[ 202 ] 



XX. 



ON MONTANIN AND MONTANA (MONTAN) WAXES. 



By HUGH RYAN, M.A., D.Sc, F.B.U.L, 



University College, Dublin, 



AND THOMAS DILLON, M.A. 



[ReaclMAY25. Ordered for Publication June 8. Published July 17, 1909.] 



In connexion with a paper on the Irish Peat Industries, wliich one of us 

 read before the Hoyal Dublin Society in March, 1908, we obtained a 

 specimen of a conamercial wax called in this country Montana Wax. As 

 the substance was said to liave been obtained from peat, we- thought an 

 examination of it might be of some interest. 



We found that the wax consisted of a "free" acid (M.P. 83° 0.], and an 

 unsapouifiable portion (M.P. 58-59° C), and was therefore of a very different 

 composition from that recently found for Peat Wax by R. Zalozieoki and 

 J. Hausmann'. By saponifying Peat Wax the latter chemists obtained an 

 alcohol (CaoHioOO M.P. 124-130° C, an acid (CeH.sOO M.P. 184° C, and 

 anotlier acid (CjiHsaO,) whicli did not melt below 260° 0. 



In connexion with their theory of the origin of petroleum from diatoms, 

 G. Kramer and A. Spilker have examined' the wax extracted by means of 

 hot benzene from pyropissite and the peat of low-land bogs. 



By saponifying the wax they obtained an alcohol M.P. 76-78° 0., and a 

 crude acid of mean formula GiJIuOi, whicli they found to be probably a 

 mixture of arachidic, behenio, and lignoceric acids. 



Montana Wax, therefore, differs markedly from Peat Wax ; but, on the 

 other hand, it seems to be identical with the Montan Wax prepared 

 according to the process of E. von Boyen^ from Saxo-Thuringian lignite. By 

 distillation of lignite in a current of superheated steam, or by extraction of 

 the dried substance with benzene, a bituminous body was obtained, which, 

 when distilled with steam heated to 250° C, afforded a yellow waxy solid. 



' Zeitschr. fiir angewandte Chemie, xx. (1907), p. 1141. 



2 Ber.xxxii. (1899), p. 2940, and Ber. xxxv. (1902), p. 1212. 



3 Patentbl. xc. (1899), p. 97. 



