Towing Lamp Fuel

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Capt_Scarlet

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Crisis - we have a power cut at home and therefore no lights. I have a large old ships towing light, and previously I have used 'lamp oil' from a hardware shop, but cannot obtain any now.

What fuel would it have been designed for (it is old and has a wick) which I may be able to get at short notice? e.g. paraffin.

Poisoning my wife and children with toxic fumes is not an option.

Thank you.
 
Parrafin is OK - but still produces CO so needs a decent space and some ventilation. A typical bedroom should be OK with a window just "cracked" open!
 
Lamp Oil is Very High Grade Kerosine ... trade name - Lamp Kero funny enough !

Parafin is similar commercial stuff but lower grade. May give a little smell or smoke when starting up and occasional. IF you can get pure "fin ..... then thats same as Lamp Oil.

(What you may not know - is that many BBQ lighting fluids - IF the heavier more oily sort ... not the high flash spirit that needs half a bottle to work or the gooey foam crap ... then that is often near enough lamp kero. Well largely based on it ! - I mention this for info only and don't expect you to rush out and buy BBQ fluid and then burn yer house down when you get wrong stuff !!)
 
I wonder if JetA1 would be any good. It's highly refined (mostly to get the water out) and airports have lots sloshing around - something about not being able to recycle excess fuel.

Sensible other suggestions are -
It may be available in country districts as folk use paraffin greenhouse units.
Ditto Garden Centres?

Don't use 28sec home heating oil as it contains sulphur and other nasties. It stinks and gives me a headache even in well ventillated areas. OK for fishing. That also applies pressure fed devices like Tilley lamps
 
JetA1 blimey. The smell of freedom! I might start getting all sorts of memory flashbacks if I smelled that again.

I dunno if its suitable for oil lamps though, but I do remember some wag saying you could drop a lighted match in it and it would put the match out, so it is probably safe if a bit smelly.

Pops
 
Next time you're out at a boot sale try and find an old Tilley or Anchor lamp. Not only will it light the room up but they also give off loads of heat - 1 fill (litre) will last 8 hrs.

Peter.
 
how will a boot sale in the future help him out with a powercut this evening?

Sounds like he already has the gear, just needed to know what to put in it, and probably long sorted unless he has a long powercut.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Would meths not be better for the lamp

[/ QUOTE ] No do not use meths. It is much more volatile and is highly flammable. It would be a very dangerous thing to try to use meths in a lamp designed for a kerosene or paraffin type of fuel.

Similarly do not use meths as BBQ lighting fluid. It is almost as dangerous as petrol and every summer there are reports of people seriously burning themselves as a result. Paraffin being practically the same as some types of BBQ lighting fuel is however safe and a lot cheaper. Maybe it smells a bit more so you have to make sure it is all burnt off before cooking but It is what I always use now.

As a follow on from what sbc said a little earlier I actually got the analytical chemists I was working with a few years ago to look at BBQ lighting fluid. I think they just did an IR spectrum but came back to tell me I was paying an awful lot for something that was vitually the same as ordinary paraffin.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Similarly do not use meths as BBQ lighting fluid. It is almost as dangerous as petrol and every summer there are reports of people seriously burning themselves as a result. Paraffin being practically the same as some types of BBQ lighting fuel is however safe and a lot cheaper. Maybe it smells a bit more so you have to make sure it is all burnt off before cooking but It is what I always use now.

As a follow on from what sbc said a little earlier I actually got the analytical chemists I was working with a few years ago to look at BBQ lighting fluid. I think they just did an IR spectrum but came back to tell me I was paying an awful lot for something that was vitually the same as ordinary paraffin.

[/ QUOTE ]
Interesting. I've tried varous fuels to light BBQs (until I got a gas one). Petrol, whilst being the most dangerous, is also pretty useless, as it burns too quickly. I've never tried meths or paraffin because of the smell. I have had success with white spirit, however. It does not go bang, like petrol does, and also burns long enough to give the charcoal a chance to light. It doesn't smell very much, either. This should not be regarded as a recommendation, however.
 
B&Q, Homebase etc sell lamp oil in their garden centres, normally with citronella which gives off a lemon smell and keeps the bugs away.
I use the stuff on the oil lamps on board 'cos its smell is preferable to paraffin.
Suprisingly B&Q doesn't sell paraffin... just a refined version for greenhouse heaters which costs an arm and a leg.
As has been said, don't use meths. Apart from the fact its too volatile and will burn too quickly it will burn with a blue flame... no light.
Years ago I put half a dozen hurricane lamps and a couple of old tilleys in a box, plus a primus stove in preparation for power cuts. There hasn't been one since!
 
As Vic says, meths is pretty lethal stuff. And both it and its fumes smell awful.

I used to use meths in my Mamod steam engine. The burner had four wicks and a small vent hole near the filler. One day, when it had been lit for a few minutes, I held a lit match near this vent hole. The vapour that was coming out ignited and produced a roaring flame about 9 inches high. It made me think: normally, this was not lit but was emiting the vapour only an inch from the first wick.

That particular experiment did not go off bang fortunately. Unlike my many experiments with gas bombs that fortunately did no damage, while educating me in the dangers inherant in gas. (Blame a library that lent ancient Victorian books on exciting science to daft 12-year-old boys.)
 
Probably GC actually ...

I think they just did an IR spectrum but came back to tell me I was paying an awful lot for something that was vitually the same as ordinary paraffin.

I would have done a GC job on it ..... not IR. You might get data from FTIR ... but still better to go GC ...

For those who are a little confused - don't worry ... Just note :

Be VERY careful about BBQ fluid ... there are various concoctions out there and use outside of intended is like most things - ill-advised.
 
Re: Probably GC actually ... D86 ?

Why would you distil it ? OK so you have the distillates ... but in fact you are trying to distil a distillate ... still got to go to a GC to determine what you have .... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Re: Probably GC actually ...

[ QUOTE ]
I would have done a GC job on it ..... not IR.

[/ QUOTE ] Yes I was hoping they would use GC. I can't remember now whether it was before or after they got their GC MS but that would have been ideal. However they had built up a big library of IR spectra of common substances in addition to the library supplied with the machine. I guess on the day I asked someone was using the IR but not one of the GCs and that they had paraffin in their IR library. If it had been an official request they might have done something different but it was the type of job they were quite good at.
 
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