VASELINE

This article appears in Volume V27, Page 946 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: VAN-VIR

VASELINE , or

mineral

MINERAL

jelly, the Paraffinum mile of the British Pharmacopoeia, a commercial product of petroleum which is largely employed in pharmacy, both alone mad as a vehicle for the external application of medicinal agents, especi ally when local action rather than absorption is desired, and as a protective coating for metallic surfaces. " Vaseline " is a registered proprietary name (coined from the German Wasser, water, the Greek EAawv, oil, and the termination -ihe), and is strictly applicable only to the material manufactured. by one company (the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company), but it is commonly applied in a generic sense. As met with in, commerce, vaseline is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons, having a melting-point usually ranging from a little below to a few degrees above ioo F. It is colourless, or of a

pale

PALE (through Fr. pal, from Lat. palms, a stake, for paglus, from the
stem
- STEM (O. Eng. staefn, stemn, cf. Du. stain, Ger. Stamm, &c., probably related to " staff ")
pag- of pangere, to fix; "
pole
- POLE (FAMILY)
- POLE, REGINALD (1500-1558)
- POLE,
  RICHARD
  DE LA (d. 1525)
- POLE, WILLIAM (1814—1900)
" is from the same original source)

yellow colour, translucent, fluorescent, amorphous and devoid of

taste

TASTE (from Lat. taxare, to touch sharply; tangere, to touch)

and smell, It does not oxidize on exposure to the air, and is not readily acted on by chemical reagents. It is soluble, in chloroform, benzene, carbon bisulphide and oil of

turpentine

TURPENTINE (in M. Eng. turbentine, adapted through the O. Fr. turbentine or terebentine from Lat. terebinthina, sc. resina, resin of the terebinth, Gr. eepiOtvOos or eippavOos)

. It also dissolves in warm ether and in hot

alcohol

ALCOHOL

, but separates from the latter in flakes on cooling.
The process employed by the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company the manufacture of vaseline is said to consist essentially in the careful

distillation

DISTILLATION (from the Lat. distillare, more correctly destillare, to drop or trickle down)

of selected crude petroleum, vacuum-stills being used to minimize dissociation, and filtration of the residue through granular animal charcoal. The filters are either steam-jacketed, or are placed in rooms heated to ieo F., or higher. The first runnings from the filters are colourless, and when they become coloured to a certain extent they are collected for use as a lubricant
under the name of filtered cylinder oil." (B. R.)

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