" In a matter of months, the Canadian physician developed a distinctive process for making illuminating gas from bitumen with coal oil as an intermediary. When he applied for a Nova Scotia patent on his process in June 1849, he used the patent to protect his products’ brand names as well, calling them kerosene and kerosene gas (from keros, Greek for “wax,” and -ene to associate the new products with familiar camphene). "
― Richard Rhodes , Energy: A Human History