THE NAPHTHA INDl'STRY. 



265 



In Russia the illuinination of houses and towns by lamps burning vegetable and 

 animal oils began to be replaced b}' lamps burning liquid hN'drocarbons, at the end of 

 the fifties. This change was brought about by two cqualh' important circumstances: 

 in the first place, by the relative cheapness, in 1838 in St. Petersburg the cost of light- 

 ing by photogen being 4 roubles per poud; and in the second place, the greater facil- 

 ity of managing lamps burning the hydrocarbons. The material at first used for this 

 purpose was photogen, which was obtained from peat, Scotch bogliead, and bitumenous 

 schists. It was imported and afterwards prepared in Russia from peat, imported 

 boghead, and from the excellent boghead occurring in the government of Riazan. But 

 the high price of this product, and the possibility- of employing the cheap Russian 

 turpentine, especially mixed with spirit, which mixture was largely used at the 

 middle of the present century for street lighting in Russia, and above all. the appear- 

 ance of the product of the distillation of the American naphtha upon the European 

 markets, all these factors soon put an end to this mode of lighting houses and towns. 

 The importation of photogen, and subsequently of American kerosene, naphtha, and 

 lubricating oils across the European frontier, is given in the following table. 



YEARS. 



Kerosene. 



Naphtha. 



Lubricating 

 oili. 



Thousands of ponds. 



1871 

 1872 

 1873 

 1874 

 1875 



1876 

 1877 

 1878 

 1879 

 1880 



1881 

 1882 

 1883 



1884 

 188.3 



1886 



1887 

 1888 

 18S9 

 1890 



1,720 

 L798 

 2,716 

 2,532 

 2,661 



2,679 

 1,723 



2,004 

 1,720 

 1.453 



1,213 



1,047 



459 



276 



140 



46 



15 



12 



14 



8 



30 



98 



108 



105 



42 



56 

 41 

 55 

 30 

 26 



27 

 16 

 19 

 14 

 2 





 

 

 

 



15 



8 

 8 



16 

 21 

 15 



9 



8 

 10 



i 



7 



6 



/ 



7 

 10 

 15 



