The First Gas Lamp

The 'rock oil, running out of stone' and its power was first mentioned in 1534 in the chronicles of Stephan Falimir. At that time oil was used to smear the wheels or in medical purposes, and no doubt, its meaning hardly could be compared with the current one. We can’t speak about the level of the industry until the 18th century.

The official date of oil birth (just as the oil) is considered to be 1771 when people were digging out a salt mine and suddenly instead of salt they found an oil spring at the depth of 25 m. But according to modern standards, it could be called industry very nominally: besides imagining new possibilities, it was also crucial to learn special methods of treatment, refinement and spreading it to every house. And it would take a long time and much research.

The time for this came only at the end of the 19th century and it's connected with Jan Zeh's name, Lviv's former pharmacist. Ukrainian Aladdin, a living legend, who took the light out from the underground.

As Jan Zeh was a searcher so he was an inventor: in 1853 he applied to the Lviv's government for a patent for the oil chemical filtering, and the record show, that it was not his first invention.

The first gas lamp appeared and lighted not one victory on the surgical table in the battle for human life. The company of 'Mykoljash, Lukashevych and Zeh' signs an agreement with the community hospital in Lviv on lighting it with gas lamps. The lamps were made by famous Lviv's lamp master Adam Bratkovsky. July 31st, 1853, at night the first surgical operation has been lighted up with the newly-made lamb.