The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1905-03-16
NEW OIL LAW
The People Win Rather Than Lose
in Change.

the newspapers that general mlsap-
prehensiOn and a variety Of ideas has
existed relative to the amendment
made by the late legislature to the oil
laws, the editor of this paper has taken
the pains to inform himself from re-
liable sources concerning the matter.
The old law, Chapter 1S9 of the
session laws of 1903, provided among
other things that kerosene oil should
not give flash test below 1O0e F.,
that the gravity should not be less
than forty-six degrees as meas ured
by the Beaume hydrometer, and that
it should not contain more than four
per cent by weight of residue. The
new law leaves exactly the same tests
and leaves the old law as it was, ex-
cept that the standard fixed for Kansas
oil is that it shall not be less than
forty-two degrees by the Beaume hy-
drOmeter in gravity and shall not con-
tain more than seven per cent by
weight of residue. AS to the eastern
oils and all other oils except that from
the Kansas fields the law remains
precisely as it formerly was. This
amendment to the law became neces-
sary if Kansas oil was to be permitted
to be used in this state inasmuch as
the properties of Kansas oil, so far as
gravity and residue are concerned, are
essentially different from the eastern
oils, the Kansas oil when distilled so
as to comply with the provisions of the
old law would be too fluid and too
much like gasoline to be fit for use in
lamps.
The bill as originally introduced in
the late legislature provided for the
amendment of the 1908 law SO as to re-
duce the gravity of all oils, eastern
and western, to forty-two degrees
Beaume, and increase the residue to
ten per cent, but upon investigation
Ivy Prof. Shepard of the Agricultural
College and Prof. Akeley of the State
University, who made examinations
Of the Kansas oil at the request OF the
legislat committees, it appeared
that the standard should remain as it
was so far as the eastern oils were con-
cerned, but that Kansas oil with a
gravity of forty-two degrees Beaume
and a residue of seven per cent was
equal in all respects if not better than
oil from the eastern fields at forty-siX
degrees Beaume gravity and not over
four per cent residue; and by the way,
the writer learned that this residue
does not mean foreign or refuse ma
heavier oil than that distilled up to
500 +. That there is a radical differ
ence between the gravities and the
huidity of the oils coming from the
different oil fields, and that therefore
in order to be scientifically correct it
is necessary that there shall be GER
tain specific gravity and "A certain
amount of residue to make a good
burning kerosene oil from one field,
and a somewhat different specific gray
itv and residue from another field in
order to conform to the different ply
steal and chemical properties of the
different oils.
1t was to meet this condition that
the legislature amended this law SO
far as the Kansas oil was concerned,
and the law as it now stands contains,
rs stated by the States experts after
careful tests and examinations, a pro-
per standard as compared with and
based upon the oils produced from the
fields that this state is supplied from,
namely, the eastern fields consisting
of Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio,
wherein the law remains as it was
originally enacted, and the new stand
ard of oil from the western or Kansas
fields as above stated.
At the time the 1908 law was enacted
the standard was based upon the oil
then in the market, which was he
eastern oil, and it is since that time
that Kansas oil has been produced
in large quantities and offered for sale
in this state. So the legislature had
the condition before them that they
must either make this proviso admit
ting Kansas oil upon its merits and
particular properties or else exclude it
entirely, as it could not be made to
conform to the standard of eastern
oils. 1t appears that the Legislature
believed that it was wiser to admit
Kansas oil than to exclude it, and
therefore made this amendment.
Kansas oil not having heretofore been
used in this state, it appears some
have imagined that it was an inferior
oil, but the careful and complete anal
vses, tests and experiments thereof
made by Messrs. Shepard and Akeley
demonstrated otherwise and that in
fact the Kansas oil is superior to the
eastern oil in all particulars. Further
more the possibility that consumers
of oil in this state may be able to take
advantage of competition and lower
nrices if they can use Kansas oil evil
IDENTIFY cut some figure with the legis-
lature.
Another feature in which the state is