The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-09-13
Cur 0liu.
A Wonderful Substance.


Among the most interesting develop
ments which have followed in the wake of
the discovery Of petroleum is the immense
trade which has sprung up in ozokerite, or
ozocerite, as Webster has it. No fairer
substance ever sprang from most unprom-
ising parentage, than the snowy, pure,
tasteless, opalescent wax which is evolved
from the loud smelling, pitchy dregs of the
petroleum STILL The Mining Review thus
sums up the many uses to which this re-
markable substance is applied: This comely,
impressionable article, with all the smooth,
soft beauty, defes agents which can de-
stroy the precious metals and eat up the
hardest steel as water dissolves sugar.
Sulphuric and other potent acids have no
more effect on ozokerite than spring water.
1t is alike impervious to acid and to mois-
ture. Its advent seems to have been a
special dispensation in this age of electri-
city.
Every overhead electric light cable or
underground conduit, or slender wire, cum
nungly wrapped with cotton thread all
these .oRe their fitness for conducting the
subtle fluid to the presence of this wax.
And in still more familiar forms let US out
line the utility of this substance. Every
gushing school girl who sinks her white
teeth into chewing gum chews this paraffine
wax. Every caramel she eats contains this
wax, and is wrapped in paper saturated
with the same substance The gloss seen
upon hundreds of varieties of confection-
cry is due to the presence of this ingredient
of petroleum, used to give the articles
certain consistency, as the laundress uses
starch. So that product taken from the
dirtiest, worst-smelling of tars finds its way
to the mllionaire's mansion, an honored
servitor. 1t aids to make possible the
electric radiance that floods his rooms; or,
in the form of wax candles, sheds softer
lustre over the scene. 1t polishes the
floor for the feet of his guests, and it melts
in their mouths in the costliest candies.
For the insulation of electric wire, parafine
wax has to-day no successful rival, and the
growth of the demand for this purpose
keeps pace with the marvellous growth of
the electric lighting system. A single
Chicago firm buys parafine wax by the
carload. Its price is but half that of
beeswax, and yet the older wax yields
readily to sulphuric or other acid, this
being test for the presence of beeswax in
parafine. The demand for parafine for
candles as yet heads the list
Then comes the needs of the paper con-
sumers. In 1877 a single firm in New
York handled / A, 900 reams of waxed paper.
Not only for wrapping candy is this paper
valuable, but fine cutlery, hardware, etc.,
incasel in waxed paper, is safe from the
encroachment of rust or dampness. Fish
and butter and score of other articles are
also thus wrapped, and there seems literally
no end to the uses found for the paper
saturated with this pure hydrocarbop, In
the chemists laboratory it is Invaluable as
coating for articles exposed to all manner
of powerful dissolvents; brewers find it
capital thing for coating the interior of
barrels, and the maker of wax flowers SIM
ulates nature in sheets of parafine. And
yet, until Drake drilled his oil well in 1859,
the existence in this country of this boon
to civilization was unsuspected, and it lay
an the depth of Pennsylvania rocks, where
thousands, possibly millions of years ago,
it was stored by the hand of an all-wise
Creator.