Robert Chesebrough

Robert Chesebrough was down an oil well when he discovered a gooey substance known by workers as ‘rod wax.’ Chesebrough noticed how the workers would use the goo to heal cuts and burns. The entrepreneurial-minded chemist took a sample home for experimentation. Soon he managed to extract a usable petroleum jelly and in 1872 he patented the process before setting up business. By the late 1880s Chesebrough was selling Vaseline to Americans at the rate of one jar per minute.