Jean Nathan wrote:
It's not paraffin wax. It's a bit like petrol (gas) but not so volatile. Used to be used here a lot in free standing room heaters
I'm pretty sure that your paraffin is our kerosene. There used to be a little kerosene pump at the side of every filling station, but you can't buy kerosene at all now, let alone by the gallon. (I'm half surprised that Thunderbird has the word in its dictionary!) They sell dyed and perfumed "lamp oil" in little bottles, but it doesn't burn at all well in my antique coal-oil (another name for kerosene) lamps. (Burns better than the furnace oil my mother *once* tried during an emergency!) But I keep a sealed bottle on hand. Nowadays the power seldom stays off long enough for me to get out of my chair, let alone unplug the computers before it surges back, but I grew up in a time and place where the lights went out for the whole evening every time somebody sneezed, so keeping the oil lamps ready to go has become a moral principle. (I've learned better than to keep oil in them, though!) When my parents went to Florida in the fifties, our trailer had a kerosene heater by the door, similar to the "space heaters" used to warm up single rooms, but permanently affixed. Which is why there was a law against building house trailers with only one door. -- Joy Beeson http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/ http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/ http://n3f.home.comcast.net/ -- Writers' Exchange west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A. where daffodils are fading and tulips are about to start. To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
