Chemical and Petroleum Industries at Newtown Creek : History and Technology

This book constructs a history of Newtown Creek’s industrial expansion during the period that began in the 1840s and continued through the early years of the 20th century. In that period, the production of reagent chemicals and refined materials near the center of modern-day New York City grew steadily, as practitioners, alert to European advances in chemical science, developed and applied increasingly sophisticated technologies. Innovations in methods of production, ready access to domestic and international markets, and sustained growth in volumes of production at Newtown Creek in the late 19th century had profound consequences for the practice of industrial chemistry in the United States and for the economic vitality of the City of New York. Industrial practice progressed from the recovery of animal tissues to the refining of crude petroleum and the production of high-purity copper and other metals from mineral ores. With attention to each company’s technical expertise and principal products, this book examines the interdependence of the chemicals- and materials-producing industries that thrived along Newtown Creek’s shores. The author recounts Newtown Creek’s industrial history alongside the stories of well-known New Yorkers – Peter Cooper, Charles Pratt, John D. and William Rockefeller – and other less celebrated or less notorious characters. This book provides a valuable account of New York’s history in the manufacture of reagent chemicals and refined fuels and metals and will appeal to researchers, scholars and historians interested in the early years of industrial chemistry. Acknowledgments 8 Contents 9 About the Author 11 Abstract 12 1 Newtown Creek and New York City 13 References 26 2 Skin and Bones 27 References 34 3 Oil of Vitriol: Martin Kalbfleisch and the Manufacture of Reagent Chemicals at Newtown Creek 35 References 41 4 Superphosphate 43 References 47 5 Abraham Gesner and The New York Kerosene Oil Company 49 References 57 6 Benjamin Silliman, Jr. and The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company 58 References 64 7 Charles Pratt, Henry Rogers, and Astral Oil 65 References 74 8 Acid and Copper: The 50-Year Partnership of John Brown Francis Herreshoff and William Nichols 75 8.1 Two Young Men Attend University, One in New England and One in New York 75 8.2 A Brief History of Sulfuric Acid 80 8.3 Sulfuric Acid and Copper Often Have a Common Mineral Source 81 8.4 Herreshoff’s Patent Portfolio: A Sustained Interest in Both Copper and Oxides of Sulfur 82 8.5 Epilog 1: The Perkin Award 84 8.6 Epilog 2: Mergers and Acquisitions: The General Chemical Company 89 References 90 9 The Standard Oil Company and New York City 92 9.1 1854: The Invention of “Kerosene” and the Mining of “Rock Oil” 93 9.2 Cleveland and the Rockefeller Brothers 95 9.3 The Rockefeller and Andrews Company Meets Flagler and Harkness 97 9.4 The Standard Oil Company 98 9.5 The South Improvement Company 100 9.6 The Standard Oil Company’s Presence Along Newtown Creek and the New York Harbor 101 9.7 The Charles Pratt Refinery 103 9.8 The Standard Oil Company of New York, An Increased Presence in New York City 104 9.9 From Whale Oil to Petroleum 105 References 106 10 Industry, Invention, and the Americans; Newtown Creek, Then and Now 108 10.1 Then 108 10.2 Now 112 References 114 Index 115