A trust or corporate trust is a large grouping of business interests with significant market power , which may be embodied as a corporation or as a group of corporations that cooperate with one another in various ways. These ways can include constituting a trade association , owning stock in one another, constituting a corporate group (sometimes specifically a conglomerate ), or combinations thereof. The term trust is often used in a historical sense to refer to monopolies or near-monopolies in the United States during the Second Industrial Revolution in the 19th century and early 20th century. The use of corporate trusts during this period is the historical reason for the name " antitrust law ".
114-572: Standard Oil is the common name for a corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil Company (Ohio) , which had been founded in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller . The trust was born on January 2, 1882, when a group of 41 investors signed the Standard Oil Trust Agreement, which pooled their securities of 40 companies into
228-535: A 65.4% payout ratio . The total net earnings from 1882 to 1906 amounted to $ 838,783,800 (equivalent to $ 21,321,800,000 in 2023), exceeding the dividends by $ 290,347,800, which was used for plant expansions. In 1896, John Rockefeller retired from the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, the holding company of the group, but remained president and a major shareholder. Vice-president John Dustin Archbold took
342-523: A British petroleum entrepreneur in Mexico, began negotiating with Standard Oil in 1912–13 to sell his "El Aguila" oil company, since Pearson was no longer bound to promises to the Porfirio Díaz regime (1876–1911) to not to sell to U.S. interests. However, the deal fell through and the firm was sold to Royal Dutch Shell . Standard Oil's production increased so rapidly it soon exceeded U.S. demand and
456-475: A United States patent for the same invention. These patents were subsequently upheld in both countries in a series of lawsuits, and other producers were obliged to pay him royalties. In 1851, Samuel Martin Kier began selling lamp oil to local miners, under the name "Carbon Oil". He distilled this from crude oil by a process of his own invention. He also invented a new lamp to burn his product. He has been dubbed
570-469: A beam of 32 feet (9.8 m), a depth of 10 feet 6 inches (3.2 m), and had a bulletproof wheelhouse. Mei Ping ("Beautiful Tranquility"), launched in 1927, was designed off-shore, but assembled and finished in Shanghai. Its oil-fuel burners came from the U.S. and water-tube boilers came from England. Standard Oil Company and Socony-Vacuum Oil Company became partners in providing markets for
684-664: A dozen or so within Standard Oil knew the extent of company operations. The committee counsel, Simon Sterne , questioned representatives from the Erie Railroad and the New York Central Railroad and discovered that at least half of their long-haul traffic granted rebates and much of this traffic came from Standard Oil. The committee then shifted focus to Standard Oil's operations. John Dustin Archbold , as president of Acme Oil Company, denied that Acme
798-455: A gallon or forty-two cents a barrel, an effective 71% discount from its listed rates in return for a promise to ship at least 60 carloads of oil daily and to handle loading and unloading on its own. Smaller companies decried such deals as unfair because they were not producing enough oil to qualify for discounts. Standard's actions and secret transport deals helped its kerosene price to drop from 58 to 26 cents from 1865 to 1870. Rockefeller used
912-622: A great deal of public excitement and investment drilling in new wells, not only in Pennsylvania, but also in Canada, where petroleum had been discovered at Oil Springs, Ontario in 1858, and southern Poland, where Ignacy Łukasiewicz had been distilling lamp oil from petroleum seeps since 1852. The increased supply of petroleum allowed oil refiners to entirely side-step the oil-from-coal patents of both Young and Gesner, and produce illuminating oil from petroleum without paying royalties to anyone. As
1026-608: A growing Standard Oil spin-off in its own right. In the Asia-Pacific region, Jersey Standard had oil production and refineries in the Dutch East Indies but no marketing network. Socony-Vacuum had Asian marketing outlets supplied remotely from California. In 1933, Jersey Standard and Socony-Vacuum merged their interests in the region into a 50–50 joint venture. Standard-Vacuum Oil Co., or "Stanvac", operated in 50 countries, from East Africa to New Zealand , before it
1140-515: A heat source during power failures. Kerosene is widely used in Japan and Chile as a home heating fuel for portable and installed kerosene heaters. In Chile and Japan, kerosene can be readily bought at any filling station or be delivered to homes in some cases. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, kerosene is often used as a heating fuel in areas not connected to a gas pipeline network. It
1254-497: A kerosene-based fuel, is used by the United States military as a replacement in diesel fueled vehicles and for powering aircraft. JP-8 is also used by the U.S. military and its NATO allies as a fuel for heaters, stoves, tanks, and as a replacement for diesel fuel in the engines of nearly all tactical ground vehicles and electrical generators. Aliphatic kerosene is a type of kerosene which has a low aromatic hydrocarbon content,
SECTION 10
#17327648306821368-406: A large part in the running of the firm. In the year 1904, Standard Oil controlled 91% of oil refinement and 85% of final sales in the United States. At this time, state and federal laws sought to counter this development with antitrust laws. In 1911, the U.S. Justice Department sued the group under the federal antitrust law and ordered its breakup into 39 companies. Standard Oil's market position
1482-434: A local petroleum seep . Many people knew of his work, but paid little attention to it. On the night of 31 July 1853, doctors at the local hospital needed to perform an emergency operation, virtually impossible by candlelight. They therefore sent a messenger for Łukasiewicz and his new lamps. The lamp burned so brightly and cleanly that the hospital officials ordered several lamps plus a large supply of fuel. Łukasiewicz realized
1596-540: A major political and environmental consequence. The Indian government subsidizes the fuel to keep the price very low, to around 15 U.S. cents per liter as of February 2007, as lower prices discourage dismantling of forests for cooking fuel. In Nigeria an attempt by the government to remove a fuel subsidy that includes kerosene met with strong opposition. Kerosene is used as a fuel in portable stoves , especially in Primus stoves invented in 1892. Portable kerosene stoves earn
1710-458: A much better light than a simple wick-type lamp does. Recently, a multipurpose lantern that doubles as a cook stove has been introduced in India in areas with no electricity. In countries such as Nigeria, kerosene is the main fuel used for cooking, especially by the poor, and kerosene stoves have replaced traditional wood-based cooking appliances. As such, increase in the price of kerosene can have
1824-805: A naturally occurring asphaltum called albertite . He was blocked from using it by the New Brunswick coal conglomerate because they had coal extraction rights for the province, and he lost a court case when their experts claimed albertite was a form of coal. In 1854, Gesner moved to Newtown Creek , Long Island , New York . There, he secured backing from a group of businessmen. They formed the North American Gas Light Company, to which he assigned his patents. Despite clear priority of discovery, Gesner did not obtain his first kerosene patent until 1854, two years after James Young 's United States patent. Gesner's method of purifying
1938-418: A number of useful liquids from it, one of which he named paraffine oil because at low temperatures, it congealed into a substance that resembled paraffin wax. Young took out a patent on his process and the resulting products in 1850, and built the first truly commercial oil-works in the world at Bathgate in 1851, using oil extracted from locally mined torbanite, shale, and bituminous coal. In 1852, he took out
2052-440: A polluting fuel and recommends that "governments and practitioners immediately stop promoting its household use". Kerosene smoke contains high levels of harmful particulate matter , and household use of kerosene is associated with higher risks of cancer , respiratory infections, asthma , tuberculosis , cataracts , and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Kerosene is a low- viscosity , clear liquid formed from hydrocarbons obtained from
2166-505: A public demonstration in Charlottetown , Prince Edward Island of a new process he had discovered. He heated coal in a retort , and distilled from it a clear, thin fluid that he showed made an excellent lamp fuel. He coined the name "kerosene" for his fuel, a contraction of keroselaion , meaning wax-oil . The cost of extracting kerosene from coal was high. Gesner recalled from his extensive knowledge of New Brunswick 's geology
2280-896: A quarter of the shares of the resultant companies, and those share values mostly doubled, he emerged from the dissolution as the richest man in the world. The dissolution had actually propelled Rockefeller's personal wealth. By 1911 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, in Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States , that Standard Oil of New Jersey must be dissolved under the Sherman Antitrust Act and split into 39 companies. Two of these companies were Standard Oil of New Jersey (Jersey Standard or Esso), which eventually became Exxon , and Standard Oil of New York (Socony), which eventually became Mobil ; those two companies later merged into ExxonMobil . Over
2394-438: A reputation of reliable and durable stove in everyday use, and perform especially well under adverse conditions. In outdoor activities and mountaineering, a decisive advantage of pressurized kerosene stoves over gas cartridge stoves is their particularly high thermal output and their ability to operate at very low temperature in winter or at high altitude. Wick stoves like Perfection's or wickless like Boss continue to be used by
SECTION 20
#17327648306822508-484: A result of the historical public aversion to trusts, while other countries use the term competition laws instead. Monopoly pricing had also become a contentious issue, with several states passing Granger Laws to regulate railroad and grain elevator prices to protect farmers. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 created the Interstate Commerce Commission for similar purposes, federalizing
2622-436: A result, the illuminating oil industry in the United States completely switched over to petroleum in the 1860s. The petroleum-based illuminating oil was widely sold as Kerosene, and the trade name soon lost its proprietary status, and became the lower-case generic product "kerosene". Because Gesner's original Kerosene had been also known as "coal oil", generic kerosene from petroleum was commonly called "coal oil" in some parts of
2736-487: A single holding agency managed by nine trustees. The original trust was valued at $ 70 million. On March 21, 1892, the Standard Oil Trust was dissolved and its holdings were reorganized into 20 independent companies that formed an unofficial union referred to as "Standard Oil Interests." In 1899, the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) acquired the shares of the other 19 companies and became the holding company for
2850-412: A symbol of the reliable "standards" of quality and service that he envisioned for the nascent oil industry. In the early years, John D. Rockefeller dominated the combine; he was the single most important figure in shaping the new oil industry. He quickly distributed power and the tasks of policy formation to a system of committees, but always remained the largest shareholder . Authority was centralized in
2964-408: A tanker, was specially designed for river duty. It was built by New Engineering and Shipbuilding Works of Shanghai, who also built the 500-ton launch Mei Foo in 1912. Mei Hsia ("Beautiful Gorges") was launched in 1926 and carried 350 tons of bulk oil in three holds, plus a forward cargo hold, and space between decks for carrying general cargo or packed oil. She had a length of 206 feet (63 m),
3078-543: Is a custom-blended fuel used by the New York City Transit Authority to power its bus fleet. The transit agency started using this fuel in 2004, prior to the widespread adoption of ultra-low-sulfur diesel , which has since become the standard. In 2008, the suppliers of the custom fuel failed to tender for a renewal of the transit agency's contract, leading to a negotiated contract at a significantly increased cost. JP-8 (for "Jet Propellant 8"),
3192-508: Is commonly used in metal extraction as the diluent, for example in copper extraction by LIX-84 it can be used in mixer settlers. Kerosene is used as a diluent in the PUREX extraction process, but it is increasingly being supplanted by dodecane and other artificial hydrocarbons such as TPH (Hydrogenated Propylene Trimer). Traditionally the UK plants at Sellafield used aromatic kerosene to reduce
3306-518: Is liquid around room temperature : 25 °C (77 °F). The flash point of kerosene is between 37 °C (99 °F) and 65 °C (149 °F), and its autoignition temperature is 220 °C (428 °F). The freezing point of kerosene depends on grade, with commercial aviation fuel standardized at −47 °C (−53 °F). Grade 1-K kerosene freezes around −40 °C (−40 °F, 233 K). The process of distilling crude oil/petroleum into kerosene, as well as other hydrocarbon compounds,
3420-424: Is produced by fractional distillation of crude oil in an oil refinery . It condenses at a temperature intermediate between diesel fuel , which is less volatile, and naphtha and gasoline , which are more volatile. Kerosene made up 8.5 percent by volume of petroleum refinery output in 2021 in the United States, of which nearly all was kerosene-type jet fuel (8.4 percent). The fuel, also known as heating oil in
3534-416: Is similar to that of diesel fuel ; its lower heating value is 43.1 MJ / kg (around 18,500 Btu / lb ), and its higher heating value is 46.2 MJ/kg (19,900 Btu/lb). The ASTM recognizes two grades of kerosene: 1-K (less than 0.04% sulfur by weight) and 2-K (0.3% sulfur by weight). Grade 1-K kerosene burns cleaner with fewer deposits, fewer toxins, and less frequent maintenance than 2-K, and
Standard Oil - Misplaced Pages Continue
3648-568: Is sometimes used as fuel for small outboard motors or even motorcycles . World total kerosene consumption for all purposes is equivalent to about 5,500,000 barrels per day as of July 2023. The term "kerosene" is common in much of Argentina , Australia , Canada , India , New Zealand , Nigeria , and the United States , while the term paraffin (or a closely related variant) is used in Chile , East Africa , South Africa , Norway , and
3762-412: Is the preferred grade for indoor heaters and stoves. In the United Kingdom, two grades of heating oil are defined. BS 2869 Class C1 is the lightest grade used for lanterns, camping stoves, and wick heaters, and mixed with petrol in some vintage combustion engines as a substitute for tractor vaporizing oil . BS 2869 Class C2 is a heavier distillate, which is used as domestic heating oil. Premium kerosene
3876-420: Is used less for cooking, with LPG being preferred because it is easier to light. Kerosene is often the fuel of choice for range cookers such as Rayburn . Additives such as RangeKlene can be put into kerosene to ensure that it burns cleaner and produces less soot when used in range cookers. The Amish , who generally abstain from the use of electricity, rely on kerosene for lighting at night. More ubiquitous in
3990-498: Is usually sold in 5- or 20-litre containers from hardware, camping and garden stores, and is often dyed purple. Standard kerosene is usually dispensed in bulk by a tanker and is undyed. National and international standards define the properties of several grades of kerosene used for jet fuel . Flash point and freezing point properties are particularly interesting for operation and safety; the standards also define additives for control of static electricity and other purposes. Kerosene
4104-542: The Chevron Corp . Some have speculated that if not for that court ruling, Standard Oil could have possibly been worth more than $ 1 trillion in the 2000s. Whether the breakup of Standard Oil was beneficial is a matter of some controversy. Some economists believe that Standard Oil was not a monopoly, and argue that the intense free market competition resulted in cheaper oil prices and more diverse petroleum products. Critics claimed that success in meeting consumer needs
4218-675: The Erie Canal as a cheap alternative form of transportation—in the summer months when it was not frozen—to ship his refined oil from Cleveland to the industrialized Northeast. In the winter months, his only options were the three trunk lines—the Erie Railroad and the New York Central Railroad to New York City, and the Pennsylvania Railroad to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Competitors disliked
4332-481: The Gilded Age , as a legal device to consolidate industrial activity across state lines. In 1882 John D. Rockefeller and other owners of Standard Oil faced several obstacles to managing and profiting from their large oil refining business. The existing approach of separately owning and dealing with several companies in each state was unwieldy, often resulting in turf battles and non-uniform practices. Furthermore,
4446-846: The Grandfather of the American Oil Industry by historians. Kier's salt wells began to be fouled with petroleum in the 1840s. At first, Kier simply dumped the oil into the nearby Pennsylvania Main Line Canal as useless waste, but later he began experimenting with several distillates of the crude oil, along with a chemist from eastern Pennsylvania. Ignacy Łukasiewicz , a Polish pharmacist residing in Lviv , and his partner Jan Zeh [ pl ] had been experimenting with different distillation techniques, trying to improve on Gesner's kerosene process, but using oil from
4560-651: The Motion Picture Patents Company or Edison Trust which controlled the movie patents. Patents were also important to the Bell Telephone Company , as indicated by the massive litigation that came to be known as The Telephone Cases . Kerosene Kerosene , or paraffin , is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum . It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from κηρός ( kērós ) meaning " wax ", and
4674-502: The Sherman Antitrust Act (Senate 51–1; House 242–0), a source of American anti-monopoly laws. The law forbade every contract, scheme, deal, or conspiracy to restrain trade, though the phrase "restraint of trade" remained subjective. The Standard Oil group quickly attracted attention from antitrust authorities leading to a lawsuit filed by Ohio Attorney General David K. Watson . From 1882 to 1906, Standard paid out $ 548,436,000 (equivalent to $ 13,941,200,000 in 2023) in dividends at
Standard Oil - Misplaced Pages Continue
4788-430: The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, for sustaining a monopoly and restraining interstate commerce by: Rebates, preferences, and other discriminatory practices in favor of the combination by railroad companies; restraint and monopolization by control of pipe lines, and unfair practices against competing pipe lines; contracts with competitors in restraint of trade; unfair methods of competition, such as local price cutting at
4902-676: The South Improvement Co. which would have allowed him to receive rebates for shipping and drawbacks on oil his competitors shipped. But when this deal became known, competitors convinced the Pennsylvania Legislature to revoke South Improvement's charter. No oil was ever shipped under this arrangement. Using highly effective tactics, later widely criticized, it absorbed or destroyed most of its competition in Cleveland in less than two months and later throughout
5016-589: The US Supreme Court upheld the lower court judgment and declared the Standard Oil group to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act , Section II. It ordered Standard to break up into 39 independent companies with different boards of directors, the biggest two of the companies being Standard Oil of New Jersey (which became Exxon ) and Standard Oil of New York (which became Mobil ). Standard's president, John D. Rockefeller, had long since retired from any management role. But, as he owned
5130-615: The United Kingdom . The term "lamp oil", or the equivalent in the local languages, is common in the majority of Asia and the Southeastern United States , although in Appalachia , it is also commonly referred to as " coal oil ". Confusingly, the name "paraffin" is also used to refer to a number of distinct petroleum byproducts other than kerosene. For instance, liquid paraffin (called mineral oil in
5244-510: The Yangtze River , the largest of which were Mei Ping (1,118 gross register tons (GRT)), Mei Hsia (1,048 GRT), and Mei An (934 GRT). All three were destroyed in the 1937 USS Panay incident . Mei An was launched in 1901 and was the first vessel in the fleet. Other vessels included Mei Chuen , Mei Foo , Mei Hung , Mei Kiang , Mei Lu , Mei Tan , Mei Su , Mei Hsia , Mei Ying , and Mei Yun . Mei Hsia ,
5358-873: The fractional distillation of petroleum between 150 and 275 °C (300 and 525 °F), resulting in a mixture with a density of 0.78–0.81 g/cm . It is miscible with petroleum solvents but immiscible with water. It is composed of hydrocarbon molecules that typically contain between 6-20 carbon atoms per molecule , predominantly containing 9 to 16 carbon atoms. Regardless of crude oil source or processing history, kerosene's major components are branched- and straight-chain alkanes (hydrocarbon chains) and naphthenes (cycloalkanes), which normally account for at least 70% of volume. Aromatic hydrocarbons such as alkylbenzenes (single ring) and alkylnaphthalenes (double ring), do not normally exceed 25% by volume of kerosene streams. Olefins are usually not present at more than 5% by volume. The heat of combustion of kerosene
5472-472: The Amish and off grid living and in natural disasters where there is no power available. In the early to mid-20th century, kerosene or tractor vaporizing oil was used as a cheap fuel for tractors and hit 'n miss engines . A petrol-paraffin engine would start on gasoline, then switch over to kerosene once the engine warmed up. On some engines a heat valve on the manifold would route the exhaust gasses around
5586-533: The Chrysler Horizon that integrated many Saab components) were made. One reason to manufacture kerosene-fueled cars was that in Finland kerosene was less heavily taxed than gasoline. Kerosene is used to fuel smaller-horsepower outboard motors built by Yamaha, Suzuki, and Tohatsu. Primarily used on small fishing craft, these are dual-fuel engines that start on gasoline and then transition to kerosene once
5700-498: The Downer Company (to which Gesner had granted the right) were allowed to call their lamp oil "Kerosene" in the United States. In 1848, Scottish chemist James Young experimented with oil discovered seeping in a coal mine as a source of lubricating oil and illuminating fuel. When the seep became exhausted, he experimented with the dry distillation of coal, especially the resinous "boghead coal" ( torbanite ). He extracted
5814-487: The Pennsylvania legislature proposed to tax out-of-state corporations on their entire business activity. Concerned that other states could follow, Standard Oil had its attorney Samuel C. T. Dodd adapt the common law instrument of a trust to avoid cross-state taxation and to impose a single management hierarchy. The Standard Oil Trust was formed pursuant to a trust agreement in which the individual shareholders of many separate corporations agreed to convey their shares to
SECTION 50
#17327648306825928-494: The Standard Oil Co. charges altogether excessive prices where it meets no competition, and particularly where there is little likelihood of competitors entering the field, and that, on the other hand, where competition is active, it frequently cuts prices to a point which leaves even the Standard little or no profit, and which more often leaves no profit to the competitor, whose costs are ordinarily somewhat higher. On May 15, 1911,
6042-475: The Standard into markets, or they have been made high to keep its competitors out of markets. Trifling differences in distances are made an excuse for large differences in rates favorable to the Standard Oil Co., while large differences in distances are ignored where they are against the Standard. Sometimes connecting roads prorate on oil—that is, make through rates which are lower than the combination of local rates; sometimes they refuse to prorate; but in either case
6156-432: The UK and Ireland, remains widely used in kerosene lamps and lanterns in the developing world. Although it replaced whale oil , the 1873 edition of Elements of Chemistry said, "The vapor of this substance [kerosene] mixed with air is as explosive as gunpowder." This statement may have been due to the common practice of adulterating kerosene with cheaper but more volatile hydrocarbon mixtures, such as naphtha . Kerosene
6270-658: The US) is a more viscous and highly refined product which is used as a laxative. Paraffin wax is a waxy solid extracted from petroleum. To prevent confusion between kerosene and the much more flammable and volatile gasoline (petrol) , some jurisdictions regulate markings or colourings for containers used to store or dispense kerosene. For example, in the United States, Pennsylvania requires that portable containers used at retail service stations for kerosene be colored blue, as opposed to red (for gasoline ) or yellow (for diesel ). The World Health Organization considers kerosene to be
6384-415: The United States well into the 20th century. In the United Kingdom, manufacturing oil from coal (or oil shale) continued into the early 20th century, although increasingly overshadowed by petroleum oils. As kerosene production increased, whaling declined. The American whaling fleet , which had been steadily growing for 50 years, reached its all-time peak of 199 ships in 1858. By 1860, just two years later,
6498-424: The aromatic content of crude oil varies greatly from oil field to oil field. However by solvent extraction it is possible to separate aromatic hydrocarbons from aliphatic (alkane) hydrocarbons. A common method is solvent extraction with methanol, DMSO or sulfolane . Aromatic kerosene is a grade of kerosene with a large concentration of aromatic hydrocarbons, an example of this would be Exon 's Solvesso 150. Kerosene
6612-479: The company began viewing export markets. In the 1890s, Standard Oil began marketing kerosene to China's large population of close to 400 million as lamp fuel. For its Chinese trademark and brand, Standard Oil adopted the name Mei Foo ( Chinese : 美孚 ) as a transliteration. Mei Foo also became the name of the tin lamp that Standard Oil produced and gave away or sold cheaply to Chinese farmers, encouraging them to switch from vegetable oil to kerosene. The response
6726-732: The company include Henry Flagler, developer of the Florida East Coast Railway and resort cities, and Henry H. Rogers , who built the Virginian Railway . In 1885, Standard Oil of Ohio moved its headquarters from Cleveland to its permanent headquarters at 26 Broadway in New York City . Concurrently, the trustees of Standard Oil of Ohio chartered the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey (SOCNJ) to take advantage of New Jersey's more lenient corporate stock ownership laws. In 1890, Congress overwhelmingly passed
6840-569: The company together) and the Rockefeller family controlled a majority of the stock during all the history of the company up to the present time." These families reinvested most of the dividends in other industries, especially railroads. They also invested heavily in the gas and the electric lighting business (including the giant Consolidated Gas Co. of New York City ). They made large purchases of stock in U.S. Steel , Amalgamated Copper , and even Corn Products Refining Co. Weetman Pearson ,
6954-587: The company's business practices, but consumers liked the lower prices. Standard Oil, being formed well before the discovery of the Spindletop oil field (in Texas, far from Standard Oil's base in the Midwest) and a demand for oil other than for heat and light, was well placed to control the growth of the oil business. The company was perceived to own and control all aspects of the trade. In 1872, Rockefeller joined
SECTION 60
#17327648306827068-600: The company's main office in Cleveland, but decisions in the office were made cooperatively. The company grew by increasing sales and through acquisitions. After purchasing competing firms, Rockefeller shut down those he believed to be inefficient and kept the others. In a seminal deal, in 1868, the Lake Shore Railroad, a part of the New York Central , gave Rockefeller's firm a going rate of one cent
7182-451: The compression ratio (making the engine less powerful and less efficient, but able to run on kerosene). The necessary equipment was sold under the trademark "Econom". During the fuel crisis of the 1970s , Saab-Valmet developed and series-produced the Saab 99 Petro that ran on kerosene, turpentine or gasoline. The project, codenamed "Project Lapponia", was headed by Simo Vuorio, and towards
7296-411: The days of electrically lighted road barriers, highway construction zones were marked at night by kerosene fired, pot-bellied torches. Most of these uses of kerosene created thick black smoke because of the low temperature of combustion. A notable exception, discovered in the early 19th century, is the use of a gas mantle mounted above the wick on a kerosene lamp. Looking like a delicate woven bag above
7410-562: The distillation products appears to have been superior to Young's, resulting in a cleaner and better-smelling fuel. Manufacture of kerosene under the Gesner patents began in New York in 1854 and later in Boston —being distilled from bituminous coal and oil shale . Gesner registered the word "Kerosene" as a trademark in 1854, and for several years, only the North American Gas Light Company and
7524-521: The end of the 1970s, a working prototype was produced based on the Saab 99 GL. The car was designed to run on two fuels. Gasoline was used for cold starts and when extra power was needed, but normally it ran on kerosene or turpentine. The idea was that the gasoline could be made from peat using the Fischer–Tropsch process . Between 1980 and 1984, 3,756 Saab 99 Petros and 2,385 Talbot Horizons (a version of
7638-484: The engine reaches optimum operating temperature . Multiple fuel Evinrude and Mercury Racing engines also burn kerosene, as well as jet fuel. Today, kerosene is mainly used in fuel for jet engines in several grades. One highly refined form of the fuel is known as RP-1 , and is often burned with liquid oxygen as rocket fuel . These fuel grade kerosenes meet specifications for smoke points and freeze points . The combustion reaction can be approximated as follows, with
7752-455: The fleet had dropped to 167 ships. The Civil War cut into American whaling temporarily, but only 105 whaling ships returned to sea in 1866, the first full year of peace, and that number dwindled until only 39 American ships set out to hunt whales in 1876. Kerosene, made first from coal and oil shale, then from petroleum, had largely taken over whaling's lucrative market in lamp oil. Electric lighting started displacing kerosene as an illuminant in
7866-483: The heavier hydrocarbons that previously went into kerosene were incorporated into diesel fuel. Kerosene kept some market share by being increasingly used in stoves and portable heaters. A pilot project by ETH Zurich used solar power to produce kerosene from carbon dioxide and water in July 2022. The product can be used in existing aviation applications, and "can also be blended with fossil-derived kerosene." Kerosene
7980-483: The intake pipe, heating the kerosene to the point where it was vaporized and could be ignited by an electric spark . In Europe following the Second World War, automobiles were similarly modified to run on kerosene rather than gasoline, which they would have to import and pay heavy taxes on. Besides additional piping and the switch between fuels, the head gasket was replaced by a much thicker one to diminish
8094-652: The largest public oil company in the world. Many of the companies disassociated from Jersey Standard in 1911 remained powerful businesses through the twentieth century. These included the Standard Oil Company of New York , Standard Oil Company (Indiana) , Standard Oil Company (California) , Ohio Oil Company , Continental Oil Company , and Atlantic Refining Company . Standard Oil's prehistory began in 1863, as an Ohio partnership formed by industrialist John D. Rockefeller , his brother William Rockefeller , Henry Flagler , chemist Samuel Andrews , silent partner Stephen V. Harkness , and Oliver Burr Jennings , who had married
8208-482: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, kerosene space heaters were often built into kitchen ranges, and kept many farm and fishing families warm and dry through the winter. At one time, citrus growers used a smudge pot fueled by kerosene to create a pall of thick smoke over a grove in an effort to prevent freezing temperatures from damaging crops. " Salamanders " are kerosene space heaters used on construction sites to dry out building materials and to warm workers. Before
8322-461: The late 19th century, especially in urban areas. However, kerosene remained the predominant commercial end-use for petroleum refined in the United States until 1909, when it was exceeded by motor fuels. The rise of the gasoline-powered automobile in the early 20th century created a demand for the lighter hydrocarbon fractions, and refiners invented methods to increase their output of gasoline, while decreasing their output of kerosene. In addition, some of
8436-496: The legal instruments used to create the corporate trusts, received a hostile reception in state courts during the 1880s and were quickly phased out in the 1890s in favor of other devices like holding companies for maintaining centralized corporate control. For example, the Standard Oil Trust terminated its own trust agreement in March 1892. Regardless, the name stuck, and American competition laws are known today as antitrust laws as
8550-627: The molecular formula C 12 H 26 ( dodecane ): In the initial phase of liftoff, the Saturn V launch vehicle was powered by the reaction of liquid oxygen with RP-1. For the five 6.4 meganewton sea-level thrust F-1 rocket engines of the Saturn V, burning together, the reaction generated roughly 1.62 × 10 watts (J/s) (162 gigawatt) or 217 million horsepower. Kerosene is sometimes used as an additive in diesel fuel to prevent gelling or waxing in cold temperatures. Ultra-low sulfur kerosene
8664-484: The movement against anti-competitive business practices. In 1898, President William McKinley launched the trust-busting era (one aspect of the Progressive Era ) when he appointed the U.S. Industrial Commission . Theodore Roosevelt seized upon the commission's report and based much of his presidency (1901–1909) on trust-busting . Prominent trusts included: Other companies also formed trusts, such as
8778-579: The next few decades, both companies grew significantly. Jersey Standard, led by Walter C. Teagle , became the largest oil producer in the world. It acquired a 50 percent share in Humble Oil & Refining Co. , a Texas oil producer. Socony purchased a 45 percent interest in Magnolia Petroleum Co. , a major refiner, marketer, and pipeline transporter. In 1931, Socony merged with Vacuum Oil Co. , an industry pioneer dating back to 1866, and
8892-550: The northeastern United States. A. Barton Hepburn was directed by the New York State Legislature in 1879, to investigate the railroads' practice of giving rebates to their largest clients within the state . Merchants without ties to the oil industry had pressed for the hearings. Prior to the committee's investigation, few knew of the size of Standard Oil's control and influence on seemingly unaffiliated oil refineries and pipelines—Hawke (1980) cites that only
9006-730: The oil reserves in the Middle East. In 1906, SOCONY (later Mobil) opened its first fuel terminals in Alexandria. It explored in Palestine before the World War broke out, but ran into conflict with the local authorities. By 1890, Standard Oil controlled 88 percent of the refined oil flows in the United States. The state of Ohio successfully sued Standard, compelling the dissolution of the trust in 1892. But Standard simply separated Standard Oil of Ohio and kept control of it. Eventually,
9120-399: The open arrangement of rates; (3) discriminations in classification and rules of shipment; (4) discriminations in the treatment of private tank cars. The government alleged: Almost everywhere the rates from the shipping points used exclusively, or almost exclusively, by the Standard are relatively lower than the rates from the shipping points of its competitors. Rates have been made low to let
9234-520: The organization of large businesses, they soon faced widespread accusations of abusing their market power to engage in anticompetitive business practices (in order to establish and maintain monopolies). Such accusations caused the term trust to become strongly associated with such practices among the American public and led to the enactment in 1890 of the Sherman Antitrust Act , the first U.S. federal competition statute. Meanwhile, trust agreements,
9348-425: The period of 1904 to 1906 and concluded that "beyond question ... the dominant position of the Standard Oil Co. in the refining industry was due to unfair practices—to abuse of the control of pipe-lines, to railroad discriminations, and to unfair methods of competition in the sale of the refined petroleum products". Because of competition from other firms, their market share gradually eroded to 70 percent by 1906 which
9462-425: The points where necessary to suppress competition; [and] espionage of the business of competitors, the operation of bogus independent companies, and payment of rebates on oil, with the like intent. The lawsuit argued that Standard's monopolistic practices had taken place over the preceding four years: The general result of the investigation has been to disclose the existence of numerous and flagrant discriminations by
9576-534: The potential of his work and quit the pharmacy to find a business partner, and then traveled to Vienna to register his technique with the government. Łukasiewicz moved to the Gorlice region of Poland in 1854, and sank several wells across southern Poland over the following decade, setting up a refinery near Jasło in 1859. The petroleum discovery by Edwin Drake - Drake Well in western Pennsylvania in 1859 caused
9690-420: The property, while any benefit from the property accrues to another person, the beneficiary. Trusts are commonly used to hold inheritances for the benefit of children and other family members, for example. In business, such trusts, with corporate entities as the trustees, have sometimes been used to combine several large businesses in order to exert complete control over a market, which is how the narrower sense of
9804-509: The radiolysis of TBP while the French nuclear industry tended to use diluents with very little aromatic content. The French nuclear reprocessing plants typically use TPH as their diluent. In recent times it has been shown by Mark Foreman at Chalmers that aliphatic kerosene can be replaced in solvent extraction with HVO100 which is a second generation biodiesel made by Neste . In X-ray crystallography , kerosene can be used to store crystals. When
9918-582: The railroads in behalf of the Standard Oil Co. and its affiliated corporations. With comparatively few exceptions, mainly of other large concerns in California, the Standard has been the sole beneficiary of such discriminations. In almost every section of the country that company has been found to enjoy some unfair advantages over its competitors, and some of these discriminations affect enormous areas. The government identified four illegal patterns: (1) secret and semi-secret railroad rates; (2) discriminations in
10032-517: The reporting of Ida Tarbell , who wrote The History of the Standard Oil Company . The net value of companies severed from Jersey Standard in 1911 was $ 375 million, which constituted 57 per cent of Jersey's value. After the dissolution, Jersey Standard became the United States' second largest corporation after United States Steel . The Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), which was renamed Exxon in 1973 and ExxonMobil in 1999, remains
10146-598: The result of their policy is to favor the Standard Oil Co. Different methods are used in different places and under different conditions, but the net result is that from Maine to California the general arrangement of open rates on petroleum oil is such as to give the Standard an unreasonable advantage over its competitors. The government said that Standard raised prices to its monopolistic customers but lowered them to hurt competitors, often disguising its illegal actions by using bogus, supposedly independent companies it controlled. The evidence is, in fact, absolutely conclusive that
10260-784: The scale of companies, Rockefeller and his associates developed innovative ways of organizing to effectively manage their fast-growing enterprise. On January 2, 1882, they combined their disparate companies, spread across dozens of states, under a single group of trustees. By a secret agreement, the existing 37 stockholders conveyed their shares "in trust" to nine trustees: John and William Rockefeller, Oliver H. Payne , Charles Pratt , Henry Flagler , John D. Archbold , William G. Warden, Jabez Bostwick , and Benjamin Brewster . "Whereas some state legislatures imposed special taxes on out-of-state corporations doing business in their states, other legislatures forbade corporations in their state from holding
10374-471: The sister of William Rockefeller's wife. In 1870, Rockefeller abolished the partnership and incorporated Standard Oil in Ohio. Of the initial 10,000 shares, John D. Rockefeller received 2,667, Harkness received 1,334, William Rockefeller, Flagler, and Andrews received 1,333 each, Jennings received 1,000, and the firm of Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler received 1,000. Rockefeller chose the "Standard Oil" name as
10488-612: The state of New Jersey changed its incorporation laws to allow a company to hold shares in other companies in any state. So, in 1899, the Standard Oil Trust, based at 26 Broadway in New York, was legally reborn as a holding company , the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey (SOCNJ), which held stock in 41 other companies, which controlled other companies, which in turn controlled yet other companies. According to Daniel Yergin in his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (1990), this conglomerate
10602-493: The stock of companies based elsewhere. (Legislators established such restrictions in the hope that they would force successful companies to incorporate—and thus pay taxes—in their state.)" Standard Oil's organizational concept proved so successful that other giant enterprises adopted this "trust" form. By 1882, Rockefeller's top aide was John Dustin Archbold , whom he left in control after disengaging from business to concentrate on philanthropy after 1896. Other notable principals of
10716-405: The term grew out of the broader sense. In the United States, the use of corporate trusts died out in the early 20th century as U.S. states passed laws making it easier to create new corporations . The OED (Oxford English Dictionary) dates use of the word trust in a business organization sense from 1825. The business or "corporate" trust came into use in the 19th-century United States, during
10830-413: The term itself has become contaminated. This is unfortunate, for it is difficult to find a substitute for it. There may, of course, be illegal trusts; but a trust in and by itself is not illegal: when resorted to for a proper purpose, it has been for centuries enforced by courts of justice, and is, in fact, the creature of a court of equity . Although such corporate trusts were initially set up to improve
10944-401: The traditional sense and the new corporate trusts: A trust is ... simply the case of one person holding the title of property, whether land or chattels, for the benefit of another, termed a beneficiary. Nothing can be more common or more useful. But the word is now loosely applied to a certain class of commercial agreements and, by reason of a popular and unreasoning dread of their effect,
11058-414: The trust. Jersey Standard operated a near monopoly in the American oil industry from 1899 until 1911 and was the largest corporation in the United States. In 1911, the landmark Supreme Court case Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States found Jersey Standard guilty of anticompetitive practices and ordered it to break up its holdings. The charge against Jersey came about in part as a consequence of
11172-431: The trust; it ended up entirely owning 14 corporations and also exercised majority control over 26 others. Nine individuals held trust certificates and acted as the trust's board of trustees. One of those trustees, Rockefeller himself, held 41% of the trust certificates; the next most powerful trustee held about 13%. This trust became a model for other industries. An 1888 article explained the difference between trusts in
11286-445: The woven cotton wick, the mantle is a residue of mineral materials (mostly thorium dioxide ), heated to incandescence by the flame from the wick. The thorium and cerium oxide combination produces both a whiter light and a greater fraction of the energy in the form of visible light than a black body at the same temperature would. These types of lamps are still in use today in areas of the world without electricity, because they give
11400-467: Was a Standard company only from 1908 until 1911. One of the original " Muckrakers " Ida M. Tarbell , was an American author and journalist whose father was an oil producer whose business had failed because of Rockefeller's business dealings. After extensive interviews with a sympathetic senior executive of Standard Oil, Henry H. Rogers , Tarbell's investigations of Standard Oil fueled growing public attacks on Standard Oil and monopolies in general. Her work
11514-415: Was a significant fire risk; in 1880, nearly two of every five New York City fires were caused by defective kerosene lamps. In less-developed countries kerosene is an important source of energy for cooking and lighting. It is used as a cooking fuel in portable stoves for backpackers . As a heating fuel, it is often used in portable stoves, and is sold in some filling stations . It is sometimes used as
11628-408: Was associated with Standard Oil. He then admitted to being a director of Standard Oil. The committee's final report scolded the railroads for their rebate policies and cited Standard Oil as an example. This scolding was largely moot to Standard Oil's interests since long-distance oil pipelines were now their preferred method of transportation. In response to state laws that had the result of limiting
11742-460: Was dissolved in 1962. Rockefeller's original company, Standard Oil Company of Ohio ( Sohio ), effectively ceased to exist when it was purchased by BP in 1987. BP continued to sell gasoline under the Sohio brand until 1991. Other Standard oil entities include "Standard Oil of Indiana" which became Amoco after other mergers and a name change in the 1980s, and "Standard Oil of California" which became
11856-480: Was driving other companies, who were not as successful, out of the market. Trust (business) In the broader sense of the term, relating to trust law , a trust is a legal arrangement based on principles developed and recognised over centuries in English law, specifically in equity , by which one party conveys legal possession and title of certain property to a second party, called a trustee. The trustee holds
11970-512: Was first written about in the ninth century by the Persian scholar Rāzi (or Rhazes). In his Kitab al-Asrar ( Book of Secrets ), the physician and chemist Razi described two methods for the production of kerosene, termed naft abyad (نفط ابيض"white naphtha"), using an apparatus called an alembic . One method used clay as an absorbent , and later the other method using chemicals like ammonium chloride ( sal ammoniac ). The distillation process
12084-594: Was formed in 1933. To distribute its products, Standard Oil constructed storage tanks, canneries (bulk oil from large ocean tankers was re-packaged into 5-US-gallon (19 L; 4.2 imp gal) tins), warehouses, and offices in key Chinese cities. For inland distribution, the company had motor tank trucks and railway tank cars, and for river navigation, it had a fleet of low-draft steamers and other vessels. Stanvac's North China Division, based in Shanghai, owned hundreds of vessels, including motor barges, steamers, launches, tugboats, and tankers. Up to 13 tankers operated on
12198-519: Was initially established through an emphasis on efficiency and responsibility. While most companies dumped gasoline in rivers (this was before the automobile was popular), Standard used it to fuel its machines. While other companies' refineries piled mountains of heavy waste, Rockefeller found ways to sell it. For example, Standard bought the company that invented and produced Vaseline , the Chesebrough Manufacturing Co. , which
12312-618: Was positive, sales boomed and China became Standard Oil's largest market in Asia. Prior to Pearl Harbor, Stanvac was the largest single U.S. investment in Southeast Asia . The North China Department of Socony (Standard Oil Company of New York) operated a subsidiary called Socony River and Coastal Fleet, North Coast Division, which became the North China Division of Stanvac (Standard Vacuum Oil Company) after that company
12426-654: Was published in 19 parts in McClure's magazine from November 1902 to October 1904, then in 1904 as the book The History of the Standard Oil Co . The Standard Oil Trust was controlled by a small group of families. Rockefeller stated in 1910: "I think it is true that the Pratt family, the Payne– Whitney family (which were one, as all the stock came from Colonel Payne), the Harkness-Flagler family (which came into
12540-475: Was registered as a trademark by Nova Scotia geologist and inventor Abraham Gesner in 1854 before evolving into a generic trademark . It is sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage. Kerosene is widely used to power jet engines of aircraft ( jet fuel ), as well as some rocket engines in a highly refined form called RP-1 . It is also commonly used as a cooking and lighting fuel, and for fire toys such as poi . In parts of Asia, kerosene
12654-678: Was repeated until most of the volatile hydrocarbon fractions had been removed and the final product was perfectly clear and safe to burn. Kerosene was also produced during the same period from oil shale and bitumen by heating the rock to extract the oil, which was then distilled. During the Chinese Ming Dynasty , the Chinese made use of kerosene through extracting and purifying petroleum and then converted it into lamp fuel. The Chinese made use of petroleum for lighting lamps and heating homes as early as 1500 BC. Although "coal oil"
12768-447: Was seen by the public as all-pervasive, controlled by a select group of directors, and completely unaccountable. In 1904, Standard controlled 91 percent of production and 85 percent of final sales. Most of its output was kerosene , of which 55 percent was exported around the world. After 1900 it did not try to force competitors out of business by selling at a loss. The federal Commissioner of Corporations studied Standard's operations from
12882-431: Was the year when the antitrust case was filed against Standard. Standard's market share was 64 percent by 1911 when Standard was ordered broken up. At least 147 refining companies were competing with Standard including Gulf, Texaco, and Shell. It did not try to monopolize the exploration and extraction of oil (its share in 1911 was 11 percent). In 1909, the U.S. Justice Department sued Standard under federal antitrust law,
12996-567: Was well known by industrial chemists at least as early as the 1700s as a byproduct of making coal gas and coal tar, it burned with a smoky flame that prevented its use for indoor illumination. In cities, much indoor illumination was provided by piped-in coal gas , but outside the cities, and for spot lighting within the cities, the lucrative market for fueling indoor lamps was supplied by whale oil , specifically that from sperm whales , which burned brighter and cleaner. Canadian geologist Abraham Pineo Gesner claimed that in 1846, he had given
#681318