Drake. Edwin

In the United States, the first commercial petroleum deposit was discovered in 1859 near Titusville in western Pennsylvania when Edwin Drake and Bill Smith struck oil in their first shallow (—20 m) well. The well yielded some 400 gallons of oil per day (about 10 barrels). 

The United States became the world s first producer of deep crude oil from an oil well when in 1859 Colonel Edwin Drake successfully used a pipe drilled into the ground to obtain oil. From then until about 1970, the United States was virtually energy-independent with only some oil and gas imports from Mexico and Canada. Wliile U.S. reserves of coal, natural gas and uranium continue to be large enough to supply internal demand with enough left over to export, the supply of oil took a sharp turn downward. After 1970, even while U.S. demand continued to increase at a steep 6.5 percent per year, the supply of U.S. oil began to decline, necessitating sharp increases in U.S. oil imports. 

Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in Pennsylvania in 1859 to use extracted oil as a substitute for whale oil—the main lighting source and feedstock for consumer and chemical products then. This resource was hazardous to get and dwindling due to heavy exploitation, as it happens currently with oil. Petroleum presented many advantages over whale oil and solved a great deal of ecological and resource security problems associated with the old resource. Nevertheless, after a century and a half of use, petroleum has created new problems related to environmental pollution and energy security [1]. 

Petroleum—a natural mineral oil—was referred to as early as in the Old Testament. The word petroleum means rock oil [from the Greek petros (rock) and elaion (oil)]. It had been found over the centuries seeping out of the ground, for example, in the Los Angeles basin (practically next door to where this review is written) and what are now the La Brea Tar Pits. Vast deposits were found in varied places ranging from Europe, to Asia, to the Americas, and to Africa. In the United States the first commercial petroleum deposit was discovered in 1859 near Titusville in western Pennsylvania when Edwin Drake and Billy Smith struck oil in their first shallow ( 20-m-deep) well.6 The well yielded 400 gallons (gal) of oil a day (about 10 barrels). The area was known before to contain petroleum that residents... 

Fig. 11. Colonel Edwin Drake (right) and Peter Wilson, a druggist who endorsed a 500 bank loan for Drake, confer in front of the world s first commercial oil well near Titusville. Pennsylvania. Initially. Drake rigged a large wheel powered by steam to raise and lower a cable and iron bit. Later connected to a crude drill pipe and pump, this well produced about 35 barrels a day. (ca. 1861)...

Edwin Drake completes the fust successful well drilled in llie search for oil al Titusville, Pennsylvania, striking oil at 69j feet. By the start of the 20th century, crude oil andVor natural gas were being produced in 20 states, in 1984, 33 of the 50 stales liaxl some oil or gas production. 

Throughout human history, people have collected petroleum to burn in lamps to provide light. They found petroleum seeping from cracks in rocks in certain locations. In fact, the word petroleum literally means "rock oil" and is derived from the Latin words for rock petra) and oil oleum). In the 19th century, as the U.S. entered the machine age and its population increased, the demand for petroleum to produce kerosene for lighting and as a machine lubricant also increased. Because there was no reliable petroleum supply, Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in the United States near Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. The oil industry flourished for a time, but when Edison introduced the electric light in 1882, investors feared that the industry was doomed. However, the invention of the automobile in the 1890s soon revived the industry on a massive scale. 

In North America, Colonel Edwin H. Drake drilled a well to about 19 m (60 ft) in depth at Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859, where he struck oil. This well initially produced about 20 barrels/day. Some historical accounts of the development of the North American petroleum industry credit this event as the first crude oil production from a well [5]. More comprehensive accounts also describe the activity of James M. Williams in Canada at about the same time. 

Although both are closely linked in our minds and by our own experience, the petroleum industry predated the automobile industry by half a century. The first oil well, drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania, by Edwin Drake in 1859, provided rock oil, as it was then called, on a large scale. This was quickly followed by the development of a process to refine it so as to produce kerosene. As a fuel for oil lamps, kerosene burned with a bright, clean flame and soon replaced the more expensive whale oil then in use. Other oil fields were discovered, and uses for other petroleum products were found—illuminating gas lit city streets, and oil heated homes and powered locomotives. There were oil refineries long before there were automobiles. By the time the first Model T rolled off Henry Ford s assembly line in 1908, John D. Rockefeller s Standard Oil holdings had already made him one of the half-dozen wealthiest people in the world. 

The petroleum era began when the demand for lamp oil during the Industrial Revolution outstripped the traditional sources animal fats and whale oil. In response to this increased demand, Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in 1859 at Titusville, Pennsylvania. The petroleum from this well was refined to produce kerosene (fraction CiQ-Cig), which... 

One great source of the basic organic substances needed to produce the new synthetics in the huge quantities required was petroleum. This fluid had been known since ancient times, but use of it in quantity had to await development of a technique for tapping the vast subterranean pools. Edwin Laurentine Drake (1819-80), an American inventor, was the first to drill for oil, in 1859. In the century since Drake, petroleum, as everyone knows, has become the prime ingredient of our society—the principal source of organics, of heat for our homes, and of power for moving objects, from airplanes and automobiles down to scooters and lawn mowers. 

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