That's oil!...The Apothecary and the Blood of the Earth

Abstract

Petroleum was of little interest to analytical chemistry scholars until the mid-19th century, as they considered it unhelpful to experiment with an explosive chemical compound with niche utility value. The discovery of oil's potential is credited to Polish pharmacists Ignacy Łukasiewicz and Jan Zeh, who performed the chemical separation of oil in a pharmacy laboratory using the scientific method of fractional distillation. The isolation of the kerosene fraction from oil was exploited by Ignacy Łukasiewicz, who created an innovative design for a lamp. Lighting with cheap kerosene became the idea of the explorer, who, with the help of Polish investors, organised the first oil mine and refinery in 1854, laying the foundation for the oil mining and petrochemical industry. Łukasiewicz's lamp, entering mass use, initiated global demand for oil. The accounts of Polish and Austrian historians on the pioneering role of Łukasiewicz in this regard support the arguments from the field of physics and analytical chemistry developed by Wojciech Roeske, who demystifies the amateurish, intuitive methods of oil purification of Łukasiewicz's predecessors, documents the merits of the Pole as a pioneer – an ancestor of the oil industry derived from the tradition of Polish pharmacy. Keywords: Ignacy Łukasiewicz, kerosene lamp, kerosene, fractional distillation, oil mining, petrochemicals.