2006-06-20 02:50:29 · 6 answers · asked by Samantha U 3 in Education & Reference ➔ Trivia
Petroleum jelly or petrolatum is made by refining a byproduct of oil drilling.
Petrolatum is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons, having a melting-point usually ranging from a little below to a few degrees above 100° F (37° C). It is colorless, or of a pale yellow color, translucent, and devoid of taste and smell. It does not oxidize on exposure to the air, and is not readily acted on by chemical reagents. It is insoluble in water. It is soluble in chloroform, benzene, carbon disulphide and oil of turpentine. It also dissolves in warm ether and in hot alcohol, but separates from the latter in flakes on cooling.
The raw material for petroleum jelly was discovered in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania where it was sticking to some of the first oil rigs in the U.S. The riggers hated the paraffin-like material because it caused the rigs to seize up, but they used it on cuts and burns because it hastened healing. Robert Chesebrough, a young chemist whose previous work, distilling kerosene from the oil of sperm whales, had been rendered obsolete by oil, went to Titusville to see what new materials might be created from the new fuel. Chesebrough took the unrefined black "rod wax", as the drillers called it, back to his laboratory in Brooklyn to refine it and explore its medicinal possibilities.
Chesebrough discovered that by distilling the lighter, thinner oil products from the rod wax, he could create a light-colored gel. Chesebrough patented the process of making petroleum jelly (U.S. Patent 127,568) in 1872. The process involved vacuum distillation of the crude material followed by filtration of the still residue through bone char.
Before Chesebrough could try to sell it, he had to test it to see if it really worked on cuts and burns by using himself as the guinea pig. Having demonstrated the products efficacy on himself, Chesebrough was unable to sell any to drug stores until he travelled around New York State demonstrating his miracle vaseline. Before a rapt audience he'd burn his skin with acid or an open flame, then spread the clear jelly on his injuries, showing at the same time his past injuries, healed, he claimed, by his miracle product. To further stimulate demand, he gave out free samples.
Chesebrough opened his first factory in 1870. The term Vaseline was coined, according to some accounts, as a combination of the German word for water, Wasser (pronounced Vahser), and the Greek word for oil, elaion.
Robert Chesebrough lived to the age of 96 and claimed to have eaten a spoonful of Vaseline everyday. He was such a believer in Vaseline that during a bout of pleurisy, he had his body completely covered with it from head to toe. He soon recovered.
Today, physicians have shown that Vaseline has no medicinal effect or any effect on the blistering process. Vaseline’s effectiveness is due to the coating of cuts and burns which prevents germs from getting into the wound and because it keeps the burned skin moisturized.
2006-06-20 02:58:01 · answer #1 · answered by loving father 5 · 6⤊ 2⤋
Petroleum jelly is made by touching-up a byproduct of oil drilling, or some left over products of oil drilling. Vaseline is a well-known brand of petroleum jelly.
2006-06-20 02:56:24 · answer #2 · answered by Cap'n Eridani 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
What Is Petroleum
2016-10-30 09:33:19 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
How Is Petroleum Made
2016-06-20 03:12:46 · answer #4 · answered by latrice 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That's a good question!
2016-08-23 00:11:14 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
it's lefet over from curd oil
2006-06-20 02:53:57 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I don't think anyone can truly tell you
2016-08-08 00:53:23 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋