KEROSENE OILPART 2 Continuing frompart 1
17 Newexperiments Ignacy Łukasiewicz, a Polish pharmacist residing inLviv, and his Hungarian partner Jan Zeh had been experimenting with differentdistillation techniques, tryingto improve on Gesner's kerosene process, but using oil from a local petroleum seep.Many people knew of his work, but paid little attention to it. On the night of 31 July 1853, doctors at the localhospital needed to perform an emergency operation, virtually impossible bycandlelight. They therefore sent a messenger for Łukasiewicz and his new lamps.The lamp burned so brightlyand cleanly that the hospital officials ordered several lamps plus a largesupply of fuel. Łukasiewicz realized the potential of his work andquit the pharmacy to find a business partner, and then travelled to Vienna toregister his technique with the government. Łukasiewicz moved to the Gorliceregion of Poland in 1854, and sank several wells across southern Poland overthe following decade, setting up a refinery near Jasło in 1859. The petroleum discovery at the Drake Well in westernPennsylvania in 1859 caused a great deal of public excitement and investmentdrilling in new wells, not only in Pennsylvania, but also in Canada, wherepetroleum had been discovered at Oil Springs, Ontario in 1858, and southernPoland, where Ignacy Łukasiewicz had been distilling lamp oil from petroleumseeps since 1852. The increased supply of petroleum allowed oil refinersto entirely side-step the oil-from-coal patents of both Young and Gesner, andproduce illuminating oil from petroleum without paying royalties to anyone. As a result, theilluminating oil industry in the United States completely switched over topetroleum in the 1860s. The petroleum-based illuminating oil was widely sold as Kerosene, andthe trade name soon lost its proprietary status, and became the lower-casegeneric product "kerosene". Because Gesner's original Kerosene hadbeen also known as "coal oil," generic kerosene from petroleum was commonly called"coal oil" in some parts of the United States well into the 20thcentury. In the United Kingdom, manufacturing oil from coal (oroil shale) continued into the early 20th century, although increasinglyovershadowed by petroleum oils. As keroseneproduction increased, whaling declined. 18 summary In summary Kerosene, made first from coal and oilshale, then from petroleum. 19 Effect ofelectric lighting Electric lighting started displacing kerosene as anilluminant in the late 19thcentury, especially in urban areas. However, kerosene remained thepredominant commercial end-use for petroleum refined in the United States until1909, when it was exceeded by motor fuels. 20 Developmentof gasoline The rise of the gasoline-powered automobile in theearly 20th century created a demand for the lighter hydrocarbon fractions, and refiners invented methods toincrease the output of gasoline, while decreasing the output of kerosene. In addition, someof the heavier hydrocarbons that previously went into kerosene wereincorporated into diesel fuel. Kerosene kept somemarket share by being increasingly used in stoves and portable heaters In 2013, kerosene made up about 0.1 percent by volumeof petroleum refinery output in the United States. 21 Heating andlighting oil and its danger The fuel, also known as heating oil in the UK andIreland, remains widely used in kerosene lamps and lanterns in the developingworld. Although it replaced whale oil, the 1873 edition of Elements ofChemistry said, "Thevapor of this substance [kerosene] mixed with air is as explosive asgunpowder." This may have been due to the common practice ofadulterating kerosene with cheaper but more volatile hydrocarbon mixtures, suchas naphtha. Kerosene was a significant fire risk; in 1880, nearly two of everyfive New York City fires were caused by defective kerosene lamps. In less-developed countries kerosene is an importantsource of energy for cooking and lighting. It is used as a cooking fuel inportable stoves for backpackers. As a heating fuel, it is often used in portable stoves, and is sold in somefilling stations. It is sometimes used as a heat source during powerfailures. 22 Keroseneuses Kerosene is widelyused in Japan as a home heating fuel for portable and installed kerosene heaters. In Japan, kerosene can be readily bought at anyfilling station or be delivered to homes. In the UnitedKingdom and Ireland, kerosene is often used as a heating fuel in areas notconnected to a gas pipeline network. It is used less for cooking, with LPG being preferred because it iseasier to light. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, kerosenespace heaters were often built into kitchen ranges, and kept many farm andfishing families warm and dry through the winter. At one time, citrusgrowers used a smudge pot fueled by kerosene to create a pall of thick smoke over a grove in an effort to prevent freezingtemperatures from damaging crops. "Salamanders"are kerosene space heaters used on construction sites to dry out building materials and to warm workers.Before the days of electrically lighted road barriers, highway constructionzones were marked at night by kerosene fired, pot-bellied torches. Most ofthese uses of kerosene created thick black smoke because of the low temperatureof combustion. 23 Petromaxlight A notable exception, discovered in the early 19thcentury, is the use of a gas mantle mounted above the wick on a kerosene lamp.Looking like a delicate woven bag above the woven cotton wick, the mantle is aresidue of mineral materials (mostly thorium dioxide), heated to incandescenceby the flame from the wick. The thorium and cerium oxide combination producesboth a whiter light and a greater fraction of the energy in the form of visiblelight than a black body at the same temperature would. These types of lamps are still inuse today in areas of the world without electricity, because they give a muchbetter light than a simple wick-type lamp does. 24 Multipurposelantern Recently, a multipurpose lantern that doubles as acook stove has been introduced in India in areas with no electricity 25 Old kerosene stoves of India. In countries such as India and Nigeria, kerosene isthe main fuel used for cooking, especially by the poor, and kerosene stoveshave replaced traditional wood-based cooking appliances. As such, increase inthe price of kerosene can have a major political and environmental consequence. The Indian government subsidizes the fuel to keep theprice very low, to around 15 U.S. cents per liter as of February 2007, as lowerprices discourage dismantling of forests for cooking fuel. My note- About 10years back or so, the Tamilnadu government provided free LPG stoves to poorwith certain number of cylinders free . In Nigeria anattempt by the government to remove a fuel subsidy that includes kerosene metwith strong opposition. Kerosene is used as a fuel in portable stoves,especially in Primus stoves invented in 1892. Portable kerosene stoves earn areputation of reliable and durable stove in everyday use, and performespecially well under adverse conditions. In outdoor activities andmountaineering, a decisive advantage of pressurized kerosene stoves over gascartridge stoves is their particularly high thermal output and their ability tooperate at very low temperature in winter or at high altitude. Wick stoves likePerfection's or wickless like Boss continue to be used by the Amish and offgrid living and in natural disasters where there is no power available. In tribal areasstill use of kerosene stoves is common. I willcontinue in next part. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/49432792.2022596.1619928191082%40mail.yahoo.com.
