CHEMISTRY OF A PINT OF KEROSENE. 53 



for obtaining the paraffine and other substances, or 

 to enter into details regarding the manufacture of 

 kerosene. The brief statement made will serve to 

 convey a general idea of the methods adopted to 

 convert soft coals into kerosene oil. 



In manufacturing kerosene from petroleum, the 

 processes are essentially the same. We must re- 

 gard the crude petroleum as representing the black, 

 tarry liquid obtained from the first distillation of 

 coal. 



In the use of petroleum, this first process is 

 saved ; the coal having probably been distilled in a 

 far back geological period, on a gigantic scale, by 

 some processes of nature not well understood. 

 The vast cavities in the rocks in which this crude 

 product is stored represent, as oil reservoirs, the 

 cisterns in which the manufacturer stored the first 

 products of his coal retorts, before the discovery of 

 petroleum. As soon as this discovery was made, 

 the production of kerosene from coals was promptly 

 suspended, as no one could compete against a nat- 

 ural product existing in immense quantities, which 

 had already passed one important stage of its man- 

 ufacture. 



In the distillation of coal a substance is left in 

 the retorts, called coke, which is very nearly pure 

 carbon. In chemical composition this corresponds 

 with our hard or anthracite coals. By no possible 



