Object ID Number:
PH145
Object Name:
Alcohol Cetylic
Type:
Shop Furniture
Manufactured from:
1880
Manufactured to:
1930
Description / History:
Glass jar of Alcohol Cetylic. Label reads Fisher Scientific Co. Elmer and Amend, New York. Jar is three quarter full of a white Flakey substance.
A solid organic compound that was one of the first alcohols to be isolated from fats. Cetyl alcohol was discovered in 1817 by the French chemist Michel Chevreul. When he heated a sample of spermaceti (a solid wax formed by the cooling of sperm whale oil) with caustic potash (potassium hydroxide), colourless crystals appeared. Although Chevreul thought that these crystals were a compound of ethylene and water, a more complete analysis by other researchers in 1836 established its composition as an alcohol.
Used as a thickening agent for lotions and creams.
A solid organic compound that was one of the first alcohols to be isolated from fats. Cetyl alcohol was discovered in 1817 by the French chemist Michel Chevreul. When he heated a sample of spermaceti (a solid wax formed by the cooling of sperm whale oil) with caustic potash (potassium hydroxide), colourless crystals appeared. Although Chevreul thought that these crystals were a compound of ethylene and water, a more complete analysis by other researchers in 1836 established its composition as an alcohol.
Used as a thickening agent for lotions and creams.
Dimensions:
H–7.5 Dia–4 inches
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