The 1st kerosene lamp in the world

In 1853, two chemists, Johan Zeg and Ignatsy Lukesevych, invented the first oil lamp in a Lviv pharmacy called “Pid Zolotoyu Zirkoyu”, located on Kopernyka Street.
Their employer, the pharmacist Mikoliasha, encouraged them to extract alcohol spirit from oil. While carrying out their various experiments, the two researchers accidentally stumbled on the cracking process used in petroleum chemistry. From that moment on, paraffin oil became one of the most popular ways to provide light in inhabited areas. Even today, at the beginning of the XXI century, it is still used by a third of the world’s population.

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