The Designer’s Stamp

 

Abraham Gessner, who gave Kerosene to the world, holding an illuminated Kerosene lamp and sample of the product; 17 Mar 2000 issue
  

In early days of civilization, people didn’t have any convenient source of light after sunset. Wax candles were alternative to animal fats and vegetable oils which were used to burn lamps.

Wax candles for illumination

Whale oil was the first choice for lamps till 1840s. 

Whale oil was source of light, at some point of time

Camphine, appeared in the market in 1935 as 'Burning Fluid'. It was manufactured by a distillation process using turpentine along with quicklime. But the fuel was flammable and several cases were reported when lamps had exploded killing innocent people. Kerosene or Coal oil was produced in 1846. Kerosene from crude petroleum oil was produced only in 1853.

Kerosene lamps of yesteryear

According to Professor Bill Kovarik of Carnegie Mellon University the estimated prices in 1850 were as follows:

Sr.	Fuel	Cost	Remarks
1	Camphine (Burning fluid)	50 cents/ gallon	Bright, sweet smelling
2	Whale oil	$1.30 - $2.50 /gallon
3	Lard oil	90 cents/ gallon	Low quality, smelly
4	Kerosene (Coal oil)	50 cents/ gallon	Sooty, smelly, low quality
5	Kerosene (Petroleum)	60 cents/ gallon	From crude oil in 1960s

Source: Wikipedia

On 27 mar 1855, Abraham Gesner was honored with award of patent  for production of Kerosene. According to the U.S. Patent Office Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents, Volume 1, patent no. 12,612 was granted to him for this discovery.

The patent of Abraham Gesner states

“I have invented and discovered a new and useful manufacture or composition of matter, being a new liquid hydrocarbon, which I denominate Kerosene.”

Since this new lighting liquid was extracted from coal, it was called “coal oil” as well “kerosene”. It had several advantages viz. cheap, customer friendly etc.

His discovery provided relief to thousands of whales which were killed every year by the whalers for their fat as that was used for illumination purpose. At the same breath, it put a nail in the coffin of whaling industry which was a flourishing trade for killing whales, selling their fat and flesh, at that point of time. Whaling industry was stopped in the late 1980s due to several reasons. The drop in demand of whale oil for lighting purpose was one of the reasons.

Whales - various species

On 10 Sept 1958, the then Post Office Department of Canada (present day Canada Post) had issued a postage stamp of 5 Cents to commemorate the 100th anniversary (1858-1958) of development of oil industry in Canada. It was printed by Canadian Bank Note Company Ltd., and total 24,660,000 number of stamp were printed. It is cataloged as Scott No. 381.

Petroleum industry centenary in Canada

It was a recognition of the works of Abraham Pineo Gesner and James Miller Williams who had contributed in the beginning and the initial growth of petroleum industry in Canada and also in whole world. Abraham was from Nova Scotia and he developed a distillation process of production of kerosene in 1846 from bituminous sources which provided mankind a new source for lighting. He named the product as "keroselain" by amalgamation of two Greek words for wax and oil. He subsequently, simplified the name to kerosene.

James, on the other hand, commenced first commercial production of oil at Oil Springs, Ontario during 1858-59. He founded Canadian Oil Company.

This stamp was released when Canada was hosting World Power Conference (07-11 Sept 1958) in Montreal. A total 52 countries had participated in the conference and number of delegates exceeded 1700.

The dimension of the stamp was only 1.25 inches X 1 inch. The history of 100 years of development of oil industry in Canada was captured within that small enclosure. There were sketches of an oil refinery and kerosene lamp in the stamp. There were two droplets of oil. A kerosene lamp in green colour was placed inside one droplet on the left hand side of the stamp and an oil refinery in red colour was shown within an oil droplet on the right side. Near the base of the refinery, there was a small 'P' which can be seen under a magnifying glass. One wonders what is the mystery of this P?

 

'P' for Petroleum or ?

It was the mark of Alan L. Pollock, the person who had designed the stamp. He was a renowned stamp designer from Toronto. Donald J. Mitchell was credited for the picture and lettering.

As philatelist, we always appreciate the beauty of the stamp for its design, colour, print etc. But rarely we give due credit to the designer of the stamp. Rarely a stamp carries the signature or identity of the designer. In that sense, it was one of the rarest design of a stamp where designer was allowed to put his initial. Thus, in the world of philately can we call this humble stamp as Designer’s Stamp?

*****************

This story was published in Ananthapuri Stamp Bulletin (Oct 2020). Scanned copies of related pages are given below:

Cover page of the stamp bulletin

Disclaimer:

The information provided in the article is for general informational purposes only. All information is provided in good faith. This is only for the sharing of knowledge of Philately with philatelist fraternity. No commercial angle, whatsoever, is involved.

Under no circumstances I shall have any liability for reliance on any information provided in the story.

.

.

.

#philatelist #philately #stamps #philatelic #stamp #postagestamps #philategram #stampcollection #stampcollecting #filatelia #briefmarken #stampcollector #timbre #stampswap #snailmail #postzegels #francobolli #postcrossing #stampscollection #oldstamps #francobollo #filateli #vintagestamps #worldstamps #postage #filatelie #philatelie #happymail #sellos #stampscollection #stamps #philately #stamp #stampcollection #philatelic #postagestamps #timbre #philatelist #swap #filatelia #postcard #stampsforsale #worldstamps #philategram #postcrossing #stampcollecting #stampcollector #filateli #stampshop #stampswap #briefmarke #briefmarken #postcards #snailmail #perangko #francobolli #postage #stampscollecting