The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | NOVEMBER 2015 25 BUSINESS OPERATIONS I t's difficult to imagine how revolutionary oil heat was when it came on the scene. Wood had provided heat from the campfire in humanity's earliest days, then in the household fireplace. It facilitated cooking with the fireplace spit, then both heat and cooking with the cast iron, wood-burning stove. Then coal came on the scene in the late 1800s. Coal became a competitive then dominant fuel in the United States, for a variety of reasons. For starters, wood was becoming scarcer in many industrialized countries, particularly in non-rural areas. Coal also provided superior energy content and handling compared to wood. The steam-powered transportation sector of the day–marine and rail—quickly adopted coal and helped bring the residential heating market along. While coal was easier to handle, it was more difficult to acquire and had to be mined though various techniques. However, coal itself provided the solution to this challenge when processed onto coke, which fueled the blast furnaces that moved society away from the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age. Industrial Age technology itself allowed for the efficient mining and transporta- tion of coal to national and international markets. This disruptive shift in society resulted in a range of new problems, covered (with some amount of artistic license) by such author/activists as Upton Sinclair, but it led to some dramatic quality of life benefits as well. Cheap, cast iron bed frames moved people off the floor when it was time to go to sleep. Mechanical equipment began to replace hand power for a range of household tasks such as clothes washing. This was only enhanced when com- bined with electricity and electric motors. As part of that advancement, Dave Lennox is credited with revolutionizing home heating in 1885 with the industry's first riveted-steel coal furnace. About the same time boiler-fed radi- ant heating using steam or hot water allowed for more effective heating than relying on natural hot air convection. For all of the advantages these appliances brought, and in com- bination with the advantages of coal as an easier to manipulate fuel source, there were still problems. As with wood, coal required the homeowner to keep the fires burning and handle the resulting ash. Soot was also a common issue in the home, and even in the pre-environmental era coal-based pollution was having a notable quality-of-life impact on urban and industrial areas. As with coal, the transportation sector led the way in the tran- sition to a superior fuel. Although coal would soldier on in rail transport for decades to come, at the start of the 1900s maritime transportation (driven by the navies of the world) quickly saw the advantages of using fuel oil as a substitute for coal. As a fuel, oil had far fewer maintenance requirements. For starters, there was no stoking required to keep an optimal fire burning. Oil was easier to store onboard ship and easier to transfer at sea allowing for enhanced high seas refueling. Oil was also safer. Smoldering coal bunker fires were all too common, as was the explosion of coal dust. Oil also provided more energy per pound. These same advantages found their appeal in the household, though as with the shift to coal it would take some time for home heating oil to become widespread. The First World War would set the stage for the transition, and even the Ford Model T would play a role. The internal combus- tion engine was finally starting to see applications beyond the novelty stage with the Ford Model T of 1910—the first practical and affordable automo- bile. World War I would be the first heavily mech- anized war. Wartime oil production and refining and post-war automobile sales continued the expansion of a thriving oil industry. The 1920s saw the rise of the household oil burner, facilitated by innovative controls from Honeywell. At the same time, more automated coal systems were introduced to lower some of the maintenance issues, but too few problems were solved to offset the advantages of oil heating. Oil heating began to find its way into new construction as well as in retrofits of existing coal boilers. Fuel Oil News came about in response to this growing mar- ket. It was launched in 1935 by Curtis C. Klinger. The concept of Fuel Oil News actually goes back further, since it was originally a supplement (dubbed Oil Burner News) to another magazine called The Oil Marketer. Klinger sold advertising for the maga- zines published by Oil-dom Publishing Co. in Bayonne, N.J., the company headed by his father, Oliver. After his father passed away, Curtis' brother, Oliver, Jr., took over as head of the company, but Curtis continued as publisher of Fuel Oil News. Eventually, Oil-dom Publishing was dissolved, but Fuel Oil News continued under Curtis' leadership as a separate entity. In the 1970's, Curtis, Jr. joined his father and helped run it until it was sold to Hunter Publishing in 1983. Curtis, Sr. retired at that time from the active management of Fuel Oil News, but continued to represent the magazine at conventions and trade shows for several years. Jack Klinger, Curtis Sr.'s son, spoke with FON about how he magazine came into being. "When Fuel Oil News started my father was actually going to Columbia University," said Klinger. "My grandfather had his magazine established and my father said why don't we start a magazine for the fuel oil market? It seemed like a good idea. They had offices in Texas and Chicago and Bayonne, N.J. And that summer my father went out and started selling space in the magazine and it got going." He also recalled his experiences growing up around the maga- zine in the 1960s. "I can remember going in the office when I was nine or 10 years old and stuffing envelopes, and I remember the old linotype machines. My cousin Warren had the ability to Curtis Klinger Sr. and Mary Grant Klinger