NAPHTHA.
Neft, ARAB. Kesoso no abra, . JAY.
Mang-ho-yu, . CHIN. Minak tanab, . MALAY.
Bitume de judi, . Fa. Bbumi tailum, . . SANSK.
Naphte, . . . . „ Nun tylum, . . TAM.
Nuk-tel, . . God , HIND. Manti tylum, . . TEL.
Mitti-ka-tel, „ The term naphtha is usually limited to the thinner and purer varieties of rock oil, and petroleum to the darker and more viscid liquids. Naphtha, rock oil, or petroleum, are mixtures of various hydro carbons ; but in its purest form naphtha may be said to consist of C. II., and yielding a vapour of the density of 2.8. Such a hydrocarbon is obtained as a natural product at Baku on the shores of the Caspian, where the soil is a clayey marl impregnated with naphtha. The pits are generally from 210 to 490 feet deep. The first 210 feet cost about £2 a foot to sink the tubes. Refiners buy crude oil at 2 copecs per 36 lbs. Locally refined oil or kerosene is sold at from 27 to 30 copecs per 36 lbs. At St. Petersburg it fetches from 1 rouble 80 copecs to 2 roubles the 36 lbs. The flaming soil or everlasting (as it is called) fire of Baku is the attraction to pilgrims, and is not less famous than its naphtha springs. When mixed with earth or ashes as fuel, naphtha is used both for fuel and light by the inhabitants of Baku, on the Caspian. The vapour is made to pass through earthen tubes, and is inflamed as it passes out, and used in cooking. Naphtha springs and rich mineral deposits have been dis covered in the Tekke oasis, and the land is being rapidly purchased by mining speculators.
In the peninsula of Abcheran, on the western shore of the Caspian, naphtha rises through a marly soil in vapour, and is collected by sinking pits several yards in depth, into which the naphtha flows.
After the Tigris has succeeded in forcing its way through the Hainrin Hills, at a spot called El-Fattha, on the left bank, there is an abundant supply of sulphur, and, directly opposite, naphtha rises in great quantities.from the bed of the river.
Naphtha is obtained in the Bakhtiari mountains, between Shuster and Ram Hormuz ; also near the village of Dilaki in Fars. Major Porter saw a fountain of white naphtha at the foot of the mountains of Bakhtiari, half-way between the city of Shuster and the valley of Ram Hormuz. In Irak Arabi and the Lower Kurdistan, the most productive are in the vicinity of Kirkook, Men dali, and Hit, on the banks of the Euphrates.
The naphtha pits near Kifri, in the province of Baghdad, five or six in number, are in the pass through which the Ak - su penetrates to the plains. The hills are about a mile S.E. of the town of Tuzkurmatti, close to the gypseous hills of Kifri, and the pit, being in the bed of the torrent, is sometimes overflowed by it, and for a time, spoilt. The pit is about 15 feet
deep, and, to the height of 10 feet, filled with water, on the surface of which black oil of naphtha floats, small air-bubbles continually rising to the surface. They skim off the naphtha, and ladle out the water into a channel, which dis tributes it into a set of oblong, shallow compart ments, made in the gravel, where thy allow it to crystallize, when it becomes very good salt, of a fine, white, brilliant grain, without any intermix ture of bitterness. The Kifri naphtha supplies Baghdad ; the Kirkook naphtha supplies Kurd is tan .
Naphtha springs occur at Ayer-i-Nosh. Naphtha holding in solution a bituminous matter was ob tained by Vigne near Deraband in the Suliman mountains. In Burma, on one of the branches of the Irawadi, there are upwards of 500 naphtha and petroleum wells, which afford annually 412,000 hogsheads. The Burma petroleum contains the compound paraffine. Petroleum' is used as lamp oil in Burma.
Naphtha may be obtained by the distillation of petroleum ; it is also one of the results of the destructive distillation of coal ; it often passes with the gas to the distant parts of the apparatus, and may be found in gas-meters and gas-meter tanks, and even in the mains. Carefully-rectified naphtha, whether from natural or artificial sources, appears to possess similar properties. The sp. gr. of the purest Persian and Italian naphtha is said to vary from •750 to while that of coal naphtha may be •820, or higher. The odour of the natural naphtha is bituminous but not unpleasant ; that of coal is penetrating and dis agreeable. It does not congeal at zero. It ignites readily, and burns with a voluminous sooty flame. It is not soluble in water, although it communi cates its odour to that fluid. It dissolves in absolute alcohol, in ether and the oils. The boiling-point varies in different specimens from 320° to 365°. Naphtha is employed for preserving the metals of the alkalies, potassium and sodium, which cannot be kept in contact with any sub stance containing oxygen. It is used for the purpose of diminishing the friction of machinery as a substitute for sperm oil. It dissolves the greater number of the essential oils and the resins, and is extensively used for dissolving caoutchouc to render cloth waterproof ; with certain vegetable oils, it forms a good varnish, and for this purpose is substituted for turpentine.