Posted Nov 5, 2009 by BigAl - Keeper of the Glowing Pickle and Blue Banana, Patron Saint of Left Handers
A399430
Where I've said, "The patient is laid on his or her side and a candle is inserted..."
Please could you put 'candle' into inverted commas and add a footnote:
<FOOTNOTE>The term 'candle' here does not mean a stick of wax with a wick, of a type often inserted into birthday cakes. Rather it pertains to a hollow tube or cone made of linen, cotton or, if home-made, from newspaper. The device is stiffened by soaking in wax or paraffin which is allowed to harden.</FOOTNOTE>
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Posted Nov 5, 2009 by Gnomon
Soaking newspaper in paraffin would make it softer, surely?
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Posted Nov 5, 2009 by BigAl - Keeper of the Glowing Pickle and Blue Banana, Patron Saint of Left Handers
Well, there are different 'grades' of paraffin wax. We're p[robably most familiar with liquid paraffin, but this is what <cough>wiki</cough> says about it:
"In chemistry, paraffin is the common name for the alkane hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2. Paraffin wax refers to the solids with 20 ≤ n ≤ 40 .
The simplest paraffin molecule is that of methane, CH4, a gas at room temperature. Heavier members of the series, such as that of octane, C8H18, and mineral oil appear as liquids at room temperature. The solid forms of paraffin, called paraffin wax, are from the heaviest molecules from C20H42 to C40H82."
So, note that the solid paraffins range from molecules having 20 carbon atoms to molecules having as many as 40 carbon atoms. These will be very solid indeed!
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Posted Nov 5, 2009 by Gnomon
So what you meant was paraffin wax rather than paraffin. But "wax or paraffin wax" doesn't sound right, since paraffin wax is a type of wax. Perhaps just "wax" would be better.
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Posted Nov 5, 2009 by Gnomon
I've done that change, and I reworded footnote 1 slightly to make it more explanatory.
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