A treatise on chemistry. Vol. III, The chemistry of the hydrocarbons and their derivatives, or, Organic chemistry. Part I / by H.E. Roscoe & C. Schorlemmer.

Henry Enfield Roscoe

Date:: 1881

Credit: A treatise on chemistry. Vol. III, The chemistry of the hydrocarbons and their derivatives, or, Organic chemistry. Part I / by H.E. Roscoe & C. Schorlemmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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$lower boiling portion of tins probably consisted of peutauo (amyl hydride). Liquid paraffins occur together with solid products in very large quantities in the products of the distillation of coal or of bituminous shales containing large quantities of hydrogen, such as Boghead cannel (Greville Wilha,ms), and cannel coal (Schorlemmer). From their boiling-points, these all appear to belong to the normal series of paraffins, and in this resj)ect resemble those obtained by the distillation of the lime-soap obtained from Menhaden oil (the oil of the fish Alosa Menhaden). ^ Paraffins also occur in nature. Several are contained in the different kinds of petroleum. That which is now obtained in such enormous quantity from Pennsylvania consists almost ex- clusively of normal paraffins, containing, however, together with these, small quantities of isomerides, whose constitution has not yet been ascertained, as well as other series of hydrocarbons, such as the groups CnPLn, CnH2n_6, f-i^d. probably also groups lying between these.^ Petroleum almost always contains solid paraffin. Canadian petroleum is especially rich in these solid products, as is also that obtained by the distillation of Boghead cannel. Indeed, this latter substance contains a portion of the solid paraffins already formed, as may be shown by extracting it from the mineral %vith ether. ^ Similar compounds occur as minerals in the coal measures as well as in the deposits of brown-coal and bituminous shale. These are known under the names of ozokerite, hatchettite, mineral tallow, mineral wax, &c. A solid paraffin, which pro- bably possesses the formula C^^gHg^, is contained in the oil of roses, and separates out in the crystalline form on cooUng the oil. A very remarkable occurrence of normal heptane has lately been observed by Thorpe * in the resin from a Californiau pine {Pinus sabiniana). This will be described more specially hereafter. 94 AjypUcation of Paraffim. Paraffin as obtained on the 1 Warren and Storer, Mem. Amer. Acad. ix. 208. ^ SchorlcMinicr, Phil. Trans. 1871, vol. cl.xii. part i. p. Ill ; Chrm. Soc. Journ. [2J, viii. 216 ; Warren, Silliman's Amci: Jovrn. xl. 89, 210; Pelouze and Caliours, Coinpt. Rend. liv. 1241 ; Ann. Ckim. PInjs. [4], i. 5. Bolley, A7m. Chem. Pharm. cxv. 61. * Chem. Soc. Jow-n. 1879.$