IX. 



* 



Examination of Naphtha obtained from Rangoon Petroleum 



BY C. M. WARREN AND F. H. STORE R. 



Communicated August 9, 18 Go. 



Skveral years since, Warren De La Rue and Hugo Miiller ! attempted to determine 

 the chemical composition of the petroleum from Rangoon. But the results obtained by 

 these distinguished chemists were exceedingly unsatisfactory. 



De La Rue and Miiller operated upon the large scale, having started with a stock of 

 several tons of the crude petroleum ; but in so far as concerns the hydro-carbons, which, 

 as they admit, constitute the chief part of the naphtha, these observers confess their 

 inability to separate the mixture into compounds of fixed boiling points. 



So soon as the method of separating volatile hydro-carbons by fractional condensation 

 had been successfully employed by one of us, 2 the desire naturally arose to apply this 

 method to the elucidation of problems which the best chemists of the day had failed to 

 solve. The labors of De La Rue and Miiller at once occurred to us as furnishing an 

 extreme instance, and it was determined to test the new process with materials which, 

 as these chemists had shown, could not be unravelled by the old processes of analysis. 

 With this view a sample of native Rangoon Petroleum was obtained, in Jan. 1862, from 



Price's Patent Candle Co, of London, it being well known to chemists that this firm 

 was at that time constantly importing the petroleum in question. The sample re- 

 ceived from Price's Co. amounted to « five imperial gallons ; " it was contained in a 

 well-secured vessel, and was accompanied by a certificate of the company to the effect 

 that the petroleum was in the condition in which it is imported into England, — that is, 

 "just as we receive it from Burmah." 



The package containing this sample remained in our possession unopened until the 

 autumn of 1863, when the investigation now to be described was commenced. Upon 

 examination the petroleum was found to be a thick, greasy matter, not sufficiently 



» Proceeding of the Eoyal Society of London, VIII. 221 ; or PhiI . Mag. 1857, [4.] XIII. 512. 

 W arrcn, Memoirs of American Academy, [N. S.] IX. 1 21 . 



