376 
NARORE 
[ Fed. 10, 1870 
departments of science which experience has shown may 
be safely dissociated from instruction. Astronomy furnishes 
an example. Mr. Airy would probably not consider that 
the teaching of a class would aid him much in his peculiar 
duties. 
We have said that this part of the inquiry will be 
difficult. The whole inquiry is indeed fraught with diffi- 
culty. It means nothing less than the constituting of a 
department of the State of which even the nucleus can- 
not be said, as yet, to exist. To do this liberally and 
efficiently and yet, with such regard to economy as shall 
make the result visibly beneficial to the community on 
whom the cost will fall, will be an achievement worthy of any 
statesman’s ambition; but beyond no real statesman’s reach, 
We do not doubt that the Commission will be granted. 
Lord de Grey and Mr. Forster are too experienced to 
attach undue importance to the apparent want of harmony 
between some of the opinions expressed, or to suppose 
that all the grounds on which the Commission was asked 
for could be given in an hour’s conversation, They will 
rather be swayed by the representative character of those 
who asked for it. 
PETROLEUM AND ITS ALLIES 
ONSIDERABLE anxiety has for some time past 
prevailed as to the existence of danger attending the 
use, storage and transport of the mineral oil now used 
for illuminating purposes and, as the questions involved 
are not only of great importance in many respects ; but 
likely to be soon brought prominently before the public, 
some account of the sources of mineral oil and of its 
characteristics will probably be acceptable to our readers. 
Thirty years ago, or less, the materials which form 
the subject of this article were almost unknown to either 
commerce or manufacturing industry. With some few 
exceptions, such as the use of the petroleum of Miano, 
in Italy, for lighting the streets of Parma and Genoa in 1800, 
natural mineral oil was only in scanty demand, under the 
name of Persian naphtha, for some few minor purposes and 
it was generally rare, even as a curiosity, in mineralogical 
collections. The analogous oils obtained artificially, by 
the distillation of coal and other bituminous materials, were 
even less familiar ; for no material was then known that 
would yield them in sufficiently abundant proportion te 
admit of their being manufactured on a commercial scale. 
For this reason mainly, the various attempts to produce 
such oil were a succession of failures commercially and it 
was not until about the year 1840 that Mr. James Young, of 
Glasgow, had the good fortune to meet with a peculiar bitu- 
minous mineral—the precise character of which has been 
the occasion of much controversy—capable of yielding a 
very much larger proportion of oil by distillation than 
any other material of a similar kind. The discovery of 
this material and the recognition of its oil-yielding capa- 
bility, were speedily turned to account by Mr. Young and 
his colleagues, forming the basis of a manufacture that 
has now assumed gigantic proportions and furnishing a 
commodity which is, for many thousands of people, a daily 
necessary. 
But scarcely had this paraffin oil, now so well known, 
begun to come into general use as an illuminating mate- 
rial, than a formidable competitor appeared in the market 
in the shape of natural mineral oil, derived, at first and for 
a brief period, from Burmah and subsequently, in over- 
whelming abundance, from certain districts of North 
America, chiefly Pennsylvania and Canada. Since the 
first working of the petroleum deposits of America—about 
the year 1860, the exportation of this material, or of pro- 
ducts manufactured from it, has increased rapidly and 
it now amounts to little less than one hundred million 
gallons a year. 
The character of the refined petroleum imported from 
America has had much influence in extending its use ; 
for, its pleasing appearance and comparative freedom 
from disagreeable smell, have gained for it a popular pre- 
ference that so far is not unfounded. 
American petroleum, however, contains a large propor- 
tion of a very volatile oil or spirit and, consequently, since 
the introduction of American refined petroleum into the 
market, the greater part of the oil derived from that source 
has been characterised by a greater degree of inflamma- 
bility than the oil manufactured from Rangoon petroleum 
and from coal or shale ; this difference being due to the 
fact that the volatile spirit, so abundant in American petro- 
leum, is not completely separated in the process of re- 
fining. By leaving this spirit in the refined oil, a larger 
produce is obtained by the manufacturer and there is a 
further advantage gained in this way, owing to the fact that 
the volatile spirit, when separated, generally sells for only 
half the price of lamp oil. 
The practical question in regard to the safety of mineral 
oil and its fitness for domestic use, is as to the extent to 
which the more volatile portions of the crude materials 
should be separated in the refining operation. Although 
in reference to this question, the possibility of careless 
and improper usage of the oil cannot reasonably be 
regarded as justifying any considerable restrictions in the 
application of a material so useful ; still some allowance 
requires to be made even for that possibility, taking into 
account the conditions under which mineral oil is carried, 
stored and used in a general way. The point to be 
ascertained is not merely what oil may be used without 
necessary danger ; but what description of oil will best 
answer the purposes for which it is intended, without 
requiring a greater degree of caution in its use than can 
fairly be expected, or any unreasonable restriction on the 
trade. Hence it would seem to be desirable for the con- 
yenience of those engaged in the mineral oil trade, as well 
as for ensuring public safety, that every branch of this 
trade should be subject to appropriate regulation: that the 
degree of inflammability of mineral oil should be limited; 
a definite standard established and, a mode of testing the 
oil adopted, which would not admit of discrepant results 
being obtained, either by accident or otherwise. 
With this general object an Act of Parliament “for the 
Safe Keeping of Petroleum” was passed in 1862, prohibit- 
ing the storage of more than forty gallons of petroleum 
within fifty yards of a dwelling-house or building in 
which goods were stored, except in virtue of a license 
granted by local authorities who had the power to annex 
to their licenses any conditions thought necessary for 
diminishing risk of damage by fire or explosion. The 
application of the term “petroleum” in this Act was 
specially limited to crude petroleum, or any product of it 
giving off inflammable vapour at a temperature less 
