'Paraffin mafia' is fined £535m

Source: BBC News

The European Commission has fined nine firms a total of £535m ($948m; 676m euros) for operating what it called a price-fixing "paraffin mafia".

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A 10th firm, the Anglo-Dutch oil firm Shell, escaped a fine as it blew the whistle on the cartel's activities.

Paraffin is used in candles, waxed paper, paper cups and plates, as well as in chemicals and car components.

The nine companies which have been fined are: US giant Exxon Mobil; Repsol of Spain; Italy's ENI; Tudapetrol, Hansen & Rosenthal and RWE of Germany; France's Total; and MOL of Hungary.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7646408.stm

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Not sure if you call it paraffin in the USA. Whatever - $948m is a huge number of bucks.

my mom would drag me out of bed on a Saturday at 5 a.m., open all the windows in December, to roll chocolates. Ah, the memories...

Definition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraffin

What in the US is called Kerosene is called Paraffin in England, but the reason for the difference is historical. Paraffin was the name for a different substance on both sides of the Atlantic before Kerosene came into wide spread use in the 1860s. When Kerosene replaced Candles (and whale Oil) as the main form of lighting from the 1860s onward, we in the states adopted the name Kerosene, for this new source of fuel for lighting while England expanded its definition of Paraffin for the same substance. Thus what is called Kerosene in the States is called Paraffin in England. This is similar to the term "Flashlight" and "Torch". In England, and the US, a Torch was used for lighting before the invention of electric lights. With the invention of electric lights England just expanded its definition of Torch to include what we in the US called by a new name for a new way of lighting, a Flashlight.

Anyway. this does NOT sound like a Kerosene/diesel/Jet Fuel (All interchangeable) but true Paraffin, which is used to make candles. Thus like a Torch (if you mean a burning light on top of a stick) Paraffin is the same on both sides of the Atlantic (i.e. a base for candle making). Paraffin differs in the States when referring to that new invention in the 1800s, refined petroleum to be burn as a source of light. In the US the new substance (New in the 1860s) is called Kerosene, but the older substance, used to make candles, is still Paraffin on both sides of the Atlantic (and that is the substance in dispute in this article).

Side note: Today, most Paraffin is derived from oil, but in historical times could be derived from fats (including Vegetable "fats" like margarine, and some are even today). It is that fact most Paraffin is oil derived is why the oil refineries were part of this cartel.

:hi:

One of the reason for the name difference may be that the Term "Kerosene" was made a trademark in the 1850s but lost that trademark quite early in the US. As a Registered Trademark no one EXCEPT the owner of the name "Kerosene" could use that name. This Trademark appears to have been recognized and enforced in the UK, leading to the use of the word "Paraffin" for Kerosene for "Paraffin" was NOT a trademark name and anybody could use it in England.

In the US on the other hand, the Trademark survived for several years (Thus the use of the term "Coal Oil" in the late 1800s for Kerosene) but the Courts quickly found that the term had become common usage for this type of refined oil and thus ruled kerosene was a Genetic name and no longer a recognize Trademark for one's companies production of Kerosene. With the lost of the Trademark, everyone started to use the name Kerosene for Kerosene in the US.

The most famous case of losing a Trademark name is the word "Aspirin". In most of the word "Aspirin" is a name only usable by the Bayer Corporation but since 1921 a Genetic name in the US, i.e. anyone can use the name for a Aspirin type pain killer.

Thus the difference may be the result of the greater easiness that courts in the US in finding a Name had become Genetic and is no longer a trademark.

For more on lost of Trademark name to a Generic names see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized

in connection with pressurised lamps. We've got the Tilley which runs on paraffin and goes back to 1818 and you've got the Coleman which runs on kersosene and post dates the Tilley - think so anyway.

The difference in Fuel seems to be the main difference between the Tilly and the Coleman. Both uses Mantels not wicks (I am going by the Tilly Web Site, the lamps look like Mantles and the Diagram uses the term mantels) and both use the fuel under pressure. Mantels are brighter then old Fashion Wicks and the pressure keeps the flow of the fuel steady.

Coleman web site:
http://www.coleman.com/

Coleman History:
http://www.coleman.com/coleman/ColemanCom/WhoWeAre2.asp

Tilly Web Site:
http://www.tilleylamp.co.uk/

I do NOT know about the Tilly (Through I suspect it does the same), but the Coleman put out the heat. I once had to go in an Army 2 1/2 ton truck WITHOUT a heater in 20 degree Fahrenheit weather. At least the Truck had doors, windows and a canvas top but even with these the cab was cold. My little Coleman back pack lantern kept me warm while we were go 50 mph up and down the Pennsylvania Turnpike from Pittsburgh to Ft Indiantown Gap, north and East of Harrisburg. Coleman does have two Kerosene Lanterns, but its main thrust has always been Gasoline lanterns.

One last Comment, Coleman uses UNLEADED Gasoline, while unleaded is the norm now in the US, Unleaded Gasoline was NOT the norm prior to 1973 and the adoption of Catalytic converters. I remember going with my father to Amoco, for Amoco had the only unleaded gasoline in the US prior to 1973 (Coming out of its oil fields in California). Thus even today Coleman sells its own brand of fuel for its Stoves and lantern, sold in camping stores but still being sold.

not sure what they use now. You needed meths to to them going. That goes in a small brass saucer which sits uner the mantel. The mantels are similar to the ones which were used in our old street gas lamposts. Our camping cookers are generally refered to as Primus stoves - see here under the heading Pressurised-burner stoves http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_stove that mentions pre-heating the burner with meths too.

We used to wax up our boards with paraffin so our feet would slip off the deck.