Vaseline came from oil workers smearing drilling waste on their wounds.
Robert Chesebrough visited the Pennsylvania oil fields in 1859 and learned that workers rubbed “rod wax” — a residue from drilling rigs — onto cuts and burns. He purified the gunk into a clear jelly and named it Vaseline. To sell it, he toured towns burning and cutting his own skin, then healing it with the jelly.
Vaseline on Brandseum