THE STORAGE AND SALE OF PETROLEUM. 
253 
have acted with more severity than usually characterizes their proceedings 
under similar circumstances. 
On the other hand, we cannot but feel surprise that, considering the very 
small amount now charged for a licence to sell methylated spirit (only ten shil¬ 
lings per annum), any chemist should expose himself to the annoyance and 
vexation of such a conviction. 
REGULATIONS AFFECTING THE STORAGE AND SALE OF 
PETROLEUM. 
We call the special attention of those eng aged in the sale or use of petroleum 
to the regulations which the law requires to be observed in reference thereto. 
The serious accidents which have recently occurred, including the extensive 
destruction of shipping at Bordeaux, have caused the authorities to put the pro¬ 
visions of the law into operation with more than usual strictness, and it behoves 
those who are in any way subject to the operation of the law to consider the 
nature and extent of their liabilities. 
In the first place it should be understood that the term “ petroleum,” as used 
in the Act of Parliament relating to the sale and use of this substance, signifies 
u all such rock oil, Rangoon oil, Burmah oil, any product of them, and any oil 
made from petroleum, coal, schist, shale, peat, or other bituminous substance, 
and any product of them, as gives off an inflammable vapour at a temperature 
of less than 100° F” It is to these very volatile oils that the regulations im¬ 
posed by law apply, and not to the oils, derived from the same sources, which do 
not give off an inflammable vapour at a temperature of less than 100° F. 
Now, bearing in mind what petroleum is by Act of Parliament, there are two 
important provisions of the law relating to its storing and sale, and they are as 
follows :— 
1. That no petroleum shall be kept, otherwise than for private use, within fifty yards 
of a dwelling-house or of a building in which goods are stored, except in pursuance of a 
licence given in accordance with the Petroleum Act, 1862; and that there may be an¬ 
nexed to any such licence such conditions as to the mode of storage, as to the nature of 
the goods with which petroleum may be stored, as to the testing such petroleum from 
time to time, and generally as to the safe keeping of petroleum, as may seem expedient 
to the local authority. 
2. That no person shall sell or expose for sale, for use within the United Kingdom, 
any description of petroleum which gives off an inflammable vapour at a temperature of 
less than 100° F., unless the bottle or vessel containing such petroleum have attached 
thereto a label, in legible characters, stating as follows:—“ Great care must be taken in 
bringing any light near to the contents of this vessel, as they give off an inflammable 
vapour at a temperature of less than one hundred degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer.” 
For violating the first of these regulations, the occupier of the place in which 
such petroleum is kept is liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds 
a day for each day during which petroleum is kept in contravention of the Act. 
And for violating the second regulation, the offender is subject to a penalty not 
exceeding five pounds. 
At a recent meeting of the Court of Aldermen in the City of London, Aider- 
man Wilson stated that a considerable quantity of the more volatile petroleum 
spirit was being sold, the vapour of which ignited much below that specified in 
the Act, and he wished it to be understood that those dealing in such spirit 
were liable to a fine of £20, which fine would be rigidly enforced. He had 
just had such a case brought under his judicial notice, and, the defendant being 
a widow, he mitigated the fine ; but it was the intention of the magistrates in 
future in all cases to inflict the full penalty. 
