USES OF PARAFFIN.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1085, 10 June 1882, Page 2

USES OF PARAFFIN.

(From the Oil and Colourman's Journal.) Paraffin has many important uses in tho arts. The most extensive application made of it is probably in the manufacture of candles. For this purpose it is cheaper than wax, and the candles are claimed to furnish a light superior to that of any other variety. Paraffin is also extensively consumed in a variety of ways ns a water-proofing agent, an application for which its perfectly neutral chemical properties excellent ly adapt it. Thus it is used for water-proofing textile fabrics of cotton, woolen, and even silk. Sometimes it is used for this purpose in the form of a solution in naphtha, for water-proofing felts, hats, umbrellas, and silk goods generally; also for water-proofing paper. It is largely used for hermetically sealing their contents. For this purpose it is used for coating the interior of wine and beer barrels. It it used for saturating corks for the same purpose. Large quantities are used for the apparently trivial and unimportant purpose of manufacturing chewing-gum. Tlie extent to which this industry is carried on is simply enormous, as we have information that one manufacturer of chewing-gum alone use» about 70,000 pounds of paraffiu in a single

year. Confectioners also use it considerably to impart to certain of their confections a high gloss of Lustre. Paraffin is also used verv largely itt the laundry as an addition to starch because of its phiperty of giving laundried articles an additional lustre. Large quantities are also used to adulterate wax. It is used in large quantities by the manufactures of friction matches, to impregnate their sticks and cause them to burn freely when ignited, aS well as to water-proof the tips. One of its most important uses is that of an insulating material in telegraphy. In addition to the ibove K we may add in conclusion that paraffin is used Id Some eitent for sizing or finishing textile fabrics, as well as leather and small articles turned from Wood or bone, for the preservation of timber, for fruits; eggs, and the like against for protecting fresco paintings, ahd fdr* mAhy similar usds.