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Lucesco Cannel Oil Refinery,
Allegheny Township, 1858
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The Lucesco oil refinery was an oil-manufacturing establishment making cannel coal oil, and was started in 1858 by Dr. Alter and others of Freeport. It employed a hundred and fifty men, and built thirty houses near its works, a few hundred yards south of the Western Pennsylvania Railroad Junction. It was operated a few years, when the discovery of petroleum oil at Oil City by Dr. Drake caused its abandonment, as it could not compete with the newly-discovered petroleum.
Dr. David Alter
Cannel Oil: Oil refined from bituminous coal which burns brightly like a
candle--thus, cannel coal and cannel oil.
Western Pennsylvania Railroad Junction: Also known as Kiskiminetas Junction,
it is located where the Kiskiminetas River flows into the Allegheny.
The refinery is about one quarter mile south of the confluence, opposite Freeport, Pennsylvania.
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