Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1884-06-07
PARAFFINE WAX.
A Wonderful Product of Petroleum and Its
Important Uses.
Independant Record.

Independant Record.
Among the most interesting develop
ments which have followed in the wake
of the discovery of petroleum is the inn
mense trade which has sprung up i'll ozp-
cerite, as Webster has it. No fairer sub
stance ever sprung from the most m-
promising parentage than the snowy,
pure, tasteless, opalescent wax which is
evolved from the loud smelling, pitchy
dregs of the petroleum still.
The remarkable properties of ozocerite
have won for it afield of utility in which
it reigns well nigh supreme.
This comely, impressionable article,
with all its smooth soft beauty, defies
agents which can destroy the precious
metals and eat up the hardest steel as
water dissolves sugar Sulphuric and 9TH
er potent acids have no more effect on
ozocerite than spring water. 1t is alike
impervious to acid and to moisture. Its
advent seems to have been special dis
pensation in this age of electricity.
Every overhead electric light cable, or
underground conduit, or slender wire,
cunningly wrapped with cotton thread;
all these owe their fitness for conducting
the subtle fluid to the presence of this
wax. And in still more familiar forms
let us outline the utility of this substance.
Every gushing school girl who sinks her
white teeth into chewing gum chews
the 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 varie-
ties of confectionery is due to the pres
ence of this ingredient Of petroleum, used
, to give the articles a certain consistency
: as the laundress uses starch. So that a
product taken from the dirtiest, worst
smelling of tars finds its way to the mill
r ionaire's mansion, an honored servitor
| 1t aids to make possible the electric ra'
dience that floods his rooms; or, in the
form of wax candles, sheds softer lustr'
t over the scene. 1t polishes the floor TO
!, the feet of his guests and it melts in thei
4 mouths in the costliest candies.
= For the insulation of electric wire, par
- affine wax has to-day no successful riva
g and the growth of the demand for thi
= purpose keeps pace with the marvellou
growth of the electric lighting system.
. single Chicago concern buys paraffln
% wax in this city by the car load. II
7 price is but half that of beewax, and ye
n the older wax yields readily to sulphur
: or other acid, this being a test for tn
. presence of beeswax in paraffine. Th
- demand for paraffine for candles as "
81 heads the list. Then comes the needs
= the paper consumers. In 1877 a singl
=. firm in New York handled l4,OOO rean
!, of waxed paper. This year their trad
m will be $4,000 reams. Not only Il
- wrapping candy is this paper invaluabl
but fine cutlery, hardware, &c, encase
q. in waxed paper is safe from the encroacl
70 ment of rust or dampness. Fish an
:, butter and score of other articles a.
III also thus wrapped, and there seems j
rl erally no end to the uses found for Il
IT. paper saturated with this pure hydro-ca
10 hon. In the chemists, laboratory II
invaluable as a coating for articles expo
- cd TO all manner of powerful dissolvan
IL brewers find it thing for coating Il
a interior of fbarrels, and the maker Of wa
be flowers Stimulates natuIe in sheets OF pa
:, affine.
al And yet, until Drake drilled his
ne well i'm 1853, the existence in this cou
is try of this boon to civilization was u
,r suspected, and it lay in the depths
Pennsylvania rocks, where thousan'
to possibly millions, ofyears ago it was st'
rk ed by the hands of an all-wise Great