Abraham Pineo Gesner

Abraham Gesner was a man of the rugged Maritimes, whose curiosity about the earth's resources led to a revolution in illumination. Trained as a physician, his true passion was geology, and he became one of Canada's first government geologists, surveying the mineral potential of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. His practical mind sought applications for these resources. In 1846, through a process he called 'keroselene' (later kerosene), he distilled a clean-burning, affordable lamp fuel from asphalt-like coal. This was a world-changing alternative to expensive whale oil and smoky tallow candles. He founded the Kerosene Gaslight Company, and though his business ventures were ultimately outmaneuvered by John D. Rockefeller's petroleum-derived kerosene, Gesner's process laid the very foundation of the modern refining industry. He died in Halifax, a pioneer whose work literally brought light to the 19th century and helped catalyze the global energy economy.