WALNUT OIL

Scientific American Supplement, No. 717, September 28, 1889, by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. WALNUT OIL.

WALNUT OIL.

By Thomas T. P. Bruce Warren.

This oil, which I obtained from the fully ripened nut of the Jugluns regia, has so many excellent properties, especially for mixing with artists' colors for fine art work, that I am surprised at the small amount of information available on this interesting oil.

Walnut oil is largely used for adulterating olive oil, and to compensate for its high iodine absorption it is mixed with pure lard oil olein, which also retards the thickening effect due to oxidation. The marc left on expression of the oil is said to be largely used in the manufacture of chocolate. Many people, I am told, prefer walnut oil to olive oil for cooking purposes.

The value of this oil for out-door work has been given me by a friend who used it for painting the verandas and jalousies of his house (near Como, Italy) some twenty years ago, and which have not required painting since. In this country, at least, walnut oil is beyond the reach of the general painter, and I do not know that the pure oil is to be obtained as a commercial article, even on a small scale.

It was in examining the properties of this and other oils, used as adulterants of olive oil, that I was obliged to prepare them so as to be sure of getting them in a reliable condition as regards purity. The walnuts were harvested in the autumn of 1887, and kept in a dry airy room until the following March. The kernels had shrunk up and contracted a disagreeable acrid taste, so familiar with old olive oil in which this has been used as an adulterant. Most oxidized oils, especially cotton seed oil, reveal a similar acrid taste, but walnut oil has, in addition, an unmistakable increase in viscosity. The nuts were opened and the kernels thrown into warm water, so as to loosen the epidermis; they were then rubbed in a coarse towel, so as to blanch them. The decorticated nuts were wiped dry and rubbed to a smooth paste in a marble mortar. The paste was first digested in CS2, then placed in a percolator and exhausted with the same solvent, which was evaporated off. The yield of oil was small, but probably, if the nuts had been left to fully ripen on the trees without knocking them off, the yield might have been greater. It is by no means improbable that oxidation may have rendered a portion of the oil insoluble. The decorticated kernels gave a perfectly sweet, inodorous, and almost colorless oil, which rapidly thickens to an almost colorless, transparent, and perfectly elastic skin or film, which does not darken or crack easily by age. These are properties which, for fine art painting, might be of great value in preserving the tinctorial purity and freshness of pigments.

Sulphur chloride gives a perfectly white product with the fresh oil, but, when oxidized, the product is very dark, almost black. The iodine absorption of the fresh oil thus obtained is very high, but falls rapidly by oxidation or blowing. A curious fact has been disclosed with reference to the oxidation of this and similar oils. If such an oil be mixed with lard oil, olive oil, or sperm oil, it thickens by oxidation, but is perfectly soluble. Such a mixture is largely used in weaving or spinning. Commercial samples of linseed oil, when cold-drawn, have a much higher iodine absorption, probably due to the same cause. Oils extracted by CS2 are very much higher than the same oils, especially if hot-pressed.—Chem. News.

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