74- 



PARADOX 



PARAFFIN 



fins, or mi-ling those of the tail fin like a pea- 

 cock'* train in miniature. 



I'nrnilox (<Ir. /-mi, 'beside 'or 'beyond,' and 

 dojrii, 'an opiilion '), a term applied to whatever is 

 contrary to the received belief ; not necessarily an 

 opinion contrary 1 to truth. There have been oold 

 anil happy paradoxes whine fortune it has been to 

 overthrow accredited errors, and in the course of 

 time, to Im-ome universally accepted as truths. For 

 paradoxlsts who square the circle, and invent per- 

 petual motion, see QUADKATI I:K UK HK I'IWI.K, 

 PERPETUAL M.inox; and I)e Morgan's Budget 

 of Paraduia ( 1872). 



ParadoxUh's Beds (Panuiuxi<linn\, a terra 

 sometime-* applied to the Iliirlech or Longmynd 

 and Menevian rocks of Britain, which are charac- 

 terised by the presence of trilohiies belonging to 

 the genus Paradox ides. See CAMBRIAN SYSTEM. 



I'arallill (so called as \>eiag parum affinis 

 i.e. having little allinitv for an alkali) is a 

 name given by baron Keicheubach (q.v.) to a 

 white transparent crystalline sulwtance first 

 obtained by him in 1830 from wood-tar. The 

 honour of this discovery must lie shared witli 

 clirixtison of Kdinhurgli, who independently and 

 almost simultaneously obtained the same body in 

 making a chemical examination of Rangoon petro- 

 leum, ami which he named petroline. Dumas, a 

 French chemist, obtained it also from coal-tar in 

 1835. Hut for twenty years after its discovery 

 paraffin-wax remained a chemical curiosity only. 

 It was not till 1850 that it began to be produced, 

 by Mr .lames Young, in quantity sufficient to 

 occupy the attention of manufacturers. Since 

 then it has become of great importance com- 

 mercially, and has for years been the principal 

 material employed in the manufacture of candles 

 in Crrat Britain ami (ierniany, having for that 

 mir]Mwe, to a large extent, superseded the use of 

 beeswax, spermaceti, stearic acid, and tallow, 

 besides being used in manv other branches of the 

 arts and manufactures, and* in surgery. 



The word parallin, at first applied by Reichcnbach 

 to the solid body , is now used by chemists as a generic 

 term for the series of saturated Hydrocarbons (q.v. ), 

 the higher meml>ei s of which are parallin-wax, lower 

 members are liquid, and the lowest are gases ; 

 marsh-gas or fireilamp being lowest of all. Paratlin- 

 oil was the term first employed by Mr Young to 

 denominate the mineral burning oils produced by 

 him, and this name still applies in Britain to 

 all the oils associated with the manufacture of 

 paratlin. In these oils, however, the olefine series 

 of non saturated hydrocarbons is largely repre- 

 sented along with liquid paraHins. But Petroleum 

 (q.v.) is the term in general use to designate 

 the natural oils of America, Russia, and other 

 countries, which are for the most, part mixtures 

 of thew same, two .-lii-sof hydrocarbons. As the 

 production of paratliu wax and parallin-oils has 

 now U'come nn industry of great importance to the 

 world, it will he convenient to make some reference 

 lTe to the history of its development, particularly 

 in Scotland, which is now the seat of the industry. 

 To a comparatively limited extent coal and shale 

 or schist are made use of in (iermany, in France, 

 in Italy, and 'n Australia for the production of 

 hydrocnrbon i:iln. 



In H'-cenilier 1*47 Mr James Young received a 

 letter from Dr (Sir Lvon ) Playfnir, calling his 

 attention to a .dark oily liquid found in a coal-mine 

 at Alfrctoii in I >eih\ shire. On examining this 

 oil Mr Young recognised the commercial import 

 Mine of the products t hat could be obtained from it. 

 II- erected a refinery, and produced a light oil for 

 burning, a heavy oil for lubricating, and purallin 

 This petroleum spring, at first producing 



almut 900 gallons per day, had exhausted itself 

 at the end of two years. Meanwhile, Mr Young, 

 reflecting on the proliable origin of the oil, ami 

 after a series of experiment*, succeeded in distilling 

 at a low heat an analogous oil from coal. This 

 process liecame the subject of his celebrated patent 

 obtained in 1850. Works were erected at Batngate, 

 in Scotland, in which ncighliourhood a highly hitu- 

 minous cannel coal was at that time l-ing mined 

 for gas-making. It was known as Torhnnt -hill 

 Mineral or Boghead Coal (q.v.). This mineral was 

 employed by Mr Young, and it yielded under distil- 

 lation about 120 gallons of cnulc oil per ton. In 

 1851, when the Uathgate oil-works were started, 

 the price of this coal was 13s. 6d. per ton, and 

 it gradually rose, till in 1862 it stood at 90s. per 

 ton, when the supply ceased. Mr Young's [latent, 

 which covered the distillation of oil from coal at a 

 low red heat, ran from 1850 to 1864. In l.s.Mi, 

 however, Mr Robert Bell erected oil -works at 

 Broxburn (q.v.), in which he distilled oil from shale. 

 He was the first in Scotland to use this material, 

 although Du Buisson had obtained a patent 

 in France previous to 1850 for the distillation of 

 schist or shale. Since Isti- this mineral has hem, 

 and now is, the only mineral employed in Scotland 

 for oil-making. Soon after Mr Young obtained his 

 patent in 1850 he granted licenses for its use in the 

 United States of America, where oil for several 

 years was distilled from cannel-coal ; but public 

 attention being thereby directed to the natural 

 petroleums which have since been found in such 

 abundance, the use of cannel coal was discon- 

 tinued. Mr Young was thus the pioneer not only 

 of the paraffin-oil manufacture, but also of the 

 petroleum industries of the world. 



During the progress of the shale-oil industry in 

 Scotland it has been frequently subject to serious 

 vicissitudes of fortune, more than once being threat - 

 ened with extinction. During one of those ticrUxU 

 of depression about 1872 the Welsh coal-oil trade 

 collapsed entirely. The Scotch industry was saved 

 from a similar fate by the energy and inventive 

 resource of some of the persons engaged in it. The 

 history of the trade naturally falls into various 

 periods, and during these periods articles of manu- 

 facture that were considered by-products, and 

 regarded of little value, or for which there was no 

 market, and products which for years were even 

 unknown came to lie of prime importance in the 

 life of the trade. The first period was a brief one 

 (1848-50), when Mr Young utilised the petroleum- 

 spring at Alfreton for the production mainly of 

 lubricating oil, used in mills as a substitute for 

 sperm-oil. The second period extended over the 

 duration of Young's patent (1850-64), when the 

 burning oil hod become of the greatest importance 

 to the manufacturer. The third period (IS(14-72) 

 witnessed the great development of the petroleum 

 trade in America, during which the price of burning 

 oil fell so low that about half of the works in Scot- 

 land were closed. The fourth period (1872-78) 

 was a period of severe struggle for existence. The 

 smaller and weaker works disappeared. The pro- 

 duction became concentrated in fewer hands with 

 larger outputs. Burning oil being now less remu- 

 nerative, t lie utmost attention was paid to the 

 recovery of all waste-products and to the develop, 

 nieiit of tlii- by-product*; parattin-wax and sulphate 

 of ammonia then becoming of chief importance to 

 the manufacturer. Fortunately also the inventive 

 genius, principally of N. M. Henderson, of William 

 Young, and (ieorge T. Beilby, and others stimu- 

 lated by necessity, culminate,!' in the production of 

 new and economical processes whereby manufac- 

 turing cost* were reduced, and the yield of the 

 product* that had now l>econie of most value were 

 much increased. The tilth period (1878-87) was 



