Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  V 
Aug.  1, 1872.  j 
Paraffine. 
361 
3.  Salts  Promoting  the  Formation  of  Treacle. — Carbonate,  acetate, 
butyrate  and  citrate  of  potash. 
The  latter  are  all  salts  very  difficult  of  crystallization.  The  car- 
bonate is  particularly  active.  This  fact  explains  why  the  addition  of 
sulphuric  acid  to  the  juice  sometimes  increases  the  yield  of  sugar, 
the  pernicious  carbonate  being  converted  into  the  indifferent  sulphate. 
Sulphate  of  magnesia  promotes  the  crystallization  of  10  times,  and 
chloride  of  magnesium  of  17  times  its  weight  of  sugar ;  chloride  of 
calcium  1\  times.  Amer.  Chemist,  May,  1872,  from  Mechanics 
Magazine. 
PARAFFINE,  ITS  MANUFACTURE  AND  USES. 
By  Prof.  Charles  A.  Joy. 
In  1830,  Baron  von  Reichenbach,  who  died  in  1869,  discovered  a 
white,  waxy  substance  in  the  products  of  the  distillation  of  wood,  to 
which,  owing  to  its  permanent  character  and  chemically  indifferent 
properties,  he  gave  the  name  paraffine,  from  parum  affinis.  Since 
that  time  it  has  been  observed  that  it  is  produced  during  the  distilla- 
tion of  many  organic  substances,  such  as  resins,  bituminous  coal,  lig- 
nite, brown  coal,  peat,  fats,  wax,  bituminous  shales,  bog  head  coal, 
and  that  it  occurs  ready  formed  in  petroleum,  in  the  mineral  ozokerite, 
in  bitumen  and  earth  wax.  From  being  an  article  of  insignificant 
chemical  importance,  it  has  risen  to  the  front  rank  of  valuable  tech- 
nical products.  I  distinctly  recollect  seeing  in  a  small  case  at  the 
Paris  Exhibition  of  1855  a  few  candles  and  a  white  block  resembling 
spermaceti,  on  which  was  inscribed  the  word  "paraffine."  Not  one 
in  ten  thousand  of  the  passers-by  had  the  remotest  knowledge  of  what 
it  was.  In  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  1867  this  article  made  its  appear- 
ance everywhere,  and  I  dare  say  there  were  tons  of  it  in  the  building. 
The  applications  of  paraffine  are  now  so  numerous  and  important  that 
it  is  difficult  to  trace  them  through  all  of  their  ramifications,  and  I 
can  only  aspire  to  a  very  imperfect  attempt  in  this  direction.  The 
best  source  for  the  literature  on  the  subject  is  Wagner's  Annual  Re- 
ports on  Technology,  and  of  that  I  shall  make  free  use. 
The  methods  for  the  manufacture  of  paraffine  are  different,  accord- 
ing to  whether  it  is  a  direct  or  an  incidental  product.  I  shall  men- 
tion some  of  the  most  important  processes  actually  pursued  in  the 
arts.    That  paraffine  was  contained  in  petroleum  was  known  as  early 
