Short answers, pulled from the story.
Kerosene consists of hydrocarbon chains containing six to twenty carbon atoms, with nine to sixteen carbons dominating the mixture. Branched alkanes and straight-chain alkanes make up most of the volume while cycloalkanes account for another significant portion.
Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner demonstrated liquid kerosene from bituminous coal in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island during 1846. He secured a patent for the process in 1854 after forming the North American Gas Light Company with business backers.
Grade 1-K contains less than 0.04 percent sulfur making it cleaner for indoor use. Grade 2-K allows up to 0.3 percent sulfur which is common for general heating applications.
Regions including Chile, East Africa, South Africa, Norway, and the United Kingdom prefer the word paraffin or local variants. The term kerosene dominates usage in Argentina, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, and the United States.
Highly refined kerosene known as RP-1 powers many rocket engines alongside liquid oxygen. The Saturn V launch vehicle utilized five F-1 rocket engines generating roughly 1.62 times ten to the eleventh watts during liftoff.