Historical Use of Oil Heat

About 1847, Pittsburgh resident Samuel Keir devised a way to distill petroleum into a lamp fuel which he called “carbon oil”. The invention of the kerosene lamp in the mid 1850’s led to the establishment of the first US oil company, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company. The American oil industry was born near Titusville in northwestern Pennsylvania in 1859. There, Edwin L. Drake drilled the first commercially successful oil well in the United States. However, the first major oil company was the Standard Oil Company founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1870. Standard Oil built its first oil refinery in Pennsylvania, then later expanded its extensive operations nationwide.

At the start of the 1900s maritime transportation (driven by the navies of the world) quickly saw the advantages of using fuel oil as a substitute for coal. As a fuel, oil had far fewer maintenance requirements. For starters, there was no stoking required to keep an optimal fire burning. Oil was easier to store onboard the ship and easier to transfer at sea allowing for enhanced high seas refueling. Oil was also safer. Smoldering coal bunker fires were all too common, as was the explosion of coal dust. Oil also provided more energy per pound.

These same advantages found their appeal in the household, though as with the shift to coal it would take some time for home heating oil to become widespread. The First World War would set the stage for the transition, and even the Ford Model T would play a role.

The internal combustion engine was finally starting to see applications beyond the novelty stage with the Ford Model T of 1910 ‘ the first practical and affordable automobile. World War I would be the first heavily mechanized war. Wartime oil production and refining and post-war automobile sales continued the expansion of a thriving oil industry.

The 1920s saw the rise of the household oil burner, facilitated by innovative controls from Honeywell. At the same time, more automated coal systems were introduced to lower some of the maintenance issues, but too few problems were solved to offset the advantages of oil heating. Oil heating began to find its way into new construction as well as in retrofits of existing coal boilers.

in 1935, the overall oil and fuel industries in the United States were still shaking out. Fuel oil and kerosene had begun to replace coal as a primary energy source. As the 1940s dawned, the United States was still the leader in oil production with the U.S. producing 65 percent of the world’s oil in 1940. That was to change with the discovery of the “super-giant” oil fields in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Oil heating would continue its ascension into the 1960 when it would begin facing some stiff competition of its own.

As with World War I, the Second World War saw a dramatic increase in production, refining and distribution. This also piggy-backed with tremendous residential and automotive boon of the 1950s and 1960s. While oil heating was ramping up, new competitors were coming on the scene as well. Although they would have a tremendous impact on the market, fuel oil would not go completely the way of coal.

Welding and metallurgy advances made during the war made pipelines more practical. The 1950s and 1960s saw an explosion in number of pipelines that would benefit oil distribution, but also the distribution of natural gas. The access to electricity also moved forward making electric coil heating an option anywhere there was power service. Propane also came on the scene as an alternative.

Gas and electric brought with them several advantages over oil in the maintenance department. There was no need for a regular delivery and less appliance maintenance. But there were disadvantages as well. Both, and particularly electric heating, were typically more expensive. Gas also presented added safety issues. And gas was limited to where the pipelines ran, and even with the post-war expansion, there was hardly universal coverage.

Oil use began its decline in the 1960s.