40
cholera, piles, rheumatism, gout, asthma, bronchitis, burns and scalds, neuralgia,
ringworm, skin eruptions, deafness, chronic sore eyes, and several other things.
Despite the P.T. Barnum “medicine show” approach of Kier and many other
nineteenth century oil pitchmen, petroleum actually did have some value as a medicine, and it is still used today in the form of petroleum jelly, an effective ointment
and salve. Another significant use of rock oil for modern medicine is somewhat
more indirect. It supplies many of the raw materials needed as chemical feedstocks
by the pharmaceutical industry.
Because of his excessive marketing expenses, Kier wasn’t making much money
on his medicinal petroleum, so he decided to look for other uses. He discovered,
perhaps accidentally, that rock oil could be burned, and he considered selling it as a
lamp oil. However, crude oil was unappealing for use in people’s houses because it
produced an unpleasant odor and heavy black smoke when burned. Until these
problems could be resolved in some manner, no one would buy it as a lamp fuel
(Brice 2008).
3.1 Saving the Whales
The primary type of oil used for indoor lamp illumination in the mid-nineteenth
century was whale oil, which burned cleanly and brightly. However, as sperm
whales in the Atlantic Ocean were hunted nearly to extinction for their oil, it became
increasingly rare and more expensive, commanding prices (in 1850s dollars) as high
as $100 per barrel in the U.S. (Harper 1998). Whale hunting was romanticized by
Melville in the novel Moby Dick, published in 1851.
A decade earlier, scientists in Europe had begun experimenting with methods for
making oil from coal to ease their own dependence on whale oil for illumination.
Dr. Abraham Gesner, a Canadian geologist in New Brunswick, made the first successful “coal oil” in North America from bitumen (Ginsberg 2009). Bitumen (also
known as asphalt) is a heavy crude oil composed of a viscous mixture of long chain
hydrocarbons. It commonly forms as a residual deposit in natural oil seeps after the
lighter hydrocarbons have evaporated off (Fig. 3.3). Dr. Gesner had essentially
refined crude oil into a clean-burning liquid he called “keroselain” from the Greek
words for “wax” and “oil.” It soon became widely known as kerosene.
Samuel Kier became aware that a process existed for refining crude oil into kerosene, and he realized that kerosene would be an excellent lamp oil. Not knowing
how to make it, he contacted a chemist named James C. Booth in Philadelphia.
Booth sent Kier some drawings of an apparatus that would be capable of safely
performing the distillation of crude oil into purer, lighter products. In the early
1850s, Kier began to produce what he called “Carbon Oil” for use as a fuel in lamps
(Brice 2008).
Unfortunately, there were no oil lamps in existence at the time that could utilize
Kier’s Carbon Oil as a fuel. Undaunted, he developed a lantern that would burn his
refined kerosene oil through the use of an adjustable wick to transport the fuel to a
3 The History of Oil & Gas Development in the U.S.
cholera, piles, rheumatism, gout, asthma, bronchitis, burns and scalds, neuralgia,
ringworm, skin eruptions, deafness, chronic sore eyes, and several other things.
Despite the P.T. Barnum “medicine show” approach of Kier and many other
nineteenth century oil pitchmen, petroleum actually did have some value as a medicine, and it is still used today in the form of petroleum jelly, an effective ointment
and salve. Another significant use of rock oil for modern medicine is somewhat
more indirect. It supplies many of the raw materials needed as chemical feedstocks
by the pharmaceutical industry.
Because of his excessive marketing expenses, Kier wasn’t making much money
on his medicinal petroleum, so he decided to look for other uses. He discovered,
perhaps accidentally, that rock oil could be burned, and he considered selling it as a
lamp oil. However, crude oil was unappealing for use in people’s houses because it
produced an unpleasant odor and heavy black smoke when burned. Until these
problems could be resolved in some manner, no one would buy it as a lamp fuel
(Brice 2008).
3.1 Saving the Whales
The primary type of oil used for indoor lamp illumination in the mid-nineteenth
century was whale oil, which burned cleanly and brightly. However, as sperm
whales in the Atlantic Ocean were hunted nearly to extinction for their oil, it became
increasingly rare and more expensive, commanding prices (in 1850s dollars) as high
as $100 per barrel in the U.S. (Harper 1998). Whale hunting was romanticized by
Melville in the novel Moby Dick, published in 1851.
A decade earlier, scientists in Europe had begun experimenting with methods for
making oil from coal to ease their own dependence on whale oil for illumination.
Dr. Abraham Gesner, a Canadian geologist in New Brunswick, made the first successful “coal oil” in North America from bitumen (Ginsberg 2009). Bitumen (also
known as asphalt) is a heavy crude oil composed of a viscous mixture of long chain
hydrocarbons. It commonly forms as a residual deposit in natural oil seeps after the
lighter hydrocarbons have evaporated off (Fig. 3.3). Dr. Gesner had essentially
refined crude oil into a clean-burning liquid he called “keroselain” from the Greek
words for “wax” and “oil.” It soon became widely known as kerosene.
Samuel Kier became aware that a process existed for refining crude oil into kerosene, and he realized that kerosene would be an excellent lamp oil. Not knowing
how to make it, he contacted a chemist named James C. Booth in Philadelphia.
Booth sent Kier some drawings of an apparatus that would be capable of safely
performing the distillation of crude oil into purer, lighter products. In the early
1850s, Kier began to produce what he called “Carbon Oil” for use as a fuel in lamps
(Brice 2008).
Unfortunately, there were no oil lamps in existence at the time that could utilize
Kier’s Carbon Oil as a fuel. Undaunted, he developed a lantern that would burn his
refined kerosene oil through the use of an adjustable wick to transport the fuel to a
3 The History of Oil & Gas Development in the U.S.