old time "Coal Oil"

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

I've heard my Dad talk about using "Coal Oil" in lamps and lanterns. To a lesser extent for medicinial cures. But what was it? An early form of diesel? Kerosene? A petroleum based linament? Just local terminology for a common fuel? I'm sure we've discussed it before but I couldn't find it on here. What say you?

 

[mjonesnh]

Growing up in rural southern Ky. in the late 50's, early 60's the term coal oil was very common. According to my parents and grand parents it was used for just about anything that ailed you plus burned in lamps and lanterns. Believe the current equivalent would be kerosene, maybe #2 grade as it seemed to have a yellowish cast in that era.

 

[Gator6x4]

Coal Oil was kerosene. And yes people used it for other purposes beside lamp oil it was as clear as water. Farmers would mix kerosene and used motor oil together and apply it to there equipment to deter rusting.

The stuff was expensive though, it cost five or ten cents a gallon I think. :laughing: :laughing:

 

[k0ua]

let me google that for you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_oil

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

Thanks kOua, do you have any personal observations/stories regarding its use that you can share? We have Cannel Coal in the Hancock/Breckinridge County area of Ky.

 

[Bird]

When I was growing up in southern Oklahoma in the '40s and early '50s, I never saw any coal; never knew anyone who had any or used any. But, yep, I had to get out there and milk the cow by the light of a coal oil lantern. At least that's what everyone called it.

I don't remember just when common usage of the term "coal oil" changed to "kerosene", however . . . .

The stuff was expensive though, it cost five or ten cents a gallon I think.

I do remember for sure that I sold both kerosene AND "white gas" (unleaded gas) for 10 cents a gallon in the late '50s in my Dad's Mobil service station.

The only use I can remember for the white gas was for those newfangled Coleman lanterns that were so much brighter, but more trouble, than our old kerosene lanterns. But as others have said, kerosene or coal oil, was used for lots of things.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Back in the 1840s to about 1860 (When crude oil came into use) cities used to have gas plants where they cooked coal to drive off the methane gas that they sent into the gas mains to heat and light the town. A byproduct of this distillation process was coal oil which would work in wick lamps. Another byproduct was coal tar which was sometimes used for road paving but often just dumped into the nearest canal which ended up as superfund pollution sites. When Crude oil came into use the Kerosene grade was cheaper then true coal oil and burned cleaner so took over the market but people kept the old name for it for a couple of generations.

 

[k0ua]

Thanks kOua, do you have any personal observations/stories regarding its use that you can share? We have Cannel Coal in the Hancock/Breckinridge County area of Ky.

Not really, but of course we had some "coal oil" lamps, and Dad called kerosene "coal oil" until the day he died, so I grew up with the term coal oil.

 

[groundcover]

"But whale oil was still used indoors as it burned cleaner."

You should have seen the look on the faces of the Prius drivers when I would meet them at the gas station and tell them I was going to convert my Cummins to whale oil,"America's first renewable resource"!:laughing:

 

[Egon]

"But whale oil was still used indoors as it burned cleaner."

You should have seen the look on the faces of the Prius drivers when I would meet them at the gas station and tell them I was going to convert my Cummins to whale oil,"America's first renewable resource"!:laughing:

Convert to Solid Blubber. That would really get them!