The fuel industry is paramount to the functioning of our world. As a matter of fact, without fuel our lives would be very different, but how did some of the most influential people in the history of fuel develop their theories and innovations into what the fuel industry is today?
Abraham Gesner
Abraham Pineo Gesner, born 2nd May 1797, is renowned for his invention of kerosene oil. Due to his patents for distilling bituminous material, was a founder of the modern Petroleum Industry.
In 1846, Gesner began the development of a process to refine liquid fuel from coal, bitumen, and oil shale, which produced kerosene. Moreover, Gesner derived the name ‘kerosene’ from the Greek word for ‘wax oil’, which was ‘keroselaion’. His invention of kerosene produced a cleaner, brighter light compared to lamps using whale oil or coal oil and was much more economical to produce.
In 1853, Gesner set up the North American Kerosene Company. In 1854, Gesner filed for and obtained U.S. patents 11,203, 11,204 and 11,205 for ‘improvement in kerosene burning fluids.’ Gesner transferred his patent rights to the North American Kerosene Company. In the patents, Gesner outlined three distinct types of kerosene:
- Kerosene A – most volatile and is known as ‘gasoline’ today
- Kerosene B – slightly less volatile and was usually used with the intention of mixing with other grades
- Kerosene C – the map fuel and known as ‘coal oil’ or ‘carbon oil’
The North American Kerosene Company began selling kerosene for lamp fuel in 1856. This became standard lighting fuel in homes, especially after the introduction of an affordable ‘kerosene’ lamp from the Austen Brothers company.
By the late 1850s, competition in the coal and oil industry was increasing. In response, the North American Kerosene Company published a pamphlet whereby they held the registered trademark for the name ‘kerosene.’ Therefore, no other competing companies could use such or similar names. However, Gesner’s company’s trademarks and patents were disputed by Scottish businessman and chemist, James Young. In 1848, Young had developed a process of distilling a petroleum fuel into a product he named ‘paraffin oil.’ Although Young’s experimental methods of fuel refinements began two years after Gesner’s in 1846, Young was the first to file an American patent for his process in 1852. Thusly, Young filed for patent infringement against the North American Kerosene Company and won.
The 1859 boom of the modern petroleum industry began. Furthermore, companies found that refining oils instead of coal, tar and bitumen prevented refiners from having to pay royalties to Young and other patent owners. Crude petroleum began dominating the market at lower prices and offering an easier refining process. Therefore, the North American Kerosene Company began using petroleum rather than coal.
In the company, Gesner was replaced by Luther Atwood as chief chemist. Eventually, the North American Kerosene Company passed into the hands of Charles Pratt and Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil, the largest oil refining company in the world at the time and continued to operate until May 1951.
James Young
James Young, born 13th July 1811, was best known for his method of distilling kerosene, or ‘paraffin’, from coal and oil shales, coining him the nickname ‘Paraffin Young’.
Whilst working in the mining industry in 1848, Young noticed that oil was leaking from the ceiling of a mine. He concluded that there must be a way of intentionally extracting oil from coal when heat is applied. In 1850, Young patented this method with his partners, Edward Binney and Edward Meldrum. Notably, this led to the development of the EW Binney & Co business to become the world’s first commercial producing oil refinery. Materials, such as torbanite, lamosite, and bituminous coal, were locally mined. They were then distilled by the company into paraffin, which is where Young received his nickname ‘Paraffin Young’.
In 1865, Young branched out to form his own company ‘Young’s Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company.’ This developed into a global success in selling oil and paraffin lamps.
In 1919, shares in five Scottish shale oil companies, including Young’s Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company, were acquired by a new company, Scottish Oils Ltd, a subsidiary of The Anglo-Persian Oil Company Ltd. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company Ltd grew into a multinational company and is now known as BP.
Edwin Drake
Edwin Laurentine Drake, born 29th March 1819, was a driller of the first productive oil well in the United States.
During the mid-nineteenth century, there was much talk about the potential to strike ‘black gold’ in Oil Creek. Indeed, many had failed to make profit collecting oil from the area due to setbacks through inefficient extraction methods.
In the 1850s, a group of chemists and lawyers formed the first oil company in the United States: ‘The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New York’, later renamed as ‘Seneca Oil Company of Connecticut’.
After retiring from his job on the railroads, Drake held a free railway pass. He was hired by The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company to study the feasibility of profitability extracting oil from Titusville. Understanding the previous trouble faced collecting oil, Edwin Drake studied the techniques of drilling salt wells. Drake hired William A Smith, a salt well driller from Tarentum, Pennsylvania, and both utilised their knowledge to bore for oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania.
The drilling began in May 1858. Despite their purchase of a steam engine to power the drill, due to the loose rock and soil below the surface, maintaining a bore hole whilst drilling proved difficult. To combat this, Drake utilised cast iron piping to drive into the ground through the layers of the ground. The drilling continued on an average of three feet per day until August 1859. At 69.5 feet deep, an oil deposit was reached.
The output of the well was approximately 12 to 20 barrels per day. Edward Chancellor of the Financial Times wrote, “In a few days, Drake extracted as many barrels of oil as a whaling ship could gather on a four-year voyage.”
Drake drilled two more wells for the Seneca Oil Company. However, he did not patent his innovative pipe-drilling methodology and, sadly, never became a success in oil speculation.
Drake passed away on 9th November 1880 and was buried in Titusville with a memorial built in his honour. The first well that Drake drilled was named ‘Drake Well.’ In 1946, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania built a replica of the oil derrick and engine house used by Drake and his colleagues when extracting oil. This model became part of the ‘Drake Well Museum’, a historical site and museum to preserve and chronicle Pennsylvania’s petroleum industry, pioneered by Edwin Drake.
Ignacy Łukasiewicz
Jan Józef Ignacy Łukasiewicz, born 8th March 1822, was a Polish engineer, inventor, and pioneer who, in 1856, built the world’s first modern oil refinery.
In 1848, Łukasiewicz was employed by one of the biggest pharmacies in Austrian Galicia: the Golden Star Pharmacy in Lwów. After studying pharmaceuticals, Łukasiewicz was determined to study the properties of kerosene. Significantly, he was the first person to distil kerosene from crude oil. After partnering with his colleague, John Zeh, the pair analysed the oil to understand how it could be useful for practical applications. In 1853, Łukasiewicz invented the modern kerosene lamp and Łukasiewicz opened the world’s first oil mine at Bóbrka, Poland. Later that ye, he set up the first kerosene streetlamp in Gorlice’s Zawodzie district. Over the years, continued to open more oil wells. In 1856, Łukasiewicz opened the world’s first modern oil refinery in Ulaszowice and produced artificial asphalt, machine oil and lubricants.
Étienne Lenoir
Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir, born January 12th 1822, was a Belgian inventor who designed the first commercially successful internal-combustion engine.
Lenoir’s engine was a converted double-acting steam engine with slide valves to allow the air-fuel mixture to enter and to emit exhaust products. Significantly, the two-stroke cycle engine used both coal gas and air. Although it was only approximately 4% efficient in fuel consumption, the machine was smooth-running and durable. By 1865, more than 400 of Lenoir’s engines were in operation in France. Over 1,000 were used for low-power jobs in Britain.
In 1862, Lenoir invented the first automobile with an internal combustion engine: the ‘Hippomobile.’ It ran on liquid fuel and made a test-drive from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont in under three hours. This was a huge achievement at the time. To clarify, that same journey would take approximately 30 minutes today. With this in mind, it is clear how far the automobile and engine industry have developed since their early inception.
George Brayton
George Bailey Brayton, born 3rd October 1830, was an American mechanical engineer and inventor who designed the first continuous ignition combustion engine: a two-stroke engine named the ‘Brayton Ready Motor’.
In 1872, Brayton patented an engine that was immediately ready for operation that was appropriately named the ‘Brayton Ready Motor’. Unlike a steam engine that wasn’t immediately ready for operation and used fuel heating the working fluid, the ‘Ready Motor’, or the ‘Hydro-Carbon Engine’ as it was also known, used hydrocarbons mixed with air as the working fluid to directly act on the piston. The ‘Brayton Cycle’ describes the functional principle of a constant pressure heat engine. In particular, this is the basis for the gas turbine. An ideal Brayton Cycle completes four processes: isentropic compression, isobaric heat addition, isentropic expansion, and isobaric heat rejection.
In the early 1870s, the Pennsylvania Ready Motor Company in Philadelphia was established to sell Brayton engines. In 1878, John Holland, an Irish engineer, used a 4hp vertical Brayton engine in the first submarine powered by an internal combustion engine: the Holland I. Although it was functional, the Holland I was not successful. In 1881, Holland’s second submarine, the Fenian Ram, was launched and used a 15hp horizontal Brayton engine.
Furthermore, some other early uses of the Brayton engine included powering pumps, cotton engines, and grinding mills. Today, the Brayton cycle is one of the most common thermal cycles used in aircraft and gas turbine power plants
Stay tuned for Part 2 of ‘Famous People in Fuel History’ – coming next month!
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Keywords: history, fuel, industry, fuel industry, Merlin, Merlin Diesel Systems, Abraham Gesner, kerosene, oil, paraffin, James Young, Edwin Drake, inventions, Ignancy Lukasiewicz, Etienne Lenoir, automotive, George Brayton, engine, pumps
