167 
PARAFFIN LAMPS AND THEIR DANGERS. 
By JOHN ATTFIELD, Ph.D., F.C.S. 
T HE oil in a paraffin lamp, as in most other oil-lamps of 
simple construction, passes up a wick by capillary attraction, 
comes in contact with the brasswork of the lamp in the long 
slit or channel which holds the wick, and finally burns at the 
top of the wick, by help of a strong current of air. The flame 
heats the metal in its vicinity, the heat is conducted downwards 
to all parts of the brasswork, and thus every drop of oil that 
flows up the wick becomes heated to a temperature of 105 to 
110 degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer the moment it touches 
the metallic slit. According to the quality of the oil, this 
temperature is or is not sufficient to convert a portion of the oil 
into vapour. If the oil is badly refined, the warm metal causes 
evolution of vapour, which mixes at once with the air in the 
upper part of the reservoir of the lamp ; at once, because the 
portion of the brasswork that is at the above -temperature is 
just that portion which faces the interior of the reservoir of the 
lamp. This vapour accumulates in the confined air, and the 
mixture soon reaches proportions in which it is inflammable. 
Should the mixture now catch light, the resulting flame and 
expanded products of combustion, having no other vent, will 
escape by bursting the reservoir, scattering the oil all around. 
The result is, of course, fright to those who witness the accident, 
and risk of a conflagration, should the escaping oil happen to 
ignite. 
The chances against an explosive mixture forming in a lamp 
are, at the present time, unfortunately, very small ; for nine- 
tenths of the light-coloured American oils met with in the shops 
under various names generate the mixture as soon as they are 
warmed up to 80 or 90 degrees. It is here only fair to say that I 
have not met with a specimen of Young’s oil which gives off in- 
flammable vapour below 130 degrees ; I have, however, met with 
samples which were, apparently, mixtures of English and Ameri- 
VOL. vi. — NO. xxiii. o 
