Pine tar is a sticky material produced by the high temperature carbonization of pine wood in anoxic conditions (dry distillation or destructive distillation). The wood is rapidly decomposed by applying heat and pressure in a closed container; the primary resulting products are charcoal and pine tar.
Pine tar consists primarily of aromatic hydrocarbons, tar acids and tar bases. Components of tar vary according to the pyrolytic process (e.g. method, duration, temperature) and origin of the wood (e.g. age of pine trees, type of soil and moisture conditions during tree growth). The choice of wood, design of kiln, burning and collection of the tar can vary. Only pine stumps and roots are used in the traditional production of pine tar.
Pine tar has a long history as a wood preservative, as a wood sealant for maritime use, in roofing construction and maintenance, in soaps such as Packer’s Pine Tar Soap and in the treatment of carbuncles and skin diseases, such as psoriasis, eczema, and rosacea.
Read more about Pine Tar: History and General Use, Use As A Wood Preservative, Use in Weatherproofing Rope, Use of Pine Tar in Baseball, Medical
Famous quotes containing the words pine and/or tar:
“Our woods are sylvan, and their inhabitants woodmen and rustics; that is selvaggia, and the inhabitants are salvages. A civilized man, using the word in the ordinary sense, with his ideas and associations, must at length pine there, like a cultivated plant, which clasps its fibres about a crude and undissolved mass of peat.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A thorough tar is unfit for any thing else; and what is more, this fact is the best evidence of his being a true sailor.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)