New York General Business Law Section 304 - Standard and storage of illuminating oils.

304. Standard and storage of illuminating oils. No person shall manufacture or have in his possession or sell or give away for illuminating or heating purposes in lamps or stoves within this state, any oil or burning fluid wholly or partly composed of naphtha, coal oil, petroleum or products thereof, or of other substances or materials emitting an inflammable vapor which will flash at a temperature below one hundred degrees Fahrenheit according to the tag closed tester prescribed and the method adopted by the American Society for Testing Materials for flash point of volatile flammable liquids.

No such oil or fluid which will ignite at a temperature below two hundred and ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit as determined by the standard method of test for flash and fire points by means of open cup of the American Society for Testing Materials shall be burned or be carried as freight in any passenger or baggage car or passenger boat moved by steam or electric power in this state, or in any stage or street car, however propelled, except that coal oil, petroleum and its products may be carried, when securely packed in barrels or metallic packages, in passenger boats propelled by steam when there are no other public means of transportation.

Naphtha and other illuminating products of petroleum which will not stand the flash test required by this section, may be used for illuminating or heating purposes only in the following cases:

1. In street lamps and open air receptacles apart from any building, factory or inhabited house in which the vapor is burned.

2. In dwellings, factories or other places of business when vaporized in secure tanks or metallic generators made for that purpose, in which the vapor so generated is used for lighting or heating.

3. For use in the manufacture of illuminating gas in gas manufactories situated apart from dwellings and other buildings.

Any person violating any provision of this section shall forfeit to the city or village, or if not in a city or village to the town in which the violation occurs, the sum of one hundred dollars for every such violation, and for every day or part of a day that such violation occurs.

This section shall not apply to the city of New York, and shall not supersede but shall be in addition to the ordinances or regulations of any city or village made pursuant to law for the inspection or control of combustible materials therein.


Last modified: February 3, 2019