Why was whale oil used instead of petroleum?

score:4

The first patent for refining crude oil was filed in 1850
The first oil refinery was built in 1856
The first commercial oil well was built in 1858

So the technological advancements seem to relate to (1) making something generally useful from oil, and (2) being able to extract oil in a large enough scale to create a large market for it.

One could imagine that people living near tar pits realized that oil would burn. But unrefined petroleum won't burn cleanly—as cleanly as whale oil, for instance. So until petroleum could be distilled, it wasn't a very good product for lighting.

adam.baker 2276

📝 Inviting rulers vs taking power
📝 Would the original readers of Lewis Carroll's books have made connections between the experiences in the books and drug use?
📝 Did people 'go to the beach' for pleasure during classical antiquity?
📝 Did Germany offer the Soviet Union an opportunity to join the Axis?
📝 Did Japan have secret films about going into the US in the 40s?
📝 Can someone help me identify this coin?
📝 Is it true that novel 1984 became famous under US propaganda?
📝 Need song or quote from Christmas Truce of 1914
📝 Did ramming tank battle tactics occur in WW2?
📝 Is there a primary source for Black Monday, April 13, 1360?
📝 What was the medieval attitude to wartime rape?
📝 What time period is this uniform?
📝 Were East Germans more acquiescent to Soviet domination than the rest of Eastern Europe and if so, why?
📝 Was merchant Hugh McCulloch the first Scotsman to set foot in California?
📝 What cult images are likely to be found in a Second Punic war era Roman field camp?
📝 In the 19th century, what brought on a general election in the United Kingdom?
📝 Why was there no concerted effort to end the Barbary pirate raids until the 1800's?
📝 Did D&D and similar media actually increase interest in the occult?
📝 Is there an historical example for the possibility of peaceful resolution of Kashmir conflict?
📝 To prevent sex were men bound in bags or locked in beds?
📝 Why was the area now known as Liberia chosen as the location for repatriation of African slaves in the US?
📝 History of ways of choosing members of the electoral college
📝 Did small rural newspaper offices in 1895 use rotary presses with rolls of paper or sheets?
📝 What land did Polish nationalists claim in 1914?
📝 Why does the map of Jordan look as it does?
📝 Did Ben Franklin actually make any tofu?
📝 Was the Night of the Long Knives principally a means to obtain loyalty of the German military leadership?
📝 When was the modern manuscript for the Torah agreed upon?
📝 Why there were no economic sanction wars against Warsaw Pact countries by the West?
📝 Who were the highest-ranking officers of each belligerent nation, who parachuted with troops in Operation Market Garden?

Source: stackoverflow.com

Travel Tips

Why was whale oil used instead of petroleum?

More post

Search Posts

Related post