Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 99 Part 1.djvu/518

 99 STAT. 496

PUBLIC LAW 99-118—OCT. 7, 1985 Public Law 99-118 99th Congress Joint Resolution

Oct. 7, 1985 rq J Tj—iT^T~

To designate 1985 as the "Oil Heat Centennial Year".

Whereas, on August 11, 1885, the United States Patent Office granted a patent to David H. Burrell of Little Falls, New York, for a furnace that could burn liquid and gaseous fuels, which patent is generally regarded by technical experts and industrial historians as the first technically sound oil burner; Whereas at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 oil burners, for the first time, were utilized in major public exhibit buildings, and these oil burners were hailed and recognized as a technological combustion breakthrough by most, but were condemned as "instruments of Satan that brought the fires of hell to Earth" by some; Whereas, by World War I, the oil burner had become the premier naval source of propulsion; its technology was sought and adopted by Russia, Germeiny, Great Britain, France, and the United States to power large warships, especially superdreadnoughts and battle cruisers; and oil burning techniques and oilfield locations became a major source of naval espionage; Whereas oil burner technology was adopted to the heating needs of homes, businesses, and industry in the decades that followed World War I, increasing from about twelve thousand installations in 1920 to two million in 1940 to about ten million in 1960 to more than fifteen million in the 1970's, helping to generate improved housing for all Americans and the industrial boom that powered post-World War II America; Whereas the oil burner continues to be a major, modern heating technology used by millions of consumers in the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and the District of Columbia; Whereas the oil heat industry is, and always has been, developed and characterized by a large and diverse group of competitive small businesses, many of which are family owned through a second, third, and fourth generation that began in their business endeavors by supplying ice, lumber, coal, and then oil, to their communities; Whereas many of these small businesses are in the forefront of new energy efficient technologies of the 1980's, leading the way toward higher efficiency oil heat, new conservation techniques, solar heating, and other technologies; and

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