W. Spoon

Properties2
tagsperson, dutch, engineer, chemist, colonial-institute, aceh, 20th-century, author, industrial-chemist, colonial, scientist, koloniaal-instituut, spoon, patchouli, essential-oil, agricultural-chemistry
aliasesIr. W. Spoon, W. Spoon, Spoor (misspelling), Ir. Spoon, the author of the Atjeh-terpentijn pamphlet, Spoor, Spoon Koloniaal Instituut, Ir Spoon Berichten

7 min read

W. Spoon — properly Ir. W. Spoon, an engineer of the Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut’s Afdeeling Handelsmuseum — was the author of the 1930 pamphlet on Atjeh-turpentine extracted from De Indische Mercuur of 19 November 1930 and published as No. 57 of the Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum. As the principal contemporary monographer of the Baleq enterprise — the colonial government’s turpentine and resin factory in the Gajo-Landen-Atjeh border region — Spoon is the source of the published production figures, chemical analyses, and European market evaluations that document the early factory-scale production of Indonesian turpentine.

The Atjeh-terpentijn pamphlet

The Atjeh-terpentijn pamphlet is Spoon’s principal publication on the subject of Atjeh turpentine. It is organised into four sections — production, chemical composition, testing against the Pharmacopoeia and the draft Normaalblad V 597, and practical evaluations from the Dutch varnish and paint industry — and it draws on three samples of factory-scale Atjeh-turpentine: 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 pamphlet concludes that, while the technical properties of the new Baleq product had markedly improved relative to the trial samples of 1924 — principally through the fourfold reduction in carene content from 15% to about 4% — the residual difference in odour from American and French turpentines, combined with the very small price differential (about f 22 per 50 kg), left most Dutch varnish and paint manufacturers unwilling to switch. The general verdict is summed up in the closing sentence of the pamphlet: Vastgesteld is intusschen, dat de technische eigenschappen van het tegenwoordige Baleq-product een ruimere toepassing in Europa niet meer in den weg behoeven te staan — It has, however, been established that the technical properties of the present Baleq product no longer stand in the way of a wider application in Europe.

Other publications

The list of Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum preserved at the back of the Atjeh-terpentijn pamphlet records that Spoon was a prolific contributor to the series. His publications include Bericht No. 29 (Eenige mededeelingen over het conserveeren van versche vruchten met rubbermelksap, 1927), No. 32 (Eenige opmerkingen over exploitatie van Euphorbia’s in Zuid-Afrika, 1927), No. 33 (Iets over de samenstelling van Balata-melk uit Suriname, 1927), No. 34 (Verdere opmerkingen over exploitatie van Euphorbia’s in Zuid-Afrika, 1928), No. 35 (Invoer van Sawo Manila te Amsterdam, 1928), No. 37 (Invoer van Doerian-vruchten in Nederland, 1928), No. 38 (Verslag van in 1927 genomen proeven tot invoer van Oost-Indische ananas in Nederland, 1928), No. 39 (Verdere gegevens over den invoer van Sawo Manila te Amsterdam, 1928), No. 42 (Eerste beoordeelingen van sucade-vruchten uit Suriname, 1929), No. 43 (Enkele waarnemingen over het conserveeren van versche Indische vruchten met latex, 1929), No. 45 (Beschrijving van enkele verzendingsproeven met manggistans van Java, 1929), No. 46 (Barnes-kamfer, enkele bijzonderheden naar aanleiding van een nieuwe aanwinst, 1929), No. 47 (Versche Ananas uit Suriname, 1929), No. 48 (Enkele bijzonderheden over de koeling van proefpartijen Indisch fruit, 1929), No. 49 (Een en ander over de nieuwe vezelsoort “Artificial Cotton” of “Kunstkatoen”, 1929), No. 50 (Proeven over de verscheping in koelkamer van een viertal soorten mangga van Java, 1930), No. 51 (Enkele bijzonderheden verbonden aan den invoer der Oost-Indische pompelmoes of “djerook besar” in Nederland, 1930), No. 52 (Enkele waarnemingen over de conserveering van versche Indische vruchten door middel van lakachtige omhulsels, 1930), No. 55 (Een proef over de conserveering van klamboe-goed, ten behoeve van de tabakscultuur en andere tropische culturen, 1930) and No. 56 (Proeven over de verscheping van enkele oliehoudende tropische grondstoffen in geperste balen, 1930).

The range of Spoon’s publications — from Atjeh-turpentine to Surinamese balata-milk, from sawo manila to doerian, from kunstkatoen to barnes-kamfer — illustrates the breadth of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum’s remit: the systematic evaluation and promotion of colonial commodities on behalf of the metropolitan Dutch industry.

Significance

Spoor’s significance in the historiography of colonial Aceh is as the principal contemporary monographer of the Baleq enterprise — the only detailed published account of the early factory-scale production of Indonesian turpentine. His pamphlet is the principal source for the production figures, chemical analyses, and European market evaluations that document the early history of the Baleq enterprise, and it is the document of a particular moment in Dutch colonial science: the moment at which the Koloniaal Instituut’s Afdeeling Handelsmuseum was systematically evaluating the commercial prospects of colonial commodities in the metropolitan market.

Account from Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)

Ir. W. Spoon was a Dutch colonial chemist and agricultural researcher attached to the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum of the Kon. Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut in Amsterdam in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He is the author of Atjeh Patchouli-Olie (Bericht No. 71 of the Handelsmuseum, reprinted from De Indische Mercuur of 20 July 1932) and of a long succession of other Berichten in the same series, treating fruit-importation, rubber-wastes, bark-cork, kapok-adulteration and the chemistry of essential oils.

The Patchouli Studies

Spoon’s two Berichten on patchouli — Bericht No. 21 of May 1925 (the first report) and Bericht No. 71 of 1932 (the second, Atjeh Patchouli-Olie) — together form the principal printed source for the early history of indigenous patchouli-oil distillation in Atjeh. The first Bericht recorded the earliest attempts at indigenous processing of patchouli leaves at Tapa Toean beginning in 1921; the second surveyed the industry’s progress over ten years through export statistics and a programme of laboratory analysis on six sample consignments received by the Handelsmuseum in 1931 and early 1932.

Method

Spoon’s method combined the analysis of soortelijk gewicht (specific gravity), brekingsindex (refractive index), draaiing (optical rotation in a 100 mm tube), zuurgetal (acid value), estergetal (ester value) and solubility in 90 vol.% alcohol with a market judgement obtained by sending the samples to perfume manufacturers in the Netherlands, Germany, England and France. He thus combined the laboratory and the perfumer’s bench — a model of the Berichten series’ practical empiricism.

Other Berichten

Spoon was a prolific contributor to the Berichten series. His other Berichten include No. 29 on the preservation of fresh fruit with rubber-milk sap (1927), No. 35 on the import of sawo manila at Amsterdam (1928), No. 37 on the import of doerian-fruits into the Netherlands (1928), No. 42 on the first judgement of sawo-fruits from Suriname (1929), No. 46 on Baroes-kamfer (1929), No. 50 on the cold-storage shipment of mangga from Java (1930), No. 57 on Atjeh-terpentijn (1930), No. 60 on Kajoe Laka (1931), No. 63 and No. 67 on Derris-root and akar toeba (1931 and 1932) and No. 66 on the medicinal herb koemis koetjing or daoen remoedjoeng (1931). His range thus covered the entire field of colonial agricultural chemistry as then practised.

Significance

Spoon’s Berichten are a major source for the commercial chemistry of the Netherlands-Indies in the inter-war period, and the patchouli studies in particular are the indispensable starting-point for any history of the patchouli-oil industry in Atjeh.

See Also

Sources

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.

Atjeh Patchouli-Olie, by Ir. W. Spoon. Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum van de Kon. Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut, No. 71. Overgedrukt uit De Indische Mercuur van 20 July 1932. Amsterdam: Druk J. H. de Bussy. OCR-filename: 20260719_030404_DLP-113-Atjeh_patchouli_olie_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt. List of Berichten on the inside covers of the same pamphlet.

Graph View