Chesebrough Manufacturing Company Chesebrough Manufacturing Company Chesebrough Manufacturing Company was an oil business which produced petroleum jelly or Vaseline, which was marketed with the brand name Luxor. It was founded in 1859. Robert Augustus Chesebrough, a chemist who started the company, was interested in marketing oil products for medicinal needs. He produced the first petroleum jelly by refining rod wax through the use of heat and filtration. He named Vaseline from the German language word for water ("Wasser") and the Greek language word for oil ("olion"). Vaseline was patented in the United States in 1872 and England in 1877. In 1870, Robert Chesebrough
What Is a Nation? What Is a Nation? "What is a Nation?" ("Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?") is an 1882 lecture by French historian Ernest Renan (1823–1892), known for the statements that a nation is "a daily referendum", and that nations are based as much on what the people jointly forget, as what they remember. It is frequently quoted or anthologized in works of history or political science pertaining to nationalism and national identity. Renan wrote "What is a Nation" in order to symbolize the nationalism which was born in France as a result of the French Revolution of 1789. Renan begins his essay by noting