William McGarvey was born in Huntingdon, Quebec, Canada and died in Vienna. The 1866 Canadian breakthrough discovery of oil deposits was also important to McGarvey. The young man first worked as a drilling intern and then opened his own extraction company. In 1881, he travelled to Europe. He opened the most innovative refinery of the time and the famous drilling machinery factory in Glinik Mariampolski. With time, he transformed his company into the Galician-Carpathian Oil Association. McGarvey held shares in numerous Galician companies, which opened successive wells. After 1905, he moved to Vienna and controlled his continuously growing oil empire from there.
Jan Zeh was born in Łańcut and died in Boryslav. In 1830, he started studying pharmacy in Sambir and obtained the title of pharmacy master in 1846 in Vienna. After graduation, he got a job at the Gold Star pharmacy in Lviv. His boss, Piotr Mikolasch, ordered him to work on distilling oil in the pharmacy’s innovative laboratory. In 1848, he was joined by Ignacy Łukasiewicz. The result of their work was the pharmaceutical distillate called Oleum Petrae album. With help from the sheet-metal worker Adam Bratkowski, they managed to light the distillate inside specially made lamps. This was a huge step towards the revolution in the lighting of streets and houses. On 20th March 1853, the window of the Golden Star pharmacy was illuminated with the first oil lamp. In late 1853, Zeh obtained a license for chemical processing of petroleum, which made him the first Galician entrepreneur with such privileges.
Karol Klobassa was born in Drohobych and died in Kraków. He went to study at the Vienna University of Technology. He also studied agronomy at the Agricultural Academy in Hohenheim. Klobassa’s wealth grew considerably thanks to two marriages. His vast orchards provided apples for production of an alcoholic beverage – cider. His breakthrough decision was to let Trzecieski and Łukasiewicz drill on his field in Bóbrka, initially free of charge. Soon, oil became the foundation of his family fortune. Klobassa was also the co-founder of the National Oil Association.