Abraham Gesner Patents Kerosene
Abraham Gesner, a Canadian doctor and geologist, patented a method for producing kerosene on March 27, 1855. This invention significantly impacted the economy by diminishing the demand for whale oil, which was traditionally derived from the blubber of whales and used for illumination. Kerosene emerged as a more affordable and stable alternative, which could be easily produced and was compatible with existing whale oil lamps. This shift led to a decline in the whaling industry, ultimately helping to protect whale populations. Gesner's work also laid the groundwork for the modern petroleum industry, attracting the interest of entrepreneurs like John D. Rockefeller, who capitalized on kerosene production. Despite Gesner's initial struggles, including a failed fossil museum, his development of kerosene marked a pivotal moment in energy use and industry. He passed away in 1864, but his legacy endures in the continued production and application of kerosene today.
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Abraham Gesner Patents Kerosene
Abraham Gesner Patents Kerosene
A seemingly minor event—the invention, by an obscure Canadian doctor, of a means to produce kerosene—turned out to have enormous economic repercussions: The fuel that Abraham Gesner patented on March 27, 1855, helped to destroy the traditional whaling industry and stimulated the development of the modern petroleum industry.
Gesner was born in 1797 in Cornwallis Township in Nova Scotia, a province of Canada. He was educated in medicine but his true love was geology, and in 1838 he became a government geologist. Gesner also collected fossils; the private fossil museum he opened in 1842 was a dismal failure. His experiments with petroleum were more successful, however, and by the 1850s he had developed a method for distilling kerosene from petroleum. Shortly thereafter, kerosene began to put the whalers out of business. Whale oil boiled from the layer of fat called blubber, which allows these mammals to live in the coldest of seas, was burned in lamps for illumination in the days before electricity. The new product, kerosene, was cheaper, and unlike whale oil it would not spoil or stink. Since kerosene was easy to produce and could be used in existing whale oil lamps, the industry grew like wildfire. Oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, who would later found Standard Oil, was among those who made their first fortunes by building kerosene distilleries.
By destroying the demand for whale oil, kerosene helped save the lives of tens of thousands of whales, although other products such as whalebone struts for the elaborate corsets that women wore in this period helped keep the American whaling industry alive for longer than it would have otherwise persisted. Kerosene continues to be produced and has many commercial and industrial uses. Gesner died in 1864 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.