Ignacy Łukasiewicz – the chemist who set the world on fire
In 1836, the fourteen-year-old Ignacy Łukasiewicz was apprenticed to the pharmacy of Antoni Swoboda in Łańcut. At that time, nobody could even imagine that this ambitious boy would literally light up the future of humankind…
For five years, he studied the secrets of pharmacy and chemistry, also helping to modernise Count Potocki's distillery. After having gained the title of pharmacy assistant in 1841, he moved on – through Rzeszów, pharmacy studies in Lviv up to the laboratory of the pharmacy ‘Pod Gwiazdą’ (‘The Star’s’).
It was there, in 1852, that he and Jan Zeh distilled the first paraffin and a year later constructed an oil lamp. Thus, he not only illuminated the dark streets, but also the future of the world's oil industry.
Who would have thought that it all started in an inconspicuous chemist's shop in Wałowa Street in Łańcut?
