Abraham Pineo Gesner
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Abraham Pineo Gesner (1797-1864) was a physician and geologist in Nova Scotia , Canada who in 1854 invented a process for distilling kerosene from coal. This product, also called paraffin, was cheaper than whale oil, and therefore resulted in a reduction in whale hunting.

The original article can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Pineo_Gesner.
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