Proclamation 5384—Oil Heat Centennial Year, 1985

It was just 100 years ago that American ingenuity developed oil heat as a practical reality. On August 11, 1885, the Patent Office granted to David H. Burrell of Little Falls, New York, a patent for the first technically sound oil burner—a furnace that could burn liquid and gaseous fuels. By 1893 oil burners were used for the first time in major public exhibit buildings at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. By the 1970s oil burner technology had been adapted to the heating needs of more than 15 million Americans, providing comfort for homes, schools, businesses, and factories.

There is hardly an area of the Nation where this great resource has not been a critical development factor. The oil heat industry is, and always has been, made up of a large and diverse group of competitive small businesses, many of which are in the forefront of the new energy-efficient technologies of the 1980s. They are helping develop higher-efficiency oil heat, new conservation techniques, solar heating, and other technologies.

In recognition of the many thousands of men and women who have contributed to this important industry in our Nation over the past 100 years, the Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 115, has designated 1985 as "Oil Heat Centennial Year" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation to commemorate this event.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim 1985 as Oil Heat Centennial Year. I call upon the people of the United States to observe the occasion with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand this ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and tenth.

RONALD REAGAN