Scientific American Supplement, No. 443, June 28, 1884 | Page 6

made of fiber, and a certain number of these bags, piled one upon
another, are placed in a press, most frequently worked by hand; when
pressure is applied, the oil flows down into a channel by which it is
conveyed to a receptacle or tank.
When oil ceases to flow, tepid water is poured upon the bags to carry
off oil retained by the bags. The pulp is then removed from the bags,
ground again in the mill, then replaced in the bags, and pressed a
second time. The water used in the process of making oil must be quite
pure; the mill, press, bags, and vessels sweet and clean, as the least
taint would ruin the quality of the oil produced.
The oil which has collected in the tank or receptacle just mentioned is
removed day by day, and the water also drained off, as oil would suffer
in quality if left in contact with water; the water also, which necessarily
contains some oil mingled with it, is sent to a deposit outside, and at

some distance from the crushing house, which is called the "Inferno,"
where it is allowed to accumulate, and the oil which comes to the
surface is skimmed off from time to time. It is fit only for
manufacturing purposes.
After the second pressing the olive-pulp is not yet done with; it is
beaten up with water by mechanical agitators moved by water-power,
and then the whole discharged into open-air tanks adjoining the
crushing house. There the crushed olive kernels sink to the bottom, are
gathered up and sold for fuel, fetching about 12 francs per 1,000 kilos,
while the debris of the pulp is skimmed off the surface of the tank and
again pressed in bags, yielding a considerable quantity of inferior oil,
called "olio lavato," or washed oil, which, if freshly made, is even used
for food by the poorer classes. The pulp then remaining has still further
use. It is sold for treatment in factories by the sulphide of carbon
process, and by this method yields from seven to nine per cent. of oil,
of course suitable only for manufacturing purposes. Only the first two
pressings yield oil which ranks as first quality, subject of course to the
condition of the fruit being unexceptionable. New oil is allowed to rest
a while in order to get rid of sediment; it is then clarified by passing
through clean cotton wool, when it is fit for use.
The highest quality of olive oil for eating purposes should not only be
free from the least taint in taste or smell, but possessed of a delicate,
appetizing flavor. When so many favorable conditions are needed as to
growth, maturity, and soundness of the fruit, coupled with great
attention during the process of oil-making, it is not to be wondered at
that by no means all or even the greater part of the oil produced in the
most favored districts of Tuscany is of the highest quality. On the
contrary, the bulk is inferior and defective.
These defective oils are largely dealt in both for home consumption and
export, when price and not quality is the object.
In foreign countries there is always a market for inferior, defective
olive oil for cooking purposes, etc., provided the price be low. Price
and not quality is the object, so much so that when olive oil is dear,
cotton-seed, ground-nut, and other oils are substituted, which bear the

same relation to good olive oil that butterine and similar preparations
do to real butter.
The very choicest qualities of pure olive oil are largely shipped from
Leghorn to England, along with the very lowest qualities, often also
adulterated.
The oil put into Florence flasks is of the latter kind. Many years back
this was not the case, but now it is a recognized fact that nothing but
the lowest quality of oil is put into these flasks; oil utterly unfit for food,
and so bad that it is a mystery to what use it is applied in England.
Importers in England of oil in these flasks care nothing, however, about
quality; cheapness is the only desideratum.
The best quality of Tuscan olive oil is imported in London in casks,
bottled there, and bears the name of the importers alone on the label.
There is no difficulty in procuring in England the best Tuscan oil,
which nothing produced elsewhere can surpass; but consumers who
wish to get, and are willing to pay for, the best article must look to the
name and reputation of the importers and the general excellence of all
the articles they sell, which is the best guarantee they can have of
quality.
* * * * *

BEESWAX AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
Beeswax is a peculiar waxy substance secreted only