Evening journal., 1896-08-24
MANyfhc1oae OF KEROSENE.
Brashoa Into Vhisi, tho Oil Become
OfIighter Ccior.

Er0shc6 Into Whisi, tho Oil Becomes
ofIiEIater Ccior.
How many hoGzokeercrs, as they I'll
thcit hmpK with kerosene oil or tieir
summer stoves with gasoline, have aLV
idea how these oils are madeY And YET q
few miles from Chicago, at Whiting, Ind,
Is the largest oil refinery in the world.
Every one knows that in its crude state
the oifcomes out Of the earth but would
be an utterly useless discovery were II not
for the brains and money used in the re-
flning Of the raw material. BY the use Of
the brains and money, however, not only
the clear oil, but several other products,
are drawn from the crude material
Naphtha, benzine, gasoline and kero-
sene, the last often called codl on illulni-
mating oil, belong to the same faAn'ly..
Tho three first named, being lighter on.s,
do not require nearly so much handling to
bring them TO perfection as the kerosene.
This, OF course, is easy TO believe, but
when IL Is said that from the same crude
oil, after all the lighter oils have been dis
titled out, wax is made 80 closely rese;n-
bling the product of the bee as TO deceive
even an expert, and that it is used in
chewing gum factories, candle factories,
aundries and even In candy factories, one
Is often met with polite look of doubt or
an incredulous shrug of the shoulders
Yet it Is so. 1t IS possible TO go yet fur
thcr and say that hundreds of homes in
Whiting and in Chicago have been made
comfortable this winter by the refuse that
adkcres 60 the bottom and sides Of the
"stills' after even the wax has been
pressed out. This refuse makes good
coke, is easily lighted and is warmer,
tsla I.l.
OF tons are removed from the stills daily
before they are charged" again, and hun
dreds Of those who use this fuel do not
know that it was once crude oil, dug in
the Ohio fields and piped on to Whiting
The carbon used in electric lights IS also
made from this coke. Nothing is wasted
AS the most common the kerosene oil is
perhaps the most interesting of the prod
ucts After leaving the crude stills it mp
pears again in the "swoetening" stills or
in the compound cylinders, - which PER
form tho samo work as the sweetening
stills, but Is IA newer invention and is pat
cnted by an outsider, who allows only 40
In each refinery. The sweeteners" form
an important factory IN the refining Of
Ohio oil Owing to the compound"
before mentioned and the continuous fric-
ton of the immense wire brushes which
keep the oil in mad whirl it loses much
of its bad odor. It is again vapored Off,
cooled in the condenser boxes and passed
off into the 'steam stills for the next
process.
In the steam stills 1t is treated just the
same as In the two previous processes, with
tho addition Of washing by steam from
perforated pipes passing through it. 1t is
"vapored' of as before, and now one
would suppose that 1t was ready for use.
Not quite. The kerosene oil now passes
into the agitator for the final process. The
agitator is q funnel shaped tank in which
the oil is treated with acid and beaten and
blown about by a machine called blower
and washed by torrents of water until it
roars like the lake in storm. Every parti-
Gle of foreign matter Is thus expelled. 1t
Is then pumped off into the storage tanks
for shipping. -Ch.csgo Tribune