Wax research was established as a scientific discipline in 1823. It became part of the new research area of soaps, oils, fats, and waxes. The real breakthrough of wax as an important raw material, in terms of quantity as well, occurred at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Ozocerite (fossil wax) was mined and refined to give ceresin (1875), Montan wax was obtained from Eocene lignite (1897), and paraffin waxes were obtained from crude petroleum. In 1935 the first fully synthetic waxes were produced by the Fischer ? Tropsch process. Polyethylene wax has been synthesized by the high pressure process since 1939, and became available by the low-pressure Ziegler process after 1953. On a laboratory scale polyolefin waxes can also be synthesized by using modern metallocene catalysts.