Ignacy Łukasiewicz
Jan Józef Ignacy Łukasiewicz (pronounced [wukaˈɕɛvʲitʂ]; born March 8, 1822 in Zaduszniki ; † January 7, 1882 in Chorkówka ) was a Polish chemist and pharmacist . He is considered to be the inventor of the kerosene lamp .
Life
Ignacy Łukasiewicz was born in 1822 as one of five children of Apolonia and Józef Łukasiewicz. His father had fought in the war against Russia and Prussia under Tadeusz Kościuszko in 1794 and came from the Polish landed gentry . After the family had to leave their native Zaduszniki in 1830 , Łukasiewicz attended the city high school in Rzeszów from 1832 to 1836 . He then worked as an apprentice in a pharmacy in Łańcut .
After completing his apprenticeship, he returned to Rzeszów, where, in addition to continuing his education, he became politically active and from 1837 campaigned for Poland to regain independence . On February 19, 1846, however, he was arrested as a member of the Polish Democratic Society (pln. Towarzystwo Demokratieyczne Polskie ), which was directed against the occupation by Austria . Due to a lack of evidence, however, he was released from prison in Lemberg on December 27, 1847 .
Since Łukasiewicz was not allowed to leave Lviv by court order, he worked there from 1848 to 1852 as an assistant in a pharmacy, but later moved to Krakow with the help of his employer , where he began to study pharmacy at the Jagiellonian University . After graduating, he finally founded the world's first oil mine in Bóbrka in 1854 . Between 1857 and 1865 he also had three refineries built, with the proceeds of which he partially supported the Polish uprising against Russia in 1863 and 1864 .
Łukasiewicz had married his niece Honorata Stacherska as early as 1857 and in 1858 moved with her and his daughter Marianna to Jasło , where he leased a pharmacy. Even in old age he showed himself to be politically and charitable and was a member of the Galician state parliament . He died of pneumonia on January 7, 1882 in Chorkówka and was buried in Zręcin .
Development of the kerosene lamp
From 1852 onwards, Łukasiewicz carried out numerous pharmaceutical studies on crude oil extracted from septic tanks in the region. He recognized the potential of petroleum as a light source and thus as a cheap alternative to expensive whale oil . To obtain a clean fuel, it began in Lviv together with his colleagues in January toe after a previously by the Canadian Abraham Gesner developed distillation process clear, thin liquid petroleum to produce. After several unsuccessful attempts to light the new substance in conventional oil lamps, he developed the first prototype of a kerosene lamp with the support of tinsmith Adam Bratkowski in 1853 .
On July 31, 1853, Łukasiewicz was called to the Piarist Hospital in Lemberg to provide light with one of his kerosene lamps during an appendectomy. Impressed by the bright, clean light, the hospital near Łukasiewicz ordered several lamps and 500 liters of petroleum.
On November 23, 1853, Łukasiewicz and Zeh went together to the imperial governor in Lemberg to apply for patent no. 399 to produce paraffin candles from petroleum. Contrary to what is often stated, however, only a few days later, on December 2, 1853, patent entry No. 400 bears the name Jan Zeh alone: It relates to the actual distillation process of crude oil. The patent was valid for two years. Łukasiewicz, on the other hand, never had his lamp patented; it was marketed by dealers in Lviv. Before long, kerosene lamps were being mass-produced in factories, including Vienna , Paris , Prague , Berlin , Leipzig, and the United States .
Kick-off for the oil industry in Galicia
In autumn 1853 Łukasiewicz moved to Gorlice and leased a pharmacy. A petroleum industry was developing in Gorlice at that time. Łukasiewicz and Jakub Kozik continued to work on the distillation of petroleum and improved the kerosene lamp. After successful attempts, in 1854 Gorlice received the first street lighting with kerosene lamps.
The oil production in the shallow septic tanks in the Gorlice region was soon no longer sufficient for the rapidly increasing number of kerosene lamps. In 1854, Tytus Trzecieski and Mikołaj Klobassa joined forces with Łukasiewicz to build the world's first oil mine near Bóbrka , about 10 km southwest of Krosno . The oil was drawn from 30 to 50 m deep, manually dug shafts. A little later, shafts were driven to a depth of 150 m, whereby the oil from the deeper layers was lighter and therefore better suited for the production of kerosene.
Łukasiewicz is considered an important pioneer in oil production in Europe. As a result of his activity, the Subcarpathian region of Galicia developed into the third largest oil region in the world in the second half of the 19th century, with the most important in addition to the oil fields in the Gorlice region, those at Borysław and Kołomyja .
literature
- Kowalska – Kossobudzka: Łukasiewicz Ignacy. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1972, p. 364.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ www.poland.gov.pl: Ignacy Łukasiewicz , July 21, 2008.
- ↑ Maria Twaróg, paraffin and its Applications, in Jan Gancarski (ed.), By the Light of the paraffin lamp [W kręgu światła lampy naftowej], Krosno 2001, pp 23-37, here p 32ff.
- ^ Alison Fleig Frank, Oil Empire. Visions of Prosperity in Austrian Galicia, Cambridge, Mass. / London: Harvard University Press 2005 (reviews of the book: Helmut Braun: sehepunkte 6 (2006), No. 7/8 (PDF; 53 kB) and Michael Limberger: Kanakien Revisited September 20, 2006 ; PDF; 42 kB)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Łukasiewicz, Ignacy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Łukasiewicz, Jan Józef Ignacy |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Galician chemist, pharmacist and inventor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 8, 1822 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zaduszniki |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 7, 1882 |
| Place of death | Chorkówka |