James Paraffin Young
There he fell under the spell of the Professor of Chemistry, Thomas Graham, himself
a Glaswegian and one of the most distinguished scientists of his day. Graham's
"Laws of Diffusion" besides being an important milestone in physical chemistry had
many practical applications, including the modern day artificial kidney machine.
He recognised Young's ability and within two years appointed him his assistant and
when later Graham was appointed Master of the Mint he took Young south with him.
It is said that when Young left his class presented him with a gold watch and a
testimonial, so they must have recognised his worth too.
During his time at the Andersonian, Young made many friends among his fellow students,
including David Livingstone who was studying medicine there. it was one of these
friends, Lyon Playfair, who later as Professor of Chemistry at the Royal college
of mines, drew young's attention to a spring if naphtha that had been discovered on his
brother-in-law's estate at Alfreton in Derbyshire;"It yields about 300 gallons daily.
It has the consistency of thin treacle and with one distillation it gives a clear
colourless liquid of brilliant illuminating power." Playfair had advised his brother-in
-law not to develop this product "since it is foreign to your occupation."
To Young however he wrote, "Perhaps you could make a capital out of this industry.."
young could, and did.
Since his employers -- Tenants -- were not interested (it was too small an enterprise
fir them) he formed a company himself, brought the yield from the spring, and produced
illuminating oil and lubricants for the neighbouring Manchester cotton mills.
It was during this period that another friend of his Andersonian days, Hugh Bartholemew,
manager of the Glasgow Gas Works, drew his attention to "cannel coal" (from the Gaelic
"conneal" -- a candle) which had for long been used in little braziers by the people of Armadale and Bathgate to provide light in their houses.
Young found that cannel gave a better yield of paraffin than any other type of coal
and in 1851, at Whiteside near Bathgate, he established his commercial oil works.
Later he turned to oil shale.
The first products were lubricants and naphtha which was used as a solvent for rubber
and for paint manufacture. Later paraffin oil and solid paraffin were added to
added to the list.
Companies were springing up like mushrooms all under licence to Young. At its peak
the shale oil industry was employing some 13,000 men in West Lothian and producing
lamp oils, power oil, lighthouse oil, candles, sulphate of ammonia, and later, fuel
oil (for furnaces and diesel engines) and even petrol - "Ross Petrol - the Best and Most
Economical Motor Spirit in the Market - and it is home-made by James Ross & Co.,
Philipstoun Oil Works, Linlithgow."
Throughout the area the mining and manufacturing of products at 120 works were responsible
for the employment of 40,000 people. More than three million tons of shale were
being turned out every year. The bings are still there to be seen though some of
the shale was used recently in the construction of the M8.
But it was not only in West Lothian that Young's interests lay. In 1859 he went
to America to collect his royalties. While there he visited the great Drake oil
well in Pennsylvania which was ushering in the petroleum age which was soon to cast
a shadow over the shale industry. The number of plants in West Lothian was reduced to 30
by 1873 and to 13 by 1905. The last of the shale mines was closed by Manny Shinwell
in 1962.
When Young retired in 1870 he was a very wealthy man. He had kept in touch with
David Livingstone who had visited him often at his home Limefield near West Calder.
A sycamore tree which Livingstone planted there in 1864 is still flourishing in
the grounds of Limefield which is now an old peoples's home; there too one can see the "Victoria
Falls" which Young had constructed on the little river which runs through the estate.
(Limefield is no longer an old people's home - They had move to new premises Limecroft
in Dedridge, Livingston)
But he did much more than that. He financed many of Livingstone's journeys in Africa
and any debt incurred by him in Africa, whether for the purchase of freedom slaves
from Arab traders or for goods from Portuguese merchants, was honoured by Young.
He contributed 1000 pounds towards the last Zambesi trip and he financed an expedition
to Africa under Lieutenant Grandy to locate Livingstone; but he was too late to
find him alive.
He made provision for Mrs. Livingstone and the children and arranged that the bearers
who had carried his body to the coast should be brought to London and given a place
of honour in the funeral procession. He continued to finance the anti-slavery
movement.
In 1873 Young was elected a Fellow of Royal Society and in 1879 he was awarded an
Honorary LI.D of St. Andrews University.
James Young died at his home Kelly, near Wemyss Bay, on May 13 1883, and was buried
at Inverkip. He was a warm-hearted, generous man. The statues of his old professor,
Thomas Graham, and of his fellow student, David Livingstone, which stand respectively in George Square, Glasgow, and at Glasgow Cathedral, were erected by him. He endowed
the Young Chair of Technical Chemistry in his old university where it still flourishes
today.
There are no statues to James Young the world's first oil man but there is a very
good oil shale museum, much of it devoted to him, at the BP works at Grangemouth.
From there it is possible to follow the James Young trail (which is a joint BP
and Lothian Regional Council venture) by car into the heart of the shale oil country.
Bill Flecter id Professor of Biology at Strathclyde University and contributes profiles
of "Great Scots" to Radio Scotland's "Leisure Trail".