The oil appears, from some experiments which I made, to be a mixture of
a glycerine salt and a cholesterine salt of fatty acids. It distills
without much decomposition, giving a brown-yellow oil, which fluoresces
strongly, and has a somewhat pungent smell. The molecular weight was
determined by saponification with alcoholic potash, and subsequent
titration of the excess of potash employed. This was found to equal
546.3. This would correspond to a mixture of 18.7 parts of stearate,
palmitate, and oleate of glycerine, with 81.3 parts of the same acids
combined with cholesteryl. But this is largely conjecture. The
boiling point of the oil is high, much above the range of a mercurial
thermometer, so that it is difficult to gain an insight into its
composition.

An objection which has been raised to this process is that the use of
such an easily inflammable substance as bisulphide of carbon is attended
by great risk of fire. Were the bisulphide to be exposed to free air,
there might be force in this objection; but there is no reason why it
should ever be removed from under a layer of water. The apparatus, to
make all safe, should not be under the same roof as the mill; and no
open fire need be used in the building set apart for it. It is easy to
rotate the centrifugal machine by a belt from the mill, but better by a
small engine attached, the power for which can be conducted by a small
steam-pipe, and the distillation of the bisulphide can also be conducted
without danger by the use of steam, as its boiling point is a very low
one. The question may be naturally asked, "How do the wool and fabric
made from the wool scoured by this process, compare with that scoured in
the usual way?" To answer this question I may refer to a test made by
Messrs. Isaac Holden & Co., at their works at Roubaix. A sample of wool
was divided into two portions, one of which was scoured by the usual
method, and the other by the turbine or Mullings' process. Skilled