KEROSENE OIL-WHAT TO BUY. LAMPS, AND
HOW TO USE THEM. GASOLINE, AND
ITS DANGERS.

We present herewith a circular issued by the State Board of Health of Iowa under the above caption, which is worthy of the careful study of every user of kerosene oil or gasoline:

Kerosene may be said to be the middle product of petroleum: the upper being several volatile hydro-carbons, known under the general term of naptha, a highly inflammable substance; and the lower, or paraffine, heavier and less combustible than kerosene. Naptha is a very dangerous explosive. An excess of naptha in kerosene renders the kerosene dangerous. An excess of paraffine makes the kerosene heavy and less combustible.

The statutes of Iowa demand that so much of the naptha shall be removed that oil when heated to a temperature of 105° Fahrenheit, will not throw off a vapor which will ignite when in contact with a flame or lighted match. That is what is termed the flashing-point. Extensive ob

servation and experiment have demonstrated that this standard will give satisfactory results for illuminating purposes, and be safe for use in ordinary lamps. It would not, however, be safe for kindling fires in the kitchen stove. No oil having a flashing-point below 106° can be lawfully sold or used for illuminating purposes in this state.

The flashing-point should not be confounded with the burning-point, or fire-test, which signifies that degree of temperature or heat at which oil placed in an open vessel will ignite and burn without a wick. The fire-test is not

recognized by the Iowa statute, and has little or no value as determining the actual quality of the oil. Retail dealers should especially bear this in mind. Refiners and tank-line companies frequently brand oil "175° fire-test,"—" headlight 175°," or other trade-marks which have no relation whatever, under the law, to the actual quality of the oil. The brand of an Iowa inspector, indicating the flashingpoint, is to be deemed the actual quality and standard of the oil. The average difference between the flashing- and burning-point of kerosene is ten to fifty degrees, the average being twenty to twenty-seven degrees, so that oil branded 175° fire-test should have a flashing-point of 126°. Hence no person should be misled or deceived by the dealer who says an oil is 150° or 175° fire-test. Look at the inspector's brand, get the degree of flashing-point there given, and add twenty-seven to it, and you will have very nearly the actual fire-test. The law interposes no inhibition against trade-marks, except that no trade-mark asserting a fraud can stand.

The flashing and burning-point are independent of each other. The flashing-point depends upon the amount of naphtha or volatile substance present, while the burningpoint depends upon the general character of the whole oil. The addition of only two per cent. of naptha would not affect the burning-point, while it would lower the flashing point ten degrees. Hence the burning-point is not deemed a reliable standard of safety.

The tendency of retail dealers is to purchase oil having a high flashing-point, presumably on the theory that if oil having a flashing-point of 106° is safe, that of 126° is so much safer. Theoretically that is true, but the higher the flashing-point, the heavier the oil. Heavy oil congeals more or less in cold weather, will not rise freely, hence there is imperfect combustion. There is a limit to capillary attraction. Oil having a flashing-point of 106° to 110° will give better illumination, burn freer, and with greater

satisfaction in ordinary lamps, than an oil with a flashingpoint of 120° or 126°.

Heavy, or high-grade kerosene has more or less paraffine, which tends to harden and clog the wick and overheat the wick-tube.

The fire-test of oil is made in an open cup. The flashtest, under the Iowa law, is made in a closed cup. It is proper here to say, for the benefit of retail dealers, that experiments made, covering thousands of tests, have shown that the average difference between the burning- and flashing point of oil, when both tests are made in the same cup, is from twenty to twenty-seven degrees. The average difference between the flashing-point of oil tested in an open cup, and the same oil tested in the Iowa (closed) cup, is twenty-five to thirty degrees. The difference between the burning-point of oil tested in an open cup, and the flashing point of the same oil tested in the Iowa (closed) cup, is from fifty to fifty-five degrees. Hence, commercial Headlight carbon oil, that has a burning-point, or fire-test, of one hundred and seventy-five degrees, tested, as it always is by the refiner, in an open cup, should have a flashing-point of one hundred and twenty degrees (minimum) to one hundred and thirty degrees when tested in the Iowa cup (closed). The specific gravity should not be above 48° Fahrenheit or 60° Baumé. If deficient in these requirements, as shown by the inspector's brand, a carbon oil could not be deemed true commercial Head-light oil. Such oil will not give good satisfaction in ordinary flat-wick lamps, and should be used only with burners and wicks especially adapted for heavy oil.

LAMPS.

Lamps should be of metal. Glass lamps should not be used in families where there are children. The bowl should be large in diameter, and shallow, not exceeding three inches in depth, so as to bring the flame as near the

oil as possible, to secure an even combustion of all the contents. With deep lamps the wick will fail to raise the oil when half consumed: crusted tube and overheated burner and deficient illumination are the result.

The base should be large and heavy, to prevent overturning.

They should be cleaned and filled every day, and once each week entirely emptied of their contents, to remove the dregs and sediment.

When oil has been kept forty-eight hours in a halffilled lamp, a dangerous vapor forms. This will be released by the process of filling the lamp.

Never remove the top or re-fill a lamp when burning. Before lighting turn the wick down even with the tube, and raise it gradually, as the burner becomes heated.

Never blow down a chimney to extinguish a lamp. Turn the wick down until the flame flickers, then give a quick puff of breath horizontally across the top of the chimney.

Do not fill a lamp to overflowing, as oil expands greatly as it becomes heated, and may rise up the wick tube and become ignited and dangerous.

During the day keep the lamp where the oil will not become warm. Never set it on a mantel over a fire-place, grate, or stove, where there is a fire.

Never leave a lamp burning with the wick turned down. Air currents are liable to cause the chimney to break; the wick tube will then become greatly heated, and the lamp filled with a dangerous vapor. A buruing lamp with a broken chimney becomes liable to violent explosion in about fifteen minutes. A lamp should not be left burning at all in a vacant room or house.

BURNERS.

The burners should be adapted to the oil to be used, whether heavy or light. It should be well made, of brass,

not brass-washed tin, and as short as possible. It should be properly constructed for draft and ventilation for the escape of vapor from the vapor-chamber of the lamp. It should burn without heating the burner-the cooler the better. The hinge-Sun, Grand, and Banner, for flat wicks, give satisfactory results with light oil.

The Dual, Duplex, Oxford, and Moehring will burn successfully oil having a flashing point of 270° to 280°, yet the flame will not be so white as that from 106° or 110° oil with a good burner, or give so good satisfaction.

For heavy oil, a more liberal wick is required to raise the oil freely enough to supply the flame, hence two or more wicks are provided.

Foul and ill kept burners are a more frequent cause of poor light than the oil.

The so called Hitchcock lamp, designed to burn without a chimney, gives a steady, strong, clear, pleasing light full sixteen candle-power, and being of metal, is commended for safety, economy, and illumination.

Burners should be kept perfectly clean inside and outside, and free from pieces of burned matches, charred wick, crustation on the wick tube, and accumulation of charred wick on the perforated disk. The disk is for the purpose of supplying draft and the necessary amount of oxygen of the atmosphere to consume the carbon of the oil. When the disk is clogged, imperfect combustion and smoke are the result.

To clean the wick, turn it up even with the tube and rub the finger lightly across it to remove the charred surface; do not cut it with shears.

Keep the vent-tube along the wick-tube into the lamp open and clean, as it is the safety-valve of the lamp.

Gummed and clogged burners can be easily cleaned by boiling a few minutes in sal-soda or concentrated lye and

water.

Center-draft burners are rapidly displacing those with a