Atjeh-terpentijn (Spoor, 1930)

Atjeh-terpentijn — formally Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum van de Kon. Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut No. 57 — is a 30-page pamphlet by Ir. W. Spoon extracted from De Indische Mercuur of 19 November 1930 and published by J. H. de Bussy of Amsterdam in the same year. It is the principal contemporary monograph on the factory-scale production of turpentine from the Sumatra-den (Pinus Merkusii) at the Baleq enterprise in the Gajo-Landen-Atjeh border region, and it surveys the chemical composition, pharmacopoeial suitability, and European market reception of the factory product as compared with the trial samples of 1924. As the only detailed published account of the Baleq enterprise’s first four years of factory operation (October 1928 – 1930), it is the principal source for the colonial-era history of Indonesian turpentine.

Subject and scope

The pamphlet was prompted by the transformation, between 1924 and 1930, of the experimental Atjeh-turpentine of the early trial samples into a fully factory-scale product. Spoon notes in the opening pages that in 1924 the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum of the Kon. Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut had gathered a series of expert evaluations of trial Atjeh-turpentine — produced from Pinus Merkusii tapped in Noord-Sumatra — and had published them as Bericht No. 20 in April 1925. The 1924 trial product had been criticised principally for its odour, which resembled that of wood turpentine rather than the gum spirit of true turpentine; the criticism was attributed to a high careen content. By 1930 the production had moved to a fully factory-scale operation at the Baleq enterprise of ‘s Lands Caoutchouchedrijf, and Spoon’s pamphlet sets out to determine whether the chemical and organoleptic properties of the new product had been correspondingly transformed.

The pamphlet is divided into four sections:

Winning van de terpentijn — production.
Scheikundige samenstelling en eigenschappen — chemical composition and properties.
Toetsing aan standaard-eischen — testing against the standards of the Nederlandsche Pharmacopee and the draft Normaalblad V 597.
Beoordeelingen uit de praktijk — practical evaluations from the Dutch varnish and paint industry.

Production history

The production section reproduces the chronology of the Baleq enterprise. By Besluit van 27 June 1924 the Regeering had placed funds at the disposal of ‘s Lands Caoutchouchedrijf for an exploitation-proef on behalf of the Dienst van het Boschwezen. The trial began on 14 September 1924 in the Semnenboschcomplexen of Paja Djorok and Blangtekoer, near the road from Takengon to Bireuen (Atjeh); the two complexes are separated by the river Baleq, from which the enterprise took its name. The results were sufficient that in 1926 the Regeering resolved to convert the trial into a definitive exploitation as a separate division of ‘s Lands Caoutchouchedrijf with effect from 1 January 1927. By 1930 the area under exploitation was approximately 1600 ha, entirely in production, with output figures (in metric tons):

Year	Hars (resin)	Terpentijn (turpentine)
1925	5	—
1926	26	—
1927	187	51
1928	222	62
1929	356	104

The trees were tapped using the quarre method, a French system borrowed from the turpentine industry of the Landes, in which the tapping wounds are 10 cm wide and at greatest depth 2½ cm deep, refreshed every three days in an upward direction with a slightly curved carpenter’s chisel. The balsam was originally processed in an old distillation kettle of 100 kg capacity, but in July 1925 a locomobiel-ketel permitted steam distillation, and in October 1928 a fully modern installation imported from France was brought into service. From the new factory the yield was approximately 75% colophonium (resin) and 20% turpentine.

Chemical composition

The chemical investigation was carried out on three samples — H.M. no. 1504 (received December 1929 directly from Baleq), H.M. no. 1553 (drawn from a January 1930 Amsterdam shipment by the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij) and H.M. no. 1607 (an original tin from the April 1930 shipment per m.s. Poelau Roebiah). The specific gravity was 0.866 (against 0.862 in 1924), the refractive index unchanged, the optical rotation practically unchanged (when one anomalous 1924 result was excluded). Dr. D. B. Spoelstra performed a fractional distillation of 2500 g of oil under 30 mm pressure, which showed that the new product consisted of at least 80% α-pinene (probably 85–90%) and only about 4% carene, against approximately 75% α-pinene and 15% carene in 1924. The fourfold reduction in carene content was identified as the chemical basis of the improved odour.

Testing against standards

The samples were tested against the requirements of the Nederlandsche Pharmacopee (Ed. V, 1926) for Oleum terebinthinae and against the draft Ontwerp-normaalblad V 597 of the Hoofdcommissie voor de Normalisatie in Nederland. All Pharmacopoeia requirements were met, though the refractive index fell at the minimum limit. Against the draft normalisatie-eischen the Atjeh-turpentine met every requirement except the refractive index, which fell marginally below the proposed minimum of 1.469 (the sample values were 1.4677, 1.4680, 1.4680). The low refractive index was attributed to the exceptionally high α-pinene content of the Atjeh product — 85–90%, against 60–70% in the Pinus palustris-derived American and Pinus Pinaster-derived French turpentines. The Afdeeling Handelsmuseum accordingly submitted to the Hoofdcommissie a proposal to lower the draft minimum from 1.469 to 1.468, by which change the colonial product would fully meet the metropolitan standard.

Practical evaluations

To gauge European market reception, the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum supplied samples to the Vereeniging van Vernis- en Verffabrikanten en -Handelaren in Nederland, which surveyed its 28 members. Eleven written evaluations were received; the consensus was that the technical qualities of the new product were good — and that the odour had improved markedly since 1924 — but that the residual difference from American and French turpentine, combined with the very small price differential (about f 22 per 50 kg), left most members unwilling to switch. The general verdict was summarised by Spoon in the closing paragraph: “the technical properties of the present Baleq product no longer stand in the way of a wider application in Europe.”

Appendices

The pamphlet contains two appendices:

Bijlage I. The full text of the Ontwerp-normaalblad V 597 for turpentine oil: purity requirements, the limits for specific gravity (0.860–0.875 at 15 °C), refractive index (1.469–1.478 at 20 °C), evaporation residue (≤2%), distillation fractions, residue after sulphuric acid treatment, and the prescribed methods for each test.
Bijlage II. The full text of the circular letter addressed by L. P. de Bussy on 5 May 1930 to the members of the Vereeniging van Vernis- en Verffabrikanten en -Handelaren in Nederland, transmitting sample H.M. no. 1607 and the chemical data on samples 1504, 1553 and 1607. The circular notes the price of f 22 per 50 kg and refers readers to the Vierde Afdeeling of the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij at Amsterdam for further commercial details.

Significance

The pamphlet is the principal source for the early factory-scale production of Indonesian turpentine and the only detailed published account of the Baleq enterprise. Its detailed production figures, chemical data, and survey responses together document the attempt — ultimately only partly successful — to develop a colonial turpentine industry capable of competing in the metropolitan market. As a Bericht of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum it also illustrates the broader role of the Koloniaal Instituut in evaluating and promoting colonial commodities: the pamphlet is at once a piece of scientific reporting and an instrument of commercial policy. For the history of forestry in the Gajo-Landen-Atjeh border region, the Pamphlet preserves details of the Paja Djorok and Blangtekoer forest complexes, the Baleq river, and the operations of the Dienst van het Boschwezen and ‘s Lands Caoutchouchedrijf that are otherwise difficult to recover.

Sources

Source

Atjeh-terpentijn: tegenwoordige kwaliteit en nieuwe beoordeelingen, by Ir. W. Spoon, Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum van de Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut No. 57, overgedrukt uit De Indische Mercuur van 19 November 1930. Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1930. 30 pp. Source OCR: 20260715_162957_DLP-85-Atjeh_terpentijn.pdf, 35 pages.

tags	document, technical-report, colonial, dutch, chemistry, industry, forestry, aceh, baleq, concept, commodity, terpentijn, turpentine, pinus-merkusii, 20th-century, chemical-product
aliases	Atjeh-Terpentijn, Atjeh turpentine, Sumatra-terpentijn, the 1930 Spoor pamphlet on Atjeh turpentine, Bericht no. 57 van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum, De Atjeh-terpentijn, Sumatran turpentine, Baleq turpentine, the turpentine of Pinus Merkusii

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