The Collaborative International Dictionary
Naphtha \Naph"tha\ (n[a^]f"th[.a] or n[a^]p"th[.a]), n. [L. naphtha, Gr. na`fqa, fr.Ar. nafth, nifth.]
(Chem.) The complex mixture of volatile, liquid, inflammable hydrocarbons, occurring naturally, and usually called crude petroleum, mineral oil, or rock oil. Specifically: That portion of the distillate obtained in the refinement of petroleum which is intermediate between the lighter gasoline and the heavier benzine, and has a specific gravity of about 0.7, -- used as a solvent for varnishes, as a carburetant, illuminant, etc.
-
(Chem.) One of several volatile inflammable liquids obtained by the distillation of certain carbonaceous materials and resembling the naphtha from petroleum; as, Boghead naphtha, from Boghead coal (obtained at Boghead, Scotland); crude naphtha, or light oil, from coal tar; wood naphtha, from wood, etc.
Note: This term was applied by the earlier chemical writers to a number of volatile, strong smelling, inflammable liquids, chiefly belonging to the ethers, as the sulphate, nitrate, or acetate of ethyl.
--Watts.Naphtha vitrioli [NL., naphtha of vitriol] (Old Chem.), common ethyl ether; -- formerly called sulphuric ether. See Ether.
Usage examples of "crude petroleum".
Added to these difficulties is the expense of hauling either the crude petroleum or crudely refined diesel from the Wentz area to Grantville.
Howell Petroleum, especially Howell Petroleum (Venezuela), was his primary source of crude petroleum and petroleum products.
The sour stench of disaster would forever, for Victor Henry, be the smell of crude petroleum.
You are not a Vanderbilt, whose fortune was made by a vulgar tugboat captain, or a Rockefeller, whose wealth was amassed through unscrupulous speculations in crude petroleum.
A gallon of crude petroleum hauled from the Persian Gulf to an east-coast port of the United States costs seven cents.
The open-pit mineworks north of town and a crude-oil refinery capable of cracking crude petroleum into useable fuels have been likewise abandoned.