Camphine is the trade name of a purified spirit of turpentine formerly used for lamps. Generally prepared by distilling turpentine with quicklime,[1] it gives a very brilliant light when burned in a lamp. To prevent smoking, it was burned in special “Vesta lamps,” which had a very strong draft.[2]

Composition

German scientist Justus von Liebig, one of the founders of organic chemistry, described camphine as a blend of one part purified turpentine with three parts 93% to 94% grain alcohol.

History

The first reference to camphine in searchable files at the Library of Congress appears in the July 11, 1838, issue of the New York Morning Herald.[3] AVM Webb has invented a new lamp for camphine that offers bright light and economy. In the May 28, 1840, issue of the Baltimore Pilot and Transcript, T. Palmer & Co. has camphine oil lamps for sale.[4] He claims 13,000 are in use in New York City. Later, he claims exclusive availability of camphine lamps.

The alcohol was usually distilled from whiskey. Zallen explains in detail how turpentine and rosin are produced as naval stores.[5] Pine trees, especially in North Carolina, were tapped for sap, which was doubly distilled to make turpentine and rosin (aka resin), hence the name tar heels. The trees were scored with a ledge called a “box” to collect the sap. Large numbers of slaves were used to score the trees, collect the sap, and process it. Zallen describes this as industrial slavery, different from the more common vision of slaves in agriculture. By the 1840s, camphine had become the dominant lamp fuel in the U.S. (Zallen prefers the camphene spelling).

The pine trees of North Carolina were well suited to camphine production. The business also provided additional support for slaves as production expanded. The backwoods became more productive. Slaves were often leased in the winter when agriculture was slower. The value of many was protected by life insurance. Wilmington, North Carolina, became the center of the camphine industry. In cities, gaslighting was also available but used by the upper classes. Camphine was the fuel for the average family.

Russell reports that whale oil was commonly used in lamps until the 1840s, when prices began to rise.[6] Lard lamps were an early substitute, beginning in about 1842. Camphine was the first fuel used in burning fluid lamps. Henry Porter of Bangor, Maine, patented a turpentine/alcohol blend and the name "burning fluid" in 1835. Hence, the name Porter's Burning Fluid. The mix had been developed as a fuel for oil lamps by Isaiah Jennings of New York in 1830.[7] A typical camphine lamp has wick tubes forming a V.[8] They have caps resembling thimbles to extinguish the light and prevent evaporation when the lamp is not in use. Whale oil lamps could be upgraded to use the new fuel by installing camphene burners, but the combination of more flammable fluid and the larger fonts in whale oil lamps sometimes caused the lamps to explode.

The flammability of burning fluids posed a hazard. Spillage could start a fire. In 1853, Scientific American reported thirty-three deaths from burning fluid lamps the previous year. The most significant incident was the St. Louis Theater fire on June 12, 1846, in Quebec City, Canada, which began when someone knocked over a burning fluid lamp; 45 people died.[9]

Economic history

In a PBS Newshour story,[10] Professor Bill Kovarik of Carnegie Mellon University examined the popular idea that whale oil was replaced by kerosene. He found that camphine dominated the market during an intervening period. Camphine prevailed until Congress decided to tax alcohol to fund the Civil War. The tax applied to the alcohol used in camphine made it more costly than kerosene.

Kovarik estimated prices in 1850 as follows:

Illuminant Price per gallon Notes
Camphine or “burning fluid” $0.50 combinations of alcohol, turpentine, and camphor oil – bright, sweet smelling
whale oil $1.30 minimum
$2.50 maximum
lard oil $0.90 low quality, smelly
coal oil $0.50 the original “kerosene”; sooty, smelly, low quality
kerosene from petroleum $0.60 introduced in early 1860s

He estimated production of camphine at close to 200-million-gallon per year vs. 18 million gallon for whale oil in 1845. Kerosene reached the 200 million-gallon level only in 1870. Hence, camphine burning fluid dominated in the interim between whale oil and kerosene.

Between 1860 and 1866, the price of 25MM gal of burning fluid increased from between $0.45 and $0.60 per gallon to $4 per gallon. By 1866, the consumption of camphine was insignificant.[11]

Zallen reports that after Ft. Sumpter, turpentine producers were cut off from major markets. Emancipation left them without manpower to collect and process turpentine. The camps were flammable. Many were burned in William Tecumseh Sherman’s march from Savannah to Goldsboro, North Carolina.

Taxation

Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1862 to help pay for the Civil War. Excise tax was applied to a wide range of products, including alcohol. In 1860, 1138 distilleries produced 88MM gallons of spirits with an average price of $0.1440 per gallon.[12] A proof gallon is defined as a gallon of 100 proof alcohol (consisting of 50 parts absolute alcohol and 53.71 parts water, specific gravity of 0.93353 by hygrometer at 60 deg F).[13]

Raw alcohol is used for industrial purposes, primarily for burning fluid, but also as solvent for paints and lacquers and in pharmaceutical preparations and patent medicines. Further processing results in beverage grade alcohols. Initially the tax was $0.15/proof gallon of raw alcohol, $0.25 for beverage alcohol, $0.15 for whiskey, and $0.30/gal for brandy, rum, gin, and wine.[14]

In 1864, Congress raised the tax to $0.20 to March 7, then $0.60/gal to Jun 30, and collected $28MM on 85MM gal sold.[15] In 1865, the rate increased to $1.50/gal for 6 months and then $2/gal. Collections fell to $16MM on 17MM gal. In 1866 and 67, the tax remained at $2/gal and $29MM was collected on 14.6MM gal and $28MM on 14.1 MM gal. The conclusion was that much was stored in anticipation of rising taxes and that high tax rates resulted in more fraud. In 1869, the tax was reduced to $0.50/gal. The government collected $33MM in 1869 and $38.6 MM in 1870.

References

  1. ↑ Liebig, Justus (1850). Handwörterbuch der Reinen und Angewandten Chemie. Vieweg und Sohn. pp. 699–700.
  2. ↑ "The Camphine Lamp". The Magazine of Science and School of Arts. Vol. VI. 1845. pp. 97–98.
  3. ↑ "Image 3". Morning Herald. New York City. July 11, 1838.
  4. ↑ "Image 3" (PDF). The pilot and transcript. Baltimore. May 28, 1840.
  5. ↑ Zallen, Jeremy (2019). "American Lucifers: The Dark History of Artificial Light, 1750-1865". Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press.
  6. ↑ Russell, Loris S (1976). "Early Nineteenth-Century Lighting". In Peterson, Charles E. (ed.). Building Early America: Proceedings of the Symposium Held at Philadelphia to Celebrate the 250th Birthday of the Carpenters Company of the City & County of Philadelphia. Radnor, Pennsylvania: Chilton Book Co. p. 193. ISBN 978-0801962943.
  7. ↑ Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. http://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Burning_fluid
  8. ↑ Keysser, George N. (1984). Camphene lamp, 1830-1860 (Gift in memory of Mary Keyser, St. Charles, IL). Illinois State Museum.
  9. ↑ Le Moine, Sir James MacPherson (1876). Quebec, Past and Present: A History of Quebec, 1608-1876. Oxford University Press. p. 286.
  10. ↑ "The "Whale Oil Myth"". PBS. 2008-08-20.
  11. ↑ Smith, Harry Edwin (1914). The United States federal internal tax history from 1861 to 1871. Hart, Schaffner & Marx prize essays.XVI. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 185, 190, 201–208.
  12. ↑ Smith, Harry Edwin (1914). The United States federal internal tax history from 1861 to 1871. Hart, Schaffner & Marx prize essays.XVI. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 185, 190, 201–208.
  13. ↑ Smith, Harry Edwin (1914). The United States federal internal tax history from 1861 to 1871. Hart, Schaffner & Marx prize essays.XVI. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 185, 190, 201–208.
  14. ↑ Smith, Harry Edwin (1914). The United States federal internal tax history from 1861 to 1871. Hart, Schaffner & Marx prize essays.XVI. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 185, 190, 201–208.
  15. ↑ Smith, Harry Edwin (1914). The United States federal internal tax history from 1861 to 1871. Hart, Schaffner & Marx prize essays.XVI. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 185, 190, 201–208.
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