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The Development of the Pennsylvania Oil Industry August 26-27, 2009 www.acs.org A National Historic Chemical Landmark The Development of the Pennsylvania Oil Industry August 26-27, 2009 American Chemical Society “Oh, Townsend, oil coming out of the ground, pumping oil out of the earth as you pump water? Nonsense! You’re crazy.” Oil seeps to the surface in many parts Kier claimed his “medicine”— sold in Investors were slow to buy stock of the world, including northwestern 8 oz. jars for 50 cents — cured burns, in the new company until a favorable Pennsylvania. The Seneca tribe, part ulcers, cholera, asthma, indigestion, report written by Benjamin Silliman, of the Iroquois nation, collected seep rheumatism, and blindness. Jr., professor of chemistry at Yale oil for hundreds of years, using it as Kier’s salt wells produced more University, concluded that the company a salve, insect repellent, and tonic. It petroleum than he could sell, so he possessed “a raw material from which, also burned, but was unappealing as a began looking for other uses for it. by simple and not expensive process, lamp oil due to its unpleasant odor and He sent a sample to Professor James [it] may manufacture very valuable smoke. Curtis Booth of the Franklin Institute products.” Candles and whale oil provided most in Philadelphia, later president of the of the artificial light in the decades American Chemical Society, who COLONeL DrAKe before the Civil War. Whale oil was also suggested distilling petroleum for use Col. Edwin Drake is famous for used for lubrication. But demand in lighting. Armed with a drawing drilling the first oil well in 1859. Much intensified — and prices skyrocketed — provided by Booth, Kier built a one- about Drake and his well is accidental. with the development of mechanized barrel, cast-iron still on Seventh Avenue Even his title — Colonel — came not transportation and industrialization. in Pittsburgh and began to sell distilled from military advancement but because This demand fueled the search for new petroleum, which he called “carbon oil,” James Townsend, a bank president and sources of light. for a $1.50 a gallon. one of the oil company backers, thought Europeans called In the 1840s scientists in Britain At the time there was no suitable it lent prestige to Drake and the quest the dark, gooey began producing an illuminant from the lamp in which to burn Kier’s kerosene. for oil. substance Seneca distillation of coal. Dr. Abraham Gesner, He began experimenting with lamp When Drake and Townsend met Oil and found a Canadian geologist, made the first burners to let more air enter, which Drake was in his late 30s, having spent it effective for successful coal oil in North America, allowed the oil to burn more brightly, much of his adult life working for treating sprains using a bituminous mineral found in although it still gave off a disagreeable railroads. Townsend sold Drake $200 and rheumatism. New Brunswick. Gesner called it odor. But the light was clear and the worth of stock — his total life “keroselain” from the Greek for “wax” price reasonable, so Kier built a larger, savings — in the Pennsylvania Rock Oil and “oil,” which soon became kerosene. five-barrel still. Company. Townsend decided to send Others succeeded in removing the the new investor — whose previous SA mueL Kier disagreeable odor by treating oil with railroad work entitled him to free Others tried using petroleum — acids. Still, the utility of using petroleum transportation — to Pennsylvania to originally marketed as a medicine as an illuminant was limited by the dif- secure title to lands for the company — as an illuminant. Seeping petroleum ficulty of getting it out of the ground. and to report on the prospect of plagued salt well operators as it finding oil. frequently came to the surface with THe PeNNSYLvANiA rOCK OiL Drake inspected the oil country and salt brine. At Tarentum, twenty miles COmPANY told Townsend that a fortune could be north of Pittsburgh, Samuel Kier and his In the early 1850s a New York lawyer made in petroleum. Encouraged by this father owned salt wells which produced named George Bissell came across a news, Townsend arranged for the an annoying quantity of oil along with sample of petroleum from Titusville, company to be reconstituted as the the desired brine. Pennsylvania. Bissell noted its Seneca Oil Company with Drake as Kier thought the oil contaminating resemblance to coal oil, and he and largest stockholder and president. The his wells was similar to the “American his partner, Jonathan Eveleth, sent company also hired Drake as general Medicinal Oil” his wife took for a an agent to investigate its source. manager for the princely sum — to him serious illness. Chemical analysis proved The agent gave a favorable report, — of $1,000 a year. In May 1858 Drake the two oils identical, and in 1852 Kier and the two lawyers proceeded to moved to Titusville, did some more started marketing the oil from his organize the Pennsylvania Rock scouting around, and decided to drill wells as “Kier’s Petroleum, or Rock Oil.” Oil Company. a well. A NATIONAL HISTORIC CHEMICAL LANDMARK Grand Ball given by the Whales in honor of the discovery of the Oil Wells in Pennsylvania. (1861) Originally published in Vanity Fair, a 19th century humorous weekly, the cartoon depicts whales giving thanks to Col. Drake for discovering oil, thus easing much of the demamd for whale oil. Drake needed two things to drill: equipment and someone with experience boring into salt wells. The equipment was easy; Drake ordered an engine, built a pump house, and asked Townsend for $1,000 to pay for the supplies. The expert proved more difficult to find. Drake spent several months in 1858-59 trying to find a driller. Potential recruits thought Drake “crazy” to drill for oil. Finally Drake found William Smith, least several hundred feet deeper. The 1873 the Pennsylvania legislature a blacksmith who had made tools for next day, “Uncle Billy” inspected the allotted Drake $1,500 annually. In Samuel Kier and who had done some well and saw fluid at the top of the November 1880, after years of bad drilling. “Uncle Billy” Smith agreed to pipe. Smith realized it was oil. News health and constant pain, Drake work for $2.50 a day, make his own soon spread along Oil Creek and into died poor and a pensioner, never tools, and throw in the services of his Titusville, but Drake did not get the having benefitted from “discovering” 15-year-old son. Smith arrived in word until Monday morning when he oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania, on Titusville in May, 1859, and found that arrived at the well and saw Smith August 27, 1859. Drake’s men had been digging a hole surrounded by barrels, tubs, and jars 150 feet from Oil Creek. of oil. No one realized it at the time, but THe SigNifiCANCe Of Smith discovered that the hole Drake had drilled in the only spot in the PeNNSYLvANiA OiL — located close to the creek and below region where oil could be found at such Swelling production of Pennsylvania oil the level of the stream — kept filling a shallow depth as 69 feet. led to a rapid drop in price, which drove with water. He tried pumping out the many producers out of business but water, with little success. Finally, Drake AfTermATH which also drove consumers away from and Smith obtained cast iron pipe In 1860 wells in northwestern other sources of illumination, allowing which they drove about 32 feet into the Pennsylvania produced several hundred Pennsylvania oil to corner the market. bedrock — past the water — using a thousand barrels and by 1862 produc- The cycle of boom and bust plagued white-oak battering ram. In mid-August tion reached three million barrels. The Pennsylvania oil production until John By the end of Smith began drilling his well with steam nation’s oil bonanza had begun, and D. Rockefeller organized Standard Oil 1859 wells power, through the pipe, averaging huge fortunes would soon be made. and imposed order on the industry in sprouted about three feet a day. But not by Colonel Drake. He failed the 1870s. In the next decade Thomas throughout the The slow progress invited gibes to act quickly to control production and Edison’s light bulb and electrification oil country. Those from the locals. More seriously, the he had not bought much land in the replaced kerosene, threatening the pioneer wells investors decided to pull the plug, with area. In 1860 the Seneca Oil Company dominance of oil. The petroleum produced about Townsend directing Drake to shut down severed its connection to Drake, paying industry would be saved, in turn, by 4,500 barrels operations. Before receiving these him $1,000 for the use of his name on the coming of the automobile and that year. instructions, Drake borrowed $500 oil barrels. the need for gasoline, supplied by locally. The loan allowed him to pay By the end of the Civil War Drake other areas of production, particularly off his creditors and continue work, had lost all his money and his health. Texas and then foreign sources. But though Drake must have feared the end He moved first to Vermont and then to in the latter part of the 19th century, was near. New Jersey because he thought the sea Pennsylvania oil dominated the market, On Saturday, August 27, with the drill might improve his health. In the late pointing the way to America’s eventual at a depth of 69 feet, work stopped. 1860s old acquaintances from the oil reliance on petroleum. Everyone expected to have to drill at industry raised $4,000 for Drake.
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