Signedprinted in black on orange label: CHEMICAL LABORATORY / OF HARVARD COLLEGE / Parrafin, / Crystallized Hydrocarbons
Inscribedprinted in red on small black label: 3282
FunctionChemistry and teaching demonstrations.
Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition: Parafin: "Paraffin p+;rafin, sb. Also -ine. [f. L. parum too little, barely + affinis having affinity: so named by Reichenbach 1830 in reference to its neutral quality and the small affinity it possesses for other bodies. See Journal f. Chem. u. Physik LIX. 456. ] 1. A colourless (or white), tasteless, inodorous, crystalline, fatty substance, solid at ordinary temperatures (chemically a mixture of hydrocarbons of the series CnH2n+2), discovered by Reichenbach in 1830; obtained by dry distillation from wood, coal, peat, petroleum, wax, and other substances, and also occurring native in coal and other bituminous strata; subsequently used for making candles, as a waterproofing material, for electrical insulators, and for various other purposes."