Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan/Series 1/Volume 3/Part 1/The Preparation of Vegetable Wax
THE PREPARATION OF VEGETABLE
WAX.
BY
HENRY GRIBBLE, Esq.,
OF NAGASAKI.
Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan on the
23rd December, 1874.
——o——
The production of vegetable wax has always formed one of the principal industries of the province of Kiushiu, and the trees bearing the wax berries (called by the Japanese Haji-mo-ki), grow profusely on the hill slopes and round the edges of most of the cultivated fields (excepting rice ground) of Higo, Hizen, Sinabara, Chikugo and Chikuzen, whereas in Satzuma they appear ta be less prevalent.
The process of producing wax suitable for export to Europe is a tedious one, requiring the outlay of some capital on the part of the manufacturer, who has to keep the berries on hand for at least one year, and, in order to obtain a very superior product, does so frequently for six or seven years from the time of their being picked and sold by the farmers.
The berries ripen in October and November, and are picked by hand in the state shown by the sample marked No. 1 in the accompanying box. After exposure to the sun in that state for about five days they are packed in common straw bags and stored by the manufacturer in his godown for periods varying from one to seven years. The average value of 10 piculs of the berries in this, their first stage, is ten yen, the farmer’s selling price.
The manufacturer of wax can carry on his business all the year round, being interrupted only by excessive heat or excessive cold. His establishment consists of godowns for storing the berries, a large shed containing the pans for heating, the presses for extracting the liquid wax, and as large a piece of levelled ground as possible for laying out the wax during its bleaching process. He establishes himself as near as possible to a supply of good clear water.
When sufficiently ripe, the berries are thrashed with bamboo flails and thus separated from their stalks. They are then crushed, as shown in the diagram, and reduced to the stage of sample No. 2, This crushing process, which can readily be done between thumb and finger, discloses a small hard red kernel surrounded by an apparently dry husk or fibre. The wax is contained in this fibre and only to a very small extent in the kernel, but it is not necessary to separate the two. They are then well steamed over an open kettle, the water in which is kept boiling by a wood fire underneath.
From the steaming sieve the mixture is placed “all hot” into the press bags, surrounded by bamboo rings to fit the aperture in the press, and as quickly as possible placed in the press, as shown in the diagram. Wedges are driven home by repeated blows of a mallet, and the liquid runs off into its receptacle at the bottom. Primitive as this style of pressing is, the result has not yet been improved upon by the trial of several hydraulic presses which have at various times been tried by the Japanese for expressing both oil and wax. Their own presses cost little, never get out of order, last long, require nothing but cheap coolie hire, and, in actual percentage of liquid extracted, do very nearly as much work as an expensive “Langue’s” hydraulic press, requiring steam or other power to drive pumps which frequently require overhauling and repairing. After being fully pressed, the ‘cake’ or residue of the wax fibre is broken up, again steamed and once more put through the press, thus yielding all its available wax.
Meantime the liquid quickly solidifies into a large block of a dark green, coarse and tallowy substance, which is at once boiled down and ran off into small earthenware saucers, then assuming the appearance of sample No. 3.
The loss in weight of the manufacturer’s original purchase of 10 piculs of berries has by this time amounted to 8.50 piculs. His first quantity was reduced to 8.80 piculs by the thrashing process, and of the liquid now produced from the press he has only one picul and a-half in the form of sample No. 3.
In order to purify and bleach the wax for export, it now becomes necessary to re-boil it in its present stage, mixed with water and ashes (either shell or charcoal ashes) and again run it off into large blocks. These blocks are then cut up into thin strips or stored, placed on mats and exposed to the air, during fine clear weather only, for a period of fifteen days and occasionally sprinkled with water. The material is then again boiled down, mixed with water only this time, and run into large blocks. Once more are these blocks cut up into thin strips and again exposed to the air; this time for a period of about five days.
Again boiled down, with no water, the impurities rise to the surface and are skimmed off, leaving the residue to be run into saucers, assuming the shape and colour of sample No. 4 which is the vegetable wax as known to the European consumer.
The various stages from sample No. 3 to the final one No. 4 have further reduced the weight of wax from 1.50 piculs to 1.44 piculs, and the cost of this production now stands at about the following figures, viz:—
|
yen | 10.00 | ||
|
yen„ | 1.28 | ||
|
yen„ | 1.44 | ||
|
yen„ | 0.32 | ||
|
yen„ | 1.20 | ||
| Say | yen | 14.24 |
It only remains to be mentioned that the present market value of the finished wax is from 10.50 to 11 yen per picul when packed in boxes ready for export, and even this price, which shows only a loss to the Japanese manufacturer, is higher than the corresponding value of the same article in Europe, so that for the present, at least, this industry is not a profitable one either to the manufacturer or the shipper. The value of wax, however, varies considerably, and about three years ago it was worth for the London market about 20 yen per picul!
Its use at home appears to be confined to the “facing” of candles and the manufacture of “vestas,” and the frequent discoveries of cheaper substitutes for these manufactures materially affect the value of vegetable wax from Japan. For local consumption in the manufacture of Japanese candles there is always a considerable demand for vegetable wax in its unbleached state; but with the prevailing and increasing consumption of Kerosine oil even this outlet for the native industry is getting much restricted.
A reference to the four samples accompanying this paper, showing the various stages of vegetable wax from the berry to the finished saucer, and to the native diagrams (which, Japanese-like, are rather in caricature) showing some of the processes in its manufacture, will, I trust, clearly explain what may well be regarded as one of the chief industries of Japan.
ASIATIC SOCIETY OF JAPAN.
The Committee on the Library reported that a new room had been engaged at No. 28, which would be open daily from 4 to 6 P.M. Whereupon Professor Ayrton suggested that although the Librarian might only attend from four to six o’clock, so that books could only be obtained during those hours, he would suggest that the room itself should be open all day and furnished with pens, ink and paper so that it might be used by the members as a room for writing letters in, &c. He would add that the small room at the Grand Hotel which formerly was used as a Library by the Society, had been found by himself as well as by other members residing in Tokio, very convenient for such purposes.
Mr. Brunton read the following explanatory remarks, as supplementary to his statement made at the last meeting, in regard to the discharge of water from the rivers Rhine and Shinanogawa respectively:—
At the last meeting of the Society during the discussion which followed the reading of Mr. Lindo’s paper on a trip to Niigata I made a statement giving some particulars concerning the Shinanogawa, which river has its mouth at Niigata. I then compared the discharge of the Shinanogawa with that of the Rhine, and I have received from Mr. Lindo a letter taking exception to that comparison and asking me to make a correction of my statement in such a manner as I deem most suitable. As the matter occurred at the last meeting of this Society, and has appeared as part of its proceedings I think that this is the proper time and place to bring the matter forward. Mr. Lindo informs me in his letter, that his paper, read by Mr. Boyle, contains statements relative to the discharge of the Shinanogawa; and also a comparison between it and that of the Rhime, but that that gentleman, in reading the paper, passed these over. His comparison and mine he says are antagonistic, not as regards the discharge of the Shinanogawa, because on that we agree, I may say, quite remarkably, but as regards the discharge of the Rhine; and he has been good enough to send me very elaborate tables of the discharge of the Rhine which were, of course, not previously known to me, but which place that matter beyond a doubt. From these I find that the ordinary summer discharge of the Rhine near its mouth is over five millions cubic feet per minute, that its maximum discharge in floods is over twenty-three millions cubic feet per minute, and its minimum discharge is 2,700,000 cubic feet per minute. In my statement I gave the ordinary summer discharge as 900,000 cubic feet per minute, and the flood discharge as ten millions cubic feet per minute, that is to say the summer discharge as given by me is between one-fifth and one-sixth of what it actually is, and the flood discharges between one-half and one-third of what it actually is. In justice to myself I must say that I procured my information from Beardmore’s Manual of Hydrology, which book is considered as good authority by all English Hydraulic Engineers; but it is also necessary to say that on more carefully investigating the matter, I find that Beardmore’s gauging was not taken at the month of the Rhine, but at Lauterbourg which is some distance below Strasbourg. Is is necessary, therefore, for me to correct the statement I formerly made to the extent that the Shinanogawa discharges the same amount of water at its mouth as the Rhine does at Lautenbourg and that therefore the size of the two rivers cannot fairly be compared. In reference to the actual discharge of the Shinanogawa, it may be useful to have on the records of the Society a comparison of the results obtained by myself and Mr. Lindo as these are so close that they assuredly leave no room for uncertainty regarding it. On the 21st June 1871 I gauged the discharge of the river and found it to be 1,500,000 cubic feet per minute. During the months of June and July 1873 Mr. Lindo took a succession of observations the mean result of which was 1,320,000 cubic feet per minute, the difference between this and mine being so trifling as almost to appear extraordinary. I calculated the basin of the Shinanogawa from government maps which were necessarily more or less inaccurate, making it to be 10,000 square miles in area. And taking the discharge of that area at seventy cubic feet per minute per square mile, which is the average discharge of twenty-five rivers in different parts of the world gives the discharge of the Shinanogawa as 700,000 cubic feet per minute. Mr. Lindo has calculated the low water discharge at 720,000 cubic feet per minute, which two results verily each other surprisingly. From data procured from a comparison with other rivers I estimated that the maximum flood discharge of the Shinanogawa would probably be about twenty times the latter mentioned discharge, viz: fourteen millions cubic feet per minute, Mr. Lindo from actual measurements has calculated the flood discharge to he 12,000,000 cubic feet per minute. Those calculations, made perfectly independently on different systems and verifying each other so closely, conclusively determine the size of the Shinanogawa, and I, therefore, thought it well to give the Society the information which I do with Mr. Lindo’s sanction.
Professor Ayrton then read a resumé of Dr. Geerts’ paper on Lead and Silver; and in reply to a question from the chair, stated that he believed little or no quicksilver was found in Japan. As far as he was aware all the quicksilver used in this country was imported from China to which country it had been brought from Europe. Consequently the price of quicksilver in Japan was far higher than in England.
Mr. Brunton here remarked upon the black colour on the bronze image at Nara.
Professor Ayrton said in regard to the dark colour on Japanese bronze images referred to by Mr. Brunton, he believed this was produced not by any admixture of quicksilver but by the bronze containing a considerable percentage of lead in consequence of which the bronze was soft. After the vase, or other bronze ornament, was finished, the outside was strongly heated, and when on the point of liquefaction it underwent a rapid oxydation and thus a dark uniform coat closely adherent to the rest of the metal was formed. For the particulars of this process he would refer the society to the careful analysis of Japanese bronze, made some months back by M. Morin and communicated by that gentleman to the French Academy.
Mr. Syle mentioned the New Almaden mines, near San José in California, as furnishing a large supply of quicksilver.
A Paper, contributed by Mr. Gribble of Nagasaki, on the Production and Manufacture of Vegetable Wax in Japan, was read by Mr. W. H. Smith, who exhibited specimens and diagrams illustrative of the subject.
Mr. Syle remarked on the similarity of the process employed to that used in China for the extraction of oil from the bean. As to the employment of the wedge rather than the screw, it was noteworthy that although the Chinese were acquainted with the latter and used it for some purposes, they never seemed to employ it as a mechanical power. The experiment made at Newchwang for obtaining the bean-oil by foreign machinery had not been successful.
Professor W. E. Ayrton said, he could see why the wedge was used in preference to the screw both in China and Japan for extracting oil as stated by Mr. Syle, since theory showed that in the absence of very great power a greater crushing effect could be produced by sudden blows on a wedge than by the continued pressure of a screw. He thought that probably the considerable initial expense necessary to be incurred in the purchase of a hydraulic press might be the reason why they were so rarely used in this country for the extraction of wax; since as far as he could judge from the diagrams lying on the table the apparatus at present employed was of the rudest description and therefore cost but very little. He would be glad if Mr. Smith could inform them in what way Japanese vegetable wax differed from Chinese wax.
Mr. W. H. Smith expressed his surprise that the hydraulic press was not more used; and read the following remarks of Sir H. Parkes from a note written on the subject of the paper:
“I am sorry to see that the wax cannot be produced at a paying price, but this must be partly attributable to the very high charges of manufacture. I cannot help thinking that it might be produced at a much less cost with more industry and real hard work on the part of the Japanese. I was told in England that it could be largely used in the process of printing manufactures (cottons) if a large and steady supply could be reckoned on, but as it came to market only by fits and starts and in unreliable quantities, manufacturers were obliged to use other material. I am sorry if this industry should fail, for the Japanese have but few available products for export, and they must work harder before they increase them.