Robert Chesebrough
Encyclopedia
Petroleum jelly
Petroleum jelly, petrolatum, white petrolatum or soft paraffin, CAS number 8009-03-8, is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons , originally promoted as a topical ointment for its healing properties...
, which he trade-named as Vaseline
Vaseline
Vaseline is a brand of petroleum jelly based products owned by Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. Products include plain petroleum jelly and a selection of skin creams, soaps, lotions, cleansers, deodorants and personal lubricants....
. In 1875 he founded the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company
Chesebrough Manufacturing Company
Chesebrough Manufacturing Company was an oil business which produced petroleum jelly or vaseline, which was marketed with the brand name Luxor. It was founded in 1859. Robert Augustus Chesebrough, a chemist who started the company, was interested in marketing oil products for medicinal needs. He...
that in 1955 became Chesebrough-Ponds, a leading manufacturer of personal care products. Chesebrough patented the process of making petroleum jelly (U.S. Patent 127,568) in 1872.
Born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Chesebrough began his career as a chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
clariying kerosene
Kerosene
Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
from the oil of sperm whales. The discovery of petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
in Titusville, Pennsylvania
Titusville, Pennsylvania
Titusville is a city in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 6,146 at the 2000 census. In 1859, oil was successfully drilled in Titusville, resulting in the birth of the modern oil industry.-History:...
rendered his job obsolete, so he traveled to Titusville to research what new materials might be created from the new fuel.
Chesebrough's success stemmed from firm belief in his product. Before Chesebrough began selling petroleum jelly, he tested it on his own cuts and burns. Having demonstrated the product's efficacy on himself, Chesebrough was still unable to sell any to drug stores until he travelled around New York State demonstrating his miracle product. In front of an audience he would burn his skin with acid or an open flame, then spread the clear jelly on his injuries while demonstrating past injuries, healed, he claimed, by his miracle product. To further create demand, he gave out free samples.
Chesebrough opened his first factory in 1870. The first known reference to the name Vaseline is in his U.S. patent: “I, Robert Chesebrough, have invented a new and useful product from petroleum which I have named 'Vaseline…'" . The etymology of the word is believed to come from German wasser (=water) + Greek έλαιον (=oil).
Chesebrough earned knighthood in 1883. Upon knighting him, Queen Victoria extolled his product's usefulness, proudly claiming that she "used Vaseline every day."
Chesebrough lived to be 96 years old and was such a believer in Vaseline that he claimed to have eaten a spoonful of it every day. He died at his house in Spring Lake, New Jersey
Spring Lake, New Jersey
Spring Lake is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 2,993....
. He also, reportedly, during a serious bout of pleurisy
Pleurisy
Pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleura, the lining of the pleural cavity surrounding the lungs. Among other things, infections are the most common cause of pleurisy....
in his mid-50s, had his nurse rub him from head to foot with the substance. He soon recovered.