jan 1, 1854 - Incorporation of Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New York

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News of Kier’s experiments spread, and George Bissell, a lawyer from New York, learned of Kier’s success. In 1854, Bissell commissioned a study from Yale chemist Benjamin Silliman, Jr. to assess the viability of harvesting oil in western Pennsylvania. After Silliman’s results confirmed that the petroleum in the Oil Creek Valley could profitably be distilled into lamp oil, Bissell founded the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company.[2] The company was funded by businessmen and bankers from New Haven, Connecticut. Among the stockholders was banker James Townsend.[5]


In the early 1850's, George Bissell, a New York lawyer, conceived a plan to try and produce this oil commercially. Benjamin Silliman Jr, a chemist at Yale University, and one of America's leading chemists, was hired to analyze the properties of the "Seneca Oil" as an illuminant. He determined that the oil could be distilled into several fractions, one of which was a very high quality illuminant. With this positive information, Bissell was able to get together some financial backers, including James Townsend, president of a bank in New Haven, Connecticut, and formed the "Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company".

https://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/history/pennsylvania/pennsylvania.html

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