A waxlike mineral resin; -- sometimes called native paraffin, and mineral wax.
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Ozocerite
Encyclopedia Britannica
OZOCERITE, or Ozokerite (oξωv, odour-emitting, and κηρός, "wax; smelling wax, mineral wax), is a combustible mineral which may be designated as crude native Paraffin (q.v.), found in many localities in varying degrees of purity. The only commercial sources of supply however are in Galicia, principally at Boryslaff and Dzwieniasz. Hofstädter in 1854 examined an ozocerite from “Boristoff near Drohobiez,” Galicia; he found it to consist chiefly of hydrocarbon which, after crystallization from alcohol, exhibited the composition CH 2 of the olefines; this, however, is quite compatible with their being really “paraffins,” C n H 2 , 1+2 , which latter formula for a large n coincides practically with C,,H 2 , i . At and near Baku and in other places about the Caspian Sea, soft oily native paraffins, known as “nefto-gil” or “nefte-degil” and “kir,” are found with other petroleum products. The theory of the formation of ozocerite now generally accepted is that it is a product of the decomposition of organic substances, which was originally like petroleum, but has lost its more volatile components by volatilization. All native petroleum in fact, like crude paraffin oil, holds solid paraffin in solution....
Galician ozocerite varies in consistence from that of a rather firm and hard wax to that of a soft adherent plastic mass, and in colour from yellow to a dark (almost black) green. Its melting-point ranges from 58° to 98° C. (136° to 208° Fahr.); the extra high melting point of the paraffin extracted from it is one of its distinguishing features. Besides the earthy impurities which are always associated with the mineral as found in the “nests” containing it, it is mixed with liquid hydrocarbons, resinous oxygenated compounds, and water. In the following table columns I. and II. show the yield in two distillations of a superior quality of the ozocerite of Boryslaff, as given by Perutz. [table]
The purified paraffin of ozocerite makes excellent candles, which are said to give more light, weight for weight, than those made from ordinary paraffin, besides being less easily fusible. Under the name of ceresin or ozocerotin a large proportion of the high-melting paraffin extracted from the mineral goes into commerce, to be used chiefly for the adulteration of beeswax. The various methods of refining used furnish certain proportions of soft paraffin, and of heavy and light oils as bye-products, which take their place in commerce beside the corresponding products from shale and petroleum.
A kind of mineral wax known as idrialine accompanies the mercury ore in Idria. According to Goldschmiedt it can be extracted by means of xylol, amyl-alcohol, or turpentine, and also, without decomposition, by distillation in a current of hydrogen or carbonic acid. It is a white crystalline body, very difficultly fusible, boiling above 440° C. (824° F.), of the composition C4 0 H 28 O. Its solution in glacial acetic acid, by oxidation with chromic acid, yielded to Goldschmiedt a red powdery solid and a fatty acid fusing at 62° C., and exhibiting all the characters of a mixture of palmitic and stearic acids.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 18, p. 112
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