Kerosene
The invention of new oil lamp s in the late 1700s and early 1800s greatly improved the quality of indoor lighting, but the supply of fuel for these lamps was limited. Whale oil and other fuels were too expensive to compete with gas lighting, which was gaining popularity at the time. Then Abraham Gesner (1797-1864) produced kerosene, a pale liquid fuel that he distilled from thick crude oil. Gesner, a medical doctor from Canada who had become interested in geology, named the fuel after the Greek word keros (wax) and obtained United States patents for preparing it. When kerosene was successfully introduced in America in the 1850s, Gesner remarked hopefully that it might save whales from being hunted for their oil.
Around the same time, the Scottish scientist James Young (1811-1883) also began promoting the use of kerosene, which he produced by distillation from coal and oil shale. Other competitors also introduced kerosene lamp oils made from various substances, but in 1859 the discovery of huge quantities of crude oil in America made all other sources of kerosene obsolete. By the end of the century, kerosene had become the chief product of American oil refineries.
Kerosene (or kerosine, as the oil industry spells it) is a close relative of gasoline. Both are produced by refining crude oil, but the kerosene fraction of the oil is a little heavier. Kerosene contains a mixture of hydrocarbon compounds, most of which have 10 to 14 atoms of carbon per molecule. Because kerosene belongs to the family of hydrocarbons called alkanes or paraffins, it is sometimes referred to as paraffin oil, in addition to the nicknames coal oil, lamp oil, and illuminating oil. At room temperature, kerosene is a thin liquid that evaporates easily and smells slightly sweet. Kerosene fuel, however, is poisonous. Drinking it causes vomiting and diarrhea, and breathing it causes headaches and drowsiness.
When kerosene was first produced, the lighter gasoline fraction of the oil and the heavier fuel-oil fraction were considered useless or even dangerous waste products. American refiners were only interested in making kerosene, most of which was exported to Europe for lighting purposes. Kerosene was also widely marketed as fuel for oil stoves, which were introduced in the late 1800s. But around the same time, incandescent electric lights began to compete with oil lamps. Refiners were forced to market other oil products, such as fuel oil for powering ships.
Most of the kerosene produced today is used as an engine fuel for jet aircraft and rockets. On a smaller scale, kerosene is still burned in special lamps, stoves, and space heaters, especially in rural areas that have no electricity. Kerosene appliances, however, can be dangerous; if the fuel does not burn properly, it can produce deadly carbon monoxide. Kerosene is also used as a fuel for tractor s and power generators and as a solvent for garden chemicals such as weedkillers and insecticides. In 1997 President Clinton's budget proposed a tax on kerosene which was vehemently opposed by the Petroleum Marketers Association of America (PMAA) because they said it would hurt millions of U.S. homeowners, farmers, and others that purchase tax free kerosine..
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