Kerosene - History

History

The process of distilling crude oil/petroleum into kerosene, as well as other hydrocarbon compounds, was first written about in the 9th century by the Persian scholar Rāzi (or Rhazes). In his Kitab al-Asrar (Book of Secrets), the physician and chemist Razi described two methods for the production of kerosene, termed naft abyad ("white naphtha"), using an apparatus called an alembic. One method involved using clay as an absorbent, whereas the other method involved using ammonium chloride (sal ammoniac). The distillation process was to be repeated until the final product was perfectly clear and "safe to light", i.e. volatile hydrocarbon fractions had been mostly removed. Kerosene was also produced during the same period from oil shale and bitumen by heating the rock to extract the oil, which was then distilled.

In 1846, Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner gave a public demonstration in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island of a new process he had discovered. He heated coal in a retort and distilled from it a clear, thin fluid which he showed made an excellent lamp fuel. He coined the name "Kerosene" for his fuel, a contraction of keroselaion, meaning wax-oil. The cost of extracting kerosene from coal was high. Fortunately, Gesner recalled from his extensive knowledge of New Brunswick's geology a naturally occurring asphaltum called albertite. He was blocked from using it by the New Brunswick coal conglomerate because they had coal extraction rights for the province, and he lost a court case when their experts claimed albertite was a form of coal. Gesner subsequently moved to Newtown Creek, Long Island, New York, in 1854, where he secured the backing of a group of businessmen. They formed the North American Gas Light Company, to which he assigned his patents. Despite clear priority of discovery, Gesner did not obtain his first kerosene patent until 1854, two years after James Young's US patent. Gesner's method of purifying the distillation products appears to have been superior to Young's, resulting in a cleaner and better-smelling fuel. Manufacture of kerosene under the Gesner patents began in New York in 1854, and later in Boston, being distilled from bituminous coal and oil shale.

In 1848, Scottish chemist James Young experimented with oil discovered seeping in a coal mine as a source of lubricating oil and illuminating fuel. When the seep became exhausted, he experimented with the dry distillation of coal, especially the resinous "boghead coal" (torbanite). He extracted a number of useful liquids from it, one of which he named "paraffine oil", because at low temperatures, it congealed into a substance resembling paraffin wax. Young took out a patent on his process and the resulting products in 1850, and built the first truly commercial oil-works in the world at Bathgate in 1851, using oil extracted from locally mined torbanite, shale, and bituminous coal. In 1852, he took out a US patent for the same invention. These patents were subsequently upheld in both countries in a series of lawsuits, and other producers were obliged to pay him royalties. See also coal oil.

In 1851, Samuel Martin Kier began selling kerosene to local miners, under the name "Carbon Oil". He distilled this by a process of his own invention from crude oil. He also invented a new lamp to burn his product. He has been dubbed the Grandfather of the American Oil Industry by historians. Since the 1840s, Kier's salt wells were becoming fouled with petroleum. At first, Kier simply dumped the useless oil into the nearby Pennsylvania Main Line Canal, but later he began experimenting with several distillates of the crude oil, along with a chemist from eastern Pennsylvania.

Ignacy Łukasiewicz, a Polish pharmacist residing in Lvov, had been experimenting with different kerosene distillation techniques, trying to improve on Gesner's process, using local seep oil. Many people knew of his work, but paid little attention to it. On the night of July 31, 1853, doctors at the local hospital needed to perform an emergency operation, virtually impossible by candlelight. They therefore sent a messenger for Łukasiewicz and his new lamps. The lamp burned so brightly and cleanly that the hospital officials ordered several lamps plus a large supply of fuel. Łukasiewicz realized the potential of his work and quit the pharmacy to find a business partner, and then travelled to Vienna to register his technique with the government. Łukasiewicz moved to the Gorlice region of Poland in 1854, and sank several wells across southern Poland over the following decade, setting up a refinery near Jasło in 1859.

The widespread availability of cheaper kerosene was the principal factor in the precipitous decline in the whaling industry in the mid-to-late 19th century, as the leading product of whaling was oil for lamps.