Did you know that the 🌍’s first crude oil mine and oil refinery were established in #Poland? They opened in 1854, in Bóbrka near Krosno, at the initiative of Ignacy Łukasiewicz, 🇵🇱pharmacist and chemist, who did pioneer work on crude oil distillation and possibilities of oil use.

Łukasiewicz invented the kerosene lamp, which lit up the window of his Lviv pharmacy for the first time in 1853. He then donated the lamp to the Lviv hospital to be used in their operating room so that emergency surgeries could be performed at night. The night of the first such surgery, on July 31, 1853, is widely considered the symbolic date of the beginning of not only Polish but also international oil and gas industry.

The lamp, which produced a light corresponding to that of 8 to 10 wax candles, soon revolutionised artificial lighting technology and, in a little more than a decade, became used across the world.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Poland was the third petroleum producer in the world, after only 🇺🇸and 🇷🇺.

The Bóbrka oil mine is still in operation, and the huge building within its premises, from which Łukasiewicz managed his petroleum empire, is now home to the Museum of the Oil and Gas Industry.

#DiscoverPoland

🔎gov.pl/diplomacy/discover-poland

🪔bobrka.pl/en