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Young, James

Lead Author: Cutler J. Cleveland (other articles)
Article Topics: Energy people, Biographies and Energy
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Peter Saundry (other articles)
Last Updated: November 14, 2008


James Young.
James Young.

James Young (1811-1883) was a Scottish inventor who first extracted paraffin from oil-rich shales and coals. He went on to set up a successful industry based on these principles. In 1848, he established an oil refinery at Alfreton, Derbyshire. Then, in 1850, he patented a process for extracting oil from cannel coal. Beginning in 1851, he established refineries in the Lothians, processing cannel-coal and oil shale years before the first American or Middle Eastern oil well was drilled. His patent, in which cannel coal was heated to a specified temperature within an enclosed vessel or "retort" in order to release an oil vapor, was the forerunner of modern oil shale conversion technologies.

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Citation
Cutler J. Cleveland (Lead Author); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor);. 2008. "Young, James." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth January 3, 2007; Last revised November 14, 2008; Retrieved September 1, 2010]<http://www.eoearth.org/article/Young,_James>
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