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.
Ignacy Łukasiewicz was born in Zaduszniki and died in Chorkówka. He is considered as the father of Polish oil industry. In 1848, he started working at Piotr Mikolasch’s pharmacy in Lviv. Łukasiewicz and Zeh used the pharmacy’s laboratory to distil oil and subsequently used the distilled oil in lamps. With assistance from the sheet-metal worker Adam Bratkowski, they developed an oil lamp.The Mikolasch–Zeh–Łukasiewicz partnership (800 Austro-Hungarian guldens contributed by each partner) found a client who purchased 500 kg of oil with oil lamps – a Lviv hospital, which performed the first night operation with light from oil lamps on 31st July 1853. He became a politician and had more influence over the development of the Galician oil industry. He was active in worker protection laws and the construction of new roads and bridges. He also set up welfare funds (illness and accident funds for workers), communal funds (interest-free loans), bathhouses, and childcare centres.