Re: [HG] Cleaning your wheel

[Arle Lommel]

I ran into the issue of "paraffin oil" in the book on the Hungarian  
HG I translated for Balázs Nagy. It turned out that similar  
ambiguities existed in Hungarian as well, not just in English. What  
we finally decided is that the stuff Balázs was referring to was what  
we call mineral oil in the U.S., and that he wanted it to be distinct  
from any sort of motor oil or other such substance that could damage  
plastics over time... But paraffin oil or liquid paraffin are bad  
terms because they can actually refer, as Colin points out, to petrol/ 
gasoline, mineral oil, liquified candle wax, refined petroleum  
distillates used as lubricants, and kerosene. Even within the U.K.,  
the terms are ambiguous, and when you include other English-speaking  
countries, it gets only worse.

-Arle
Funny, we had a discussion on the Northumbrian pipers list some  
time ago
regarding liquid paraffin as an oil for the chanters and the  
confusion that
causes - everything from petrol (gasoline) to candle wax.