The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-09-17
On.ExplOsiye Kerosene.

Very frequently of late we have re
ceived from correspondents, East and
west, samples of ''stuff'' sold them by
peddlers with the assurance that when
little of these preparations are mixed
with the poorest burning oil the latter
is rendered perfectly safe. OF course
one OF the chief inducements to use
these compositions is the assurance
that with them much cheaper oil of
equal illuminating power can be used
safely.
This fraud is very dangerous one,
and perhaps the best way to stop it is
by the diffusion of little practical in
formation respecting these oils.
In the first place, there is nothing
that can be added to or mixed with
poor kerosene Oil that will in the least
affect its dangerous qualities or make it
any safer to use in lamps. The danger
with such oils arises solely from the
presence in them of light, easily vola-
tilted and very intiammable hydro-car-
bons, such as naphtha, the vapor of
which, when mixed with air, explodes
on contact with flame.
Kerosene and naphtha or benzine are
derived by process of distillation
from the same petroleum.
The lighter oils-gasoline, naphtha,
benzine, etc. are first volatilized and
condensed. As the products distill
over they are tested from time to time
with a hydrometer, and when it is
found that the stream of distilled oil
marks about So degrees (Baume's hy-
drometer), what follows is turned into
another tank until il is found that the
gravity of the oil coming over has risen
to about 40 degrees, then the stream is
detected into another tank. The oil
distilled between 50 and 80 degrees is
called kerosene or burning oil
| In this process about fifteen per cent.
of the light oils are produced, and as
there is comparatively little demand
for them they are very cheap. Naph.
tina costs from two to five cents GAL
Ion, while good kerosene costs from
twenty to twenty-five cents. As great
competition exists among the reiiners
there is strong inducement to turn the
heavier portions of the naphtha into the
Kerosene tank, so as to get
for it the price of kerosene or
to cheaper the latter. They change the
direction of the stream from the still
when 1t reaches siXty-tive to sixty-three
degrees B., instead of waiting until it
reaches tifty-eight degrees; and thus the
volatile infammable naphtha or benzine
is allowed to run into the kerosene,
rendering the whole of the latter dan
gerous. 1t has been shown that one
per cent. of naptha will lower the flash
ing point of kerosene ten degrees, while
with twenty per cent. of naphtha the
same oil will flash at eight degrees
| (Fahrenheit) above the freezing point
of water. 1t is, therefore, the cupiditv
of the refiner that leads him to run as
much benzine as possible into the kero-
sene regardless of the consequences.
The specific gravity is not a safe guide
respecting the character of such oils, as
poor dangerous oil may be heavier
than a safe oil. Astral oil illustrates
this. While it does not flash below 1875
degrees Fahrenheit its gravity is forty
degrees b. Poor kerosene flashes at
eighty degrees Fahrenheit but has a
gravity of forty-seven degrees b.
Kerosene, when properly refined, is
nearly colorless by Transmitted light and
slightly fiuorescent by reflected light.
Its density should be about forty-three
degrees B. At ordinary temperatures
it should extinguish match as readily
as water without becoming inhamed or
flashing, and when heated it should not
evolve an inflammable vapor below ITO
degrees Fahrenheit, and should not take
fire below 125 to 40 degrees Fahren-
heit.
AS the temperature in a burning lamp
rarely exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit,
such an oil would be safe. 1t would
produce no vapors to mix with the air
in the lamp and make an explosive MKT
ure, and if the lamp were overturned
or broken the oil would not take fire.
The standard which has generally
been adopted by law as a safe one fixes
the flashing point at 100 degrees Fahren-
heit or higher.
Professor Chandler, President of the
New York City Board of Health, says:
"Out of 736 samples of kerosene oil
tested by me, only twenty were really
safe, all the rest evolving inllammable
vapor below 100 degrees Fahrenheit"
In his paper on the temperature of oil
in lamps (Americdn Chemist, August,
1872. p. 43) DIR. Chandler has shown
that in some cases the temperature of
their contents often rises above 100 de-
grees Fahren heit. Scientific american.