25 6 



SCIENCE. 



MARBLES. 



No. 



KIND 



LOCALITY 



Westchester Co . N. V... 



As! ey 1 - X V 



Snow Flake Westchester Co., N. Y 



x Dougherty's y 1 'y. E.Tenn 



Near Harper s Ferry. Va. 



Black Marble... Isle La Motle, Vt.. 



tiand Falls Rutland, Vt 2660 





Weight 



Specific 



of 

 One 



Gravity. 



Cubic 





Foot. 







171.3 







:.-ll 



1 





: -: - 





.- 



a ::: 



166.6 



Melted 



Ruined. 



SLATES. 



Sabin"s Quarry- Montpelier, Vt 2.S60 i-z .3 1-110 800 S50 qjo xoxi 



SOAPSTONES. 



Soapstone Weathersfield. Vt 2.6:5 166.7 1+3 



ARTIFICIAL STONE. 



.. Stone. 



( McMortire & Cham- 1 

 1 berlain"s patent \ 



Soo 



MINERAL WAX. A RESUME. 

 By M. Benjamin. Ph. B. 



Geographical Distribution. Mineral wax or ozocerite 

 (from "Jf", to smell, and ■• :, waxi is found in a sand- 

 stone in Moldavia, in the vincinity of coal and reck salt. 

 It a. so cccurs in large quantities at Borislav. near 

 Drohobycz, and at Dzwiniacz. near Sta'nstawow in Galicia, 

 a province ol Austria. The mines are stuated at the 

 northern toot of the Carpathian Mountains. It has also 

 been found at several other places in the same province. 

 Small quantities have been discovered in England, at 

 Binney Quarry. Linlithgowshire ; at the Urpeth Colliery. 

 Ne i vcastie-on-T\ne, and in \\ ales. In this country it 

 has been found in Texas, in Utah and in California, about 

 fiftv miles n<_rth-ast of Los Angelas, among the Serra 

 Madre Mountams In Utah the mineral occurs in shale 

 beds, ou - . of which the ozocerite appears as exudations. 

 Thr?se shale beds are quite ex'ensive — some forty to 

 sixty miles lor.g by twenty wide, and from seventy to orty 

 feet in thickness. It is thought that by digging and 

 boring the supply cf the wax may be increased. 



'ogicaily it is presumed that these beds were 

 formed in a tertiary lake or peat bog. Prof. J. S. New- 

 berry suspects that it will be found to be an evolved pro- 

 duct, the distillation of beds of cretaceous lignite ard 

 the residue of a petroleum unusually rich in paraffir.e. 

 The foreign deposits are considered to be about of the 

 same 



:c of Occurrence. It is generally found (referring 

 toGalaciai in thin layers and small pieces which must 

 separated from the ma'rix in which they ate found. 

 The smallest pieces are only obtained by a process of 

 washing. It is sometimes found in lumps or lavrrs rrom 

 one to three tect in thickness, a lump s.metines weigh- 

 ing several hundred ueght. 



Physical Properties. It is 1 ke a rtsinous wax in 

 consistency and translucency, sometimes with a fo 

 structure. Its coh r is brown or brownish yellow by 

 transmitted light and leek g<een by re-rl-c eel light. The 

 poorer qualities, which ere colored black and are either 

 too solt from abundance of petroleum or too hard 

 (asphalt like in character), are mainly used for the pro- 



duction of paraffin. It possesses a phasantly aromatic 

 odor. The American variety is described as black in 

 the mass, sections of which are translucent. 



Its Chemical J\ ature. The specific gravity of ozocerite 

 is 0.94 to 0.97. According to Dana it ranges from 0.85 

 to 0.90. 



Its melting point is variusly given as follows : 



The Moldavian. S 4 : Malaguti. 



L'rpeth mineral. 6o° Johnson. 



Galacian, 6o° Hbt'stadter. 



Utah. Newberry. 



Moldavian. -; Schriitter. 



From Slanik, C2° Glocker. 



Galacian, \\ agner. 



The bcihng poii.t is likewise differer tly given by the 

 authorities : 



L'rpeth mineral, 121° Johnson. 



Moldavian, 210 -ScbrStter. 



Moldavian, 300 Malaguti. 



Utah, betw een 300° and 380 . Newberry. 



Concerning this last determination, Dr. S. B. New berry 

 says ; 1.5 grammes of the substance were trened with 

 about 300 c. c. ol cold ether, and allowed to stand lor 

 twenty-four hours. The substance was decanted 

 through a filter, evaporated, and the resulting mineral 

 tested to obtain the melting point. This treatment gave 

 me a fraction equal to 25.4 per cent, of the original sub- 

 stance, and having a melting point of 49. C. The 

 residue was again treated with 200 c. c. of c Id ether 

 lor ab^ut the same time, ard gave a further product 

 equal to 9.1 per cent, of the original mass, fusing at 61 . 

 On boiling the unciss lived porti >n in ab ut 500 c. c. of 

 ether the whole mass went intosolution. and upon evapor- 

 ation was found to have a fusing point of 67 . It distills 

 without decon position, is not altered by strong acids, anel 

 very little by hot alcohol. The Moldavian variety cli - 

 but slightly in ether, whereas that lound at I'rpe h dis- 

 solves in this medium to the amount ( f fou: -tilths, and 

 separates, on evaporation in brown flecks, which melt at 

 38. 9 to a yellowish brown 1 quid. The- solubil ty of the 

 variety found in Utah h^s been sufficently telerred to in 

 the remarks on its fusing point. The composition of 

 ozocerite has been found to be : 



