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The First Oil Well

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The First Oil Well OIL INDU8TB'Y CENTENNIAL The First Oil Well PARKE A. DICKEY CREOlE PETROLEUM CORP. MEMBER AIME MARACAIBO, VENEZUELA Abstract depth of 69 ft. (Fig. 1). The well produced about 10 BID. Land along the creek valleys was quickly leased and drill­ Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/JPT/article-pdf/11/01/14/2237157/spe-1195-g.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 The birth of the oil industry on Aug. 27, 1859, was ers, teamsters, coopers, speculators and others flocked to spectacular and its later history has been colorful and the area. The excitement exceeded that of the California romantic. gold rush 10 years before. During the early part of the last century the industrial By the end of 1859 three more wells had been drilled revolution was in fUU swing. The demand for oil for and by the end of 1860, 74 wells were producing. The lubricating the machinery and illuminating the factories excitement increased in 1861 when the first flowing wells had been supplied from tallow and whale oil. In the 1850's produced thousands of barrels a day. These flooded the an industry based on the production of illuminating oil market completely and the price fell disastrously. Since from coal was growing rapidly, and a refining technology then the industry has repeated the pattern of boom and utilizing thermal cracking and distillation was well devel­ over-production, but eventually the demand has always oped. It was soon found that petroleum was superior to caught up with the supply. coal as a raw material, but it was a scientific curiosity, occurring in many places, but in small quantities. At the same time along the tributaries of the Ohio River Introduction a considerable industry had grown up around the manu­ The story of the beginning of the oil industry is color­ facture of salt. The brine was obtained from sands at ful and romantic, and has been told many times. The depths up to 1,000 ft. A drilling technology had developed, excitement during the 1860's attracted a large number of and the methods of cable tool drilling were mostly invented writers who published many contemporary accounts. The between 1800 and 1830 along the Kanawha, Muskingum, first general history was The Early and Later History of Conemaugh and Allegheny rivers. Petroleum, with Authentic Facts in Regard to its Develop­ Petroleum was produced along with the brine at neariy ment in Western Pennsylvania, by J. T. Henry, published all the salt manufacturing plants. At most of these it was in Philadelphia in 1873. Another account was written in used to illuminate the plants and grease the machinery. London in 1914 by James Dodd Henry, The History and It was inevitable that this new source of oil should come Romance of the Petroleum Industry. to the attention of the coal oil refiners, and that attempts The most complete and scholarly history of the begin- should be made to produce oil by drilling. The combination of a large and growing demand for oil, a well-developed refining industry and a highly developed drilling technology provided an explosive mixture. The spark finally occurred at Titusville, Pa., on the site WATSON FLATS OIL FI~~-=--.~ of a famous oil seep that had been exploited by the Mound­ W.E. F,rfi,. Drd.- _.__ K,u "c" W.II -=-__ _ builders and later by the Seneca Indians and the early CITY OF TITUSVILLE ::"'~ -= O\l-~~ =-:~~ ~- settlers. Two New York promoters, George H. Bissell and Voll., of 011 Crll. be- Ianathan G. Eveleth, formed a company which purchased :.::.~ the farm on which the seeps were located. They were unable to sell stock until they published a glowing report on the commercial value of the oil written by Benjamin Silliman, Ir., a famous chemist and professor at Yale U. Financial su'pport was finally obtained from lames M. Townsend, a New Haven banker, and his associates. Edwin L. Drake went to Titusville in Dec., 1857, to start T operations for the company. The first year he opened up 100' the old springs and attempted to exploit them. He decided 1 to drill for oil and employed a salt well driller, W. A. THI "0 ITIt"Y Smith, who came to Titusville in the spring of 1859. Oil SAND was encountered on Aug. 27 at the unexpectedly shallow Manuscript received in Society of Petroleum Engineers office Dec. 29. 1968. Fig. I-Geology of the Drake Well. 14 SPE 1195-G 110URNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY dmgs of the oil industry is The Birth of the oil Industry try is ascribed by others to the Civil War, followed by the by Paul H. Giddens, published in 1938. It is also the most rise of the petroleum industry. In any case, it is clear that readable, for the author is not only a careful student but the demand for oil could not be met by the whalers. a gifted story teller. In addition to providing a thoroughly Recovery of Shale Oil in 1850 documented volume, Giddens collected the most important manuscripts and newspaper accounts and minted them in It had early been noticed that the manufacture of gas 30 from coal resulted in the formation of some condensible another volume • - liquids which were oily and could be used for illuminants. The present account does not pretend to add anything or The first practical manufacture of illuminating oil from to improve upon the version of Giddens. However, his mineral sources was by J ames Young of Manchester who book has been out of print for some time and may be 5 patented his process in England in 1850 • His process was unfamiliar to the younger generation of oil men. This originally the fractional distillation of petroleum, although account is written more from the point of view of the he later made oil from a type of oil shale. petroleum engineer and geologist than any of its pre­ Young was a friend of the famous English geologist, decessors. The year of 1959 will see various celebrations Lyon Playfair. In 1847 the latter brought to his attention of the hundredth anniversary of the first well, and it is an active oil seep in the Riddings coal mine at Alfreton, appropriate for production technologists to pause for a Derbyshire, belonging to Playfair's brother-in-law. This moment and review the birth of their industry. "oil spring" is reported to have produced 300 gal daily. In partnership with Edward Meldrum, Young distilled Production of lIIuminating Oil from Coal and Asphalt the crude oil and made both illuminating and lubricating The early part of the nineteenth century saw a rapid oils. The seep, which must have been opened up by the Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/JPT/article-pdf/11/01/14/2237157/spe-1195-g.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 growth in the demand for light.' Buildings were more coal miners, showed an alarming decline in production, and spacious and were used more for leisure activities. Fac­ Young started experimenting with coal. The frequent asso­ tories with their new and expensive machinery had to work ciation of petroleum and coal in England led geologists of night shifts. Railroads and steamboats needed lights to the time to believe that petroleum was produced from run after dark. The early American colonists had used bituminous substances, such as coal, by he~t and pressure lamps differing little from those of the ancients, which in the earth. For a long time Young's experiments were consisted essentially of a vessel with two holes, in the fruitless, but he finally came upon the low temperature smaller of which a cloth wick was inserted. These burned retorting of coal, and took out a patent Oct. 17, 1850. oils of animal and vegetable origin; in the United States, Ordinarily, in the manufacture of coke and coal gas, the mostly tallow and lard. They gave a flickering and smoky temperature of the coal is raised rapidly to between 900 light. Candles, generally of tallow, were used extensively. and 1,200°C. As by-products, benzine, xylene and other The first notable improvement in larnos was the intro­ aromatic chemicals are obtained, which now form the basis duction of an adjustable wick and a glass chimney by of a large chemical industry. In the case of low tempera­ Argand in 1784. This improvement greatly increased the ture distillation the coal is heated to between 400 and relative desirability of lamps as compared to candles, and 800°C. Larger volumes of "tars" are obtained, much therefore the demand for illuminating oil. Whale oil came thinner and different in composition1O. They consist of to be used extensively for both lubricating and illuminating phenols and cyclic unsaturated hydrocarbons, with some purposes, but never fully satisfied the demand for the naphthenes and paraffins. The tars were redistilled and latter, which was mainly supplied by lard oil. Cottonseed, clarified with acids and oxidizing agents. castor, and corn oils were also used. Rosin and turpentine Young found that the best type of coal for the manufac­ were distilled to make an oil called "camphene" which ture of oil was "boghead coal" from Torbane Hill near required a special lamp and was dangerous, but was used Bathgate, Scotland, because its content of condensibie gas nevertheless. was much greater than that of ordinary bituminous coal. Works were erected at Bathgate in 1852 and lubricating Coal Gas and Whale Oil oil was manufactured. It was not until 1856 that "paraffin An important part of the rapidly increasing demand oil" for burning and solid paraffin were extensively sold. for light was supplied by gas made from coal.
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