PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLTTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 49^ 



saved if, in time, the advice had been taken of those scientific men 

 who had given their attention to investigate the properties of this 

 most interesting substance. A few years ago it astonished me, 

 like it undoubtedly did every other chemist, for what a compara- 

 tive trifle a petroleum distillery was insured, and with what impu- 

 iiity merchants were allowed to collect hundreds of barrels with 

 petroleum in the centre of densely populated quartcre of cities like 

 Philadelphia and New Ycrk. 



When we look at the enormous flame and heat produced by the 

 burning of a single pint of light Pemisylvania petroleum, and the 

 consequent danger of heating 100 barrels, or 32,000 pints, and even 

 more of this highly inflammalile material, immediately over the fire, 

 to a heat far surpassing thjit used for a high pressure steam 

 eno-ine : when we know that the least leak will set the whole mass 

 into a blaze wliich no iCater can possibly exttngiiish ; when we look 

 at the explosive nature of the vapor of this substance when mixed 

 with air, which is a thousand times worse than gunpowder, as this 

 will only explode by contact with the spark, and petroleum will 

 take fire at a distance where its vapor reaches a flame ; when we 

 look at all this we are astonished at the ignorance of insurance 

 companies that the}^ insure petroleum distilleries at all, and of the 

 Legislature that it was so tardy in banishing them from the neigh* 

 borhood of other buildings. They have learned to their loss, and 

 some insurance companies have increased their premiums consider- 

 ably, while others refuse to insure petroleum at all. 



It probably will take them a long time to learn that there 

 are two principal kinds of petroleum — the light Pennsylvania, of 

 which the specific gravity is indicated by forty-five degrees of 

 Beaume's hydrometer, and the heavy from Ohio and Western 

 Virginia of thirty degrees, and even below that. The first is used 

 by distillers, and they extract from it gasoline, benzine and kero- 

 sine : the other cannot be used by distillers, as it contains no gaso- 

 line nor benzine, and very little kerosene. It is, therefore, very 

 little inflammable, and is only used as a lubricator. In fact it is 

 so little inflammable that a burning match may be thrown in a 

 barrel of this oil, which will extinguish the match. 



"But the gravest proof of ignorance is a late resolution of some 

 fire insurance companies not to insure any factory or other place 

 where this petroleum is used as a lubricator : the fact being that 

 it is much less dangerous than lard or sperm oil, for the following 

 reasons : 



