Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - Petroleum-Storage Installations at Avonmouth and at Cardiff [1890] . . . .

	1895 - Taff Vale Railway - Penarth Dock and Harbour Plan - reminding us of the location of the Petroleum-Storage Installation of the South Wales Public Wharf and Transit Company Limited at the Penarth Tidal Harbour.

Scarcely any industry in this country has grown with such remarkable rapidity as that of the import of petroleum. In 1859 it amounted to 2,000,000 gallons, and the official returns for 1889 show that in that year it exceeded 102,000,000 gallons. This enormous increase has called forth improved methods of conveying the oil and storing it. The old method of bringing it to England in barrels was successfully superseded about the year 1886, by the use of specially built steamers, provided with oil-tanks and powerful pumps.

Owing to the presence in some cases of large proportions of naphtha, serious explosions have occurred, and legislative measures have been passed for the protection of the public. No oil that flashes at less than 73° on the Abel instrument is considered safe. Dr. now (Sir) Lyon Playfair, in evidence before a Parliamentary Committee, stated that he would not use oil that flashed under 120°, but would prefer 130°.

Although this substance was known to the ancients over 2,000 years ago, it has only within the last thirty years become an important article of commerce.