A Dictionary of Arts: Bitumen, or Asphaltum.

A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice

by Andrew Ure, M. D.;
F. R. S. M. G. S. Lond.: M. Acad. M. S. Philad.; S. PH. DOC. N. GERM. Ranow.; Mulh. Etc. Etc.

Illustrated with nearly fifteen hundred engravings on wood
Eleventh American, From The Last London Edition.
To which is appended, a Supplement of Recent Improvements to The Present Time.

New York: D Appleton & company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII

1847


BITUMEN, or ASPHALTUM. (Bitume, Fr.; Erdpeck, Germ,) A black substance found in the earth, externally not dissimilar to pit-coal. It is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, like organic bodies; but its origin is unknown. It has not been observed among the primitive or older strata, but only in the secondary and alluvial formations. It constitutes sometimes considerable beds, as in the isle of Trinidad, where it occurs over an extensive district, in scattered masses. The greater part of the asphaltum to be met with in commerce comes from the Dead Sea, on whose shores it is cast up and gathered; whence it has got the name of Jewish bitumen. In its black color and fracture it resembles ordinary pitch. By friction it affords negative electricity. Its average density is 1.16. It melts at the temperature of boiling water, kindles very readily at the flame, burns brightly with a thick smoke, and leaves little ashes. Distilled by itself, it yields a peculiar bituminous oil, very little water, some combustible gases, and traces of ammonia. It leaves about one third of its wweight of charcoal after combustion, and ashes, containing silica, alumina, oxyde of iron, sometimes a little lime, and oxyde of manganese. According to John, asphaltum may be decomposed, by different solvents, into three distinct substances. Water dissolves nothing; alcohol (anhydrous) dissolves out a yellow resin equal to 5 per cent. of the weight of the asphaltum; that resin is soluble in dilute alcohol and in ether. The portion not soluble in the alcohol gives up a brown resin to ether, amounting to 70 per cent. of the weight of the asphaltum. On evaporating off the ether, the resin remains of a brownish-black color, which dissolves readily in the volatile oils, and in the oil of petroleum. The portion of asphaltum which does not dissolve in ether is very soluble in oil of turpentine, and in oil of petroleum; but less so in oil of lavender. These three resinous principles dissolve all together by digestion in the oils of amine, rosemary, turpentine, olive, hemp-seed, nut, and linseed. Caustic potash dissolves a notable quantity of asphaltum; but carbonate of potash has no effect upon it.

Asphaltum enters into the composition of hydraulic cements, and into that of black varnished, called japans, for coating iron trays, &c. A similar varnish may be prepared by dissolving 12 parts of fused amber, 2 parts of rosin, and 2 parts of asphaltum, n 6 parts of linseed oil varnish, to which 12 parts of oil of turpentine have been added.

There is a kind of bitumen found at Aniches, in France, in the department of the north, which is black, very fusible, and soft. It burns with flame. Alcohol, ether, and oil of turpentine extract from it a fatty substance, which may be saponified with alkalis.

The bitumen of Murindò, near Choco, in Columbia, is of a brownish-black color, soft, and has an earthy fracture. It has an acrid taste, burns with a smell of vanilla, and is said to contain a large quantity of benzoic acid. It appears to be the result of the decomposition of trees containing benzoin.

Asphaltum occurs abundantly at the surface of the salt lake Asphaltites, in Juden, produced from springs in the neighborhood; it is floated down, gathers consistence and accumulates upon the surface of the lake; the winds drive it on the shores, and the inhabitants collect it for sale. Its inspiration diffuses a disagreeable smell in the air of that region, which is supposed by the natives to be powerful enough to kill birds when they attempt to fly across the lake.

But probably the most remarkable locality of asphaltum in the world is the entire basin, or rather plain of it, in the island of Trinidad, called the Tar Lake. It lies on the highest land in the island, and emits a strong smell, sensible at ten miles' distance. its first appearance in that of a lake of water, but when viewed more nearly it seems to be a surface of glass. In hot weather its surface liquefies to the depth of an inch, and it cannot then be walked upon. It is of a circular form, about three miles in circumference, and of a depth not ascertained. Large fiestures frequently open and close up in it, whence the pitch has been supposed to float upon a body of water. The soil, for a considerable distance round it, consists of cinders and burnt earth, and presents in many points indications of convulsions by subterranean fire. In several parts of the neighboring woods, there are round holes and fissures in the ground, containing liquid bitumen to the depth of two inches.

Mr. Harchett examined some specimens from Trinidad, and concluded that what had been heretofore supposed to be a pure mineral pitch was in reality only a porous stone of the argillaceous kind, much impregnated with bitumen.

These various bitumens belong exclusively to the secondary and tertiary geological formations, and are not found among primitive rocks, except very rarely in veins. They occur most generally in calcareous, argillaceous, and sandy strats, and also in volcanic districts. Petroleum frequently floats on the waters which issue from the colcanic mountains, or which lie at their base; even the sea is at times covered with it near the colcanic islands of Cape Verd. Mr. Beislack observed a petroleum spring rising from the bottom of the sea near the southern base of Vesuvius.

The substance with which bitumen seems to have the most constant and most remarkable relations, is sea-salt; so that almost all the countries most abundant in petroleum, as Italy, Transylvania, Persia, the environs of Babylon, the region of the Dead Sea &c., contain salt mines, or lakes, or exhibits saline efflorescences. Iron pyrites is often impregnated with petroleum, or contains a bituminous nucleus.

The origin of bitumen is as little known as that of most of the productions of nature. Some regard it as an empyreumatic oil, a matter analogous to liquid resin or essential oil, resulting from the destruction of that astonishing multitude of animals and vegetables buried in the earth, whose solid remains are daily brought to view in mineral researches. It has been also supposed that naphtha and petroleum are the product of coals decomposed either by the fire of volcanoes, by the subterranean combustion of coal itself, or by the decomposition of pyrites. The latter opinion is not supported by any direct evidence, but the two former are sufficiently probable.

Elastic Bitumen is a rare substance, found hitherto only near Castleton, in Derbyshire, in fissures of slaty clay.

Bituminous mastic, or cement, has been of late extensively employed in France for sovering roofs and terraces, and lining water cisterns. The mineral bitumen used for the composition of this mastic is procured chiefly from de Obsann (Bas-Rhin), from the Parc (department de l'Ain), and from the Puy-de-la-Poix (department of Puy-de-Dome.) But boiled coal-tar answers equally well. In the neghborhood of these localities, there is a limestone impregnated with bitumen, which suits for giving consistence to the cement. This is well dried, ground to powder, sifted, and stirred while hot, in about one fifth its weight of melted asphaltum, contained in a cast-iron boiler. Dry chalk or bricks, ground and sifted, will suit equally well. As soon as this paste is retangular moulds, secured with pegs at the joints, fastened to a kind of platform of previously smeared over with a thin coat of loam-paste, to prevent their adhesion to the mastic. Whenever the cake is cold, the frame is taken asunder, and it is removed from the iron plate by an oblong shovel, or strong spatula of iron. These cakes or bricks are usually 18 inches long, 12 broad, and 4 thick, and weigh about 70 lbs.