Date of Award

1900

Degree Type

Bachelors Essay

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Chemistry

First Advisor

M. Gilbert

Abstract

The increasing demand for camphor for use in the manufacture of cellulose plastics has led to a great amount of investigation of the nature of this valuable substance and as to its synthesis from materials which are readily obtainable without the necessity for sending overseas for them. At present most of the camphor used in the manufacture of celluloid and allied compounds is imported from Japan or Borneo, where it is obtained, in a rather crude and wasteful fashion, from a species of laurel. Some scientifically operated camphor plantations have been started in the United States.. In one such plantation in Flo rid a production is carried on i~ such a manner that the tree is not destroyed in the process, the yield being obtained from clippings of leaves amid twigs In another type the seed of the camphor laurel is sown like an ordinary field crop of small grain; the plants developing are allowed to grow until a predetermined height has been reached when they are mown and treated to the usual process of steam distillation. So satisfactory have these two systems of culture become in this country that it is doubtful if any process of chemical synthesis will ever entirely supplant them. However, as a result of the investigations into the nature of the terpenes and their allied compounds, of which camphor is an important member, man methods which· have commercial possibilities h ave been developed. Among the most interesting and valuable of the methods for the production of camphor is the one, with various modifications, wherein pinene is used as the base or starting point .

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