Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 403 



press it in bibulous paper. By this method the oil is absorbed by 

 the paper, and the paraffin remains in small scales, which are to be 

 purified by solution in hot absolute alcohol : it may afterwards be 

 melted into one mass, under hot water, and should then be colour- 

 less and transparent as glass, dry and slightly fusible, and make no 

 greasy spot on bibulous paper. 



Sometimes it happens that the combination of paraffin and oil does 

 not separate properly from the sulphuric acid ; in that case it is to be 

 distilled ; water, sulphuric acid, and an oil evaporate : as soon as the 

 last thickens, it then contains paraffin, which is to be separated and 

 treated as before, with sulphuric acid, alcohol, &c. If this compound 

 is not quite colourless, it is to be allowed to congeal, and treated 

 with concentrated sulphuric acid j then, in order to purify it, it is to 

 remain long in a warm place. 



The properties of paraffin are, that at common temperatures it is 

 hard, crystalline, perfectly white, inodorous, tasteless, brittle, its touch 

 like that of cetine, ductile, but not easily uniting, streak greasy, a 

 non-conductor of electricity, loses no sensible weight during months 

 of exposure to the air, melts at about 1 1 1° Fahr. into a colourless, 

 transparent, oleaginous fluid, boils at a higher temperature, and 

 afterwards evaporates in white vapour, suffers no change by distilla- 

 tion, and leaves no residue, becomes coloured only when combined 

 with other organic substances. By the flame of a taper it fuses with 

 out burning ; when heated in a platina spoon until it begins to eva- 

 porate, it will inflame in the candle, and burns with a pure white 

 flame without soot or residue. A match made with it, burns like a 

 taper, without smell ; bibulous paper rubbed on it does not absorb 

 it J at common temperatures it has not a greasy feel. Its density is 

 0-87U. 



It has been already stated, that paraffin is so named on account of 

 its indifl'erence or slight affinity for other bodies. The following have 

 not the least effect upon it : chlorine, whether in the state of gas or 

 of solution J sulphuric, muriatic, nitric, acetic, oxalic, and tartaric 

 acids ; solutions of potash, ammonia, lime, barytes, strontian ; the al- 

 kaline carbonates, hydrate of lime, potassium even in fusion ; deut- 

 oxide of lead and peroxide of manganese. Sulphur, phosphorus, and 

 selenium do not fuse with paraffin ; when mixed with it after having 

 been fused, it appears to take up only a very small quantity. It does 

 not combine by fusion with camphor, naphthaline, benzoin, nor pitch, 

 but unites well with stearine, cetine, bees' wax, and colophony. 

 Lard and suet melt with it, but separate on cooling. Olive oil, when 

 cold, dissolves paraftm imperfectly, but readily when hot ; oil of al- 

 monds acts more slowly. The oils of turpentine and lar, and naphtha, 

 dissolve it readily, even when cold ; 100 parts of aether dissolve 140 

 parts of paraffin at z?'" Fahr. ; at a rather lower temperature it con- 

 geals into a white crystalline mass. Absolute alcohol dissolves but 

 little when coKJ, and even this little is precipitated by water ; alcohol 

 when boiling dissolves only o4.') percent, of its weight, and tiie solu- 

 tion congeals on cooling. Test papers are not altered by the spiri- 

 tuous solution. 



Paraffin appears applicable to several useful purposes. It gives 

 3 F 2 



