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?

[John Maroney]

No your right, here's the report on the guy that ingested it:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8644972/

Ant Bee said:

Microcrystalline is a type of paraffin wax that has a denser structure.  It has a higher melting point, which is what I THINK makes it do the spiking.  I add a little bit to my normal paraffin/LP mixture to impart some of the characteristics of oldschool lava.  However, if you make the mixture entirely of microcrystalline, it has a really hard time melting and just kinda sits there in a permanent "warmup" phase.

Kerosene is lighter than perc- it floats on water.

The original formula is not known, we just know a little bit because some dude ingested a lava lamp and the hospital requested the ingredients.  Lava Lite obliged but only to a certain extent- hence why we know kerosene was involved.  (I may be getting my facts a little wrong here)

One thing we do know is that Crayola used to provide their wax.  However, crayons don't work well for this, because they have a hardening agent that really screws things up in a lot of ways.  I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I could go about removing that agent, because melted crayola wax in a lamp looks JUST like vintage lava.

[Zach]

Hi Tevfik! Quick question, just want to make sure I’m understanding, the lamp on the left is made with 25g microcrystalline, 35g liquid paraffin, 4g kerosene and 1.5 dye? I’ve tried that and my wax won’t seem to harden. It just stays jelly-like. Does yours harden? Thanks! 

Tevfik Dogruman said:

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.

[Tevfik Dogruman]

Hi Zach, wax does not harden completely. If we do this with chlorinated paraffin instead of wax. It will be harder as we won't be using it in Perc. Less liquid material, harder wax.

Zach said:

Hi Tevfik! Quick question, just want to make sure I’m understanding, the lamp on the left is made with 25g microcrystalline, 35g liquid paraffin, 4g kerosene and 1.5 dye? I’ve tried that and my wax won’t seem to harden. It just stays jelly-like. Does yours harden? Thanks! 

[Zach]

Oh ok! Makes sense! Thank you! 

Tevfik Dogruman said:

Hi Zach, wax does not harden completely. If we do this with chlorinated paraffin instead of wax. It will be harder as we won't be using it in Perc. Less liquid material, harder wax.

Zach said:

Hi Tevfik! Quick question, just want to make sure I’m understanding, the lamp on the left is made with 25g microcrystalline, 35g liquid paraffin, 4g kerosene and 1.5 dye? I’ve tried that and my wax won’t seem to harden. It just stays jelly-like. Does yours harden? Thanks! 

[Zach]

Hey Tev! A couple more questions sir. How much surf were you using in this picture and what wattage bulb? Was the bulb being ran with no dimmer? Thanks! 

Tevfik Dogruman said:

Hi Zach, wax does not harden completely. If we do this with chlorinated paraffin instead of wax. It will be harder as we won't be using it in Perc. Less liquid material, harder wax.

Zach said:

Hi Tevfik! Quick question, just want to make sure I’m understanding, the lamp on the left is made with 25g microcrystalline, 35g liquid paraffin, 4g kerosene and 1.5 dye? I’ve tried that and my wax won’t seem to harden. It just stays jelly-like. Does yours harden? Thanks! 

[Tevfik Dogruman]

Hi Zach, I used a 12 volt 35 watt halogen bulb. Here are the pictures.

I used surfactant SLES. I prepared 25% SLES and added 1ml.

[Zach]

Excellent! Thanks again Tev! Really enjoy your posts. 

Tevfik Dogruman said:

Hi Zach, I used a 12 volt 35 watt halogen bulb. Here are the pictures.

I used surfactant SLES. I prepared 25% SLES and added 1ml.