THE FLASH-POINT SCANDAL time to devote a little attention to one of the Standard's great triumphs in this country—the staving off until this present day of the legislative raising of the flash-point of petroleum. I desire to make this explana tion short and simple. The flash-point is the temperature at which an oil will give off vapour, which, mixed with air, is explosive. In other words, it is the point at which a flame brought close to its surface will cause it to explode— the explosion being, of course, small in a 2-in. deep test-cup, but serious when a lamp or a barrel is in question. The test depends on the presence of vapour. It is obvious, therefore, that any test-cup which allows the vapour to escape before the flame can be applied is useless. The advocates of safe oil have always demanded a test-cup which would retain the vapour, and the petroleum traders in Europe and America have always pushed some kind of cup which would allow as much as possible of the vapour to escape.
The story of the juggle with the flash-point begins in 1868, before the Standard Oil Trust was born, and for its initial stage it is only fair to admit that it can have no responsibility. The Fire Protection Committee of 1867 recommended that the flash-point should be 110 deg. Fahr. The Petroleum Association—which was then an independent body of importers of American oil—asked for a flash-point of 100 deg., and the Home Secretary called in the " three chemists "—Dr. Lethaby, Professor Attfield, and Professor (afterwards Sir Frederick) Abel—to advise as to the flash-point and the method of determining it.
The three chemists recommended that 100 deg. should be conceded provided it was ascer tained by a test-cup which they recommended. That tester, called " the three chemists' cup," gave results which it is now admitted were identical, within 3 deg. of those shown by the present Abel tester. What followed is suc cinctly narrated by Mr. Ure, K.C., M.P. (now the Lord Advocate), in his draft report pre sented to the Petroleum Committee (1898 Report, p. xxxvi) The Report [of the three chemists] was accepted by the Home Office and the standard and test were embodied in the Notices of Motion and Orders of the Day for the 8th of June, 1868. A week later it will be found from the Notices
of Motion and Orders of the Day that the test prescribed by the three chemists, and accepted by the Government on the 8th of June, had undergone a very material change. In the interval the Petroleum Association approached the Govern ment and requested that the three chemists' test be modified. The Government remitted to Sir Frederick Abel to consider the question thus raised. He was comparatively new to the subject of flash-point investigation. Dr. Lethaby and Dr. Attfield had for years devoted special attention to it. Both were in London at the time, and available for consultation. Neither was consulted or even apprised of the proposed change.
Sir Frederick Abel was enjoined by the Government not to give way on any point affecting the efficiency of the test. He did give way ; and in the result a test was prescribed which he himself subsequently described as " untrustworthy," " open to manipulation," and " not of such a nature as uni formly to ensure reliable and satisfactory results." Why Dr. Lethaby and Dr. Attfield were not consulted has not been explained to your Committee. It is certain that if they had been consulted, the change could never have been made. Whenever it came to his knowledge Dr. Attfield at once informed the Government that the test was far less stringent than that prescribed by the three chemists, that it would be a fertile source of disputes, and that the public would not be protected.
That 100 deg. flash-point, with the inaccurate tester of the Petroleum Association, went into the Act of 1868, and the mischief was done. But the most extraordinary and audacious chapter in this strange story took place ten years later when the disputes and blunders which Dr. Att field had foretold had occurred. Sir Frederick Abel then devised the Abel (close) tester, which is an efficient one ; but he showed that an oil flashed in that tester at a point 27 deg. lower than that at which it flashed in the Petroleum Association cup legalised in 1867.