1. An inflammable mineral substance of the bituminous kind, of a light brown or yellowish color, sharp taste, and incapable of decomposition. By long keeping it hardens into a substance resembling vegetable resin, and becomes black. It is as inflammable as ether. It is said to issue from the earth at Baku, in Persia, and to be received into cisterns.
1. The complex mixture of volatile, liquid, inflammable hydrocarbons, occurring naturally, and usually called crude petroleum, mineral oil, or rock oil. Specifically: That portion of the distillate obtained in the refinement of petroleum which is intermediate between the lighter gasoline and the heavier benzine, and has a specific gravity of about 0.7, -- used as a solvent for varnishes, as a carburetant, illuminant, etc.
2. One of several volatile inflammable liquids obtained by the distillation of certain carbonaceous materials and resembling the naphtha from petroleum; as, Boghead naphtha, from Boghead coal (obtained at Boghead, Scotland); crude naphtha, or light oil, from coal tar; wood naphtha, from wood, etc.
NAPHTHA, a word originally applied to the limpid liquid portion of the petroleum which exudes abundantly at Baku, &c., on the shores of the Caspian Sea. It is the νάφθα of Dioscorides, and the naphtha or hitumen liquidum candidum of Pliny. Both in commerce and in science the term is now used somewhat vaguely, but more in a generic sense, to embrace several bodies having certain properties in common, than as a specific name for a particular substance. Naphtha indeed has no distinct place or meaning in modern chemistry. By the alchemists the word was used principally to distinguish various highly volatile, mobile, and inflammable liquids, such as the ethers,— sulphuric ether and acetic ether having been known respectively as Naphtha sulphurici and Naphtha aceti. In recent times naphtha has been employed to indicate the volatile, limpid, inflammable hydrocarbons obtained by destructive distillation of organic substances artificially conducted, as well as those produced by similar agencies acting within the earth. In commerce the application of the term is still more restricted, and in general it embraces no more than the more volatile portion of the fluid hydrocarbons separated in the distillation of tar....
Under the name naphtha we thus find the subjoined series of substances comprehended. (1) Coal-tar naphtha consists of the lightest and first separated portions of the hydrocarbons obtained in the distillation of gas-tar. It embraces the hydrocarbons having a specific gravity ranging from about 850° up to 950°, and is, especially in its lighter fractions, rich in benzole. (2) Shale naphtha is obtained in the purification of the crude oil got by the destructive distillation of shale and other carbonaceous minerals. The first fraction secured, having a specific gravity ranging from 640° to 680°, is termed gasoline; and coming between this and the ordinary burning oils is a light volatile and highly inflammable oil with a specific gravity of 700°-760°, known commonly as naphtha, but also more conveniently termed shale spirit. It is valuable as a solvent, and is also used to some extent for burning in open air. (See Paraffin.) (3) Native naphtha is the more fluid portion of the rock oil or petroleum found in many parts of the world. (4) Wood naphtha, or methyl alcohol, has been already described under Methyl, vol. xvi. p. 195. (5) Caoutchouc naphtha: a series of hydrocarbons can be prepared by the distillation of india-rubber, and may be separated by means of fractional distillation; together, under the name of caoutchine, they form a most efficient solvent for india-rubber itself. (6) Bone naphtha, or bone oil, known also as Dippel’s animal oil, is a most offensively smelling product of the distillation of bones in the preparation of animal charcoal. The persistent and repulsivestench of this substance effectually precludes its industrial use among the naphthas.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 17, p. 174 [470 words — estimated reading time: 3 minutes]
A white crystalline aromatichydrocarbon, C10H8, analogous to benzene, and obtained by the distillation of certain bituminous materials, such as the heavy oil of coal tar. It is the type and basis of a large number of derivatives among organic compounds. Formerly called also naphthaline.
Pertaining to , or derived from, naphthalene; -- used specifically to designate a yellow crystalline substance, called naphthalenic acid and also hydroxy quinone, and obtained from certain derivatives of naphthol.
1. Pertaining to, derived from, or related to, naphthalene; -- used specifically to denote any one of a series of acids derived from naphthalene, and called naphthalene acids.
2. Formerly, designating an acid probably identical with phthalic acid.
A dyestuff, resembling alizarin, obtained from naphthoquinone as a red crystalline substance with a bright green, metallic luster; -- called also naphthalizarin.
And Neemias called this thing Naphthar, which is as much as to say, a cleansing: but many men call it Nephi.
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