Alexander François Selligue (1784-1845) was a French engineer. His name was in fact Alexandre François Gilles, but he used
Selligue as an anagram of Gilles.
In 1832, he together with David Blum patented an application of
shale oil
Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting oil ca ...
for direct illumination. In 1838, he patented "the employment of mineral oils for lighting". His process of distilling
bituminous shales (
oil shale
Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitute ...
) was first described in the ''Journal des Connaissances Usuelles'' in 1834.
[
] This process for the oil shale retorting was first used in
Autun
Autun () is a subprefecture of the Saône-et-Loire department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of central-eastern France. It was founded during the Principate era of the early Roman Empire by Emperor Augustus as Augustodunum to give a Ro ...
, France, in 1838.
This is considered the start of the modern
oil shale industry
The oil shale industry is an industry of mining and processing of oil shale—a fine-grained sedimentary rock, containing significant amounts of kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds), from which liquid hydrocarbons can be manufa ...
.
References
1784 births
1845 deaths
19th-century French people
French engineers
Oil shale in France
Oil shale technology inventors
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