Why Castor Oil?

[Richard_Schrader]

Thanks Mark.
Richard

[Vic_Mouton]

Please excuse the ignorance. But what is castor oil made of?

VBR
Vic

[Scott]

Elsewhere on the World Wide Web:

Castor is an annual herbaceous plant in our regions but can reach the size of a small tree in tropical Africa. Native to Abyssinia, it spread all over the world and acclimatized. Its big green or reddish-brown stem is hollow, with isolated and petiolate large alternate leaves. Up to one metre wide, they are palmate with 5 to 11 lobes, more or less deep and dentate. The inflorescence forms clusters or tops at the axil of the bracts. The plant is monoecious with the female flowers above the male flowers. The fruit is a capsule spiked with thorns which contains greyish, oval, fleshy and spotted seeds. Castor grows quickly. After picking, the capsules are laid out in sheds, in thin layers, until they are completely mature and then displayed to sunlight until total drying. Seeds are then harvested. The culture dates back to remote times, the Ancients already appreciated castor for its purgative properties. It was used in France from the Middle Ages to the 16th century and then seems to have sunk into oblivion until 1764. The Egyptians used it as a purgative, but also on hair and against ulcers. Dioscorides held the plant for an "unpleasant and painful purgative" but used to recommend it to get rid of "skin defects". The root has been used against kidney disorders and Hindus still use castor as an anti-rheumatic and against gout. Castor oil is extracted from the seeds after they have dried in the sun, and have been sorted, crushed, squeezed and warmed up. It is a thick and viscous liquid with a sickly sweet taste. Castor has many other uses besides its medicinal virtues : it makes dressing for fabrics, lighting, or a lubricant which was actually very sought after during World War I. It is also used in Chinese cooking. In China again, the leaves are used to breed a silkworm the silk of which is very appreciated. Castor oilcakes are a very good fertilizer. Castor is also cultivated as an ornamental plant.

[Vic_Mouton]

Scott
Thanx a lot
Now why didn't I think of using the old search engine?

VBR
Vic

What kind of rotaries are we talking about here. Most (by far) rotaries in use during WW1 were not 2 cycles.

[mike_baram]

Vic,
Ask and thou shalt be inundated.
Steve,
Seems to me that the only rotaries in use today are the Wankel engines. Mazda used them in its high end sports cars, or did use them last time I checked, and the Wankel does not qualify as a 2-stroke....you'd think that after 80 years we wouldn't need castor oil any more.
Gotta go and pour some ex-lax into the crankcase now.
Mike