The year 1928 is the year of the founding of the K.N.I.L.M. (Koninklijke Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij) on 16 July 16 July 1928 as an independent Indies aviation company, separate from the K.L.M., and of Generaal Snijders’s second Indies journey to attend the festive opening of the K.N.I.L.M. lines. The year also saw the centenary of the Koninklijke Militaire Academie, which was celebrated at Weltevreden in October and which Snijders attended in the course of his Indies tour.

Events of the Year

The Baleq factory-scale turpentine enterprise (October 1928)

The year 1928 was the year in which the modern French distillation installation was brought into service at the Baleq enterprise of ‘s Lands Caoutchouchedrijf (the Government Rubber Enterprise) in the Gajo-Landen-Atjeh border region — the principal event in the conversion of the Baleq enterprise from an experimental trial to a fully factory-scale operation. After the 1926 decision to convert the trial into a definitive exploitation, maatregelen genomen [werden] om een goede destilleer-installatie te verkrijgen. Weldra werd dan ook in Frankrijk een zoo modern mogelijke installatie aangeschaft. Doordat het vervoer naar de onderneming met veel tegenslag te kampen had, kon de nieuwe fabriek eerst in October 1928 in bedrijf worden gesteld (“measures were taken to acquire a proper distillation installation. Before long, then, an as modern as possible installation was purchased in France. Because the transport to the enterprise had much setback to contend with, the new factory could only be brought into service in October 1928”).

The new factory distilled the balsam (raw resinous exudate) of Pinus Merkusii with steam from two horizontal Jonkers steam boilers, with a yield of approximately 75% colophonium (resin) and 20% turpentine. The production figures for 1928 were 222 tons of resin (hars) and 62 tons of turpentine.

The same year saw the publication of the Mededeeling no. 19 van het Proefstation voor het Boschwezen — the Brandts Buys monograph Bijdrage tot de kennis van Pinus Merkusii Jungh et de Vr., meer in het bijzonder in de Gajo-landen (“Contribution to the knowledge of Pinus Merkusii Jungh et de Vr., more particularly in the Gajo-Landen”) — the principal early scientific study of Pinus Merkusii in the Gajo-Landen and the principal published source on the quarre tapping method as applied at the Baleq enterprise.

People (additional)

Places (additional)

  • Baleq — The site of the new factory.
  • France — The country from which the new distillation installation was purchased.
  • Gajo-landen — The region of the Baleq enterprise.

Concepts (additional)

  • Atjeh-terpentijn — The factory-scale product of the new factory.
  • Colophonium — The solid resinous residue produced by the new factory.
  • Pinus Merkusii — The Sumatran pine, the raw material of the new factory.
  • Quarre — The French tapping method applied at the Baleq enterprise.

Events of the Year

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

In 1928 J. C. Lamster published Atjeh voor en na de pacificatie in the Haagsch Maandblad. In 1927/1928 H. N. A. Swart travelled through the Indies with his wife, visiting Celebes and the landschapshoofd of Peusangan.

See Also

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, Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1930, pp. 7, 9 (Winning van de terpentijn).

D. van den Berg, Cornelis Jacobus Snijders (1852–1939): Een leven in dienst van zijn Land en zijn Volk (Voorburg: September 1944), pp. 134–136. Koninklijke Bibliotheek shelfmark 0301 4872.

The year 1928 is the year of the founding of the K.N.I.L.M. (Koninklijke Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij) on 16 July 16 July 1928 as an independent Indies aviation company, separate from the K.L.M., and of Generaal Snijders’s second Indies journey to attend the festive opening of the K.N.I.L.M. lines. The year also saw the centenary of the Koninklijke Militaire Academie, which was celebrated at Weltevreden in October and which Snijders attended in the course of his Indies tour.

Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), passim.