In the 1850s, Robert Chesebrough made his living refining whale oil for lamps.

Then petroleum was struck in Pennsylvania in 1859, and whale oil collapsed almost overnight.

Instead of resisting the shift, Chesebrough traveled to the oil fields to study the new industry. There he noticed workers using a waxy drilling residue, called “rod wax,” on cuts and burns.

He took samples back to Brooklyn, refined the material through distillation and filtration, and in 1870 introduced what he named Vaseline. He trademarked it in 1872.

By the late 19th century, it was selling at roughly one jar per minute in the United States.

A byproduct of an industry that destroyed his first career became the foundation of his second.