The Myth of Lamp Oil

Six years ago, I was asked by the publisher of one of the toy train hobby magazines to write an essay on why the use of lamp oil as a smoke fluid in toy train locomotives is dangerous.  That essay appeared in an issue of the magazine that year.  Over the course of time, sadly, facts are replaced by urban myths and I see in various online venues that the myth of lamp oil is alive and well.  In what's probably a forlorn hope of putting this particular urban myth to rest, I've published the essay, in slightly updated form, on my web site.  You can read the facts about lamp oil and why it's a very, very bad idea to use it as a smoke fluid HERE.