Mineral oil

“ Petroleum has largely superseded other oils, and is still gaining ground, as a lubricant for machinery and railway rolling-stock, either alone or in admixture with fixed oils. The more viscous descriptions of mineral oils have also been found suitable for use in the Elmore process of ore-concentration by oil. ”

“ Spon, in his Encyclopedia of the Arts, gives his views to the effect that "The best oil is that which has the greatest adhesion to metallic surfaces and the least cohesion in its own particles. In this respect fine mineral oils stand first, sperm oil second, neatsfoot oil third. Consequently the best mineral oils are the best for light bearings. The best oil to give body to fine mineral oils is sperm oil."
4. "Mineral oils do not absorb oxygen," and consequently do not "gum" or become viscous.—Thurston.
5. Mineral oils never become rancid in any climate, as they possess no fatty acids. ”

“ The use of crude (unrefined) mineral oil in steam boilers is attended by risks caused by impurities and foreign substances mixed with it. These are likely to combine with the earthy matter in the water and tend to form instead of preventing scale; the tar and wax contained in crude petroleum combine with the sediment in steam boilers, and the paste prevents the water from reaching and protecting the plates. This is true particularly in shell boilers which have flat surfaces over the fire. Refined mineral oil has none of these disadvantages. ”

“ This petroleum, when distilled in a current of steam, leaves about 4 per cent of residue, and the volatile portion contains about one-tenth of its weight of a substance (paraffin) 760which is solid at ordinary temperatures. After an agitation with oil of vitriol, and another distillation, rock oil or naphtha is obtained, which, however, is still a mixture of several distinct chemical compounds. Mineral oils have also been found in China, Japan, Hindostan, Persia, the West India Islands, France, Italy, Bavaria, and England. ”

“ The rise and progress of the mineral-oil industry are too well known to need any special comment. In this and other countries, the supply of hydro-carbon oils, both from shale-beds and springs, has of late years received remarkable development. ”

“ What happens at the ordinary temperature slowly goes on rapidly in the steam cylinder, where a new condition is reached. The oils are subjected to the heat of high pressure steam, which dissociates or frees these acids from their base, and in this condition they attack the metal and hence destroy it.
This applies as well to vegetable as to oils of animal origin, fish or sperm oil included. Petroleum and oils derived therefrom (generally called mineral oils) are entirely free from this objection. Petroleum contains no oxygen, and hence it cannot form an acid, and therefore cannot attack metal. ”

“ Petroleum Fuels.—Petroleum is defined by Prof. William Robinson as, in the widest sense of the term, comprising not only the mineral oils found in the earth's crust, but also the oils obtained by the destructive distillation of coal and bituminous shale. These complex liquid hydrocarbons vary in appearance from that of clear, light kerosene oils to heavy, dark-greenish slush or semi-fluid slime. After the volatile or lighter oils have been driven off from crude petroleum, the heavy oil left is known as residuum in America ”

“ They prove that mineral oil may be produced in connection with coal seams and apparently from the coal itself. A sound theory of the origin of petroleum is of practical as well as theoretical value, inasmuch as the very practical question of the probable permanency of supply depends entirely on the nature of the origin of that supply. ”

“ The oil must be put in a copper vessel with an equal quantity of water. Now boil for 3 hours, then extinguish the fire. When cold draw off the water. Let the mixture settle for a few weeks.
Mineral Oil:
See also Petroleum.
Production of Consistent Mineral Oils.—
Mixing Castor Oil With Mineral Oils.—Castor oil is heated for 6 hours in an autoclave at a temperature of 500° to 575° F., and under a pressure of 4 to 6 atmospheres. ”

“ With a view to account for the presence of mineral oil underground in certain parts of Europe and in Pennsylvania, some ingenious persons have assumed that the oil is a decomposition-product of long-buried organic remains. ”

“ Consideration of the evidence leads us to the conclusion that, at least in commercially valuable deposits, mineral oil has generally been formed by the decomposition of marine organisms, in some cases animal, in others vegetable, in others both, under practically normal conditions of temperature and pressure. ”

“ At this price the cost of maintaining a light of given power in an ordinary lamp is about equal to that of ordinary London gas, if it were supplied at one shilling per thousand cubic feet. The mineral oil, being a fine hydrocarbon, does far less mischief than gas by its combustion, as may be proved by warming a conservatory with a paraffin stove and another with a stove. ”

“ Astral oil and mineral sperm oil are special illuminating oils of high flashing points. Crude petroleum is much used for fuel purposes in engines. Along the Pacific Coast, especially in southern California, where good coal is scarce, the locomotives consume large quantities of crude oil. Paraffin residue is placed on the market for medicinal purposes under the name of vaseline, petroleum ointment, and cosmoline. ”

“ In the case of mineral lubricating oils from the same source, the lower the specific gravity the greater the oiliness of the liquid, as a rule. Mixtures of mineral oil with animal or vegetable oil are largely used, one class of oil supplying those qualities in which the other is deficient. ”

“ At Pitchford, in Shropshire, extensive strata or beds of sandstone are saturated with this mineral fluid, which is obtained from the stone by distillation, and is sold, as a remedy against sprains and rheumatism, under the name of Betton’s British oil.
By the Persians and Russians naphtha is used internally as a cordial. On the shores of the Caspian it is burned in lamps, instead of oil; and, in some parts of Italy it is employed in the lighting of churches and streets. When mixed with certain vegetable oils, it forms an excellent varnish. ”

“ In the bowels of the earth we find but one sort of Oil, called Petroleum: its smell is strong and not disagreeable, and its colour sometimes more sometimes less yellow. There are certain mineral substances which yield by distillation a great deal of Oil very like Petroleum. This sort of substance is called a Bitumen, and is, indeed, nothing but an Oil rendered consistent and solid by being combined with an acid; as appears from hence, that by uniting Petroleum with the acid of vitriol we can produce an artificial Bitumen very like the native. ”

“ Most of these characters are common to petroleum from various places. In one important respect, however, the product of your lands differs from that obtained in other situations, that is, it does not, by continued exposure to the air, become hard and resinous like mineral pitch or bitumen. I have been informed by those who have visited the locality, that on the surface of the earth above the springs which furnish your oil there is no crust or deposit of this sort such as have seen in other situations where petroleum or mineral tar is flowing. ”

“ The Origin of Mineral Oils.—Mendelejeff, in a communication to the Russian Chemical Society, questions the current view as to the origin of mineral oils, namely, that they are the products of the decomposition of the fossil remains of organisms, and proposes a theory of his own. He calls attention to the possibility of the interior of our globe containing metallic masses of vast extent. If iron be the prevailing metal, and if it occur in combination with carbon, we have the material from which we can conceive the mineral oils to have been derived. ”

“ It burns with smoke and soot, and leaves a residuum of a coaly substance. It consists of acid and water combined with phlogiston.
[Pg 71] All oil is the produce of the vegetable or animal kingdom, no proper mineral substance containing any of it.
By distillation oil is in part decomposed, and by this means the thicker kinds of oil are rendered thinner and more volatile, the acid, to which their consistence is chiefly owing, being lost in the process. By repeated distillation it is supposed that all oils may be brought almost to the state of æther, and even of ardent spirit. ”

“ The most important of the non-metallic which occur along anticlinal summits are petroleum and natural gas, but it is true only in a very limited sense that they are introduced in solution. The general cause of the accumulation is, however, the same as that of the metallic minerals, i.e. that storage cavities are afforded. In the most productive oil-fields it is the general experience to find the oil and gas impounded in porous rocks, either sandstones or limestones, at the crests of anticlines and beneath impervious shales which do not shatter or crack with gentle folding. ”

“ The treatment is much the same which has resulted in the production of paraffin oil, to which we have previously referred, and an account of the production of coal-oils would be very far from satisfactory, which made no mention of the production of similar commodities by the direct distillation of shale. Oil-shales, or bituminous shales, exist in all parts of the world, and may be regarded as mineral matter largely impregnated by the products of decaying vegetation. ”

“ Petroleum is essentially a volatile oil, and when submitted to distillation yields gases homologous with light carburetted hydrogen of marsh-gas (Ronalds obtained three) , liquids of similar constitution (Pelouze and Cahours isolated twelve) , and solid paraffin-like bodies. Commercially petroleum is distilled so as to yield petroleum-spirit or mineral naphtha used as a substitute for turpentine and for burning in sponge-lamps and costermongers’ barrow-lamps; petroleum oil used all over the world as mineral lamp oil for illuminating purposes; and a heavy oil employed for lubricating machinery. ”

“ Mineral oils are the distillation products of petroleum, partially liquid, and partially solid. Being inert substances, they have no tanning effect, but serve merely as water-proofing or fattening materials. Except for their oily nature they have nothing in common with fats, being quite unaffected by solutions of alkalies or of acids. ”

“ Many “fats” are consumed as food, others as fuel or for lighting purposes, in the shape of oils. Such oils are not primarily useful for burning. Petroleum and other mineral oils are found in enormous quantities in America. ”

“ The more oxygen an oil requires to burn with a non-smoky flame, the more suited it is for the manufacture of blacks. Generally speaking, the difficulty of completely burning these oils is in proportion to their specific gravity and the height of their boiling point.
By the distillation of rosin, oils are obtained which also consist of carbon and hydrogen and form a useful material for the manufacture of soot blacks. The mineral known as earth-wax or ozokerite, a substance intermediate between asphaltum and petroleum, can also be used, but since it is a solid it must be burnt in troughs. ”

“ In most works it is usual to free the bronze powder from the admixed oil by subjecting the mass to the greatest pressure that can be [Pg 331] produced by a very powerful hydraulic press. The oil which flows from the press is always green, which shows that chemical action has taken place. In consequence of the large surface imparted to the oil it becomes speedily rancid, and then contains free fatty acids which attack copper very energetically. ”

“ Not worth its weight in slaty, sulphur coal? Whether petroleum, which literally signifies “rock-oil,” be of mineral, vegetable or animal origin matters little to the producer or consumer, who views it from a commercial standpoint. In its natural state it is a variable mixture of numerous liquid hydro-carbons, holding in solution paraffine and solid bitumen, or asphaltum. The fountains of Is, on the Euphrates, were familiar to the founders of Babylon, who secured indestructible mortar for the walls of the city by pouring melted asphaltum between the blocks of stone. ”

“ Heavy mineral oils should always be used as cylinder oils in high-pressure engines, in preference to other oils or tallow, since they are not decomposed by steam, and do no harm if blown into the feed-water, but serve to loosen and prevent scale and deposit. ”

“ But in that year Mr Young, a chemist at Manchester, discovered that by distilling some petroleum, which he obtained from a spring at Riddings in Derbyshire, he was able to procure a light oil, which he used for burning in lamps, whilst the heavier product which he also obtained proved a most useful lubricant for machinery. This naturally distilled oil was soon found to be similar to that oil which was noticed dripping from the roof of a coal-mine. ”

“ Some of the oils produced are of excellent quality, but others are inferior, and do not ascend the wick in sufficient quantity to afford a constant light. None of the native petroleums contain carbolic acid and other impurities which exist in the oils distilled from coals and shales; hence their purification is simple and comparatively cheap. “The oil prepared1143 from petroleum is almost colourless; it has a specific gravity of about ·810, and when of good quality only a slight and rather aromatic odour.” (Payen.) See Petroleum, and above. ”