Petroleum jelly is unable to detonate without the use of a blasting cap. It was used as a stabiliser in the manufacture of the propellant Cordite. Petroleum jelly can be used to coat the inner walls of terrariums to prevent animals crawling out and escaping. A stripe of petroleum jelly can be used to prevent the spread of a liquid. For example, it can be applied close to the hairline when using a home hair dye kit to prevent the hair dye from irritating or staining the skin. It is also used to prevent diaper rash. Petroleum jelly is used to gently
Star jelly of grass". <poem>As he whose quicker eye doth trace A false star shot to a mark'd place Do's run apace, And, thinking it to catch, A jelly up do snatch</poem> That the Starres eat...that those falling Starres, as some call them, which are found on the earth in the form of a trembling gelly, are their excrement. When I had taken up what I supposed a fallen star I found I had been cozened with a jelly. <poem>Swift as the shooting star, that gilds the night With rapid transient Blaze, she runs, she flies; Sudden she stops nor longer can