Trying to crack the original formula- why was kerosene used?

[Ant Bee]

In my quest to figure out exactly what the original formula is, one thing I haven't figured out is why they used Kerosene in the mixture.  It seems like it was a very small part of the mixture, something like 7% by volume.

But what was the point?  Did it act as a preservative, or enhance the flow, or help to bind everything together?

Speculations?

[Claude J]

AND CRAYONS!

Tevfik Dogruman said:

I watched the video. I'm thinking. They were not added surfactant directly to the wax. Not foamy liquid wax.

Ant Bee said:

Yes you're right- too much (and I think I used too much here but this was just a "see what happens" thing) and it will emulsify.

But re-watching the old video from the 90's, I am quite convinced that they were added surfactant directly to the wax:

https://youtu.be/EG8IV43DkOE?t=38

Notice how the tanks of how wax have foam on the top?  I have never seen that before when making my waxes- and now that I have my SLS-added formula on the stove, it's foaming on top!

[Tevfik Dogruman]

The weekend did two studies. Most importantly, I could not highlight the green color exactly. When the wax melts with the effect of light, the green color looks red. I finally made it. The other problem was opacity, I also managed that.
I made the right side lamp with liquid Paraffin (Mineral oil) 35g, Solid paraffin 25g, kerosene 4g, perc 45g and dye (pebeo oil paint-green) 1.5g. There were no snaky movements. I set it aside. In the new one, I used Microcrystalline wax instead of paraffin. Seeing in the picture is your appreciation.
In what I set aside, I added 35g of natural beeswax (Yellow) and 16g of kerosene. Both of them have been working for 4 hours.

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYZeQFRQBY0

The liquid part is pure water, glycerin and sles.

[Ant Bee]

To my eye, the one on the left looks better.  You say you used oil paint?  Funny, I was going to purchase some from the art store on Friday, unfortunately they closed early..

[Ant Bee]

I don't think you want to throw Alcohol in the mix, for the simple reason that its suuuuper light compared to water.  You'll end up compensating with a lot more PG/Glycerin, which as Autumn and I have found will cause clouding when the lamp heats.

[Ant Bee]

Just don't go crazy with the micro- that stuff has a very high melting point and once you start hitting ratios of 30% micro to 70% paraffin (even accounting for other additives like LP and kerosene) you'll find that the lamp will have a hell of a time re-melting after the initial eruption.

[Tevfik Dogruman]

Yes bro, i am a chemical engineer.

BR4X said:

roger. the bees wax could offer the best of both worlds. the gold lamp is a project of mine as it would be very rare. I was going to send this in a PM but it isn't available:

____________________________________

Ant and Tev

I have read most all of your posts and found you to be the most helpful. Ant, your scientific method is notable and worth appreciation. Tev, you got a little chemist in you don't you buddy.

Very few people have successfully created wax but beyond that, you two are starting to figure out what is behind the "magic". very impressive! 

ps. I don't mean to come off like an ass, and I will always share. just having a bit of fun.

[Tevfik Dogruman]

The clear master fluid is simply distilled water and surfercant (the base chemical for making soap, detergent or shampoo). I prefer SLES (Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulphate).

Hexane is an organic substance like kerosene. It not will eat the wax and coil?

“Surface force” is surface tension.         

BR4X said:

I keep thinking of the blob vs. stretch problem. We are pretty good at creating blobs, but not the stretchy effect. We found that thinner lava works, surf works, viscosity vs. hydrostatic pressure was notable. I think we missed a force, I think surface tension makes the blobs tend toward a perfect sphere because a sphere contains volume with the least surface area.

tev, 

can you help me out here. We had the list of ingredients that you broke down from the lava company (this would be the master fluid, not lava). Do any of them seem like they would reduce this type of surface charge/ force? Or tell me I’m crazy. Go turn on your stretchy-est lamp, doesn’t it look like it wants to stretch out instead of tighten up? Surface force (I don’t know the right name)

Greg (my bud) thinks hexane.. but will it eat the wax / coil? Haven’t looked into it yet.. that list though lol

I have been busy.. just some night time thoughts

[Autumn]

BR4X,

Metallic pigment that is of the smallest particle size is probably what you need. You aren't the first person to attempt this and Claude has figured this out already, but he hasn't shared his discovery. Others like Dr. What?! tried using sharpies, but after many runs the metallic flakes fall to the bottom of the wax and stop flowing.

When you buy things like bottle sealing waxes you are just buying a wax with some kind of pigment added to it. Try this.

https://www.paintwithpearl.com/shop-custom-paint/metal-candy-pearl-...

You could also email the vendor and ask them what they recommend.

[Autumn]

Do you know why propylene glycol was part of the older formulas? Was it just for it's properties of lowering the freezing temperature? Any thoughts as to why they would have been balancing their lamps for 1.038 specific gravity vs something closer to 1 like they do now?

Tevfik Dogruman said:

The clear master fluid is simply distilled water and surfercant (the base chemical for making soap, detergent or shampoo). I prefer SLES (Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulphate).

Hexane is an organic substance like kerosene. It not will eat the wax and coil?

“Surface force” is surface tension.         

BR4X said:

I keep thinking of the blob vs. stretch problem. We are pretty good at creating blobs, but not the stretchy effect. We found that thinner lava works, surf works, viscosity vs. hydrostatic pressure was notable. I think we missed a force, I think surface tension makes the blobs tend toward a perfect sphere because a sphere contains volume with the least surface area.

tev, 

can you help me out here. We had the list of ingredients that you broke down from the lava company (this would be the master fluid, not lava). Do any of them seem like they would reduce this type of surface charge/ force? Or tell me I’m crazy. Go turn on your stretchy-est lamp, doesn’t it look like it wants to stretch out instead of tighten up? Surface force (I don’t know the right name)

Greg (my bud) thinks hexane.. but will it eat the wax / coil? Haven’t looked into it yet.. that list though lol

I have been busy.. just some night time thoughts

[BamaMatt]

Check out this patent.   https://patents.google.com/patent/US3570156A/en

"Surprisingly, all four of the above-mentioned disadvantages can be overcome by this simple expedient, especially if the additive has a relatively high coefficient of expansion, for example, polyhydroxy organic liquids such as glycerol ethylene glycol, polyethylene glycol or propylene glycol, preferably the latter."

Autumn said:

Do you know why propylene glycol was part of the older formulas? Was it just for it's properties of raising the freezing temperature? Any thoughts as to why they would have been balancing their lamps for 1.038 specific gravity vs something closer to 1 like they do now?

Tevfik Dogruman said:

The clear master fluid is simply distilled water and surfercant (the base chemical for making soap, detergent or shampoo). I prefer SLES (Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulphate).

Hexane is an organic substance like kerosene. It not will eat the wax and coil?

“Surface force” is surface tension.         

BR4X said:

I keep thinking of the blob vs. stretch problem. We are pretty good at creating blobs, but not the stretchy effect. We found that thinner lava works, surf works, viscosity vs. hydrostatic pressure was notable. I think we missed a force, I think surface tension makes the blobs tend toward a perfect sphere because a sphere contains volume with the least surface area.

tev, 

can you help me out here. We had the list of ingredients that you broke down from the lava company (this would be the master fluid, not lava). Do any of them seem like they would reduce this type of surface charge/ force? Or tell me I’m crazy. Go turn on your stretchy-est lamp, doesn’t it look like it wants to stretch out instead of tighten up? Surface force (I don’t know the right name)

Greg (my bud) thinks hexane.. but will it eat the wax / coil? Haven’t looked into it yet.. that list though lol

I have been busy.. just some night time thoughts

[Tevfik Dogruman]

I found these data from technical books.

 

Volume expansion coefficient of paraffin wax

Paraffin wax is a phase-changing material that significantly increases in volume while transitioning from solid to liquid. ...

For example, the paraffin wax (SIGMA-ALDRICH paraffin wax mp 58–62 ° C) used in this publication shows an expansion of free volume of about 15% at 75 ° C compared to 25 ° C.

Water shows an expansion of free volume of about 2.39% at 75 ° C compared to 25 ° C.

Therefore paraffin floats.

 

The higher the heat conduction coefficient, the more heat conduction.

 

Unlike water, propylene glycol has a lower heat capacity. This means it accumulates less heat and hence will give less.

 

Propylene glycol is a germicide approximately equal to ethanol. It stops the growth of microorganisms in solutions. Generally, the desired effect is achieved with a concentration in the range of 15-30%.

Autumn said:

Do you know why propylene glycol was part of the older formulas? Was it just for it's properties of lowering the freezing temperature? Any thoughts as to why they would have been balancing their lamps for 1.038 specific gravity vs something closer to 1 like they do now?

[Autumn]

So in layman's terms I think I get the following benefits.

1. It reduces the master fluid expansion so the density of the master fluid is more consistent at the resting and operating temperature range.
2. It makes the master fluid react slower to changes in the external environment.
3. It provides germicidal properties to the master fluid.

I think I'm going to iterate on my master fluid formula now that I have some sodium lauryl sulfate. I think the Triton X100(polyethylene glycol tert-octylphenyl ether) at 1/2 of a teaspoon is too much. The liquid clouds very easily when the lamp is moved around. I also noticed it does not fully prevent wax from sticking. Looking at the earlier posts it looks like maybe a combination of Triton X100 and sodium lauryl sulfate was used. Their combined properties are probably beneficial over only using one or the other.

So my next question is what is the difference between sodium lauryl sulfate and magnesium lauryl sulfate? I cannot find magnesium lauryl sulfate anywhere. Is sodium lauryl sulfate an acceptable substitute? Why are there potentially 3 surfactants in this formula?

Breaking down the liquid formula in this document we have the following ingredients.

• Water
  • Main carrier fluid.
• Tetrasodium Ethylenediaminetetraacetic
  • Prevents rusting of the coil?
• hydrochloric acid
  • Probably used to drop the PH so the Tetrasodium Ethylenediaminetetraacetic is within it's required PH range to work properly.
• Polyethylene Glycol
  • Looks like it is used to modify density. Probably is more stable than glycerol.
  • Temperature regulation.
  • Anti bacterial properties.
• Methyl Paraben
  • Anti fungal agent.
• polyethylene glycol tert-octylphenyl ether
  • Possibly used as a surfactant?
• Magnesium Lauryl Sulfate
  • Surfactant.
• Alcohols c10-16 ethoxylated
  • Another surfactant? Why 3 surfactants? Is this just taking into account the ethoxylation of the magnesium lauryl sulfate.

Tevfik Dogruman said:

I found these data from technical books.

 

Volume expansion coefficient of paraffin wax

Paraffin wax is a phase-changing material that significantly increases in volume while transitioning from solid to liquid. ...

For example, the paraffin wax (SIGMA-ALDRICH paraffin wax mp 58–62 ° C) used in this publication shows an expansion of free volume of about 15% at 75 ° C compared to 25 ° C.

Water shows an expansion of free volume of about 2.39% at 75 ° C compared to 25 ° C.

Therefore paraffin floats.

 

The higher the heat conduction coefficient, the more heat conduction.

 

Unlike water, propylene glycol has a lower heat capacity. This means it accumulates less heat and hence will give less.

 

Propylene glycol is a germicide approximately equal to ethanol. It stops the growth of microorganisms in solutions. Generally, the desired effect is achieved with a concentration in the range of 15-30%.

Autumn said:

Do you know why propylene glycol was part of the older formulas? Was it just for it's properties of lowering the freezing temperature? Any thoughts as to why they would have been balancing their lamps for 1.038 specific gravity vs something closer to 1 like they do now?