270 Transactions 



Art. XXIX. — Montan Wax. 

 By Theodore Kigg, M.Sc. (Jacob Joseph Scholar in Victoria College). 

 Communicated by Professor Easterfield. 



[Bead before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 4th October, 1911.] 



INTRODUCTION. 



Montan wax is a hard yellowish material which, on account of its high 

 melting-point, is used for raising the melting-point of stearine candles, 

 and, on account of its low price, has also found some use as an adulterant 

 of beeswax. The wax was first manufactured from the brown coal of 

 Saxony and Thuringia, and more recently has been prepared from Irish 

 lignites. 



In the manufacture of montan wax, pyropissite is either extracted 

 with light petroleum and the soluble bitumen, obtained from the extract, 

 then distilled in superheated steam, the distillation being repeated until 

 a nearly colourless product is obtained, or the brown coal is itself dis- 

 tilled with superheated steam. 



The method of manufacture was first patented by E. von Boyen 

 <German patent 101373, 1st July, 1897). In the original patent E. von 

 Boyen* described the wax as consisting of two well-characterized sub- 

 stances — an acid and an unsaturated hydrocarbon. C. Hellf assigned the 

 formula C 29 H 58 0., to the above-mentioned acid, now called : ' montanic 

 acid." 



E. von BoyenJ adopted the formula C 2fl H 58 2 for the acid, but now 

 stated that the other constituent is an alcohol melting at 60°, which is 

 readily attacked by sulphuric and nitric acids. He regarded the original 

 bitumen as an ester of montanic acid which is decomposed during distilla- 

 tion. 



K. Eisenreich§ purified montanic acid by fractional precipitation with 

 magnesium acetate. He adopted the same formula for the acid as von 

 Boyen and Hell. He noted that the last portions of the acid to be pre- 

 cipitated melted several degrees lower than the earlier fractions, but no 

 attempts were made to obtain acids of lower molecular weight from these 

 fractions. 



To the non-acid constituent of the wax, melting at 63-5°, he assigned 

 the formula C 42 H 80 O, and supported the formula by an ebullioscopic 

 molecular-weight determination, but could not find any evidence that 

 the substance was an alcohol.!! 



* Chem. Central Blatt, 1899, vol. 1, p. 864. 



t Zeit. f. Angew. Chem., 1900, p. 556. 



% Chem. Central Blatt, 1901, vol. 2, p. 1285. 



§ Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind., 1909, p. 991. 



|| Such a formula, C n ri2 n+2 0, can only represent an alcohol or an ether derived 

 from a higher alcohol ; but the low melting-point of the substance (63-5°) makes it 

 Oitremely improbable that the compound is anything else than a hydrocarbon. 



