Re: waxing negs


Sil Horwitz (silh@iag.net)
Sun, 18 Apr 1999 21:17:08 -0400


At 99/04/18 10:44 PM +0100, Campos & Davis Photos wrote:
>In the UK we can obtain this wax as a liquid. Paraffin wax. Could this be
>easier?

In Britain, "paraffin" is what we Americans (and chemists) call "kerosene." I
don't know how these terms became so different, but in chemistry, the solid
paraffin is the accepted term, as is kerosene or kerosine (different spelling,
same compound) for the lower density liquid. In the simple aliphatic series,
you start with methane (which is CH4) and keep adding carbons and hydrogens
until you get to the solid materials like paraffin having a very long chain
molecule of the formula CnH2n+2(9) (that's 2 to the ninth power). If your
"paraffin wax" is a liquid, it's not what Judy is referring to, as in chemical
terminology, all "paraffins" are solid, waxy substances.

Sil Horwitz, FPSA
Technical Editor, PSA Journal
silh@iag.net
Visit http://www.psa-photo.org/
Personal page: http://www.iag.net/~silh/



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