Peter Marshall (petermarshall@cix.co.uk)
Fri, 16 Jul 1999 18:03 +0100 (BST)
Dusts off chemistry teacher's hat (seldom worn these days).
Benzene and Benzine are quite different things at least in the UK.
Benzene is C6H6, the simplest aromatic hydrocarbon with a six atom ring.
Benzine is an obsolete term for a low boiling mixture of mainly aliphatic
saturated hydrocarbons (CnH2n+2), also known as 'petroleum ether',
obtained from fractional distillation of crude oil.
Petroleum ether has no connection with 'ether' of course!
Both benzene and benzine or benzin were occasionally used in various
countries as names for what we call petrol and in some countries is known
as gas. Gas here is CH4, methane. Kerosine is paraffin here, though
aviation kerosine is kerosine... when it isn't something else. And so on.
Peter Marshall
_________________________________________________________________
London's Industrial Heritage: http://www.cix.co.uk/~petermarshall
The Buildings of London etc: http://www.spelthorne.ac.uk/pm/
Also on Fixing Shadows: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~ds8s
and elsewhere......
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