1885.] on Accidental Explosions hy Non-explosive Liqaids. 233 



destinatiou of their oil, and, having brought over a number of 

 German lamps, for which a ready sale was found, commenced the 

 lamp manufacture upon a large scale, and rapidly developed tlie 

 trade in mineral (or paraffin) oil for burning purposes, which 

 attained to great importance some time before the American 

 petroleum oils entered the market. In 1859 a firm in Edinburgh 

 supplied Young's company with nearly a quarter of a million 

 burners for lamps, and it was not until 1859 that the foundation of 

 the United States' petroleum industry was laid by Colonel G. L. Drake, 

 who first struck oil (in Pennsylvania) at a depth of 71 feet, obtaining 

 at once a supply of 1000 gallons per day. The lamps first used in 

 America were probably of German make, but it need hardly be said 

 that the lamj) manufacture was speedily developed to a gigantic extent 

 in that countr3^ Some of the earliest lamps for burning mineral oil 

 in dwellings which were produced in Germany and in Scotland 

 possess considerable interest as ingenious devices for promoting the 

 perfect and steady combustion of the oil, and as attempts to dispense 

 with the necessity of the chimney for the production of a steady 

 light. In one of these a small lamp was introduced into the base or 

 stand of the lamp proper, and a tube 2)assed from over this little 

 lamp, through the oil reservoir into the burner, so as to supply the 

 latter with heated air. In another, a small fan or blower with simple 

 clockwork attached, to keep it in rapid motion, is placed in the stand, 

 and supplies the flame with a rapid current of air. Among other 

 workers at the perfection of mineral oil lamps was the late Dr. Angus 

 Smith, who produced a double-wick lamp some years before the 

 beautiful duplex lamps were first manufactured by Messrs. Hinks. 

 Some of the more recent American lamps exhibit decided improve- 

 ments in the details of construction of the oil reservoirs, the wick- 

 holders, and elevators, the arrangements for extinguishing the lamps, 

 &c. 



It does not come within the province of this discourse to deal with 

 the marvellous development of the petroleum industry in America, 

 where the region of Western Pennsylvania now furnishes about 70,000 

 barrels of oil per day, having up to the 1st January, 1884, yielded a 

 total of 250,000,000 barrels. Nor would it be relevant to enter upon 

 the equally interesting topic of the recent extraordinary progress of 

 the same industry in the Caucasus, which is chiefly due to Messrs. 

 Nobel Brothers, further than to refer to the fact that the Baku 

 petroleum lamp oil, which supplies the entire wants of Eussia, and is 

 gradually obtaining a footing in Germany and even here, appears, 

 notwithstanding its high sj)ecific gravity, to be suitable for mineral 

 oil-lamps of the ordinary construction. This seems to be partly owing 

 to the comparatively small proj^ortion of lamp oil that is extracted 

 from the crude Baku petroleum, in consequence of which the variety 

 of hydrocarbons composing that product of distillation w^hich is 

 used for illuminating purposes, presents a narrower range than is 

 the case in the ordinary American petroleum oil of commerce. It 



