Not too surprising as Pennsylvania was one of the earliest states for oil production.
^ This.
The earliest well in the US!
While this is true, Titusville - and all the other rock oil wells drilled into the Oil Creek plane, were on the other side of the state. Oil was originally refined there, too, but woefully slow. It had to be transported elsewhere to meet demand. At first, that was Pittsburgh and Cleveland, due to their proximity, but even though those cities were on a river and a lake, getting the finished product out still took too long. Soon Philadelphia emerged as the center for petroleum production because of its location as a major seaport and railroad hub. Oil refineries, storage tanks, and pipelines started popping up everywhere along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. Philly became the home of dozens of oil companies, including the giants, such as Standard, Atlantic, and
Sun.
The
Renuzit can is interesting in that the brand name is probably more well-known for the aerosol-based air freshener spray that has dominated the air freshener market since the 1970's. But its history is also tied to the oil refining and production history in Philly. The spot cleaning fluid was originally produced by the Radbill Oil Co. of Philadelphia. When all the other smalls were being gobbled up or put out of business by the likes of Rockefeller etc, Radbill pivoted to home products in 1932 and eventually changed their name to Renuzit. It didn't save them from monopolization, as they were soon bought by Bristol-Myers, which later merged with Squibb, which was later bought by S.C. Johnson, which became so big, the FTC broke it up and prevented it from buying any more air freshener companies.
Hoppe's is also actually related to oil. Frank A. Hoppe, a Philly native, was a chemist with one of the oil-based paint and varnish companies that were established in Philly because of the petroleum industry. He was also a soldier in the National Guard and a crack shot. (During the Spanish-American War, he was on guard duty at the smokeless powder works of E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co.) One can only imagine how many times he had to clean his M1903 Springfield. Crushing and measuring the Ordnance Dept powders. Mixing it with ammonia. Letting it sit. Letting it sit in the barrel. With a name like “Nitro Power Solvent No. 9,” one can just imagine that there was a No. 1 through No. 8 before it was perfected and TM'ed in 1907!
