It is a bit more complicated than that, so to both clarify and add to the
confusion...

Etymology
Product names often overlap, or are sometimes used categorical rather than
specific.  What you have is the use of a catchall, or higher taxa if it
were, for products.  It's like saying Muricid's whether you are talking
about Murex s.s., Huastum, Latixis, or Thais, etc.  Sometimes it goes back
to the "etymology" roots of where the substance was first derived, before it
became a synthetic or derived from an other substance.

Sometimes an "oil" product was derived from coal/shale, petroleum, Whale,
other mammals, or vegetables...  and a different name would be applied to
similar oil types from differing base source ... later to be synonymized
through incorrect vernacular use,  obsolescence, or replacement.  Also
sometimes a name would be a registered trademark.

Kerosene's
In Kerosene you have many grades and derivatives, from Gk kérós wax.  It is
a thin oil distilled from petroleum or shale oil, used as a fuel for heating
and cooking, in lamps, and as a denaturant for alcohol.  Also called coal
oil, lamp oil.  It is also often called # 2 Diesel.  The specific name
applied often (at least originally) indicated properties such as denaturing,
viscosity, CS, weight, whether it is derived from petroleum, Coal, animal,
vegetable, etc., or it's sulfur, paraffin, and other impurities or desirable
content.

Naphtha is not typically considered mineral Oil, it is a coal or petroleum
distillate solvent, and very close cousin to Varsol (R), and is an
intermediate product between gasoline and benzine.  Naphtha was also once a
registered trademark for a specific graduation like Varsol is.  You can
consider it a Kerosene class product.

Mineral Oil's
Mineral oil is a refined Coal Oil or from petroleum ... again a product with
many grades and derivatives.  It is a light density (light mineral oil) or a
standard heavy density (heavy mineral oil), consisting of mixtures of
hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum by distillation: used chiefly as a
lubricant, in the manufacture of cosmetics, and in medicine as a laxative.
Also called liquid petrolatum.  By contrast, Baby Oil is a colorless mineral
oil composed mainly of alkenes and cyclic paraffins.

Paraffin Oil, also called Lamp Oil, refers to an oil which had/has a very
high paraffin (wax) content.  Many years ago this was Whale Oil.  The
infamous "Pennsylvania Grade" crude is labeled as such for it high paraffin
and low sulfur content.  Making it an idyllic for motor oil and fuel oils in
the early days of the petroleum industry.

Conclusion
What you end up with are product names that 30-100> years ago was thought of
very differently or varied region to region.  A great deal of inconsistency
and inner-changeability.  So in the end you have to ultimately know what you
are looking for.

What you will find on the shelf on at your local store labeled Mineral Oil
will probably by a medium viscosity refined coal/shale or petroleum product.
Kerosene are typically fuels and solvents, and will come in a wide variety
of grades under differing names.

Leslie Crnkovic

________________________________

From: Conchologists List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Monfils, Paul
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 10:30 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CONCH-L] oil question

Unfortunately, in chemistry as in zoology, use of colloquial names causes
much confusion. Kerosene is indeed known as Paraffin Oil, as well as Astral
Oil or Coal Oil, and it is not the same thing as Mineral Oil (obviously we
don't take kerosene as a laxative - ouch!).    But that doesn't mean that
"Paraffin Oil" cannot also be used as a synonym for some other completely
unrelated substance. Just from references in the literature I have long
suspected that Paraffin Oil is a European synonym for what Americans call
Mineral Oil. I mean Mineral Oil, the laxative.  Because "Mineral Oil" is
also used as a synonym for Naphtha, which is also called Rock Oil, Earth Oil
and Lima Oil. And on and on it goes .......

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