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Samuel Martin Kier (July 19, 1813 – October 6, 1874) was an American inventor and businessman who is credited with founding the American petroleum refining industry. He was the first person in the United States to refine crude oil into kerosene lamp oil. Kier has been dubbed the Grandfather of the American Oil Industry by historians.

Biography

Kier was born in Conemaugh Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania near the town of Livermore. He was the son of Thomas Kier and Mary Martin Kier. The Kiers were Scots-Irish immigrants who owned several salt wells around Livermore and nearby Saltsburg.

In addition to the salt business, Samuel helped found Kier, Royer and Co., in 1838. The company was a canal boat operation that shipped coal between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Kier also owned interest in several coal mines, a brickyard, and a pottery factory.

He, along with several other investors including Benjamin Franklin Jones, founded several iron foundries in west central Pennsylvania. The iron business would be the forerunner of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company, one of the largest steel producers in America.

Kier married Nancy Eicher of Greensburg, Pennsylvania in 1842.

Business career

Samuel Kier moved to Pittsburgh at the age of 21. In Pittsburgh, he found employment with a railway express company, where he recognized his business acumen. He soon became a partner in the expanding enterprise, but the business eventually collapsed during the economic downturn of the Panic of 1837.

Samuel Kier rebounded from the failure of his first business by exploring new opportunities. In 1838, he ventured into canal transportation, utilizing Pennsylvania's extensive canal system connecting Lake Erie to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Kier hired several independent canal operators of the Pennsylvania Canal to establish a continuous route from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and formed Kier, Roger, and Company to manage the operation. This enterprise proved financially successful, allowing Kier to settle any outstanding debts from his previous business. later President of the United States, established "Independent Line," working with special section where "amphibious" canal boats boats which could be taken apart and put on railroad cars where they were available, or put together and pulled along the canal system where there was no railroad.  When later partnered investments in steel and iron, and notably, his involvement in the oil industry. He also produced petroleum butter (petroleum jelly) and sold it as a topical ointment. Neither product proved to be a commercial success.

After further experimenting, he discovered an economical way to produce kerosene. Kerosene had been known for some time but was not widely produced and was considered to have little economic value. But at the time whale oil, the principal fuel for lamps in America, was becoming increasingly scarce and expensive.

Kier began selling the kerosene, named "Carbon Oil", to local miners in 1851. He also invented a new lamp to burn his product. Kier consulted with Edwin Drake concerning Drake's experimental oil well.

References

  • Before gas and oil, petroleum yielded riches in another form