Editing Astral Oil Works (section)

===1884-1890s: Growth, fire, and lawsuits===
By late 1884, Pratt’s new Astral Oil Works in Williamsburg was on [[Bushwick Inlet Park|Bushwick Creek]] in the Eastern District of Brooklyn in Northern Williamsburg.  The main building of the oil company ran from First-street about 300 feet to “the width of the block" from North Twelfth to North Thirteenth street.<ref name=nyt-uncontrolled/> On December 21, 1884, a fire at Astral Oil was first noticed when an explosion shook houses and “broke windows for 300 feet" in front of the new Williamsburg Gas Works along North Twelfth Street.<ref name=nyt-uncontrolled>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=  Oil Tanks in Flames; Blazing Uncontrolled for Fourteen Hours. The Firemen Powerless to Check the Conflagration - Property Worth Over $2,000,000 Destroyed. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1884/12/22/archives/oil-tanks-in-flames-blazing-uncontrolled-for-fourteen-hours-the.html | work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York City, New York, United States |date=December 22, 1884 |access-date=May 13, 2017}}</ref> The tank on North 12th Street then had a body of flames shoot up from two naphtha tanks, each with the quantity of 2,500 barrels of naphtha in them. The fire then spread.<ref name=nyt-uncontrolled/> On December 22, 1884, Pratt's Astral Oil Works in Greenpoint burned down. While the [[naptha]] storage house burned, the tin shop and refinery were saved by firemen. According to Pratt, much of the damages were insured.<ref name=nyt-greenpoint>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=The Fire in the Oil Works; Valuable Plan Saved, and the Loss Not So Great as at First Stated |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1884/12/23/archives/the-fire-in-the-oil-works-valuable-plant-saved-and-the-loss-not-so.html | work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York City, New York, United States |date=December 23, 1884 |access-date=May 13, 2017}}</ref>

On January 22, 1885, Pratt Manufacturing Company of New York filed a bill in equity against the Astral Refining Company of [[Oil City, Pennsylvania|Oil City]] in the US Circuit Court of [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]]. The Pratt Manufacturing Company alleged that the term “Astral” as applied to petroleum was their trademark.<ref name=nyt-suittrade>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Suit About a Trade Mark. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1885/01/23/archives/suit-about-a-trade-mark.html | work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York City, New York, United States |date=January 23, 1885 |access-date=August 15, 2017}}</ref> In April 1886, a case was heard where Pratt Manufacturing Company sued the Astral Refining Company, Limited, to stop the latter from using the words “Astral Oil” as branding with refined petroleum. The case was dismissed.<ref name=trademark>{{cite book |date=1886  |title=The Federal Reporter, Volume 27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HBY4AAAAIAAJ&q=%22Astral+Oil%22+pratt&pg=PA493 |publisher=West Publishing Company |page=498 }}</ref>

Built in 1885–1886 as affordable housing for employees of Astral Oil Works, the [[Astral Apartments]] was a massive brick and [[terra cotta]] building in the [[Queen Anne style architecture in the United States|Queen Anne style]]<ref name=aia>{{cite web|url=http://nyc-architecture.com/GPT/gpt011.htm|title=New York Architecture: The Astral Apartments|access-date=July 1, 2011|publisher=nyc-architecture.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708080201/http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GPT/gpt011.htm|archive-date=July 8, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> featuring a three-story-high round arch recess.<ref name="nrhpinv_ny">{{cite web|url=http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=3245|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration:Astral Apartments|date=July 1981|access-date=February 20, 2011|author=James T. Dillon and Anne B. Covell|publisher=[[New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019040443/http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=3245|archive-date=October 19, 2012|url-status=dead}} ''See also:'' {{cite web|url=http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=3246|title=Accompanying four photos}}</ref>