S. F. Peckham

“ The petroleum industry, in many of its aspects, is the product of development. This statement is true, not only as respects its vast magnitude, but also as pertaining to many of its details. The process of cracking had been employed in treating the distillates from coal before petroleum became an article of commerce; yet petroleum, for a number of years following its discovery in large quantities, was uniformly distilled into naphtha, normal burning-oil, and paraffine-oil. ”

“ Petroleum consists of a great many different fluids, which range in volatility from the boiling-point of ether to nearly a red-heat. Such being the case, as soon as the oil is heated at all, the most volatile products begin to come over, at first colorless as water, but very gradually assuming a yellow tinge until the most dense distillate coming over at the last is quite dark brown in color, so that, if all the distillate were allowed to run into a tank together, it would not look very differently from the original petroleum. ”

“ Cracked oils of good quality are nothing new, but I have never seen them made by one distillation and one treatment. Cracked oils should be finished by distillation, not treatment. A second distillation would enable the refiner to first remove the two volatile products of cracking and the heavy, uncracked portion of the paraffine-oil, besides destroying the sulphur compounds. But such a technology would so far increase the cost of the oil that those employing it could not compete in the market with those who did not, except by virtue of the superior quality of their oil. ”

“ Experiment has repeatedly demonstrated that an oil that will give off vapors that will flash at 100° Fahr. is safe for any legitimate use. As painful and disastrous accidents are liable to follow the explosion of a lamp, and as the increased danger of explosion where low-test oils are used is obvious to any reflecting person, all efforts to restrict the manufacture or sale of unsafe oils by legislation have been hitherto directed toward the exclusion of very low-test oils from the market. ”

“ That the effect must be bad, determining a tendency to certain forms of disease and aggravating others, can not fail to be apparent to the most unreflecting person, especially when it is considered in how few instances any means are employed to remove from the apartment in which these oils are burned the products of combustion. When under such circumstances a pure oil is burned into pure water and carbonic acid, the atmosphere receives a sufficient burden ”

“ They may be washed with sulphuric acid or strong solution of caustic soda, and very completely purified; but they are not acted on by either of these powerful reagents, and the product is a pure, colorless oil, with the odor of kerosene, and burning with a dazzling, white flame. The wick is burned but little more rapidly than that of an alcohol-lamp. The flame does not smoke, neither does it emit any unpleasant odor. These oils are safe, healthful, and economical; in fact, they constitute the best and cheapest illuminating agent ever given to man. ”

“ Of course, such diverse enactments relating to a single interest and question can not command the respectful consideration that uniform, just, and reasonable legislation would receive from all intelligent persons interested; hence, it may be fairly stated that in this country legislation relating to the testing of petroleum is in in many respects unsatisfactory. ”

“ For the reasons stated, it appears that the health and safety of the public, and the protection of those manufacturers who would make a radical change in the methods of manufacture now employed, alike demand legislation that will exclude from the market not only oils that are unsafe from excess of naphtha, but those which in their general character are unhealthful to use and unsafe from other causes. ”

“ Of this vast quantity, by far the largest proportion is consumed as illuminating oil, or kerosene, for the production of which a stream of oil is constantly flowing through six-inch pipes from the oil-region of Western Pennsylvania to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Jersey City. In each of these cities establishments, constructed for the purpose, convert the crude oil into various products, principally illuminating oil, for the home market and an export trade of vast proportions. ”

“ It is in respect to this difficulty that the public weal could be well served by judicious legislation that in its broadest sense might well be considered sanitary legislation. It is a proper subject for physicians to determine, what the precise effects upon the general health may be resulting from the combustion in lamps and stoves of the vast quantities of inferior oils that are daily consumed throughout the country. ”

“ These crude burning-oils were treated with sulphuric acid and caustic soda in such a manner as to produce the lightest colored oil possible, and they were further manipulated to bring the test within the legal requirements. As it was much less difficult to bring the mixed or cracked oils within the requirements of a burning rather than a flash test, the burning test has always found strong advocates among a certain class of the manufacturers of petroleum. ”

“ By Professor S. F. PECKHAM.
A MODERN French writer has said: "In the domain of the useful arts each age reveals characteristic tendencies. In the last century, mankind had need to clothe itself cheaply. ”