CHAP. 22.—METHODS BY WHICH THICK PITCH IS PREPARED.
The liquid that follows is of a thicker consistency, and constitutes pitch, properly so called. This liquid, thrown again
into a brazen cauldron, and mixed with vinegar, becomes still[1]
thicker, and when left to coagulate, receives the name of
"Bruttian"[2] pitch. It is used, however, only for pitching the
insides of dolia[3] and other vessels, it differing from the other
kinds in being more viscous, of a redder colour, and more
unctuous than is usually the case. All these varieties of pitch
are prepared from the pitch-tree, by putting red-hot stones,
with the resinous wood, in troughs made of strong oak; or
if these troughs are not attainable, by piling up billets of the
wood in the method employed for the manufacture of charcoal.[4] It is this pitch that is used for seasoning wine, being
first pounded and reduced to a fine powder: it is of a blacker
colour, too, than the other sort. The same resin, if boiled gently
with water, and then strained off, becomes viscous, and assumes
a red colour; it is then known as "distilled"[5] pitch:" for
making this, the refuse portions of the resin and the bark of
the tree are generally selected.
Another method is adopted for the manufacture of that used
as crapula.[6] Raw flower of resin is taken, direct from the
tree, with a plentiful sprinkling of small, thin chips of the
wood. These are then pounded[7] down and passed through a
sieve, after which they are steeped in water, which is heated
till it comes to a boil. The unctuous portion that is extracted
from this is the best resin: it is but rarely to be met with,
and then only in a few places in Italy, in the vicinity of the
Alps: it is in considerable request for medicinal purposes.
For this, they generally boil a congius of white resin to two
congii of rain-water:[8] some persons, however, think it better[9]
to boil it without water for one whole day by a slow fire,
taking care to use a vessel of white copper.[10] Some, again,
are in the habit of boiling the resin of the terebinth[11] in a flat
pan[12] placed upon hot ashes, and prefer it to any other kind.
The resin of the mastich[13] is held in the next degree of estimation.[14]
1. This is impracticable; neither vinegar, wine, nor water, will mingle
with pitch. These resins, however, if stirred up briskly in hot water, become of a paler colour, and acquire an additional suppleness.
2. Perhaps so called from Calabria, a country where the pine abounded,
and part of which was called Bruttium.
3. Or wine-vats.
4. See c. 8 of the present Book.
5. Stillaticia.
6. See B. xiv. c. 25.
7. This operation removes from the pitch a great portion of its essential
oil, and disengages it of any extraneous bodies that may have been mixed
with it.
8. Fée remarks that there is no necessity for this selection, though no
doubt rain-water is superior to spring or cistern water, for some purposes,
from its holding no terreous salts in solution.
9. This would colour the resin more strongly, Fée says, and give it a
greater degree of friability.
10. See B. xxxiv. c. 20.
11. See B. xiv. c. 25, and B. xxiv. c. 22.
12. "Sartago." Generally understood to be the same as our frying-pan.
Fée remarks that this method would most inevitably cause the mass in
fusion to ignite; and should such not be the case, a coloured resin would
be the result, coloured with a large quantity of carbon, and destitute of all
the essential oil that the resin originally contained.
13. See B. xiv. c. 20.
14. The terebinthine of the mastich, Fée says, is an oleo-resin, or in
other words, composed of an essential oil and a resin.