Where did the idea for Vaseline Petroleum Jelly come from?
Robert Augustus Cheesebrough.
In 1859 when oil was first found in Pennsylvania, Cheesebrough was a 22 year old chemist in Brooklyn who had become an expert at extracting kerosene from cannel oil.
He realized that petroleum products would be the fuel source of the future so he headed to Pennsylvania to get his piece of the action.
He noticed that a colorless film called "rod wax" collected around the pump rods on the oil wells, gumming up the works until it was removed. He also observed oil workers who would slap the stuff on a cut, instead of a bandage. Not only did it stay on the skin and stop the bleeding, but it seemed to help cure the wound.
Cheesebrough returned to Brooklyn with some rod-wax and spent months creating a clean form of rod-wax which he called "petroleum jelly". He began making so much of this stuff that every beaker in his laboratory was full, so he threw out his wife's flowers and filled the vases with his creation.
After awhile, he added the popular medical term "line" to the word "vase" and he called the product "Vaseline Petroleum Jelly."
Source: coolquiz.com
Subject: Where did the idea for Vaseline Petroleum Jelly come from? 
Thu Feb 26 2009, 13:38
