Page:The History of the Standard Oil Company Vol 1.djvu/329

Rh portion, and on boiling it with water the unpleasant odour was in a great degree removed, and the fluid became more light-coloured and perfectly bright. (It was on a sample of this that the photometric experiments were made.) The next portion, distilled at about 700° F., gave but about 17 ounces, and this product was both lighter in colour and more fluid than the last. It now became necessary to employ dry hickory wood as a fuel, to obtain flame and sufficient heat to drive over any further portions of the residue remaining in the alembic.

It will be seen that we have already accounted for over 75 per cent. of the whole quantity taken. There was a loss on the whole process of about 10 per cent. made up, in part, of a coaly residue that remained in the alembic, and partly of the unavoidable loss resulting from the necessity of removing the oil twice from the alembic, during the process of distillation, in order to change the arrangements of the thermometer, and provide means of measuring a heat higher than that originally contemplated.

About 15 per cent, of a very thick, dark oil completed this experiment. This last product, which came off slowly at about 750° F., is thicker and darker than the original oil, and when cold, is filled with a dense mass of pearly crystals. These are paraffine, a peculiar product of the destructive distillation of many bodies in the organic kingdom. This substance may be separated, and obtained as a white body, resembling fine spermaceti, and from it beautiful candles have been made. The oil in which the crystals float is of a very dark colour, and by reflected light is blackish green, like the original crude product. Although it distills at so high a temperature, it boils at a point not very different from the denser products of the first distillation. The paraffine, with which this portion of the oil abounds, does not exist ready-formed in the original crude product; but it is a result of the high temperature employed in the process of distillation, by which the elements are newly arranged.

I am not prepared to say, without further investigation, that it would be desirable for the company to manufacture this product in a pure state, fit for producing candles (a somewhat elaborate chemical process); but I may add that, should it be desirable to do so, the quantity of this substance produced may probably be very largely increased by means which it is now unnecessary to mention.

Paraffine derives its name from the unalterable nature of the substance, under the most powerful chemical agents. It is white, in brilliant scales of a greasy lustre; it melts at about 116°, and boils at over 700° F.; it dissolves in boiling alcohol and ether, and burns in the air with a brilliant flame. Associated with paraffine are portions of a very volatile oil, eupione, which boils at a lower temperature, and by its presence renders the boiling point of the mixture difficult to determine. I consider this point worthy of further examination than I have been able at present to give it, i.e., whether the last third, and possibly the last half, of the petroleum, may not be advantageously so treated as to produce from it the largest amount of paraffine which it is able to produce.