COAL OIL

COAL OIL. Coal oil is a shale oil obtained from the distillation of cannel coal, mineral wax, or bituminous shale. It is chemically similar to the more refined, petroleum-derived kerosene. (1)

The term was used by the late 18th century, for oil produced as a byproduct of the production of coal gas and coal tar. In the early 19th century it was discovered that coal oil distilled from cannel coal could be used in lamps, although the early coal oil burned with a smokey flame, so that it was used only for outdoor lamps; cleaner-burning whale oil was used in indoor lamps. (2)

Coal oil that burned cleanly enough to compete with whale oil was first produced in 1850 by James Young, who patented the process. Production thrived in Scotland. In the United States, coal oil was widely manufactured in the 1850s under the trade name Kerosene, manufactured by a process invented by Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner. Young won his patent lawsuit against the Gesner process in the United States in 1860. But by that time, United States coal oil distillers were switching over to refining cheaper petroleum, after the discovery of abundant petroleum in western Pennsylvania in 1859. Oil from coal operations in the United States then ended. (3)

In 1875 Marshall M. WALKER and Sanford A. ATHERTON visited Cleveland to negotiate a contract to bring coal oil in tank cars to Dubuque where it would be barreled as customers purchased it. The process would result in better cooperage and lower prices. Walker was the western agent for the Standard Oil Company which had ten tank cars each capable of carrying the equivalent of 80 barrels of oil. ROUSE AND DEAN were hired to make a receiving tank. (4)

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Source:

1. "Coal Oil," Wikipedia. Online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_oil

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. "A New Enterprise," Dubuque Herald, July 13, 1875, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18750713&printsec=frontpage&hl=en