Chesebrough

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The American chemist who discovered how to refine petroleum jelly, the product later sold under the name Vaseline
2. A nineteenth-century American inventor credited with developing the petroleum jelly that became Vaseline
3. The surname of the American chemist who pioneered the refining of petroleum jelly for use as a skin ointment

Etymology: Chesebrough is a surname, and it belongs to Robert Chesebrough, a chemist who turned an oilfield nuisance into a household product. While visiting the oil fields of Pennsylvania, he noticed workers scraping a waxy residue off the metal rods used to pump crude oil. The workers used it to soothe cuts and burns, and Chesebrough saw promise in it. He refined the substance into a clear, stable jelly and marketed it under the name Vaseline. That name combined the German "Wasser", meaning water, with the Greek "elaion", meaning oil, which reflects the product's petroleum origin. His surname now survives mainly as the name of the company that sold it, Chesebrough-Pond's, a link to the chemist who first saw the value in the residue.