35 OCTOBER 2026 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Finding a New Use for a Nuisance Adapted from Information by the American Oil & Gas Historical Society In 1865, 22-year-old Robert Chesebrough experimented with a way to purify the waxy substance clogging the sucker rods in the oil fields of Pennsylvania, into something useful. His successful creation has been used by people for nearly 150 years. Chesebrough had experience distilling cannel coal into kerosene and understood the process for refining oil into kerosene. When the first commercial oil well was drilled by Edwin L. Drake in 1859, Chesebrough joined the rush to the Pennsylvania oil fields hoping to make his fortune. While working in Venango County, he noticed drilling was often slowed down by a waxy paraffin-like substance clogging the wellhead. The drilling crew would become annoyed as they stopped drilling to scrape away the gunk. The only use for the “sucker rod wax” was for first aid when drilling crews used it to treat abrasions, burns, and other wounds. When Chesebrough returned to New York, the young chemist went to work in his lab trying to figure out a way to purify the sucker rod wax, which he dubbed “petroleum jelly.” In August 1865, he filed the first of several patents “for purifying petroleum or coal oils by filtration.” Chesebrough experimented with the alleged pain-relieving properties of his creation by inflicting minor cuts and burns on himself, then applying his purified petroleum jelly. He gave his salve to local construction workers to treat their minor scratches and abrasions. On June 4, 1872, Chesebrough patented a new product we continue to use today, Vaseline®. The patent touted Vaseline’s uses as a leather treatment, lubricator, pomade, and balm for chapped hands. Chesebrough soon had a dozen wagons distributing the product around New York. Customers didn’t just use the Wonder Jelly to treat wounds, they used it to remove stains from furniture, prevent rust, and even for polishing wood surfaces. Female customers mixed Vaseline with ash from a burnt cork or the black soot in a lamp to make crude mascara, in the early 1900s. Some reported French bakers were even using vaseline in cakes and other pastries; it prevented stale pastry from becoming rancid. The nuisance sucker rod wax has become an American staple and led to the creation of several products we continue to use today. Chesebrough found a way to purify the waxy substance clogging oil wells in early Pennsylvania petroleum fields. Photo courtesy of Unilever.
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