Kerosene would be a thinner oil compared to all animal and vegetable oils I know of and from what I have read thicker oils have problems with climbing the wick if it extends too high from the fuel reservoir. Whale oil was very thin in comparison to other available pre kerosene oils but I doubt it was as thin as petroleum kerosene which is just the next grade less volatile than gasoline.
I wonder if part of the reason whale oil is cleaner burning is the reason that (from what I understand) biodiesel is also cleaner burning, the presence of bound oxygen in the fuel molecule…
The smokeless whale oil lamps were Argand lamps. The wick was flat and fed up in such a way that where it burned it was circular. That made it burn more evenly and therefore smokelessly because there were no ends. Some kerosine lamps had flat wicks and some round. The ones with round wicks, from what I saw in Norway the summer before this last, needed only narrow chimneys, while those with flat wicks have chimneys that are much wider around the flame.
Early American lighthouses had Argand lamps and silvered reflectors. Later ones had concentric Argand lamps and Fresnel’s own Fresnel lenses, with the outer segments working as total internal reflection reflectors. Big lighthouses like the Point Rayes Light House had five concentric wicks and room sized Fresnel lenses. The Point Rayes Light House originally burned lard oil, because whale oil was already too expensive. It had to be pre-heated in a tank above the flames to make it liquid enough to use.
Here is a virtual reality model I made.
I have an Aladdin lamp with a round wick. The taller sleeker chimney has a small piece of extra glass at the base and it twists to lock it into the base . It also uses a mantle like the ones used in coleman lanterns. They aren't that much brighter than regular kerosene or lamp oil lights and parts are much more expensive . Using lamp oil is more expensive but smokes less than kerosene .
olive oil?
I know there are ways to make a DIY makeshift candle using olive oil and some cotton string and a whatever clear/see thru container you can put it in
Any edible oil will work for an ancient style oil lamp. If you have a Kindle reader or reader program on your computer the following might be of interest for 99 cents. Even petroleum oils might work but I have no idea of the effect on the user of the current additive packages used for modern auto engine oils when burned in a lamp. From what I have read a modern automotive oil is 25% or more various additives. Sewing machine oil might work.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KB7F9SU/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o04\_?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Fuels for more modern lamps and lanterns are covered in the following book from the same author. This covers kerosene, lamp oil, coleman fuel, white gas and similar products. Propane and butane are also covered. Based on flash point temperature there are a lot of lamp fuels which are just minor variations of Kerosene, some sold at much higher prices.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KVUVNDW/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o04\_?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Many years ago, I messed up my kerosine lamp (a small Feuerhand) with olive oil. All went well for two nights, then the wick was clogged and a terrible sticky gooey was all over the lamp, hard to remove. The lamp smelled like olive oil for years after that experiment.
Idly wondering what the modern Arctic hunters do with all the blubber that they harvest from the village kills? Given all the modern conveniences, would they boil any down for other than Food type usages?
Per stuff read in the National Geographic the number of kills allowed to Alaska natives is quite limited and a lot of the blubber is used as food due to it’s very high caloric value, needed in that type of climate in the winter. Also the best lamp oil was the lightest fraction of the spermacetti from the head cavity of the Sperm whale I believe. Heavier parts were used for spermacetti candles, considered some of the best candles but I have no idea how they were actually made or how spermacetti was refined for candle and lamp oil use. So far as I can tell the Japanese are the only country currently taking Sperm whales and it is only something like 10 per year.
Both of my bros live and work in AK…both of them work occasionally in the high arctic, one at military/govt facilities, one at a native village, where he has been served whale ‘treats’, as an honor for his work with the town govt offices. Though he said he has never had the pleasure of being around a butcher site. That would be something. I guess Sperm oil is still prized in some quarters as the best product for certain high end applications, despite all the other new tech products.
My father used sperm whale oil to lubricate his electric shaver (before he grew a beard).
There is also a denser easily solidifying component in the sperm whale’s head, used in the resonator of its echo location system and in cosmetics.
I wonder if anyone ran these whale oils through a GCMS and figured out the chemical content (it may be reproducible synthetically)
FWIW, as I’ve had a few gallons of it sitting around for years, I put some liquid paraffin in a kerosene lantern the other night to see what would happen. It seemed to wick with no problem. I did notice if I turned the wick up to get a higher flame, it would burn the wick down again to a smaller size quite quickly. I wondered if the wick cannot stand the higher temperature and that’s why it burns down so quickly?
Curious, I Googled the flash point of the oils:
Kerosene apparently is 38-72C
Paraffin is around 160C
Whale Oil is 230C
That makes me wonder if liquid paraffin would be closer than kerosene in a Whale Oil lamp?
I made an account just to explain that spermacetti and liquified whale blubber weren't the same thing, but Richwouldnt beat me to it long ago.
Whale oil lamps were probably closer to olive oil lamps in design than to volitile oils like kerosene. I would go with a refined olive oil, but know that most vegetable oils will clog a wick, and so you just need to trim or replace the wick periodically. If you're using 100% cotton mop string as wick it's so cheap you won't mind.
Thank you for taking the time for your post!
I once made the mistake to use vegetable oil in my kerosine lamp, it lasted a few hours and then indeed the wick was clogged, and it took another few years before the rancid smell was gone.
Welcome to BLF keyosuke, we also talk about (and spend our incomes on) led flashlights, if that may interest you :innocent: .
I got a kick out of reading about someone doing that. I'd have tried it but I had a kerosene lamp collector advise me against it when I was a kid. I'll have to check out the flashlight threads when the time comes.
Lard is cheap. Not sure how well it resists turning rancid, but there doesn’t seem to be much else in it to go bad.
Clear mineral oil(the food grade stuff) is about as pure and clean as you can get - all the volatiles and other nasties are already distilled off,