I read an article yesterday, about a lady from DC, that drove about 150 miles to a country store in SW Pa. While at the store, she purchased 40 gals. of lamp oil at $9.99 a gal. She also bought a few plain old oil lamps. Some one should have told her that kerosene at .99 cents a gal. works just fine. It scares me how people have lost touch with the past. God help them!!!!!!!

-- SCOTTY (BLehman202@aol.com), April 21, 1999

Answers

ahem. Like me SCOTTY, on another thread I asked if any fuels other than oil could be used in oil lamps.

Actually, I didn't lose touch with that past. I never had it. I was born in late '65 and have had overhead lighting and central heating as far back as I remember.

PJ in TX

-- PJ Gaenir (fire@firedocs.com), April 21, 1999.

Yes...it is true that kerosene works fine....but not as good as lamp oil and not near as nice as paraffin. Kerosene smells and it smokes up the lamp chimneys. If you don't think so, just go and visit an Amish family. There houses stink with kerosene. Even some of the food they bake tastes/smells of it. Been there done that and I buy paraffin or oil. And if I could find parafin at $10/gal, I would be dancing a jig.

Taz

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), April 21, 1999.

Point is, not to waste money. Kerosene works, yes it smells, but not bad if you watch what you are doing. Make the funds streeeeeeeeeech! If TSHTF, I really don't care if I smell kero. I really do care that I was able to buy more food and ammo!

-- SCOTTY (BLehman202@aol.com), April 21, 1999.

Taz,

When you talk about paraffin, are you referring to liquid paraffin? If so, where do you find it? The only paraffin I'm familiar with is the gulf wax blocks sold by the canning supplies. Thanks!

;)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), April 21, 1999.

I read somewhere that another kind of oil could also be used with a small wick like a candle. Trouble is that I can't remember whether I saw it at Frugal's, or North's or somewhere else. This would, of course, not give out the light of a kerosene lamp. Anybody see that? Was it safflower oil?

Of all the things I've had and lost, it's my mind I miss the most.

-- sue (deco100@aol.com), April 21, 1999.

"Works just fine (burns in a lamp)" doesn't mean "something else works better (burns in a lamp, but doesn't smell)" is wrong.

Else, people would always buy Volswagons, and nobody would sell Mercedes and Lexi.

Recently having spilled just a little kerosene indoors, I am getting more lamp oil - keep the kero for heat only, and hope to use as little as possible. By the local "ACE" and smaller general hardware stores all have oil lamps now and other "stuff". Many have put away the heaters, but have told me they can get them.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), April 21, 1999.

Taz, PJ,

"Ultra Pure" brand lamp oil at Wal*Mart doesn't have the stink problem, and it's $1.97 per 22-oz. bottle, or $11.42 a gallon. Made of 99.9% liquid paraffin.

Thanks Bardou (if you're still around) - works for me!

-- Debbie (dbspence@usa.net), April 21, 1999.

I suppose there's something about having grown up in a house without electricity that makes a person less sensitive to odors. We had kerosene lamps we used every evening, Aladdin lamps for reading and lanterns for outdoors. Funny I don't remember anyone ever mentioning the smell of kerosene, and our food never had a kerosene taste.

Although I haven't been without electricity since I was age 10, I still keep a lamp on the table with lamp oil in it, because I like it. I light it about twice a week. Recently we filled one with kerosene, and the smell was not that noticeable. Of course we filled it in the garage, just as my mother used to fill lamps on the enclosed back porch. For long term use a barrel of kerosene is much easier and less expensive to store. But if it bothers you, then lamp oil is the way to go.

Exhaust fumes from cars are much more offensive to me than kerosene.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), April 23, 1999.

To clarify--in the UK kerosene is referred to as paraffin. We had a paraffin heater at one time and it DID stink! Maybe it was improper usage, I don't know. True, it's preferable to freezing your bum off.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), April 23, 1999.