KEROSENE FLASH POINT RAISED

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1748, 6 September 1905, Page 67

KEROSENE FLASH POINT RAISED

AMERICAN TRUST OBJECTS. Important action has been taken by the Victorian Customs department in connection with the flash point of the ordinary domestic kerosene. Acting on expert advice, the Controller-General of Customs has decided to raise the close flash point from 73 per cent, to 80 per cent. This decision has been resolved on in the interests of the safety of the masses, to whom kerosene is their only illuminant. The change has been strongly protested against by the Colonial Oil Company—which is the Australian branch of the great American Oil Trust —on various grounds. The company claims that the raising of the flash point is unnecessary, as 73 per cent, is a perfectly safe standard, and that moreover it will raise the price of the oil to the poor. The action of the customs authorities appears to have been dictated by a desire to secure uniformity throughout the Commonwealth in regard to illuminating oils’ tests. When the power of fixing the test was exercised for the first time since federation, viz., in November last the Victorian standard, 73 deg. Fahrenheit, was taken. The proclamation then issued, however, did not alter the New South Wales point, which was at the higher, or eafer, level of 80 deg. Fahrenheit. When, therefore, expert testimony in favour of the higher point became recently available, it occurred to the Con-troller-General that as the interests' of uniformity and greater safety coincided, the Commonwealth test point should be raised to 80 deg. The Minister of Customs has endorsed the decision, and it is now the Jaw of the land. Other oils of a kindred nature to kerosene may. he imported at a lower flash point if their nature is plainly indicated, and they are not brought into trade as illuminants. — Melbourne “Age.”