The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-02-04
IA n ROSEX T..
g HISTORY, NATURE, ORIGIN, USES, DANGERS
AND THEIR REMEDIES.

lis I'll ,roRY, NATURE, ORIGIN, USES, DANGERS
AND THEIR REMEDIES
Kerosene is now the 'light Of the world; !"
.o hpnehcal and Yet becoming SO fearfully
destructive to health and life, that we cannot
rreder hetter service to our readers perhaps,
ban through brief article or two on this
subject.
Fbe name, kerosene" signifies nothing Of
it,elf-being Il fancy name given to certain
Ight- giving principle found in certain Goals,
nd in rock oil, or petroleum, DC, and applies
to several distinct articles, as henzine, naptha,
a,ttaue, SO. Its sources are two -fold-petro
lenm amid the AistilAtion of bituminous, or soft
pooi
Petroleum Latin, petfQ, rock, and oleum
,H-so tuck-ou. is Il natural product, oozing
through the surface, and flowing out with the
water OF springs. kock-oi is not something
new, as most people suppose. Herodotus
speaks OF d spring of 1t in the Island OF Zante,
Greece, 20O0 years ago; and for what untold
centuries ii flowed there before him. Hes be-
YOU'D the ken OF history and tradition This is
tho exact thing which, under the name OF
E'hONAp
Noses life among the bulrushes, built, with
ilc most enduring cement, the walls OF Baby
..,. and furnished a great prophet OF old with
rs aue rhetorical figure for the punishment OF
t4e wicked, ,-''the streams Shall be turned INTO
itcl the land Shall become burning pitch.
And the Dead Sea owes lis name 10 the fact'
that mo- lling OF life, either animal vegetable,
can live ia ils waters, highly charged are
.hcy with this pitch, or crude petroleum, the
whole scene presenting, for this reason, the
4osl cheerless and Godiorsaken aspect
Ancient Roman writer's us racitus and Pny,
.aLcA ID duilalet, the Greek word for pitch The
- Hueurnt Of this age calls it coal tar.
lr1aps lAis general statement may assist III
-ettin2 and retaining these names aud Ideas
When th.~ substance exists III Il fluid and thin
Iuln 1T Is called naptha when in Il much dens-
.r ioini, ioch-o oil, or petroleum; when much
,Icnser >ttl pitch, bitunen, coal tar, Sc when
u the form Of IA black brittle, solid mass, re-
-,mbling partially burnt rosin, it is called as
.Aaltunn. But they are all essentially the same
~oDslaaceS, differing only as to the proportion
yt thu elementary parts which compose them
HGer; lust as the same letters, differently com
aned, give many different words.
Among numerous other places Oh the East
r.u Continent where petroleum is found in
aund4nUc may be named Italy, Sicily on the
borders OF the Caspian Sea, in Burmah, &C.
lruund many volcanoes it is found ooZing from
the ground, and near Neeuvius spring OF it
.ses up through the sea. This fact of lis
proximity to volcanoes, we think, clearly points
tu the orlltl OF petroleum., and Will be further
uoticed when we come TO consider that branch
ut The subject In 1uturc number.
Il is equally erroneous, also, To suppose the
-iG4 of This article for Illuminating, and 9th
~ purposes, originated il cur country and
.1le-. lu lAr places aud countries above named
lids h,rn a-ll tor those purposes for centu
mas, BaAou. near he Caspian Sea- is large
H~tri, where eli, sometimes Of great purity,
bias been collected by means of artificial wells,
ul atee quantities, for agts, supplying Persia
1u4 Ill me region about with their only means
wi auhcial light.
rhe history, source and supply OF petroleum
Ma thia country, are too well known to require
attention. In future article We shall consid-
ej ITS nature, origin, uses. &c.