Cosmoline is defined elsewhere in Wiki land and is, short story,
crude Vaseline. It is the gooey stuff left after all the various
fuels, solvents, etc have been distilled out of petroleum.
Petroleum jelly (Vaseline) is refined from cosmoline. All the
armies of the world have long used cosmoline to preserve firearms
and other rust able hardware for long term storage, by means of
painting the goo on all exposed surfaces. It is far too sticky for
use as a lubricant. TEKnapp