History of Science and Engineering Annotation << Back THE HISTORY OF FLAMMABLE AND COMBUSTIBLE LIQUIDS CLASSIFICATION IN THE UK S.G. Alexeev, V.V. Smirnov, N.M. Barbin Kerosene widely used in household in the second half of the XIX century led to an increase of fi res and explosions. Therefore there was a requirement to fi nd and establish the safety kerosene criteria. The fl ashpoint of kerosene has become its safety criterion. «Safe kerosene» was considered as a product that has a fl ash point above room temperature with the additional temperature increase of kerosene due to the heat of the fl ame radiation, sunlight, etc. Gradually kerosene safety criterion was extended to the other fl ammable and combustible liquids derived from both crude oil and other organic raw materials. That had laid to the foundation for the classifi cation of fl ammable and combustible liquids. In 1908-1961 the fi rst British classifi cations of fl ammable and combustible liquids had appeared. They can be called «kerosene classifi cation», as they were created taking into account the criterion of «safe kerosene». Modern British classifi cation of fl ammable and combustible liquids had appeared in 1972. The ideology of the «safe kerosene» criteria has remained till nowadays. Keywords: fl ammable liquids; combustible liquids; fl ash point; kerosene; Abel. Contacts: E-mail:3608113@mail.ru Pp. 60-66.