ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING IN AMERICA — WATKINS 399 



seen tlie above mixture in combination in an Argand's lamp. The 

 flame was clear, dense, and brilliant. The light may be made greatly 

 to exceed that from oil, without the escape of any smoke, and there is 

 not the slightest odor of turpentine. The patentee says the mixture 

 is as cheap as spermaceti oil, and that he is making arrangements 

 which will enable him to afford it at less cost considerably below that 

 material." It concluded with an afterthought: "The friends of 

 temperance will not object to the burning of alcohol" (1831, ser. 2, 

 vol. 7, pp. 75-76). The Journal did not then foresee the dangers 

 inherent in the use of so explosive an agent in a common, or even an 

 Argand, lamp. By 1834 they had reason, as we shall see, to comment 

 on Samuel Casey's patented burning compound (one of several 

 variants of Jennings's fluid) : "The late fatal accidents resulting from 

 the use of such ingredients in lamps will, however, probably put a 

 final stop to the use of these mixtures, and we have no doubt that a 

 court of law would now decide that they are not useful, within the 

 meaning of the statute" (1834, ser. 2, vol. 14, p. 247) . 



Nevertheless, the cheapness of these fluids and the comparative ex- 

 cellence of the light afforded by them led to their gradual adoption. 

 There were several followers in Jennings's footsteps, among them 

 Henry Porter, of Bangor, Maine, who added camphor, rosin, and 

 tincture of curcuma to the formula in 1835. Finally, in 1839, Augus- 

 tus V. X. Webb of New York began to manufacture distilled turpen- 

 tine under the name "camphine." Later (when usually spelled cam- 

 phene) that became a generic term applied loosely to all the fluids. 



The use of undiluted turpentine was not new with Webb, however, 

 for only a year earlier Luther Jones had patented a lamp for burning 

 this substance. The lamp was advertised in the Boston Transcript 

 (November 27, 1839) : 



A New and Supei'ior Lamp. Jones's Patent Reverse Lamp, for bnrnius the 

 oil of turpentine. For light, this lamp is without a parallel, producing more light 

 from the same width of wick than any other. The material used in them is per- 

 fectly harmless. The lamp can be filled at any time without the least danger ; 

 it costs less than oil, and the lamp is a very excellent one for Stores, Factories, 

 Work Shops, &c, &c . . . 



The claims made here for its safety are not supported by the Frank- 

 lin Institute Journal's commentator : "So far as experience may serve 

 as a guide, the lamps for burning spirits of turpentine are not likely 

 to supersede those for burning oil; there are serious objections to the 

 use of the former, and amongst them is the inflammability of the 

 fluid" (1838, ser. 2, vol. 24, p. 323). 



The inflammability of the fluid was a factor that came to be reck- 

 oned with in ever-increasing degrees as thqge fuels grew in use. Am- 

 ple evidence can be found in the periodicals of the day. The follow- 

 ing was printed in the Scientific American for June 19, 1847 : "Miss 



