BENJAMIN SILLIMAN JR. - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 02/10/1870 - HFSID 29535

BENJAMIN SILLIMAN JR.
His report on the economic uses of petroleum led to the drilling of the first well
Autograph Letter signed: "B. Silliman," 2p (integral leaf), 5x8. New Haven, 1870 February 10. To "My dear Wurtz". In full: "I was so much occupied in N.Y. with Mrs. Silliman whom I took down to recruit from a very exhausting siege of care and nursing at home for 4 months, that I did not get down town at all - two days we were up in Westchester Co. and so I lost the chance of meeting you as I had hoped to do. If I remember right you thought that the numerator of the fraction for calaifi intensity should be diminished by 100° C. the difference being between 537° and 637°. I think not and can give you good reasons for it, but not at this hurried moment. Try and make up the paper if possible and if there is any part of it I can aid you about let me know and I will give it attention. Those fools are like the Kilkenny Cats & as much of them and of the process will be left unless they quit fighting and go to work immediately. I am completely disgusted with the whole concern. In hast Yours very truly". Benjamin Silliman, Jr. (1816-1885), the son and namesake of Yale University's first professor of chemistry, followed in his father's footstep by holding the same position. In 1855, at the request of the founders of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, Silliman, Jr. wrote a report lauding the economic potential of rock oil, now called petroleum, previously considered a smelly nuisance. Although his vision of oil's future was for lighting and lubrication, not a power source, his report helped George Bissell and James Townsend to raise capital for their enterprise. Shortly thereafter, the company, renamed the Seneca Oil Company, financed the drilling of the first oil well by Edwin Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania (1859). Silliman also developed a distillation method permitting the economic production of kerosene. Slightly foxed and soiled. Two-inch paper separation at top and bottom of center fold; ½-inch paper separation at bottom edge of vertical fold on each page. Otherwise, fine condition.