The expanded use of kerosene in the mid-nineteenth century led to a search for ways to test the volatility of petroleum products, to reduce the incidence of
accidental fires. Berthold Pensky, an engineer at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute in Berlin, developed a flash-point cup tester for this purpose in the early 1870s. A modification, introduced by Martens, was in use by 1891. This example, known as a Pensky-Martens tester, is of that sort.
Ref: Boverton Redwood, Petroleum and Its Products (London, 1906), vol. 2, pp. 593-594.
Arthur H. Thomas, Laboratory Apparatus and Reagents (Philadelphia 1921), p. 452.
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