Ignacy Łukasiewicz, Inventor of the Kerosene Lamp

Ignacy Łukasiewicz, the inventor of the kerosene lamp, was born on 8 March 1822 in the Polish village of Zaduszniki into a large Armenian family. After the death of his father, a descendant of a noble family, he had to work from an early age. As an apprentice to a pharmacist he came to love chemistry.

In 1853 in Lviv, while working for the well-known pharmacist Piotr Mikolasch, he and his colleague Jan Zeh distilled petroleum and obtained kerosene, which gave a bright, even light when burning. Oil lamps were unsuitable because of the risk of explosion, and with the help of the tinsmith Adam Bratkowski they made the world’s first kerosene lamp. There is a monument to Łukasiewicz on Armenian Street in Lviv.

In the portrait a bearded man in dark clothes sits at a table with glass vessels on it.