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{{Short description|American chemist (1837–1933)}}
{{Refimprove|date=August 2018}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name        = Robert Chesebrough
| image       = Robert Augustus Chesebrough (1837–1933).png
| birth_name  = Robert Augustus Chesebrough
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1837|01|09|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[London]], England
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1933|09|08|1837|01|09|mf=y}}
| death_place = [[Spring Lake, New Jersey]], U.S.
| known_for   = [[Petroleum jelly]]
| spouse      = {{Marriage|Margaret McCredy|April 28, 1864|April 3, 1887|end=d.}}
| children    = 4
| signature   = Signature of Robert Augustus Chesebrough (1837–1933).png
}}

'''Robert Augustus Chesebrough''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|tʃ|iː|z|b|r|ou}};<ref>{{Cite LPD|3}}</ref> January 9, 1837{{dash}}September 8, 1933) was an English-born American chemist who discovered [[petroleum jelly]]—which he marketed as [[Vaseline]]—and founder of the [[Chesebrough Manufacturing Company]].

== Life and career ==
Born in London, England, to American parents on January 9, 1837, Chesebrough was raised in New York City.<ref name=Successful>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924072688090/page/137/mode/1up |title=America's Successful Men of Affairs: An Encyclopedia of Contemporaneous Biography |volume=I |editor-first=Henry |editor-last=Hall |publisher=The New York Tribune Company |pages=137–140 |year=1895 |access-date=2021-12-02 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> He married Margaret McCredy on April 28, 1864, and they had four children.<ref name=Successful/>

Chesebrough began his career as a chemist clarifying lamp oil from [[sperm oil]], a waxy oil found in the heads of [[sperm whales]]. The development of [[coal oil]] and the discovery of [[petroleum]] in [[Titusville, Pennsylvania]], rendered his job obsolete, so he traveled to Titusville to research what new materials might be created from the new fuel. As he was strolling around the oil field, he found out about something called rod wax, also known as [[petroleum jelly]], a jellylike substance that was cleaned off of the pumping equipment often. Chesebrough was told it was a nuisance, except when someone had a cut or burn; they found that if it was rubbed on an injury, then it would lessen the pain and make the injury heal quicker. He then trade-named the jelly as [[Vaseline]]. 

In 1875, he founded the [[Chesebrough Manufacturing Company]], a leading manufacturer of personal-care products. Chesebrough patented the process of making petroleum jelly ({{U.S. Patent|127,568}}) in 1872. By 1874, stores were selling over 1,400 jars of Vaseline a day.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/robert-chesebrough/|title=Robert Chesebrough ate a Spoonful of Vaseline a Day|date=April 5, 2016|website=[[Ripley's Believe It or Not!]]}}</ref>

Chesebrough's success stemmed from a firm belief in his product. Before he began selling petroleum jelly, he tested it on his own cuts and burns. Chesebrough was still unable to sell any to drug stores until he traveled around New York demonstrating his miracle product. In front of an audience, he would burn his skin with acid or an open flame, then spread the clear jelly on his injuries while demonstrating past injuries, healed, he claimed, by his miracle product.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lindsay|first=David|title=House of invention: the secret life of everyday products|url=https://archive.org/details/houseofinvention00lind|url-access=registration|year=2000|publisher=Lyons Press|location=New York, N.Y.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/houseofinvention00lind/page/20 20–21]|isbn=9781558217409}}</ref>  In reality, it doesn't heal cuts and burns, the jelly forms a layer, causing dirt to not get in (one of the leading causes of death and disease in his day were due to open wounds being infected) and trapping the moisture in. To further create demand, he gave out [[Product sample|free samples]], one of the first instances of it ever being done. 

Chesebrough opened his first factory in 1870. The first known reference to the name Vaseline is in his U.S. patent: "I, Robert Chesebrough, have invented a new and useful product from petroleum which I have named 'Vaseline…'" . The word is believed to come from German ''Wasser'' (water) + {{langx|grc|έλαιον}} (''élaion'', oil).<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Vaseline |volume=27 |page=946}}</ref>

Chesebrough lived to be 96 years old and was such a believer in Vaseline that he claimed to have eaten a spoonful of it every day.<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Schwager | first = E. | title = From Petroleum Jelly to Riches | journal = Drug News & Perspectives | volume = 11 | issue = 2 |page=127 | year = 1998 }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> He died at his house in [[Spring Lake, New Jersey]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=lanastl&id=I64060|title= Cheseborough|access-date=7 June 2011}}</ref>  He also, reportedly, during a serious bout of [[pleurisy]] in his mid-90s, had his nurse rub him from head to foot with Vaseline. He soon recovered, and credited his recovery to Vaseline.<ref>{{cite book | last = Moskowitz | first = Milton | author2 = Michael Katz | author3 = Robert Levering | title = Everybody's Business: An Almanac : an Irreverent Guide to Corporate America | publisher = Harper & Row | year = 1980 | page = [https://archive.org/details/everybodysbusine0000unse/page/199 199] | url = https://archive.org/details/everybodysbusine0000unse/page/199 | isbn = 0-06-250620-X }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Wazer |first=Caroline |date=2024-07-04 |title=Vaseline Inventor Ate Spoonful of Petroleum Jelly Every Day? |url=https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/vaseline-inventor-ate-petroleum-jelly-daily/ |access-date=2024-07-11 |website=Snopes |language=en}}</ref> He is buried in [[Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx)|Woodlawn Cemetery]] in [[the Bronx]], New York City.

==See also==
* [[Whitehall Building]], a building developed by Chesebrough in New York City

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* {{Find a Grave|26832968}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chesebrough, Robert}}
[[Category:19th-century American chemists]]
[[Category:19th-century American inventors]]
[[Category:1837 births]]
[[Category:1933 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Spring Lake, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)]]
[[Category:American expatriates in England]]