Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Linseed Oil

LINSEED OIL, the fixed oil expressed from linseed. Linseed oil consists of the glycerides of linoleic, palmitic, and stearic acids, about nine-tenths of the whole being the glyceride of linoleic acid. It may be taken as the type of the class known as drying oils, from their property of drying up into a transparent, tough, resinous mass when exposed to the air. When the oil is boiled for some time, till it loses about one-sixth of its weight, it becomes thicker, tenacious, and viscid, and dries up, still more readily than in the fresh state, into a turpentine-like mass, scarcely soluble in oils. It then forms the basis of printers' and painters' varnishes. Linseed oil, mixed with chloride of sulphur, forms caoutchouc-like products, and with alkalies a soft soap.