Ignacy Jan Józef Łukasiewicz h. Łada

Jan Józef Ignacy Lukasiewicz was a Polish pharmacist, engineer, businessman, inventor, and philanthropist. He was one of the most prominent philanthropists in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, crown land of Austria-Hungary. He was a pioneer who in 1856 built the world’s first modern oil refinery. His achievements included the discovery of how to distill kerosene from seep oil, the invention of the modern kerosene lamp (1853), the introduction of the first modern street lamp in Europe (1853), and the construction of the world’s first modern oil well (1854).

Ignacy Lukasiewicz was born on 8 March 1822 in Zaduszniki, near Mielec, in the Austrian Empire (after the Partitions of Poland) as the youngest of five children. His family was of Armenian origin. His parents were Apolonia, née Swietlik, and Józef Lukasiewicz, a member of the local intelligentsia nobility entitled to use the Lada coat of arms and a veteran of Kosciuszko’s Uprising.

The family rented a small manor in Zaduszniki, but soon after Ignacy’s birth financial difficulties forced them to relocate to the nearby city of Rzeszów. There Ignacy entered the local secondary school (Konarski’s
Gymnasium), but failed to pass the examinations and left in 1836. In order to help his parents and financially support all the relatives, he moved to Lancut, where he began work as a pharmacist’s assistant.
Toward the end of his life, Lukasiewicz often described his childhood as happy; the home atmosphere was patriotic and somewhat democratic, and he commonly recalled his first tutor, Colonel Woysym-Antoniewicz, who resided in their house.

Upon moving to Lancut, Lukasiewicz also became involved in several political organizations that supported the idea of restoring Polish sovereignty and independence and participated in many political gatherings around the area. In 1840 he returned to Rzeszów, where he continued working at Edward Hübl’s private pharmacy. In 1845 he met diplomat and activist Edward Dembowski, who admitted Lukasiewicz to the illegal “Centralization of the Polish Democratic Society”, a party that focused on radical policies and supported a
revolt against the Austrian government. The organization’s aim was to prepare an all-national uprising against all three partitioning powers. Since the movement was seen as a possible danger to the
Austrian monarchy, on 19 February 1846 Lukasiewicz and several other members of the party were arrested by the Austrian authorities and imprisoned in the city of Lwów. However, on 27 December 1847
Lukasiewicz was released from prison due to lack of evidence, but for the rest of his life he was regarded as “politically untrustworthy” and often observed by local police that was in possession of his records.

He was also ordered to remain in Lwów with his elder brother Franciszek.

On 15 August 1848 he was employed at one of the biggest and best pharmacies in Austrian Galicia (so-called “Austrian Poland”); the Golden Star (Pod Zlota Gwiazda) Pharmacy in Lwów., owned by
Piotr Mikolasch. In 1850, a handheld pharmaceutical almanac and a precious document entitled manuskrypt, the joint work of Mikolasch and Lukasiewicz was published. Because of this achievement, the
authorities granted him a permit to continue pharmaceutical studies at the Royal Jagiellonian University in Kraków. After several years of studies, financed mostly by Mikolasch, he passed all his university
examinations except for that in pharmacognosy, which prevented him from graduating. Finally on 30 July 1852 Lukasiewicz graduated from the pharmacy department at the University of Vienna, where he
earned a master’s degree in pharmaceutics. As soon as he returned to the pharmacy of Piotr Mikolasch in Lwów he began a new phase of his life devoted to the studies of exploiting kerosene.
While oil was known to exist for a long time in the Subcarpathian- Galician region, it was more commonly used as an animal drug and
lubricant, but Lukasiewicz was the first person to distill the liquid
in Poland and in the world and was able to exploit it for lighting
and create a brand new industry. In autumn of 1852 Lukasiewicz,
Mikolasch and his colleague John Zeh analyzed the oil, which was
provided in a few barrels by traders from the town of Drohobycz.
After pharmaceutical methods and processes the purified oil was
obtained and sold in the local pharmacies, but the orders were small
due to high prices. In early 1854 Lukasiewicz moved to Gorlice,
where he continued his work. He set up many companies together
with entrepreneurs and landowners. That same year, he opened the
world’s first oil “mine” at Bóbrka, near Krosno (still operational as of
2020). At the same time Lukasiewicz continued his work on kerosene
lamps. Later that year, he set up the first kerosene street lamp in
Gorlice’s Zawodzie district. In subsequent years he opened several
other oil wells, each as a joint venture with local merchants and
businessmen. In 1856 in Ulaszowice, near Jaslo, he opened an “oil
distillery” — the world’s first industrial oil refinery. As demand for
kerosene was still low, the plant initially produced mostly artificial
asphalt, machine oil, and lubricants. The refinery was destroyed in
an 1859 fire, but was rebuilt at Polanka, near Krosno, the following
year.

Ignacy Łukasiewicz (właściwie Jan Józef Ignacy Łukasiewicz) – polski chemik i farmaceuta i przedsiębiorca ormiańskiego pochodzenia, wynalazca lampy naftowej, twórca przemysłu naftowego; rewolucjonista i działacz niepodległościowy. Pochodził ze zubożałej rodziny szlacheckiej herbu Łada. Wikipedia PL Muzeum Przemysłu Naftowego i Gazowniczego im. Ignacego Łukasiewicza w Bóbrce