Standard Oil and the Kerosene Stove
“New Perfection” kerosene stoves competed with coal and wood-burning stoves in early 20th century rural kitchens.
In the early 1900s, a foundry in Cleveland, Ohio, began manufacturing and selling an alternative to coal or wood-burning cast iron stoves. Thanks to a marketing partnership with Standard Oil Company, millions of rural kitchens would cook with kerosene-burning stoves.
America’s energy future changed after 1859 when a new “coal oil” (kerosene) was refined from petroleum purposefully extracted from wells drilled near Oil Creek, Pennsylvania.
A Cleveland foundry president in 1901 approached John D. Rockefeller about marketing a new, kerosene-fueled alternative to cast iron home stoves like this one.
