We Can Thank Vaseline For Our Soft Lips
We didn’t always have Vaseline, and it wasn’t until the 1850s that an accidental discovery made it happen. Robert Chesebrough was in an oil well in Pennsylvania, investigating the surroundings. There was a rumor going around of a substance called “rod wax” that happened to gunk up their machinery.
Various workers had been using this gunk to soothe the cuts and burns on their skin. To test it out, he took it home to conduct several tests. Soon enough, he developed Vaseline, also known as petroleum jelly. Conducting tests on ourselves with an unknown substance sounds risky. But I’m sure we’re all happy for this risky experiment (Interesting Engineering).