What is a Kerosene Lantern?
Kerosene lanterns burn petroleum oil to provide indoor light when electricity is unavailable. Lanterns, sometimes called lamps, largely replaced candles as the main source of interior light when kerosene became an alternative to other kinds of combustible oil. People continue to use kerosene lanterns for camping, ambience, or in case of emergency blackouts. Kerosene oil has been distilled from petroleum, as is gasoline. It’s an alternative to oil from whales, fish, citronella, olives, beeswax, or nuts that people used to make primitive lamps. “Lamp” comes from a Greek word meaning “torch,” lampas. Robert Edwin Dietz, as the father of the kerosene lantern, patented his lamp in 1840. It burned an unfamiliar oil to light train tracks criss-crossing the United States. Soon these portable, safe, weatherproof, and inexpensive lanterns were illuminating everything from one-room schoolhouses to police stations. Their fumes were not dangerous and they were less likely than candles to tip over a
