Pitch is a viscoelastic polymer which can be natural or manufactured, derived from petroleum, coal tar, [1] or plants. Pitch produced from petroleum may be called bitumen or asphalt, while plant-derived pitch, a resin, is known as rosin in its solid form. Tar is sometimes used interchangeably with pitch, but generally refers to a more liquid substance derived from coal production, including coal tar, or from plants, as in pine tar. [2]
Pitch, a traditional naval store, was traditionally used to help caulk the seams of wooden sailing vessels (see shipbuilding). Other important historic uses included coating earthenware vessels for the preservation of wine, waterproofing wooden containers, and making torches. It was also used to make patent fuel from coal slack around the turn of the 19th century. [3] Petroleum-derived pitch is black in colour, hence the adjectival phrase, "pitch-black". [4]
The viscoelastic properties of pitch make it well suited for the polishing of high-quality optical lenses and mirrors. In use, the pitch is formed into a lap or polishing surface, which is charged with iron oxide (Jewelers' rouge) or cerium oxide. The surface to be polished is pressed into the pitch, then rubbed against the surface so formed. The ability of pitch to flow, albeit slowly, keeps it in constant uniform contact with the optical surface.
Chasers pitch is a combination of pitch and other substances, used in jewelry making.
Naturally occurring asphalt/bitumen, a type of pitch, is a viscoelastic polymer. This means that even though it seems to be solid at room temperature and can be shattered with a hard impact, it is actually fluid and will flow over time, but extremely slowly. The pitch drop experiment taking place at University of Queensland is a long-term experiment which demonstrates the flow of a piece of pitch over many years. For the experiment, pitch was put in a glass funnel and allowed to slowly drip out. Since the pitch was allowed to start dripping in 1930, only nine drops have fallen. It was calculated in the 1980s that the pitch in the experiment has a viscosity approximately 100 billion (1011) times that of water. [5] The eighth drop fell on 28 November 2000, and the ninth drop fell on 17 April 2014. [6] Another experiment was started by a colleague of Nobel Prize winner Ernest Walton in the physics department of Trinity College in Ireland in 1944. Over the years, the pitch had produced several drops, but none had been recorded. On July 11, 2013, scientists at Trinity College caught pitch dripping from a funnel on camera for the first time. [7]
Winchester College has a 'pitch glacier' demonstration which has been running since 21 July 1906, but does not have records of regular measurements. [8]
The heating (dry distilling) of wood causes tar and pitch to drip away from the wood and leave behind charcoal. Birchbark is used to make birch-tar, a particularly fine tar. The terms tar and pitch are often used interchangeably. However, pitch is considered more solid, while tar is more liquid. Traditionally, pitch that was used for waterproofing buckets, barrels and ships was drawn from pine. It is used to make cutler's resin.
A 10th-century redaction of an earlier Greek Byzantine agricultural work brings down the ancient method of applying pitch to ceramic wine casks:
[A wood-based pitch] [note 1] is put into an earthen vessel, and it is put over a small fire in the sun, then some hot water percolated through wood-ashes is poured on it, and the pitch is stirred; when it has afterward stood, it is poured out after two hours, then there is as much water again poured in. Having therefore done this thrice every day for three days and having taken up the moisture on the surface, they make the pitch that is left exceedingly good. Dry pitch is also bitter, but being boiled with wine it becomes more useful; [...] and having boiled the mixture to a third part, they use it as properly qualified: but some throw wood-ashes into it and boil it down.
In Italy they use pitch of this kind: forty minæ [note 2] of pitch, one of wax, eight drams [note 3] of sal ammoniac, six drams of manna. [note 4] Thus, having pounded them and boiled them together, they sprinkle eight ounces (uncia) [note 5] of well-ground fenugreek over them and they pitch the cask with them when they are well mixed. [9]
The ceramic ware was pitched, both inside and out, immediately while they were removed from the kiln and still hot. [10]
The ability of pitch to contaminate those in contact with it is mentioned by Dogberry, a character in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing , [11] and the same point is made in a speech by Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1, [12] who refers to "ancient writers" who have made this observation. The Jewish deuterocanonical Book of Sirach states that "whoever touches pitch gets dirty, and whoever associates with a proud person becomes like him". [13] [14]
Bitumen is an immensely viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales. In American English, the material is commonly referred to as asphalt. Whether found in natural deposits or refined from petroleum, the substance is classed as a pitch. Prior to the 20th century, the term asphaltum was in general use. The word derives from the Ancient Greek word ἄσφαλτος (ásphaltos), which referred to natural bitumen or pitch. The largest natural deposit of bitumen in the world is the Pitch Lake of southwest Trinidad, which is estimated to contain 10 million tons.
Creosote is a category of carbonaceous chemicals formed by the distillation of various tars and pyrolysis of plant-derived material, such as wood, or fossil fuel. They are typically used as preservatives or antiseptics.
Tarmacadam is a concrete road surfacing material made by combining tar and macadam, patented by Welsh inventor Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1902. It is a more durable and dust-free enhancement of simple compacted stone macadam surfaces invented by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam in the early 19th century. The terms "tarmacadam" and tarmac are also used for a variety of other materials, including tar-grouted macadam, bituminous surface treatments and modern asphalt concrete.
Tar pits, sometimes referred to as asphalt pits, are large asphalt deposits. They form in the presence of petroleum, which is created when decayed organic matter is subjected to pressure underground. If this crude oil seeps upward via fractures, conduits, or porous sedimentary rock layers, it may pool up at the surface. The lighter components of the crude oil evaporate into the atmosphere, leaving behind a black, sticky asphalt. Tar pits are often excavated because they contain large fossil collections.
La Brea Tar Pits is an active paleontological research site in urban Los Angeles. Hancock Park was formed around a group of tar pits where natural asphalt has seeped up from the ground for tens of thousands of years. Over many centuries, the bones of trapped animals have been preserved. The George C. Page Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and displaying specimens from the animals that died there. La Brea Tar Pits is a registered National Natural Landmark.
A flat roof is a roof which is almost level in contrast to the many types of sloped roofs. The slope of a roof is properly known as its pitch and flat roofs have up to approximately 10°. Flat roofs are an ancient form mostly used in arid climates and allow the roof space to be used as a living space or a living roof. Flat roofs, or "low-slope" roofs, are also commonly found on commercial buildings throughout the world. The U.S.-based National Roofing Contractors Association defines a low-slope roof as having a slope of 3 in 12 (1:4) or less.
Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat.
The Pitch Lake is the largest natural deposit of bitumen in the world, estimated to contain 10 million tons. It is located in La Brea in southwest Trinidad, within the Siparia Regional Corporation. The lake covers about 0.405 square kilometres and is reported to be 76.2 metres deep.
Heavy crude oil is highly viscous oil that cannot easily flow from production wells under normal reservoir conditions.
A petroleum seep is a place where natural liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons escape to the Earth's atmosphere and surface, normally under low pressure or flow. Seeps generally occur above either terrestrial or offshore petroleum accumulation structures. The hydrocarbons may escape along geological layers, or across them through fractures and fissures in the rock, or directly from an outcrop of oil-bearing rock.
Asphaltenes are molecular substances that are found in crude oil, along with resins, aromatic hydrocarbons, and saturates. The word "asphaltene" was coined by Jean-Baptiste Boussingault in 1837 when he noticed that the distillation residue of some bitumens had asphalt-like properties. Asphaltenes in the form of asphalt or bitumen products from oil refineries are used as paving materials on roads, shingles for roofs, and waterproof coatings on building foundations.
Naval stores are all liquid products derived from conifers. These materials include rosin, tall oil, pine oil, and turpentine. Crude gum or oleoresin can be collected from the wounds of living pine trees.
Pyrolysis oil, sometimes also known as biocrude or bio-oil, is a synthetic fuel with few industrial application and under investigation as substitute for petroleum. It is obtained by heating dried biomass without oxygen in a reactor at a temperature of about 500 °C (900 °F) with subsequent cooling, separation from the aqueous phase and other processes. Pyrolysis oil is a kind of tar and normally contains levels of oxygen too high to be considered a pure hydrocarbon. This high oxygen content results in non-volatility, corrosiveness, partial miscibility with fossil fuels, thermal instability, and a tendency to polymerize when exposed to air. As such, it is distinctly different from petroleum products. Removing oxygen from bio-oil or nitrogen from algal bio-oil is known as upgrading.
Sealant is a substance used to block the passage of fluids through openings in materials, a type of mechanical seal. In building construction sealant is sometimes synonymous with caulk and also serve the purposes of blocking dust, sound and heat transmission. Sealants may be weak or strong, flexible or rigid, permanent or temporary. Sealants are not adhesives but some have adhesive qualities and are called adhesive-sealants or structural sealants.
Bituminous waterproofing systems are designed to protect residential and commercial buildings. Bitumen is a material made up of organic liquids that are highly sticky, viscous, and waterproof. Systems incorporating bituminous-based substrates are sometimes used to construct roofs, in the form of "roofing felt" or "roll roofing" products.
Bioasphalt is an asphalt alternative made from non-petroleum based renewable resources.
Asphalt roll roofing or membrane is a roofing material commonly used for buildings that feature a low sloped roof pitch in North America. The material is based on the same materials used in asphalt shingles; an organic felt or fiberglass mat, saturated with asphalt, and faced with granular stone aggregate.
The Carpinteria Tar Pits are a series of natural asphalt lakes situated in the southern part of Santa Barbara County in southern California, US.
Lake Asphalt of Trinidad and Tobago is a company based in La Brea in Trinidad involved in the mining, processing and exporting of asphalt products from the Pitch Lake.
Pyrobitumen is a type of solid, amorphous organic matter. Pyrobitumen is mostly insoluble in carbon disulfide and other organic solvents as a result of molecular cross-linking, which renders previously soluble organic matter insoluble. Not all solid bitumens are pyrobitumens, in that some solid bitumens are soluble in common organic solvents, including CS
2, dichloromethane, and benzene-methanol mixtures.
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