efforts, a large capital
+invested in a thoroughly established business, which, during the past six years, has
+grown with steady and extraordinary rapidity.</p>
+
+<p>The extensive works of Murphy &amp; Co., in Newark, are supplemented by equal
+manufacturing facilities in Cleveland, Ohio, but the Western department relies upon
+the Eastern factory for the highest grades of varnishes. Several years ago the firm
+was shrewd enough to see that the growth of domestic business was to be very largely
+in the West, and deemed it wise to establish branches, in 1871, in Chicago and Cleveland,
+and become directly identified with the business prosperity of those sections.
+Two years’ experience proved that it was better to consolidate their Western facilities
+at one point, and the erection of their extensive works in Cleveland, at Canal and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>Harrison streets, was at once begun.
+During the past six years the business
+of the Western department has rapidly
+increased, and from Cleveland radiates
+their entire Western trade.</p>
+
+<figure class="figright illowp50" id="image005" style="max-width: 14em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image005.png" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      Gum Sorting Room.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<figure id="image006-float" class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<a href="images/image006.png" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">
+  <img id="image006-01" src="images/image006_01.png" alt="">
+  <img id="image006-02" src="images/image006_02.png" alt="">
+</a>
+  <figcaption>Oil Boiling.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp70" id="image006-full" style="max-width: 16em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image006.png" alt="">
+  <figcaption>Oil Boiling.</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Before he introduces a visitor to the
+factory proper, Mr. Murphy always
+instructs the candidate for the honor
+in the first degree of the subject, in a
+knowledge of what copal is. For this
+purpose his museum of fossil resins
+affords an excellent means of object
+study. To pique the interest of his
+visitor he first hands him a little
+polished cylinder of a hard, yellowish-hued
+substance, resembling amber.
+Some opaque object darkens the otherwise
+clear and brilliant cylinder, which
+is brought between the eye and the
+light, disclosing a pale, lemon-colored
+butterfly in all the delicacy and beauty
+of its original creation. Encompassed
+in the pure, transparent mass, it is as
+perfectly posed as if it were in the
+sunshine of a June morning, resting
+its tissue wings and sipping the dew
+from a clover blossom. It looks as
+fresh as a bonnet in a milliner’s window,
+and as if it came out of the
+chrysalis only the day before; yet the
+butterfly, if we are to believe the sayings
+of science, first tried its delicate
+wings in some African forest of the
+tertiary period, how many thousands
+of years ago geologists do not venture
+to say. Happy insect, to have its
+beauty thus immortalized! How did
+the butterfly get within the cylinder?
+Probably it was playing listlessly from
+tropical flower to flower and tree to
+tree. It alighted on a limpid, enticing
+substance which adhered to the bark
+of a gigantic tree. This substance
+proved as fragrant as a flower and as
+treacherous as bird-lime. The unwary
+butterfly found itself glued to its
+grave. In a little while the oozing
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span>sap covered its delicate
+head, the fluttering wings
+were stayed, and, in less than an hour,
+perhaps, the butterfly, in all its splendor,
+was embalmed for the ages.
+Before or during the decay of the tree,
+the hardened lump of sap fell on the
+sands and was buried beneath the
+mold. In the course of time the
+forest almost disappeared through the
+agency of wind and fire, or perhaps
+through slow decay. The lump of
+gum lay hardening, century in and
+century out, beneath the surface of a
+burning desert, until a naked negro,
+in his desultory search, brought it to
+light and sold it to the traders as
+fossil copal, which is solid varnish of
+the finest quality.</p>
+
+
+<p>Western nations have derived the
+use of varnish from the Chinese and
+Japanese, who, originally, merely
+applied what nature placed ready-made
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>to their hand. What would an American painter think of walking into his
+grove of varnish-trees, when he wanted a pot of varnish, and returning in half an hour
+with a bucketful of the costly fluid, procured as easily as a Vermont farmer gathers a
+bucketful of maple sap in the spring of the year? This is a natural varnish and
+is called Lacquer, and everybody nowadays knows the beauty and excellence of the
+lacquer-ware of the ingenious Chinese and Japanese. The resin from the varnish-tree
+(which belongs to the same family as our poison ivy, dogwood and sumach, and
+to the botanical order of <i>anacar diacea</i>) is held in solution, in the right proportion for
+use, by oils which the tree simultaneously produces. But the resins of which the artificial
+varnish is made were deficient naturally in these solvents, and what of them they
+ever contained disappeared as the gum hardened. Varnish manufacture is the
+process of restoring these solvents in new and greater proportions. Many varieties of
+trees are producing varnish resins in different parts of the world to-day, but the resin
+is unfit for the finer grades of varnish until it has ripened, in the course of
+time, and become fossil gum. There are resin-producing trees the gum of which is
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>not suitable for the body of varnish, yet which produce one of the principal
+solvents,—turpentine. Such is the long-leaved pine of the Southern States. The
+Japanese and Chinese subject their natural varnish to a treatment of a simple character,
+to purify and increase its drying properties. The black varnish tree of Burmah and
+the gum-mastic tree of Morocco are allied to the Chinese and Japanese species. Efforts
+have been made to introduce the latter into this country without practical results.
+Young varnish-trees have frequently been brought to America, and specimens of the
+variety are now growing in the grounds of the Smithsonian Institute.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="image007" style="max-width: 28em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image007.png" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      Gum Melting.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Amber, which is found chiefly in the alluvial deposits bordering the Black Sea,
+is the most valuable of the fossil resins. Its extra hardness is supposed to be
+the result of age, far ante-dating that of fossil copal. It used to be employed
+in varnish manufacture, but is
+now too rare and costly. Fossil
+copal is said to have been first
+found in the blue clay about
+Highgate, near London, but the
+most famous fields are the narrow
+strips of barren sea-coast on
+the eastern shores of Africa, opposite
+the island of Zanzibar.</p>
+
+<figure class="figleft illowp50" id="image008" style="max-width: 22em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image008.png" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      Japan Boiling.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>In 1850, before the steamship
+and the submarine telegraph
+revolutionized the commercial
+methods of the world, the port
+of Zanzibar, the Sultan’s capital,
+located on the western side of the
+island, opposite the main coast,
+was then, as it is now, the chief
+outlet for the products of the east
+coast and the interior of Africa.
+Arabs and Hindoos formed the
+merchant and trading classes.
+Trading with the interior was
+carried on by means of caravans,
+which would be absent from Zanzibar
+sometimes five, eight, or
+even ten years. Traders and
+agents of the merchants traveled
+continually to and from the coast, where they traded with the native copal diggers
+and with such natives as occasionally brought a single ivory tusk to market. Copal
+barter was comparatively easy, but ivory barter was characteristically complex.
+Laying his ivory tusk on a box, the native owner would sit astride one end of the
+tusk and watch the covetous and expostulating trader pile up beads, cloth, and
+articles of barter on the other end, while the equally loquacious native would cling
+to his tusk, and firmly maintain that they had not yet found the equilibrium of
+trade.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="image009" style="max-width: 25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image009.png" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      Thinning Down and Emptying.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+<p>The copal diggers are an improvident class, as natives of the tropics always are.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>They dig for copal when dire necessity drives them to it, and seldom appear before
+the trader with more than a double-handful of gum to sell. On the eastern coast
+the diggers do not go much above the second parallel, or below the twelfth. In
+searching for a pocket of the gum they puncture the sandy surface to a depth of one
+or two feet with a short, small spear resembling the Zulu assegai. They sometimes
+dig a trench eight or ten feet deep if the find is sufficient to inspire them to make the
+necessary exertion. For the last twenty-five years, Europeans living at Zanzibar
+have talked of visiting the copal fields, and making an organized search for the gum.
+The undertaking would prove profitable but for the almost perfect certainty that the
+whites of the expedition would quickly succumb to the climate, and the Arabs and
+negroes cannot be prevailed upon to make a systematic effort. When India-rubber
+became a valuable article of commerce, the supply of copal from Zanzibar appreciably
+diminished, not because the fields are anywhere near exhausted, but because
+the indolent natives find it easier to gather India-rubber than to dig for gum copal.
+The superiority of Zanzibar copal to other varnish resins is apparent to a novice, for
+it is the hardest and clearest, and comes in thin, small flakes, a piece the size of a
+man’s hand being an uncommonly large lump. After being cleaned of its coating of
+dirt by immersion in strong lye, the surface of the copal is found to be uniformly
+covered with little round dots about the size of a pin’s head. This appearance is
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>called “goose skin,” and its cause is a matter of doubt and curiosity among scientific
+men. The most probable explanation is that the goose skin appearance is due to
+molecular action. It cannot be the imprint of the sand on the gum when it was soft,
+because in that case the surface would be pitted, instead of granulated. Copal trees
+are producing gum in Zanzibar to-day. The new product is comparatively soft, and
+of inferior value for varnish. The Sultan formerly claimed one-eighth of all the
+articles of commerce passing through the Zanzibar custom-house, the perquisites of
+which were farmed out to lesser officials.</p>
+
+<figure class="figright illowp50" id="image010" style="max-width: 20em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image010.png" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      Cooper Shop.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>As the demand for varnish gums increased, new fields were discovered. Accra, or
+“North Coast,” fossil resin is an excellent gum, and is found in Guinea and on the
+west shores of Africa, in about the same
+zone as Zanzibar. Some of the gum is
+very pale and clear in color. It is found
+in larger lumps than the East Coast gum,
+and is not so hard, nor has it the “goose
+skin” surface. For several years the
+greater part of the fossil resin of commerce
+has been obtained in the northern
+island of New Zealand. It is called
+Kauri gum, and is not found below the
+thirty-eighth parallel. This variety of
+resin is gathered by both whites and
+natives. It is of all degrees of age,
+hardness, and value, the better grades
+of kauri being found near the decayed
+stumps of trees, that have long since
+perished. The trees now bearing grow
+to a great height, and some of them are
+four and five feet in diameter at the
+base. The resinous juice exudes between
+the body of the tree and the bark, and
+runs down into the ground at the roots.
+The wood of the kauri-tree is much
+harder than Norway pine, and in color
+resembles mahogany, with which it
+cannot be compared in fiber or grain. It is a lumber-tree and the boxes in which the
+gum is shipped (usually about 200 lbs. to the box) are made of the lumber of the
+tree. Kauri gum varies in the size of the lumps, from a few ounces to seventy-five,
+and even one hundred pounds. A fossil resin of much value has been found in
+the Island of Madagascar. Benguela, Congo, and pebble gums (pebble gum is
+found in river-beds, worn to shapes resembling pebble stones) are found on the west
+coast of Africa. The Benguela gum formerly came into Europe through Lisbon. The
+Manilla, Macassar, and Dammar gums found in the Philippine Islands, are used
+for common grades of varnish. Resins suitable for varnish manufacture are also found
+in South America and Mexico. The product of the former country is commonly
+called animé, while the Zanzibar copal passes in the London market under the name
+of animi.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span></p>
+
+<p>These two varieties most commonly contain insects, a fact which suggested their
+allied nomenclature. The Murphy museum holds many interesting specimens of insect
+copal. Ants feed upon the bark of the copal-tree, and, it is believed, frequently
+destroy its life. But the copal-tree has its revenge. For when the tree is wounded
+the resinous juice exudes and entraps the tiny enemy. Lumps of gum are frequently
+found as full of ants as a plum pudding is of fruit. Mr. Murphy has a fine specimen
+of accra gum which is the crystal tomb of a fly. One piece of Zanzibar shows a
+perfect grasshopper, which looks as if it had just hopped off a Western pasture.
+Another piece preserves a beautiful bumble-bee, in rich and velvety apparel. What
+a dreary existence he must have led in an age long, perhaps, before there were boys
+to sting! A third piece proves that the mosquito is a very venerable citizen of this
+earth. One of the workmen has a small piece of gum which is a witness to the
+predatory character of the spider. One
+afternoon an unlucky fly alighted on
+the bark of a copal-tree, and felt its feet
+involved in the sticky gum, past extrication.
+A spider traveled that way,
+and seeing the fly apparently too much
+engaged in sipping some sweet to heed
+his approach, pounced upon his prey,
+only to be caught as was the fly, and
+to be incarcerated in the gum with his
+booty in his fangs. Small lizards have
+been found in gum copal. Insects
+cannot be seen in the gum before it is
+cleaned. All varnish gums used to be
+shipped in the natural state, but to
+escape paying the American custom
+duties of ten cents, on a quarter of the
+weight, which is lost in cleaning, the
+gum is cleaned and purified superficially
+before shipment. The duty has
+been abrogated, but, nevertheless, it is
+found best to clean the gum before
+it is put in cargo. The boys that do the cleaning in Zanzibar appropriate the most
+curious specimens for themselves, and, for this reason, of late years, insect copal has
+become more rare.</p>
+
+<figure class="figright illowp50" id="image011" style="max-width: 20em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image011.png" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      A Bit of Laboratory.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Gum copal and the other varnish resins reach the factory of Murphy &amp; Co. in the
+original packages. In a long, low room adjoining the storage warehouse, boys sit at
+a long table, placed against the wall, and give the gum a second cleaning, after which
+it is assorted and broken into small lumps for the melting-kettles, and stored in large
+bins in an adjoining room. In the cleaning, or chiseling process, the boys use a long
+narrow hatchet which has a blade at one end and a hammer-head at the other, and is
+grasped by the head and socket, and handled like a short chisel, for convenience in
+working around the irregular surface of the kauri-lumps. In breaking the lumps the
+hatchet is used like a hammer. The clippings, or chips, and the gum dust are saved,
+and form the body of a cheap varnish.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span></p>
+
+<p>With the cleaning and the sorting begin the niceties of the business. Murphy &amp;
+Co. owe much of their success—as every other manufacturing company that wins a
+permanent success must—to faithful attention to the smallest details. The gums
+are graded with considerable care before they are put up in commercial packages.
+This firm re-assorts the gum, making a number of additional grades, according to kind,
+clearness or purity, and hardness, and keeps the different lots separate throughout
+the process of manufacture, to which fact may be ascribed the homogeneity and
+unvarying quality of their products of each particular grade. The gum-room is in the
+remotest angle of the factory grounds, and there the gum is made ready for the
+melting-room and furnaces adjoining.</p>
+
+<p>Two other ingredients have to be in store before the manufacturer can proceed
+with his work. Of these, turpentine needs no special treatment. It arrives at the
+factory in barrels, and is stored in four massive iron tanks, which together hold about
+ten thousand gallons.</p>
+
+<p>The oil-shop, where the oil is boiled and otherwise prepared, is a small, but
+massively built, structure, located in the center of the works, and contains two
+wrought iron kettles substantially set in masonry, each of which has a capacity for
+boiling five hundred gallons of oil. Experiments with the oil are made in the
+laboratory, and the ideas there developed are carried out in a practical way in the
+oil-shop. This department is in charge of Mr. Murphy’s younger brother, who brings
+to his work a natural liking for its duties, strengthened by a special technical education
+at the Columbia College School of Mines.</p>
+
+<p>On the successful preparation of the oil, depend, in a great measure, the drying properties,
+elasticity, toughness, and clearness of the varnish; and the difficulties of
+a uniform treatment are very much increased by the want of uniformity in the
+raw oil. This does not arise from adulteration of the oil, but from the different characteristics
+of different lots of seed. The manufacture of linseed-oil consists simply in
+crushing the seed and expressing the oil by hydraulic pressure, but to secure the finest
+quality of oil, the linseed must be grown under favorable conditions, and harvested
+only after it is fully matured. If the season should be unfavorable, or if the crop is
+cut before it has fully ripened, or if a lot contains an undue percentage of foreign seed,
+the resulting oil is not suitable for the finest grades of varnishes. Each parcel of raw
+oil, therefore, is carefully tested by Murphy &amp; Co., and only such accepted as meet
+the tests which their experience shows them are necessary to furnish satisfactory
+results in their work. As the oil is received in the factory it is pumped into large
+tanks in the second story of the main warehouse, which communicates by pipes
+with the large boiling-pots in the oil-shop. After treatment there, it is allowed to run
+out of the kettle into a large iron vat, and from that is pumped back into the main
+storehouse, into tanks of five hundred gallons each, and which, therefore, hold a single
+boiling. From one to six months is given it to settle and brighten. The foreign
+matter settles to the bottom of the pot, while the oil on top, which has become
+as clear as amber, is drawn off as it is required for mixing with melted gum. A dozen
+or more different kinds of prepared oils are kept in store, which vary in the quantity
+and the kind of the dryer boiled with them, according to the results sought for in
+the completed varnish. Thus the success or the failure of varnish-making must
+depend greatly on the care and fidelity of the foreman of the shop.</p>
+
+<p>A double system of pipes, connecting with the boiled oil and turpentine storage
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>tanks, traverse the yard and enter all the out-buildings, where their ingredients are
+required for mixing with the melted gum. Nothing could exceed the neatness of the
+storage-room. The tanks are painted on the outside, and kept perfectly clean.
+There is a purpose in this. Good varnish cannot be produced if the workmen fall
+into careless and slovenly habits. To make cleanliness a habit, and, therefore,
+a matter of no special mental effort, the utmost neatness is maintained from the gum-room
+to the business office, and even in the factory yard.</p>
+
+<p>With the three ingredients at hand, the making of the varnish begins. It is
+desired to make a varnish of a certain quality. The foreman of the melting-room
+goes to the gum-room with his large copper kettle, holding 125 gallons, which is set
+on four small iron wheels. He takes from one of the many bins 100 or 150 pounds
+of the requisite kind of gum, returns with it to the melting-room, covers the kettle
+with a sheet-iron cover, which is provided with an exit for the thick and noxious
+fumes of boiling gum, and pushes the kettle into one of the great fire-places, which
+has almost the draft of a furnace. The fire directly underneath the kettles is very hot,
+and necessarily so, for the hardest kinds of gum will liquefy only after being subjected
+to a very high heat.</p>
+
+<p>When the batch of gum is thoroughly melted the kettle is drawn from the fire, and
+a certain quantity of the prepared oil is poured in. The percentage of oil to gum
+varies greatly, according to the character of the varnish which is sought to be
+produced. After being thoroughly stirred, the mixture is pushed into the fire-place
+again and is boiled to a certain point, after which it is then drawn from the fire and
+the temperature of the mixture allowed to fall to about 300°. In the meantime the
+requisite amount of turpentine has been allowed to run into an upright receiver, with
+tube register attached. The kettle is drawn under the stop-cock, the turpentine
+mingles with the mixture of oil and gum, and the varnish is practically made. It is
+next strained through coarse muslin and filtered, after which it is brought into contact
+with another system of pipes, and is pumped into one of the three or four store-rooms,
+where large tanks, resting on stone platforms, preserve the varnish while it settles and
+ripens. The temperature of the varnish store-room is kept at 70° Fahrenheit during
+the winter.</p>
+
+<p>In the finer grades of varnish, the ripening process requires from four to twelve
+months, and in many instances a much longer time is necessary to bring out its best
+qualities. This is not a matter of hap-hazard judgment on the part of the varnish
+maker. Every tank of varnish, during the time of ripening, is subjected to frequent
+tests by a practical carriage painter. It is tried on the same surfaces and under the
+same circumstances as it will be after it goes into the hands of the customer. The
+varnish must meet every test satisfactorily before it is allowed to go out of the factory.
+It is a very whimsical substance, and at times the best varnish is so unaccountably
+obstinate, that painters are agreed that it is in some manner allied to the evil spirit.
+What are called the “deviltries” of varnish come under fifty or more terms of opprobrium
+familiar to the paint-house, and may be divided into a dozen or more species;
+there is the “specky” family of deviltries, the “crawling” species, the “sweating”
+variety, the “blotching” class, the “peeling” genus, the “cracking” family, the
+“blistering” order, and other analogous misdemeanors that drag painters by a string
+of profanity into the hands of Satan. When varnish suddenly departs from its usual
+good conduct, and begins its pranks, just as the painter is in a hurry to finish
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>an important job, the painter is none too slow to lay the responsibility for his trouble
+on the varnish-maker, or somebody whose exact accountability he forgets in his rage,
+and is human enough not to see that he himself may be to blame. The “deviltries”
+of the business are as annoying to the varnish maker as the painter. If the varnish
+came from a first-class factory, the chances are as eight to ten that, if it is put to the
+purpose for which it was made and then behaves ill, the fault lay more with the painter,
+and with the conditions under which it was used, than with the material itself.
+Varnish loses its bad temper as a rule, in a dry, warm, well-ventilated paint-shop,
+which of course ought to be clean and free from dust. Varnish despises an ignorant
+painter as much as a horse does an ignorant driver. Varnish-makers have to bear the
+short-comings of ignorance with resignation and meekness. When a barrel of varnish
+is returned with the indorsement, that “it contains a devil,” the varnish-maker
+mutters: “Another stupid painter.” But like the father of the naughtiest boy in the
+neighborhood, he knows the character of the pesky thing too well, to assert that it
+was not as devilish as reported.</p>
+
+<p>The precautions taken by Murphy &amp; Co. to assure themselves that their varnishes
+will behave well, if properly treated, have assisted greatly in securing for their varnishes
+a reputation for “perfection of quality.” Not only is the varnish strained and filtered
+before it goes into the ripening tanks, but also again before it goes into the barrel for
+shipment. They have introduced an improvement into the filtering machine by
+which the ordinarily tedious process is urged forward with ten-fold rapidity. The neat
+cans with the handsome labels, and the barrels in which the varnish is shipped, are
+both made by the firm, a large building in the rear of the melting-room being
+set aside for that purpose. The ground floor is a cooper-shop, and the second floor a
+tin-shop, both departments being supplied with the most improved appliances, and the
+best material and skill. A large room has been reserved in the new warehouse, just
+completed, to be used for painting the barrels, which is an indication of the care paid
+by the firm to minor details. On the second floor of the same building, in the gable-end,
+has been constructed a room, which is supposed to be as fire-proof as iron and
+brick and stone and mortar can make an apartment. This is the new laboratory.
+The firm believe that it will be in the future, as it has been in the past, the most
+profitable room in the establishment. A unique branch of the establishment is the
+“Publication Office,” which occupies two large, cheery rooms in the basement. Two
+practical printers are in charge, and have at hand a full stock of job printing material
+and two modern presses. The neat typographical dress of the Company’s catalogues
+and price lists speak well of the practical success of this curious appendage to a varnish
+factory. A miniature newspaper, called “The Copal Bug,” is occasionally
+issued.</p>
+
+<p>Murphy &amp; Co. have made an important departure from the old methods of varnish
+manufacturing by establishing a factory for the manufacture of surfacers for coach and
+car work, as an auxiliary to their varnish business proper. This factory is several
+blocks removed from the main establishment, the two being connected by telephone.
+Since the “deviltries” of varnish, above described, are very frequently due to the
+improper preparation of the painted surface to which the varnish is to be applied, the
+firm believe that, by making surfacers already prepared for application and the best
+calculated for producing a suitable surface for varnishing, they would not only
+save themselves and the too frequently innocent varnish the anathemas of careless
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>painters, but confer a blessing on the painter as well. These prepared paints
+have been named “A. B. C. Surfacers,” and very appropriately, too, for the priming,
+leveling, and smoothing coats on which the varnish rests are the first steps toward the
+completed task of the painter, and if the first steps are badly taken, the best varnish in
+the world will not save the job.</p>
+
+<p>Six or seven years ago American varnish-makers were vainly striving to compete in
+their own market with the highest grades of English coach and railway varnish.
+Murphy &amp; Co. have led the way to a solution of this highly important problem for
+this country, and now produce a varnish which has the entire confidence of many of
+the first carriage builders and railway companies of the United States, and by some is
+regarded superior to English varnishes. In a very few shops the English article still
+maintains a show of supremacy, by virtue of the survival of the old-time prejudice
+against American goods. The best American varnishes are now making their way
+in the markets of Europe, and in this industry, as in so many other important branches
+of manufacture, America has cast off the yoke of dependence on the Old World.</p>
+
+<p>Murphy &amp; Company will be glad to send to any address, upon application, descriptive
+lists of their Varnishes, containing detailed information of each grade, with
+prices attached.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="image015" style="max-width: 35em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image015.png" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      Shipping Room.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="transnote">
+  <p class="ph2">
+    TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
+  </p>
+
+
+<p>Typo corrected on <a href="#Page_4">page 4</a>: “an” to “<a href="#and">and</a>”.</p>
+
+<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been left unchanged.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77263 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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author	www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org>	2025-11-18 07:13:41 -0800
committer	www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org>	2025-11-18 07:13:41 -0800
commit	9bd5eea648eed42b04e65784809a536c0aa184f9 (patch)
tree	16e0fb826095aa06b55b8cb515787795d099a5b9 /77263-h