The Board of Regents University System of Georgia's "Suwanee Pine" Produced by the Georgia Agricultural Extension Service Walter S. Brown - Director Through the cooperation of American Turpentine Farmers Association Cooperative
My dad always kept a large cast iron pot full of pine rosin (a hard amber colored solid). At family gatherings in the summer, the pot was put on a fire where the rosin would melt. When the rosin was hot enough (near boiling) he'd put a bunch of potatoes in. Initially they would sink, but after about 30 minutes or so they would float up. After a while he took them out one by one with a big pair of tongs. We'd have a stack of paper (news paper or old brown grocery sacks) on a table next to the fire. The hot potatoes were put on a sheet of paper near one corner then it was rolled up in the paper. This whole process was simultaneous to either grilling steaks or frying fish and hush puppys (also in cast iron on the fire). The result was the best moist fluffy "baked" potatoes ever. The rosin immediately seals the potatoes so the moisture cant escape and the rosin is much hotter tha boiling water. A rosin potato coupled with a good steak or stack of fried fresh caught fish and an ice cold beer in a big grass field on a summer evening is a meal you never forget.
@MrKotBonifacy no, the rosin does not impart any flavor. It immediately seals the outside of the potatoes so no moisture can escape, making the potato moist and fluffy.
@@thehogdoctor Ah, OK then. As soon as I'll get my hands on a large cast iron pot full of rosin I'll try this method ;-) Thanks for the info anyway : )
Nice step back into time. I miss these narrated films. All the films we watched in the 70’s still has this format. We need to get back this format to replace the garbage that’s on TV.
Wonderful presentation about this nearly forgotten natural resource. I've been using 50% turpentine and 50% boiled linseed oil as a wood finish for years. The smell of both of these is like perfume to me.
I use it too, and there is miles better than any syntetic crap! Natural turpentine is not as dangerous as people think today, but yes it is a good idea to went i out properly the first weeks, but, unlike modern pretochemical products, it is only dangerous is the fumes are inhaled day after day in professional use in closed areas whithout proper respiratory protection, that does cause nerve and brain damage ower time (i guess that was probably an issue for the factory workers back in the days, or perhaps they did rotating the team of workers so they where less exposed to the fumes inside the factory...), but for outdoor use or make good ventilation the first weeks after applying indoor and not use the new oiled room until thew fumes has been properly wented out and the oilbase has set properly there is no problems i experienced and i use quite it a lot. At least that is my experience, and my grandfather lived for almost 90 Years... The problem with modern buildings is that we are practically living in a plastic bag filled with a lot of syntetic stuff we does not know how it will affect us ower time, the food we are eating is often contaminated with a lot of chemicalias, etc, that was not the case in historical times. However, one thing that is better now is that Today we do hawe better equipment for protecting our lungs, ears, eyes and skin, etc and i think one shall use those devices, i always use armoured gear whan i working with the chainsaw, i know it is hot as ... but it is not a thing one shall be sloppy with since many people in the past where killed in chansaw incidents in the forest, and i use respiratory airfilter whan i work with toxic chemicalias or dustfilter mask whan i wirk with abrasive dust, etc. Because i will try to prevent ending up as some of my old workmates. Beside that i think worrying too much about things that has been proved ower the years is more dangerous than using it responsible. (Sorry for my English it is not my native language...)
@@rumpstatefiasco My grandfather was a construction engineer and carpenter master in the 40-50s. I still hawe he's old drawingbord. If any creds for good knowldege they sould go to him, he did save both me and my father from many costly misstakes ower the years. Even the modern construction workers my mother did hire in with all their modern high tec laser super tools was highly impressed by the building quality he once made and no wood at all where rotten in critcal parts. 🙂 My father had an old book from him describing how to design a tar and resin destillery (for farmers cooperatons and small forest companies) in the 1920s. And, yes grandfahther had a horse as those guys in the film... I know he had friends living in the US as well in this same era whan my mother was a child she told me, they gave her a teddybear he broght on the ship. Must had been in the 1950s i think.
I use to live in Apopka, Florida back in the 1980's and would hike in the piney woods. Every so often, I would come accross a tree with the classic cat face. an old turpentine tree.
Yeah, it fries your brain eventually. More than a few painters and artists got the shakes with old age, and that's only the quite obvious, visible effect of the brain damage. It's seriously bad for you.
My 88 year old grandfather still uses and swears by turpentine and lard mixture for sore joints . Also anytime one of his animals would get an injury maybe caught in a fence or fight with others ,out with turpentine lard he’d go . He said it kept infection and insects away . I can smell that coffee can he mixes it in from 20 yards.
A variation is calendula and lard for muscle soreness and painful joints. Warm the lard until it just melts and throw in the calendula flowers. Let sit overnight and gently reheat in the morning. Strain out the flowers and the infused lard is the lineament. Keep in the fridge or the lard will turn black. It is also astonishingly effective for headache. Rub it on your forehead and the back of your neck.
well, these old videos are products influenced by their industries. You should watch the video about asbestos. It was the wonder material of the 1940s and 1950s. No mention about any bad effects in that video
Just re finished an old mosin with this mixture. Made the pine tar myself in my backyard. It's a skill all men should have. In a shtf scenario pine tar is so valuable
I am seventy years old. My Daddy worked shift work at a paper mill here in NW Florida. There are still many pine groves in this area planted and harvested by the paper company. we were always getting scratches, cuts and scraps from playing barefooted outside. My Mother would draw up a dish pan of warm water then add some pine-sol to it. We were told to sit and soak our feet in for 30 minutes. Then she’d bandages the injured foot or leg and send Us on our way, back outside to get into more scrape, cuts and scratches! I’ll never for get the smell. She also cleaned the toilet and floors with pine-sol. I still use it.
I live near 2 pine tree farms, probably 3.. and there is the Florida Trail that goes through 2 of them and there are old pines with the two gutters rotting away inside of a trying to heal tree from like 100 years ago. The pine creates a shape in the wound that ppl call a cat's eye. The hike is full of history that I don't quite know what I'm looking at and this video helped make it a little clearer. Acres of clearly planted pine trees perfectly in a row on both sides of hiking trail. Crazy. Good video
I bet the next walk you took after watching this video would have been quite instructive. I always like the surprise that comes from this phenomenon. Enjoy your walks
Born and raised in lower Alabama, when I was a boy, we would go through the Florida panhandle to the beach . There were acres and acres of pines in turpentine plantations. We called the scares left on the trees catfaces. I enjoyed the video, it brought back memories.
I ran across a black man in 1976 harvesting turpentine in BenHill County Georgia. I had no Idea at the time that I was seeing a piece of Fading history.
I grew up in Deep South Georgia. Man watching this almost makes my body ache knowing how hard those people worked. If you look close at the beginning credits you will see the Langdale name. The Langdales in the Valdosta area are huge land owners
That was the first thing I really noticed about the film. I graduated from Georgia State University when Noah Langdale was president then moved to the Waycross area of South Georgia. I bought the newspaper in Brantley County where the Varn companies had all of this in Hoboken.
I was born in 1952 in Salford, England, a ten minute busride into central Manchster, where Oxford Street had a great array of cinemas. This was the kind of great American information film I loved. America was a beacon in our lives then. America had helped our Dads' generation finally beat the murderous Nazis. America was wealthy, optimistic, had great new music: it was the future. And there was a great American-style milkbar on Cross Street, where I got my cold strawberry milkshakes that gave life a new great lift. And "Turps" was used to clean paint brushes, buff up old wooden furnitures, clean paint off the hands, and smelt great. The substitutes today just don't do it. Thank you for this.
Turpentine, pine resin and tar, are those kinds of smells that are wonderful in tiny quantities but will make you nauseous if you overdose on them. And by tiny, I mean a few drops, by overdose, I mean anything more than a cup. I used a lot of pine tar and turpentine in my work, and the smell sticks on you. It doesn't wash off. If you work with it, you smell like it, and you need to stay away for a couple of weeks before the smell goes away. You do get completely insensitized to the smell though, for better or worse.
Turpentine and rosin were used to make one of the earliest photographic processes called the physautotype .. invented by Nicephore Niepce in the 1820s-30s. I had difficulty finding natural turpentine the last time I taught this process.
@markosterman419 Yeah, someone opened their big mouth and said, prolonged exposure blah blah, bloody blah. Which is true n' all, but where are the lab coats spruiking the alternatives ? I now use boric acid and powdered amber. There is another compound based on H2O2.
YIKES. NO WONDER. Now we (clearly obviously completely unnecessary) exclusively use animal sourced gelatin for our film rolls. So sad and embarrassing.
In the very early days of rocket development and propellant research, turpentine was considered as a rocket fuel (in combination with nitric acid as an oxidizer).
Oh good grief!!! thankfully THAT idiot idea didnt take off or we'd have no pine trees LEFT when the sheer amounts of turpentine needed would have decimated entire forests!
I am 82, & as a young boy I lived close to the turbine still in White House Fla. It continued to operate in the late 50’s. After it closed I employed several of their workers , they were hard workers & good employees.
Very interesting documentary. I have a couple very old containers of turpentine, one glass jar , another tin canister bottle. I had an elderly friend who had done a lot of furniture, picture frames repairing. He had a large box of many stains, oils, waxes, the turpentine and miscellaneous stuff for his repairs. When he passed away , his son offered to give me the whole box of things. I still have it all, and have used a few times for wood finishing
@@alexrogers777 Uh, yes they do. In fact, some districts have even started providing children resources on hormone replacement therapy, without the parents knowledge. They will even go so far as to allow them to begin the process of transition, by permitting them to use alternative names and wear the other genders clothing. Some schools reported that they have a donation bin of clothing the student in transistion can choose from upon arriving to school each day.
@@1neAdam12 That's entirely different than what you claimed at first. Allowing a kid to use a nickname and change clothes is hardly teaching them to be LGBT. Hell even giving them info on how to get hormone therapy is not teaching them to be trans or anything, a person that's in need of that is already trans.
What a neat video-for a number of reasons. I still gather pine sap and fat wood whenever i go camping-really useful as fire starter and lighting purposes.
Note to self: Harvest trees 9"+ in diameter. Yields 7-8lbs crude gum per year (possibly more with a paraquat herbicide) 1 half inch streak is cut above the old PER WEEK
Fascinating film, thanks. Now I understand... my first job after graduation was with Bush Boake Allen in London who, at one time, were owned by Union Camp of Jacksonville. They had two tankers, which carried bulk alpha-pinene and beta-pinene to Widnes near Liverpool where BBA owned the huge chemical plant you see from across the river as you drive to North Wales. There the pinenes were processed into a variety of aroma molecules, which were sold to the fragrance industry. Terpineol for example is a constituent of cheap pine and lemon perfumes for household cleaners. The whole company and plant got sold to IFF (International Flavours & Fragrances) in around 1980, I guess, and BBA began to disappear including their onion and garlic oleoresin factory in Long Melford and their flavour plant in Witham. All victims of complacent and incompetent British management, I myself suffered the consequences of their incompetence but luckily I was young and able to move on to new pastures in the fragrance business.
That is interesting 🤔. I live in Georgia in the USA, and there are pine trees everywhere! Until now I just looked at them for their beauty, and for the fun of watching squirrels leap from one to another, and wood peckers looking for insects. Now I'll look at Pine-Sol in a new way! In my home we use white vinegar and water 1:3 for cleaning and it works well and leaves no odor after a few minutes. Its good that you were young enough to transition to a new area in the fragrance industry. The fragrance department is my favorite one in the department store. All those testers to try out. To create a new fragrance must be rewarding. My favorite is still Obsession by Calvin Klein. Those patchouli and musk notes make me happy! Are you involved in perfume creation? I wish you and your family a lovely evening over there in England. 🍂🍁🌲
Oh wow I wrk at union camps a block mason here in Columbia SC which at tht time is paper mil now its a same plant but different name they need to bring more companys back to united states which made America great again Obama and Trump ws trying to do tht with flossis fuel and solar system an use of corn & syore beans
Reminds me of the silly little poem we used to recite as kids... Lincoln, Lincoln, What in the world have you been drinkin'? Looks like whiskey, tastes like wine, Oh my gosh! It's turpentine!
I know , i thought the same thing and what amazed me was the guys hands touching all the rosin buckets were clean . Heck i would be covered in it with needles & branches stuck to my hands!! lol!
@@steelwheels327, Rosin is soluble in alcohol so the workers probably washed their hands with moonshine and took a nip from the bottle while they were at it!
If you read the opening credits, you’ll see “Technical Advisor - Harley Langdale”. The Langdales built an empire in South Georgia, fueled by turpentine. The name is still very prominent in Valdosta, GA. If you buy a new car you’ll probably buy from Langdale Ford, Langdale Honda, Langdale Hyundai, or Langdale Kia. If you get a ticket in that car, you may have to deal with a Langdale in the courtroom (lawyers and judges). The lumber company still operates also.
Yep, I noticed his name as well. I bet that was Harley riding up on the horse and every one jumped to their feet. The Langdale's owned a huge chunk of South Georgia at one time. I'm betting that most of the out door shots were filmed around Valdosta Ga. The last shots of the city street was of Valdosta as the tall building is the Ashley House. I'm betting that some of the people in the movie were Langdales also. Having grown up here in Valdosta, it was informative, at the very least, to learn about the history of what made the family the legacy that they have today.
@@robertgallagher567 I've only lived here for 7 years now. I grew up around Atlanta so you probably know a lot more about the Langdale family than I do. I've heard that the Langdales owned more land, east of the Mississippi River, than anyone else. Do you know if this is true?
@@jakeburg4225as much as they own in Georgia I wouldn’t doubt it. I’ve never heard too much bad about the langdales either. They seem to just be a quiet southern empire that stays out of politics and generally runs honest and fair businesses.
There is a little place here in Florida called Richloam where there is a little historic general store that sits on property that has a turpentine history
My Grandfather harvested pine tar from his trees in south Georgia from the 20's to the 40's . Just a guess on the dates. He had a creasote treatment plant to use the pine tar to preserve wood. I only saw the evidence of his operation in the form of cat faces and cups on trees and a creasote vat in a building on his farm.
@@kaptainkaos1202 The troughs that were used to carry the gum to the bucket once you remove the trough the image is in the tree like a squinting it's eyes and smiling draw it on paper stand back 30 feet or so and MOEW
Nowadays anyone can pull out a phone and make a video... back then huge power lines and huge cameras and lights must have been needed and transported. The effort and skills to edit these types of documentaries way back then is truly exceptional and most definitely under appreciated.
Pine resin had a huge meaning in the East-German chemical industry as there had always been a lack of crude oil and natural gas. There had not been a single pine tree of a certain size in the entire country that didn't have the typical carvings for harvesting the resin.
Very interesting, I learned a lot. I thought it was a petroleum based product not ever giving it much thought. I remember as a kid loving the smell of it. The only use I remember was for thinning paint, and cleaning paint brushes.
Turpentine storage yards were numerous around Prichard Alabama. There was one by the Haas Davis meat packing plant along with the Turpentine plant. The Turpentine plant caught fire and my brother’s Sunday school teacher died in the fire. Different world today.
I miss these and the News Reels from when I went to the movies as a kid. Early TV then played these on Saturday mornings. I learned a lot from them. They don’t teach kids this stuff anymore and it’s too bad.
@@geigertec5921 The Communists wrought greater destruction on their own population than the Nazis wrought on the Jews. Now, there aren't enough Chinese to keep making the crap we use! Outside the US and Mexico, there aren't enough places with enough people to keep making out stuff.
Watch some of the old films where they show working in steel mills, forging massive pieces of white-hot steel and moving it around with a crew of men wearing nothing but their regular clothes! Another one shows how they made those massive anchor chains for ocean liners and battle ships one link at a time! I own such a link, the one link weighs 146 pounds! you really WORKED when you were feet away from white-hot steel operating a hydraulic press and turning the piece over by hand!
So civilised, working with nature. Hard work, but not backbreaking. Little impact on the planet or damaging ecosystems. What a way to live. Great video.
I lived within easy sight of a rail line outside Tampa. I often watched carload after carload of pine tree root systems being transported to mills where the turpentine and other products could be extracted. The roots once thought to be useless after the tree was cut for lumber sat in the ground, often for years until it was discovered they were full of the resin which could be recovered for use. The root systems were dug out of the ground and rail hopper cars were filled and sent by the tens of hundreds for processing. The way the trees are harvested today there is little or no real value in the root so they remain in the ground to decay so far as I know.
In Georgia and the Carolinas, many of those stumps were bound for the Hercules plant in Brunswick, GA. My father spent much of his career with Hercules locating the old pine plantations that had been tapped for turpentine and then harvested for lumber (as the documentary describes). Hercules would buy, remove, and process the old stumps for a pine resin, which they in turn processed into a range of chemical extracts. The original Hercules Powder Company became Hercules, Inc in 1966. The pine products division was separate from the better-known gunpowder manufacturing arm.
Fun facts: "Turpentine enemas, a very harsh purgative, had formerly been used for stubborn constipation or impaction. They were also given punitively to political dissenters in post-independence Argentina." (-- Wiki)
I own ten acres of land in Sarasota Florida, and all my pine trees still show all the scaring from when they were worked years ago. Now they are giant. 120 ft plus
I don't live in a region that grows gum pines, so never saw the collection process before this film. I was surprised by how much it resembles latex harvesting. I just assumed it would follow a procedure more akin to tapping maple sap. Now I know! Thanks for posting the vintage film.
Rosin powder was sprinkled on boxing ring canvas & the leather soles of the boxers shoes for a no-slip grip. Medicinal Turpentine reminds me of Cris Rocks bit about his Dad's total faith in Robitussin for any & everything that ails you!
My family in NC went from the whaling industry into turpentine production. Before the turpentine boom they bought a bunch of property from people who couldn't afford their land anymore. In the value estimate it was noted there were so many trees for turpentine production and already existing barrels to store it. One person got smart, sold his land, and made a note they can have the property aside from his trees to use however he sees fit.
This is the category of information of stuff I could have and should have, learned before. In order to understand current processes and methods, for me at least, it's important to understand the methods and processes of the past.
Nah, it actually looked pretty good compared to my first solder joint. My iron was a heavy copper wire with a corncob handle that I heated by sticking it up through the grate of a Warm Morning heating stove. I didn't know about flux. My biggest problem was keeping the ashes out of the solder. This was sometime in the late 50s.
My family home in Bay County, Florida, had a fireplace. In the 60s, we would drive through old naval-stores plantations looking for "cat faces." The heartwood was called "fat lighter," and was the best kindling ever. Just a few pencil-size sticks would start a fire in seconds...it smelled good too.
Does anyone know, aren,t southern pines used extensively as telephone poles throughout North America? I live in Windsor Ontario and I recall seeing large stacks of poles in Alberta which I was told were Southern pine.Interesting, up here we have maple syrup. Down there you have turpentine. GODs creation never ceases to leave me in awe.
Yes, southern yellow pine is still used for phone poles. Many of them are made by Langdale Forest Products. Harley Langdale, Jr., who is listed in the credits of this video as "Technical Advisor" ran that company for many years. You can see the poles piled up like toothpicks if you do a google map search for 900 Old Clyattville Rd, Valdosta, GA 31601.
Facts , to the point , informative , and interesting and not nonsense …..videos. We hated as kids we love so much now as adults lol ……thank you tube. The algorithms worked 1% this time
My Great grandfather harvested pine sap. Last time I was at the old house I could still find troughs, and cutting tools. Even today if the land had not been cut for homes I'll promise you I can take you to the trees they harvested from. They lived simple lives but they made the best of what they had.
That was really interesting. One time my grandma asked me to go to Walgreens to get some turpentine. I told her they don't sell it there. She said, "You know - turpentine... like they used to give to kids." I guess maybe it was given for a sore stomach or something? Glad I never had to use it!
