Short answers, pulled from the story.
Kerosene, also called paraffin, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid derived from petroleum. It is produced by the fractional distillation of crude oil in an oil refinery, condensing at a temperature between that of diesel fuel and the more volatile naphtha and gasoline.
The word paraffin is used in countries including Chile, East Africa, South Africa, Norway, and the United Kingdom, while kerosene dominates in places like the United States, Canada, India, and Australia. In much of Asia and the Southeastern United States it is called lamp oil, and in Appalachia it is known as coal oil.
Nova Scotia geologist and inventor Abraham Gesner coined the name kerosene and registered it as a trademark in 1854. Gesner claimed he gave a public demonstration of his coal-distilling process in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in 1846, before the name evolved into a generic trademark.
Kerosene is mainly used today as fuel for jet engines, with a highly refined form called RP-1 burned with liquid oxygen as rocket fuel. It is also used for cooking, heating, and lighting in many countries, and as a solvent, coolant, and diluent in industrial and chemical processes.
As kerosene production increased, whaling declined because kerosene took over the lucrative market in lamp oil. The American whaling fleet peaked at 199 ships in 1858, fell to 167 by 1860, and dwindled to just 39 ships setting out to hunt whales in 1876.
The World Health Organization considers kerosene a polluting fuel and recommends that governments immediately stop promoting its household use. Its smoke contains high levels of harmful particulate matter, and household use is associated with higher risks of cancer, respiratory infections, asthma, tuberculosis, cataract, and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
World total kerosene consumption for all purposes is equivalent to about 5,500,000 barrels per day as of July 2023. In the United States, kerosene made up 8.5 percent by volume of petroleum refinery output in 2021, of which nearly all was kerosene-type jet fuel.