If Old Git is out there--please e-mail me. Looking for people from S .C. and someone thought you were from here. Second--can you burn kerosene in these little oil lamps you buy

-- Curly~Q (past1@pbtcomm.net), October 14, 1999

Answers

I'm from England! But I live in Durham, North Carolina. I believe you can burn kerosene in some oil lamps but I have only those that burn ultra-pure lamp-oil because I can't handle the smell of kerosene. Someone will probably answer your question; just hang around for a bit.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 14, 1999.

Kero is fine in oil lamps. I have a place in the bush, 40kms from the nearest power line, and have used kero for lighting for years. Compared to other forms of lighting - including candles - it works out the cheapest, even at Aus$1-00 per litre (that's about US$7-00 or so per gallon. What do you foreign folks pay for standard (regular) kero?

I find that 3 large kero lamps, strategically placed, just above head height, give me enough light in my loung/dining/kitchen area ( about 5mX6m - it 'aint no cathedral) for general use. For reading at a table, one kero lamp is OK for a book - held real close - and in times of unbridled luxury, for reading broadsheet newspapers, or to look at pictures of my dog, and to heck with the expense, I put THREE lamps. One either side and one at the top.

But I'll be cutting down , come Y2K

-- Bushwacker (Lost@in the bush.com), October 14, 1999.

Oh! And I LOVE the smell of kero. Makes me feel romantic.

-- Bushwacker (Lostin@the bush.com), October 14, 1999.

It's one of those childhood memory things. My mother used to move the paraffin heater and the thing would gurgle and flames would shoot up, scaring me to death! And my father would yell about setting the bloody house on fire. Not a bit romantic! Now lamp oil and scented candles take me back to the late 60s, early 70s--THAT was much more romantic. Maybe I should get some incense, let my hair grow long again--or maybe not!

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 14, 1999.

Once again, check out the thread posted 5 or 10 above this one, on Kero and methyl alcohol. You can burn K-1 kero in your kerosene lantern at a fraction of the cost of that high grade 100%^ pure paraffin lamp oil, if you add some methyl alcohol to the kero. Not much -- in fact a token amount, the manufacturers recommend as little as 1/2 oz to 5 gals, so an 8 oz bottle will treat a 55 gal drum of kerosene and then some. The methyl alcohol enhances the kero combustion so you don;t get any "dry burning" of the wick, which is what makes the smudgy kero "aftertaste" when you burn a lantern. If you can;t get the methyl alcohol under the brand names Kero-Kleen or Kero -CLean, and "Wick-CLeaner", (they sell it sented, like pine and tutti-fruti) order it from you pharmacist in pints or gallons. A GALLON SHOULD LAST FOREVER ...

-- Roch Steinbach (rochsteinbach@excite.com), October 16, 1999.