Paraffin
Paraffin is a white or colourless soft solid, derived from petroleum, coal or oil shale, that consists of a mixture of hydrocarbon molecules containing between twenty and forty carbon atoms.Un-dyed, unscented paraffin candles are odorless and bluish-white. Paraffin wax was first created in 1830 in Germany, and marked a major advancement in candlemaking technology, as it burned more cleanly and reliably than tallow candles and was cheaper to produce. Paraffin wax is an excellent electrical insulator, with a resistivity of between 1013 and 1017 ohm metre. This is better than nearly all other materials except some plastics (notably Teflon). It is an effective neutron moderator and was used in James Chadwick’s 1932 experiments to identify the neutron.
