![Luther Atwood 1868](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Luther_Atwood_1868.jpg)
Luther Atwood (November 7, 1820 – November 5, 1868) was an American
chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chÄ“m(Ãa)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...
. He is known for creating new chemical products from the
distillation
Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heat ...
of
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
and
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
.
Early life
Atwood was born at
Bristol, New Hampshire
Bristol is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,244 at the 2020 census. It is home to Wellington State Park, Sugar Hill State Forest, and Profile Falls on the Smith River. Surrounded by hills and lakes, Br ...
on November 7, 1820. He was the eldest son of Jonathan and Huldah (Gurdy) Atwood, of English descent. His earliest American paternal ancestor was from
Sanderstead
Sanderstead is a village and medieval-founded church parish at the southern end of Croydon in south London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon, and formerly in the historic county of Surrey, until 1965. It takes in Purley Downs and S ...
, England. That ancestor emigrated to America in the 1640s and settled in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
.
Mid life
Atwood was educated at the
New Hampton Academy in that city of the state of New Hampshire.
After graduating he taught at the school for a year. During this time Atwood took up an interest in chemistry and first experimented with a
still
A still is an apparatus used to distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic distillation apparatus, but on a much larger scale. Stills have been use ...
in which he made a
peppermint oil extract. He sold the product in Boston.
Career
![Patent no US9630A](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Patent_no_US9630A.jpg)
Atwood became an employee of Philbrick & Trafton, chemical manufacturers of Boston in 1849.
A year or so later the firm was reestablished as Philbrick, Carpenter, and Company. Atwood became a partner of this new company located at
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, ...
. They manufactured products that were distilled from coal tar. Atwood invented "coup oil" in 1852, which was the first oil extracted from coal.
[
] Atwood's "coup oil", a product of
coal tar
Coal tar is a thick dark liquid which is a by-product of the production of coke and coal gas from coal. It is a type of creosote. It has both medical and industrial uses. Medicinally it is a topical medication applied to skin to treat psorias ...
,
picric acid and
benzole
In the United Kingdom, benzole or benzol is a coal-tar product consisting mainly of benzene and toluene. It was originally used as a 'motor spirit', as was petroleum spirits. Benzole was also blended with petrol and sold as a motor fuel under tra ...
, was used as a machinery lubricant especially in the railroad industry and factories. The company located at
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, ...
made 175,000 gallons of the lubricant before it was discontinued in 1859.
[
"Coup Oil" was named by Atwood after the '']coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
'' that had just been carried out by Louis Napoleon
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
, who became Emperor of France in 1852.[ The odor of this new oil extract was repulsive and disagreeable. Because of this he lost interest in his new oil extract invention.
Atwood then decided to distill and refine "Canada pitch" which was obtained from petroleum overflows around Petrolia, Ontario in Canada. He refined the oil to obtain light and heavy oils. He refined the light oils to a water-white burning oil. The heavy oils he refined to a quality grade of paraffine lubricating oil. From the paraffine oil he obtained a solid white paraffine, which melted at about .
"Canada pitch" was of a limited supply so Atwood experimented with gas coals of the Ohio valley, the ]albertite
Albertite is a variety of asphalt found in the Albert Formation in Albert County, New Brunswick, and in a deposit at Dingwall, in the north-east of Scotland. It is a type of solid hydrocarbon.
Albertite has a black colour, a resinous luster, and ...
of New Brunswick, the boghead mineral from Scotland, Trinidad pitch, and petroleum. He visited France and Germany in 1854, 1855, and 1856 for the oil industry. He became superintendent of the Glasgow oil works in Scotland, Geary Miller & Company, where the boghead mineral was being processed under the Scottish chemist James Young. The oils made by Young, known as "Bathgate naphtha", possessed an odor that was disagreeable to most people, resulting in a prejudice against paraffine oils. Atwood succeeded in refining his process to produce an oil that was colorless, odorless and burned in lamp wicks with brilliancy.[
Atwood went to New York in 1858 and became chemist of the Queens County Oil Works at Blissville in Long Island City in New York. In that year Atwood invented the "meerschaum process" for the distillation of coal and patented the "tobacco pipe still" or ]retort
In a chemistry laboratory, a retort is a device used for distillation or dry distillation of substances. It consists of a spherical vessel with a long downward-pointing neck. The liquid to be distilled is placed in the vessel and heated. The ...
. This consisted of an open kiln of masonry, holding from twenty-five to one hundred tons of coal or shale, which was fired from the top. A canal led to a condenser at the bottom. a jet of steam provided a downward draught providing distillation of coal. Another process known as a "cracker patent" was invented by Atwood in 1860. Atwood and his brother William received gold medals from New York state and Pennsylvania. The patents were highly important at first, but became worthless by the development of petroleum oil wells in Pennsylvania.
Atwood became chemist and superintendent of the Union Coal and Oil Company of Maysville, Kentucky
Maysville is a home rule-class city in Mason County, Kentucky, United States and is the seat of Mason County. The population was 8,782 as of 2019, making it the 51st-largest city in Kentucky by population. Maysville is on the Ohio River, north ...
in 1866. This company owned a coal mine at Cannelton, West Virginia. The coal was distilled in retorts at the mine and the crude oil obtained was carried to Maysville. There the crude was refined and lubricating oil was the main product.
Patents
* 1853 â€
"Improvement in preparing lubricating-oils" US9630 A
= "Coup oil"
* 1853 â€
Improvement in processes for purifying alcohol US 9951 A
* 1859 â€
"Improvement in apparatus for destructive distillation" US 23337 A
* 1860 â€
"Improvement in construction of apparatus for the redistillation of coal-oils" US 28246 A
Family
Atwood was married in Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, ...
on 1 January 1857 to Catherine Lucy, daughter of Thomas J. Marsh. They had three children whose names were Charles E., Luther and Isabelle L. Atwood.
Death
Atwood died at Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Cape Elizabeth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The town is part of the Portland– South Portland– Biddeford, Maine, metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 census, Cape Elizabeth had a population of 9,53 ...
on 5 November 1868.
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Atwood, Luther
1820 births
1868 deaths
19th-century American inventors
People from Boston
People from Waltham, Massachusetts
People from Bristol, New Hampshire
People from Belknap County, New Hampshire
Businesspeople from New York City
American chemists
19th-century American businesspeople
American people of English descent
Scientists from New York (state)
Inventors from New Hampshire