[Ads-l] Paraffin

[victor steinbok]

The article is reproduced in full in Volume 5, No.1 of the Journal of
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, April 1833, p. 61. (GB incorrectly
identifies it as 1834).

There's another distinct 1833 source: Repertory of patent, inventions and
other discoveries. But the vector was clearly the Philosophical Magazine.

VS-)

On Thu, Jun 15, 2023, 14:44 victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Interesting, that every source I checked lists 1835 as first use of
> "paraffin", including OED and and MW. A quick scroll through Google Books
> (something I haven't done in a long time because of evolving search
> formats) points to a number of sources that are clearly misidentified - an
> 1830 citation is actually 1957; one dated 1800 is actually 1899 (a common
> GB scanning error).
>
> But there can be no doubt to accuracy of the 1832 find: Philosophical
> Magazine, Volume 1, No. 5 (November), p. 402.
>
> On Paraffin and Eupion
>
> Dr. Reichenbach has discovered two substances by the dry distillation of
> organic bodies, to which he has given the above names. The first from
> _parum affinis_, on account of its remarkable indifference or want of
> affinity; and the second from [pion] or [pion], fat, and [eu]. These
> substances appear to be both contained in the tar of animal and vegetable
> substances. Beech-wood tar gives the most paraphin, and with the greatest
> facility; while the oil of Dippel gives most eupion.
>
> _italics_
> [Greek]
>
> The source should be easy to verify on paper. I'll keep looking but this
> is not likely to be improved.
>
> VS-)
>

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