Talk:Ignacy Łukasiewicz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Kersoene Lamp

I'm not certain how Ignacy Łukasiewicz can be said to have invented the kerosene lamp in 1853, as Abraham Gesner founded his Kerosene Gaslight Company in 1850 and installed kerosene lights on the streets of Halifax, Nova Scotia that year. Perhaps Łukasiewicz invented an improvement on the kerosene lamp (wick lamp?) - any ideas? Geoff NoNick 18:46, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

I guess the difference is that what Gesner called a kerosene was in fact a coal oil, while Łukasiewicz's invention was a proper petroleum-made kerosene, much like the one we use today. There also might be a problem in terminology: in Polish nobody would call a coal oil kerosene, as the term (nafta in Polish) is reserved for oil products (much like in modern English). And the first man to use such fuel in America was, AFAIK, James Miller Williams, some half a decade after Łukasiewicz. //Halibutt 20:19, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

My understanding is that the hydrocarbon chains that Gesner distilled from coal/shale/albertite/etc are identical to those obtained from the low-temperature distillation of oil. Gesner used (and invented) the term kerosene to describe what he refined, though the term coal oil stuck for what is in effect an identical product to that obtained from crude oil and commonly called kerosene. I suspect that the lamp Gesner used was a very simple wick and oil lamp (similar to those used for centuries to burn whale oil), but that Łukasiewicz somehow improved the product for kerosene applications. Does anyone have any background in this field? Geoff NoNick 21:31, 18 April 2006 (UTC)