earley7

Earley 7

Steps:

boxing to create a collecting area (left hand tree)
chipping to wound the tree to cause resin to flow down it into the box
dipping the collected gum into a barrel--workers were expected to dip about 2,000 boxes a day
distilling the resin into turpentine and rosin

Notice:

that the resin is not the sap of the tree but how it protects itself when injured
trees react to injury by producing more resin, so more can be collected
that large-scale turpentining operations used slaves (a drama about those slaves)

the work was strenuous and more continuous than agriculture
but the slaves had expertise that gave them some bargaining power over working conditions
though less so than other industries because they were isolated (more like a sugar plantation)

Uses for spirits of turpentine (the distilled product):

the terpines in turpentine give flavor to retsina wine and in smaller amounts to other products
however in significant amounts it is poisonous the same way gasoline is
but it does kill germs, so it isn't surprising it was found useful in medicine
it was mostly used for medicine before first third of the 19th century, when it began to become a more important product
it was used as a solvent in making rubber, which was becoming a big industry
it also dissolves oils, which makes it a good paint cleaner but also useful for other cleaning and for combining with beeswax for waterproofing
it came to be widely used as part of a lamp oil mix called camphene, starting in the 1830s (before kerosene from petroleum deposits became common)
by the 1850s naval stores were the south's third largest export crop (after cotton and tobacco)

Uses for rosin

Distilling

the copper still introduced for making liquor in the 1830s also revolutionized turpentine distilling--as much as the cotton gin revolutionized cotton
for best quality the gum had to be distilled quickly after collecting
raw turpentine boils at 363º F, rosin breaks down at 392º F
videos of making turpentine
more pictures