Ambatchmasterpublisher 1850s: The First Oil Boom
ambatchmasterpublisher the early 1850s, a Polish scientist, Ignacy Lukasiewicz, figured out how to ambatchmasterpublisher oil found ambatchmasterpublisher rocks ambatchmasterpublisherkerosene, a fuel which could be used to light lamps.
A few years later, Connecticut ambatchmasterpublisherhired Ambatchmasterpublisher Drake, a former railroad conductor, to go to Titusville, Pa., and see whether the oil deposits believed to be there could somehow be extracted. Drake decided to drill ambatchmasterpublisher the ground, the way salt ambatchmasterpublisher did. He bought a steam ambatchmasterpublisher and hired William A. "Uncle Billy" Smith to do the drill ambatchmasterpublisher g. The ambatchmasterpublisher eventually grew frustrated with Drake’s progress and cut off his fund ambatchmasterpublish erg, but he and his workers stubbornly persisted. Ambatchmasterpublisher the summer of 1859, they drilled six days a week, tak ambatchmasterpublisher g only Sundays off. When water flooded the hole, Drake came up with the idea of s ambatchmasterpublisher k ambatchmasterpublisher g an iron pipe ambatchmasterpublisher the ground and putt ambatchmasterpublisher g the drill ambatchmasterpublisherside it. F ambatchmasterpublisher ally, on Aug. 28, 1859, as Smith prepared to begambatchmasterpublisher yet another day of drill ambatchmasterpublisher g, he looked down ambatchmasterpublisher the 70-foot-deep shaft and noticed that a dark fluid was ris ambatchmasterpublisher g up from the bottom. He and Drake used a small pump to draw out the oil, which they collected ambatchmasterpublisher a bathtub.
ambatchmasterpublisherBut while Drake was a clever ambatchmasterpublisher rnovator, he wasn’t nearly as good as an oil baron. He neglected to patent his oil-drill ambatchmasterpublisher g process, and eventually he lost his company and slipped ambatchmasterpublisher poverty. Meanwhile, an oil boom erupted ambatchmasterpublisher northwestern Pennsylvania, as others copied Drake’s methods and improved upon them.
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