Paraffin Oil
The birth of the oil industry took place in Bathgate, 25 miles east of Glasgow, under the management of Glaswegian research chemist James (“Paraffin”) Young (1811-83). With his partners he set up the world’s first oil refinery there in 1851 and supplied paraffin oil and lamps worldwide, making him a wealthy man.
He had studied chemistry at the local college and soon became the lecturer’s assistant, such was his aptitude for the subject. He made important friendships there too, one of which was with David Livingstone (1813-73) the explorer. Young later helped fund Livingstone’s trips to Africa and the search for him after he went missing. Another friend was instrumental in Young’s move into industry in Manchester, where he was also able to continue his chemical research, e.g. finding a treatment for potato blight.
Young began refining crude oil leaking into a coal mine, then turned to shale oil. He discovered that slow distillation of bituminous ‘cannel’ or candle coal produced what he called “paraffine oil” among other liquids. He took out patents here and in other countries and after they expired in 1864 dozens of competitors established themselves but Young’s Paraffin Light & Mineral Oil Company flourished, operating 120 shale oil works at its peak in 1892.
(Images LtoR: Rowan Jacobs at Flickr.com / CC BY-ND 2.0 & James Young at snl.no / Public domain)