Kerosene history

In 1977, two fully loaded Boeing 747 commercial aircraft crashed into each other on a foggy runway in the Canary Islands. This accident was then the worst in aviation history and took 583 lives. An inquiry concluded most of the deaths in the Canary Islands accident resulted from the aviation fuel fire that lasted for more than 10 hours. G. Daniel Brewer, who was the hydrogen program manager for Lockheed, stated that if both aircraft had been using liquid hydrogen as fuel instead of kerosene, hun-... 

Morrison 1, Sprague P. 1976. Kerosene pneumonia Its incidence in Perth and case history of a recent fatality. Australas Radiol 20(2) 118-121. 

Throughout human history, people have collected petroleum to burn in lamps to provide light. They found petroleum seeping from cracks in rocks in certain locations. In fact, the word petroleum literally means "rock oil" and is derived from the Latin words for rock petra) and oil oleum). In the 19th century, as the U.S. entered the machine age and its population increased, the demand for petroleum to produce kerosene for lighting and as a machine lubricant also increased. Because there was no reliable petroleum supply, Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in the United States near Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. The oil industry flourished for a time, but when Edison introduced the electric light in 1882, investors feared that the industry was doomed. However, the invention of the automobile in the 1890s soon revived the industry on a massive scale. 

The history of the petroleum industry in North America, in general, and the United States, in particular, can be considered to date back to the year 1846 when a Canadian archeologist, A. Hesner, developed a petroleum distillation process for petroleum rich porous minerals. Kerosene was the main product in this process. Fortunately, kerosene was the main fuel for lighting and was considered to be better than light oil. As a result, this simple type of distillation process was widely used. About thirty-four companies were already using the process by the end of the 1850s. By this time also, the USA was already producing kerosene at the rate of 8 million barrels per year. 

The history of Shell as a real oil enterprise began in early 1890, when Marcus Samuel Junior made a visit to Batum on the Black Sea from where Russian oil from Baku was imported. The businessman was very impressed by the scale of operations. He saw a large market for kerosene in the Far East where it was used for lamps and cooking. Unfortunately, American Standard Oil Trust had a monopoly on the business. So, Marcus had to find a way to undercut prices. Quite separately, the Dutch company, Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, was formed to develop an oilfield in Pangkalan Brandan in Sumatra. Established in the Hague, it enjoyed the support of King William III of the Netherlands. 

The history of major appliances goes back to the beginning of the twentieth century involving hand-operated washing machines, ice boxes, and wood-, coal-, gas-, and kerosene-fueled ranges. Less than a million homes were wired for electricity. The turning point came with the development of the universal electric motor, which led to the introduction of the vacuum cleaner. By 1909 vacuum cleaners and washers were being powered by a fractional horsepower motor by 1920 the first million washers and vacuum cleaners had been sold... 

The density changes as a function of temperature and time can be established by following standard ASTM methods for measuring density. Usually the particle is placed in a muffle furnace that is set at a predetermined temperature and is removed at a predetermined time. This is followed by a density test. Successive repetition of the procedure will map out density-temperature history. Since some expanded shale, clay, or slate may float on water, at times some of these experiments are carried out using kerosene as the displacement agent. As seen from... 

The history of oil in Brazil began in 1858, when the Marquis of Olinda signed Decree No. 2266 granting Barros Pimentel the right to extract mineral asphalt for the manufacture of kerosene, on land situated on the banks of the Rio Marau in the province of Bahia. But who really came to be known as the discoverer of oil in Brazil was Monteiro Lobato that on January 21, 1939, already under the jurisdiction of the newly created Department of National Production, began drilling the well DNPM-163 in Bahia. 

Oil and gas have played quite an important role throughout world history. Ancient cultures made use of crude oil as a substance to bind materials and as a sealant to waterproof various surfaces [1]. However, the modern oil and gas industry was basically born in the nineteenth century. For example, in the early years of 1800s, merchants constructed dams that allowed oil to float to the waters surface in the Oil Creek area of Western Pennsylvania [1,2]. Furthermore, in the mid-1850s, the invention of the kerosene lamp led to the establishment of the first U.S. oil company called Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company. 

---