P A K P A R 243 often be detected without the aid of chemical tests ; all heavy mineral oils exhibit a characteristically strong blue fluorescence, which becomes rather more prominent by the presence of fatty oil. Manufacturers, however, have learned to remove the fluorescence by the addition of certain chemical substances, and large quanti ties of such " bloomless " oil are being sold and used as colza or other fatty oil. Paraffin Refining. The crude paraffin which remains to be dealt with consists of soft scale, melting point between 90 and 105 F. , and hard scale melting between 115 and 120 F. The greater part of the soft scale is disposed of in the crude state for impreg nating match splints in lucifer-match making. The remainder, hard and soft, is purified by an acid and soda treatment, and decolorized by repeated washings with solvent naphtha. To this end the scale is melted, mixed with 25 per cent, of naphtha, cooled down, and thus caused to crystallize, and subjected to hydraulic pressure. The solvent naphtha is thus squeezed out, and this series of operations is repeated two or three times. Each of the mother-liquors produced is utilized as a purifying agent for the paraffin of a preceding stage of purity, so that it at last arrives at and serves for the original crude scale. In its progress through these washings the naphtha takes up much heavy oil and solid paraffin, which are extracted by systematic fractionation and crystallization. The paraffin, after its last squeez ing, is a dull chalky-looking white mass strongly impregnated with naphtha, to drive off which it is melted and has a current of steam blown through it, till no trace of naphtha odour comes away with the steam. The ultimate decolorization is effected by mixing the heated paraffin with animal charcoal, allowing the charcoal to settle, and drawing off the paraffin through filters. The molten paraffin flows into oblong tins which mould it into the beautiful translucent blocks used for candle making and the several other purposes to which paraffin is applied. The soda-tar obtained in the various processes is to some extent collected and treated for the recovery of a soda sufficiently pure to be used in the first stages of purification of the crude oil. It is also employed to neutralize the acid tar, after which both are distilled, yielding as a bye-product an oil known as "green oil," largely used for the manufacture of oil-gas under Pintsch s patent. Commerce. The development of the paraffin industry under Young s patents, and the rapid increase of demand for the products, led directly to the rise of the great petroleum industry in America. The United States acting commissioner of patents, Mr John L. Hayes, in reporting on M ; Young s claim for an extension of his patent rights, states that " the manufactures of coal oil in this country had their origin in Mr Young s discovery. The use of petroleum followed so directly and obviously from the use of coal oils that it can hardly be denied that the one originated from the other." The petroleum industry once started, however, grew with so startling rapidity, and attained such gigantic proportions, that it threatened the entire extinction of the parent manufacture. In the early days of the trade a considerable development of manufacturing activity took place in Wales, where an inferior kind of cannel coal was distilled ; and at many localities in Germany brown coal and sometimes peat were utilized as the raw materials of a considerable industry. The pressure of the competition with American oil was felt severely by all, and it was only with much difficulty that the great Scottish companies succeeded in holding their own, and in carrying on a constantly extending production. The Welsh industry was practically extinguished, and the production in Germany, not withstanding the imposition of high protective duties, was greatly circumscribed. The chief seats of the manufacture in Germany are now in Saxony, near Weissenfels, where a peculiar variety of lignite called " pyropissite " forms the raw material for distillation. In the Scottish industry there was in the middle of 1884 about 2,000,000 of capital invested, the working capacity of works in operation being equal to the distillation of 4170 tons of shale a day, while plant is being provided to increase that capacity to 5920 tons. The following table represents the present output of a year of 312 working days. Actual. In View. Total. Shale distilled per day tons ... 4 170 1 750 5 920 Shale distilled, tons per annum 1 301 040 546 000 1 847*040 Crude oil produced, gallons.. Burning oil and spirit, in barrels of 40 gallons 39,031/200 400 070 16,380,000 167 895 55,411,200 567 965 Lubricating oil, tons (of about 256 gallons) ">4 400 10 277 34 767 Paraffin scale, tons , 15 334 6 435 21 769 Sulphate of ammonia, tons... ,, 10,454 4,388 14,842 (W. I). ,1 PA.) PARAGUAY, a South American republic situated in the basin of the Parana-Paraguay system, between 22 and 27 35 S. lat. and 54 35 and 61 40 W. long. It is conterminous with Brazil, Bolivia, and the Argentine Rep- blic, and its boundaries were long under dispute. The Argentine Republic especially laid claim to a portion of the Gran Chaco to the north-east of the Pilcomayo; but in 1878 the president of the United States (to whose arbitration the matter had been submitted) decided in favour of Paraguay. 1 The town of Villa Occidental, on the Gran Chaco side of the Paraguay river, opposite Asuncion, has since been called Villa Hayes. The whole area of the country is estimated at 91,980 square miles, of which 35,280 are in the Gran Chaco portion. Paraguay proper, or the country between the Paraguay and the Parana, is traversed from north to south by a broad irregular belt of highlands which are known as the Cordillera Amanbaya, Cordillera Urucury, &c., but partake rather of the character of plateaus, and form in fact a con tinuation and outwork of the great interior plateau of Brazil (Keith Johnston, jun. 2 ). The elevation nowhere much exceeds 2200 feet. On the western side these highlands terminate with a more or less sharply-defined edge, the country sloping gradually up to their bases in gentle undulations with open ill- defined valleys ; on the eastern side they send out broad spurs enclosing deep-cut valleys, and the whole country retains more of an upland character. The tributaries that flow westward to the Paraguay are consequently to some extent navigable, while those that run eastward to the Parana are interrupted by rapids and falls often of a formidable description. 3 Apart from the central highlands there are several plateaus and knots of hills in the west between 25 and 26 20 S. lat. The plateau on the edge of which Asuncion is built has a relative height of about 200 feet, and skirts the Paraguay for about 25 miles with red sandstone cliffs ; to the north of this is the Altos Cordillera, with a relative height of 600 feet. From the Asuncion plateau southwards, near the confluence of the Paraguay and Parana, there is a vast stretch of marshy country draining partly into the Ypoa lagoon ; and smaller tracts of the same character are found in other parts of the lowlands, especially in the valley of the Paraguay. The country sloping to the Paran4 is nearly covered with dense and well-nigh impenetrable forest, and has been left in possession of the sparsely- scattered native tribes. On the other hand the country sloping to the Paraguay, and comprising the whole of the properly settled districts, is, in keeping with its proximity to the vast plains of the Argentine Republic, grassy and open, though the hills are usually covered with forest, and clumps of trees are frequent in the lowlands. Except in the marshy regions already mentioned and along the rivers the soil is dry, porous, and sandy, produced by the weathering of the red sandstone, which is the prevailing formation throughout the country. The year in Paraguay is divided into two seasons, " summer " lasting from October to March, and " winter " from April to September. December, January, and February are generally the hottest months, and May, June, July, and August the coldest. The most temperate month is April. The mean temperature for the year seems to be about 75 or 76; for summer 81, for winter 71. The rainfall, amounting to 58 inches at Asuncion, is distributed 1 By the treaty of 1872 the Brazilian frontier was drawn up the Parana from the mouth of the Y-Guazu (25 30 S. lat.) to the Salto Grande or Great Cataract of La Guayra (24 7 ), thence west along the watershed of the Sierra de Maracayii, north along the Sierra de Amanbaya to the sources of the Apa, and down that stream to its junction with the Paraguay. The Buenos Aires treaty of February 3, 1876, fixed the frontier between Argentina and Paraguay, and assigned to Paraguay the portion of the Gran Chaco between Eio Verde and Bahia Negra ; the appropriation of the portion between Rio Verde and the Pilcomayo was left for after consideration. 2 See his papers in the Academy, 1875; Proc. R. Oeogr. Soc. 1876 ; and Geographical Magazine, 1875. 3 In regard to the rivers, compare the article PLATE RIVER.
