Robert Edwin Dietz was the American inventor who invented and patented one the first practical kerosene lamps (1859). He appears to have done so independently of Ignacy Lukasiewicz (Poland), who also developed a kerosene lamp in 1853. Earlier, he and his brother had introduced sperm oil lanterns (1845). The introduction of the kerosene lamp accelerated the substitution of kerosene for whale oil in lighting applications in the U.S. The latter fuel had inferior properties for light and had grown more expensive in the mid-nineteenth century due to depletion of whale stocks. The R.E. Dietz Company went on to manufacture hundreds of lantern models, and became a pioneer in the automotive electric lighting industry.