Originally Posted by
kingston
Paraffin oil is kerosene right?
“England and America. Two nations separated by a common language.”
In the UK, “paraffin” is the common name for kerosene. To further muddy the waters, chemists sometimes refer to alkanes as “paraffins”. To even further muddy the waters, chemists (and others) also refer to alkanes with high molecular weight which are solid as paraffin, wax, and paraffin wax. And, if that wasn’t enough to make the waters almost solid mud, we refer to mineral oil (what is in baby oil) as paraffin oil.
And there is an oil used for lamps that can be called “paraffin oil”. Jeeze, we are confusing.
In this context, however, “paraffin oil” most likely refers to either mineral oil or, perhaps, lamp oil. Both have higher molecular weights than kerosene. If
I were doing this, I’d probably use mineral oil which is a little more viscous* than lamp oil. I might even use Vaseline which is a soft wax rather than a liquid.
*To confuse things even further, “mineral oil” is available in a very wide variety of viscosities from something similar to water (lamp oil) to something more like maple syrup (baby oil) to something resembling honey and even oils thicker than that.