Bitumen
Description
A common name for the organic, or hydrocarbon, portion of asphalt. Bitumen is a dark brown or black solid to semisolid material. It was used by ancient Egyptians as an adhesive. Bitumen is currently is used in hot-melt adhesives, coating, paints, sealants, roofing and road coating. The name bitumen has been used as a synonym for asphaltum, tar, and pitch and was also used as a commercial product name for a transparent, brown artists pigment made from asphaltum.
Synonyms and Related Terms
Bitumen (Deut.); bitume (Fr.); bitumen (Esp.); bitume (It.); betume (Port.); asphaltum; tar; pitch; asphaltum; tar; pitch;
Other Properties
Soluble in carbon disulfide.
| Refractive Index | 1.64 - 1.66 |
|---|
Hazards and Safety
Combustible. Softens at slightly elevated temperatures.
Ages poorly in dried oil films resulting in movement, disfigurement and/or cracks.
Additional Information
R.White "Brown and Black Organic Glazes, Pigments and Paints" National Gallery Technical Bulletin, 10:58-71, 1986. Georgiana Languri, Molecular studies of Asphalt, Mummy and Kassel earth pigments, MOLART report 2004, available through Archetype Publications, London.
Authority
- John S. Mills, Raymond White, John S. Mills, Raymond White, The Organic Chemistry of Museum Objects, Butterworth Heineman, London, 2nd ed., 1994
- R. J. Gettens, G.L. Stout, R. J. Gettens, G.L. Stout, Painting Materials, A Short Encyclopaedia, Dover Publications, New York, 1966
- G.S.Brady, G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 76
- Ralph Mayer, Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)
- Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996
- The Dictionary of Art, Grove's Dictionaries Inc., New York, 1996
- Richard S. Lewis, Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993
- Henry Hodges, Henry Hodges, Artifacts: An Introduction to Early Materials and Technology, Ronald P. Frye, Kingston, Canada, 1988
- Thomas C. Jester (ed.), Thomas C. Jester (ed.), Twentieth-Century Building Materials, McGraw-Hill Companies, Washington DC, 1995
- Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, Douglas M. Considine (ed.), Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1976
- Random House, Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997
- The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998
- Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000