Lamp oil
Lamp oil is oil that is used for burning in oil lamps . The term is not standardized across the EU.
Lamp oils based on mineral oil can be recognized in the trade by the content designations petroleum , paraffin oil , liquid paraffin or isoparaffin . Smallest amounts of these oils can cause serious pulmonary complications in children, which can lead to death. This danger has led to the introduction of the CE regulation EN14059 2001/95 / EC for oil lamps.
Alternative lamp oils, which are less dangerous for children, are made on a vegetable basis and are sometimes sold under the name organic lamp oil. Most of these are fatty acid methyl esters ( biodiesel ). Due to the increased viscosity compared to mineral oils, they can often no longer be used in petroleum lamps .
Historically, before the refining of petroleum mainly vegetable oils such as sesame oil , olive oil , canola oil or linseed oil used. In the 19th century, Tran was of great importance for street lighting in large cities such as London or Paris ("Tranfunzeln").
In China after the Song Dynasty (from the end of the 13th century), cottonseed oil was used, which is a cheap by-product of the cultivation of cotton. Other oils previously used in China for lighting - besides those already mentioned - were obtained from trees: from the sebum tree , wood oil tree (tung tree ), camphor tree and from Camellia oleifera ( camellia oil ). In addition, depending on the region, there was lamp oil from rutabaga , fish oil, castor oil , soybean oil , hemp oil , walnut oil and oil from the Chinese pistachio ( Pistacia sinensis ).
Individual evidence
- ^ [1] Bavarian State Ministry for Environment and Consumer Protection, Dangers from Lamp Oils by Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Hans Sigl
- ↑ Xiujie Wu: A Century of Light : A Technological and Ethnological Study of Lighting in Chinese Rural Everyday Life. (Everyday cultures of China and its neighbors, Volume 2) Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, pp. 95f.