Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-10-09
MANUFAcTURE Of KEROSENE.
Brushed Into n Whfrl, the OIL BE-
comes of Lighter Color.

From the Chicago Tribune.
How many horsekeepers. they fill their
lamps with kerosene oil or their summer
stoves with gasoline, have any idea how
these ellis are made? And yet few miles
from Chicago at Whiting, Ind. is the
largest oil refinery in the world.
Every one knows that in its Grade state
the Gil comes out of the earth, but 1t would
be an utterly useless discovery were II not
for the brains and money used In the re-
Gning 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 Kerosene
the last often called coal or illuminating oil,
belongs to the same family. the three
first ramed being lighter oils, do not re
uuire nearly so much handling TO bring
them tc perfection as the kerosene. rms,
of course, is easy to believe, put When II
is said that from the same or OIL, after
all the lighter oils have been distilled out,
wax Is made so closely resembling the
pre- duct of the bee as to deceive even an
expert. and that it is used in chewing gum
factories, candle factories, lanndfles, ana
even in candy factories, one Is often met
with a polite look of doubt or an incredu-
lous shrug of the shoulders. Yet II is Sd.
1t is possible to go yet further, and say
that hundreds of homes in W hitting and IN
Chicago have been made comfortable TINS
winter by the refuse that adheres TO the
bottom and sides Of the stills after even
the wax has been pressed out. This refuse
makes a good coke. is easily lighted, and is
warmer, cleaner, and cheaper than coal
Hur dreds of tons are removed from the
still daily before they are charged again,
and hundreds of those no 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
na de from this coke. Nothing is wasted.
| AS the most common the kerosene oil is
perhaps the most Interesting OF the pro-
ducts. After leaving the crude stills 1t APP
pee rs again in 'sweetening stills or in the
| compound cylinders" which perform the
same work as the sweetening stills. but is
| a newer invention, and is patented by an
outsider. who allows only forty in each re-
fnery The "sweeteners' form an import
ant factor in the refining of Ohio oil. Ow-
| irg to the compound" before mentioned,
and the continuous friction Of the immense
| wire brushes which keep the oil in a mad
| wrirl, il loses much of its bad odor. II is
again vapored off, cooled in the condenser
i oxes, ard passed off into the steam
stills for the next process.
In the steam stills it IS treated Just the
same as in the two previous processes,
| with the addition of washing by steam
! from perforated pipes passing through il.
IL is 'vapCred'' off as before, and how one
would suppose that it was ready tor use.
| Not quite The kerosene oil now passes
| into the agitator for the final process. The
agitator is a funnel-shaped tank in which
| the OIL is treated with acid, and beaten and
| blown about by machine called a blower
and washed by torrents of water until IL
| roars like the lake in storm. Every par
ticle of foreign matter is thus expelled 1t
| is then pumped off into the storage tanks
for shipping.