Wolf's Head is a brand of motor oil. The company that first manufactured Wolf's Head was founded in Reno, Pennsylvania in 1879, when crude oil was being distilled into lamp oil. The company later began producing engine lubrications and numerous blends of motor oil. [1] Advertising slogans have been "Finest of the Fine Since 1879" [2] and "Run With the Wolf." [3] Amalie Oil Company of Tampa, Florida now owns the rights to the brand name.
A. L. Confer (1843 - 1928) [4] was a railroad station agent in Reno, Pennsylvania, which is in the Oil Region. Confer decided to become an oil broker, and in 1879 he set up a primitive oil refining "still" in Reno. On the side of the still was a sign reading The Empire Oil Works. [1]
By carefully controlling temperatures in the heating and cooling process Confer produced a better quality of illuminating oil (later known as kerosene) for use in oil lamps. Only a small portion of crude oil was used in making kerosene, so Confer experimented on the formerly-wasted oil by-products and produced steam engine lubrication. [1] In 1885 he formed The Empire Oil & Grease Company. [5]
The company grew, with oil refineries in Reno, Pennsylvania [1] and offices in Oil City, Pennsylvania. [6]
For a brief time the company refined gasoline, but decided to concentrate on lubricants and motor oil. Special blends of motor oil were manufactured for automobiles, outboard motor boat engines, and airplanes. During World War II the engines for Flying Fortresses were broken in on Wolf's Head oil. [1] During the decades when Wolf's Head oil was refined in Reno only Pennsylvania crude oil was used. [7]
When A. L. Confer had one small oil distillery tank he informally called his operation The Empire Oil Works, [1] and in 1885 he formed The Empire Oil & Grease Company. Then in 1925 he reverted the name back to Empire Oil Works, Inc. [5]
C. H. Ellingwood, who had organized The Wolverine Lubricants Company, joined The Empire Oil Works in 1911, [1] and in 1929 the business name become the Wolverine-Empire Oil Refining Company. The final name change was in 1940, when the company became Wolf's Head Oil Refining Company. [8]
In January 1963 Pennzoil purchased 76% of the Wolf's Head Oil Refining Company, [9] and by August of that year they owned 99.56% of Wolf's Head common stock. [10]
In 2002 Shell Oil acquired Pennzoil-Quaker State, [11] and in 2006 Shell Oil sold Amalie Oil Company the rights to the Wolf's Head brand. [12]
Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from Greek: κηρός (keros) meaning "wax", and was registered as a trademark by Canadian geologist and inventor Abraham Gesner in 1854 before evolving into a generic trademark. It is sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage. The term kerosene is common in much of Argentina, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, and the United States, while the term paraffin is used in Chile, eastern Africa, South Africa, Norway, and in the United Kingdom. The term lamp oil, or the equivalent in the local languages, is common in the majority of Asia and the Southeastern United States. Liquid paraffin is a more viscous and highly refined product which is used as a laxative. Paraffin wax is a waxy solid extracted from petroleum.
A lubricant is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, transporting foreign particles, or heating or cooling the surfaces. The property of reducing friction is known as lubricity.
Oil is any of a number of nonpolar, hydrophobic, and viscous liquids.
Venango County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 50,454. Its county seat is Franklin. The county was created in 1800 and later organized in 1805.
Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is any one of various substances used for the lubrication of internal combustion engines. They typically consist of base oils enhanced with various additives, particularly antiwear additives, detergents, dispersants, and, for multi-grade oils, viscosity index improvers. The main function of motor oil is to reduce friction and wear on moving parts and to clean the engine from sludge and varnish (detergents). It also neutralizes acids that originate from fuel and from oxidation of the lubricant (detergents), improves sealing of piston rings, and cools the engine by carrying heat away from moving parts.
Synthetic oil is a lubricant consisting of chemical compounds that are artificially modified or synthesised. Synthetic lubricants can be manufactured using chemically modified petroleum components rather than whole crude oil, but can also be synthesized from other raw materials. The base material, however, is still overwhelmingly crude oil that is distilled and then modified physically and chemically. The actual synthesis process and composition of additives is generally a commercial trade secret and will vary among producers.
Petroleum products are materials derived from crude oil (petroleum) as it is processed in oil refineries. Unlike petrochemicals, which are a collection of well-defined usually pure organic compounds, petroleum products are complex mixtures. Most petroleum is converted into petroleum products, which include several classes of fuels.
Pennsylvania Grade Crude Oil is a type of sweet crude oil, found primarily in the Appalachian basin in the Marcellus Formation in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, and takes its name for the state of Pennsylvania, where it was first extracted in 1859 from the Drake Well.
AMSOIL Inc. is an American corporation based in Superior, Wisconsin that primarily formulates and packages synthetic lubricants, fuel additives, and filters. Company founder Albert J. Amatuzio developed several synthetic motor oil formulations throughout the mid-to-late 1960s. He was commercially selling synthetic motor oil by 1968. In 1972, AMSOIL 10W-40 Synthetic Motor Oil became the world's first synthetic motor oil to meet American Petroleum Institute requirements, which prompted the company to adopt "The First in Synthetics®" as its tagline. The company introduced several other synthetic lubricants that represented industry firsts throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. It distributes products in North America via a network of independent dealers paid commissions through a Multi-level marketing (MLM) business model.
Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P. is a publicly traded U.S.-based company that was incorporated in 1919. It specializes in the manufacture of lubricating oils, solvents, waxes, packaged and synthetic specialty products, fuels and fuel-related products. The company operates 12 production, blending, and packaging facilities across North America. This includes locations in Princeton, Cotton Valley, and Shreveport, Louisiana; Burnham, Illinois; Dickinson, Texas; Muncie, Indiana; and Karns City, Pennsylvania. Calumet's specialized hydrocarbon products are distributed around the world to approximately 2,700 global customers.
Pennzoil is an American motor oil brand currently owned by Shell plc. The former Pennzoil Company had been established in 1913 in Pennsylvania, being active in business as an independent firm until it was acquired by Shell in 2002, becoming a brand of the conglomerate.
Vacuum Oil Company was an American oil company known for its Gargoyle 600-W steam cylinder motor oil. After being taken over by the original Standard Oil Company and then becoming independent again, in 1931 Vacuum Oil merged with the Standard Oil Company of New York to form Socony-Vacuum, later renamed to Mobil and eventually merging with Standard Oil of New Jersey to form ExxonMobil in 1999.
While the local use of oil goes back many centuries, the modern petroleum industry along with its outputs and modern applications are of a recent origin. Petroleum's status as a key component of politics, society, and technology has its roots in the coal and kerosene industry of the late 19th century. One of the earliest instances of this is the refining of paraffin from crude oil. Abraham Gesner, developed a process to refine a liquid fuel from coal, bitumen and oil shale, it burned more cleanly and was cheaper than whale oil. James Young in 1847 noticed a natural petroleum seepage when he distilled a light thin oil suitable for use as lamp oil, at the same time obtaining a thicker oil suitable for lubricating machinery. The world's first refineries and modern oil wells were established in the mid-19th century. While petroleum industries developed in several countries during the nineteenth century, the two giants were the United States and the Russian Empire, specifically that part of it that today forms the territory of independent Azerbaijan. Together, these two countries produced 97% of the world's oil over the course of the nineteenth century.
The United Refining Company (URC) is an oil company in Warren, Pennsylvania. The company operates an oil refinery in Warren that can process 70,000 barrels of oil into gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum distillates per day. It distributes gasoline under the Kwik Fill and Keystone brands. In early 2019, the American Automobile Association noted that Warren had the most expensive gasoline in Western Pennsylvania, despite the presence of the refinery in the town and a gasoline station just outside the refinery, the root cause of which remains undetermined.
The BPRefinery (Kent) was an oil refinery on the Isle of Grain in Kent. It was commissioned in 1953 and had a maximum processing capacity of 11 million tonnes of crude oil per year. It was decommissioned in August 1982.
Automotive oil recycling involves the recycling of used oils and the creation of new products from the recycled oils, and includes the recycling of motor oil and hydraulic oil. Oil recycling also benefits the environment: increased opportunities for consumers to recycle oil lessens the likelihood of used oil being dumped on lands and in waterways. For example, one gallon of motor oil dumped into waterways has the potential to pollute one million gallons of water.
Quaker State is an American brand of motor oil produced by Shell, the US-based division of Shell plc since 2002, when Shell Oil Co. acquired Pennzoil-Quaker State Co. for $1.8 billion in cash and $1.1 billion in debt.
The Chevrolet Indy V6 engine is a 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged, V-6 racing engine, developed and produced by Ilmor Engineering-Chevrolet for the IndyCar Series. Chevrolet has been a highly successful IndyCar Series engine supplier since 2012, scoring 100 IndyCar wins, 35 pole positions, 7 IndyCar Series driver's titles and 7 IndyCar Series manufacturer's titles. On November 12, 2010, Chevrolet confirmed their return to the IndyCar Series 2012 season after 6-year absence. They design, develop, and assemble the twin-turbo V6 Chevrolet IndyCar engine in partnership with Ilmor Engineering, and supply engines to A. J. Foyt Enterprises, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, Harding Racing, Juncos Racing, Lazier Partners Racing, and Team Penske teams.
Amalie Oil Company is an American company that manufactures various weights of motor oil, synthetic oil, transmission fluid, and other automotive fluids. The company was founded in Franklin, Pennsylvania, in 1903, giving rise to its current slogan "Better than it has to be... Since 1903."
John Wilson Fell (1862–1955) was an industrialist involved in the shale oil operations at Newnes, New South Wales and the establishment of two early oil refineries, on Gore Bay at Greenwich and at Clyde, both suburbs of Sydney. He was the principal of John Fell & Company and was, for many years, the Managing Director of Commonwealth Oil Corporation, which he revived from receivership.