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Up Front Innovators By Alfred N. Mann Petroleum Pioneers In 1859 Edwin Drake first applied well- drilling technology to produce significant quantities of crude petroleum at Titusville, Pennsylvania.1-10 Few realize, however, that Samuel Kier had refined crude oil in Pittsburgh by distillation five years earlier than Drake. Kier’s primary product was kerosene, a clean burning lamp fuel. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the drilling of the Drake well, the American Chemical Society (ACS) will present a National Historical Chemical Landmark award commemorating Samuel Kier’s work in Pittsburgh on August 26, and another to the Drake Well Museum at Titusville on August 27. Today’s extensive worldwide petroleum industry is a direct outgrowth of the efforts of Drake and Kier, first demonstrated in Western Pennsylvania. Here’s a primer on these two and some other pioneers of the oil industry: Petroleum (literally, “rock oil”) had been gathered at numerous natural seeps for hundreds of years. The Seneca Indians, one of Drake’s Well. All HC L&A. 6 WESTERNPENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 Samuel Kier. wells near Tarentum where petroleum was and Sold by Samuel Kier, 363 Liberty skimmed off. When Kier’s wife developed Street, Pittsburg, Penn’a. consumption, her doctor prescribed Kier’s remedy was sold in the Northeast “American Medicinal Oil,”inspiring Kier by peddlers traveling in highly decorated about 1848 to bottle and sell the oil from wagons; he employed about 50 sales agents at his father’s land. Selling his “Rock Oil” the company’s peak, but finally abandoned for 50 cents per half-pint bottle, Kier this sales approach to sell directly to advertised it as a cure-all for rheumatism, pharmacies. gout, neuralgia, coughs, sprains, bruises, In 1853, Francis Brewer, a graduate of and many other conditions. He had a Dartmouth College living in Titusville, took a circular that advertised: sample of seep oil skimmed from Oil Creek to Kier’s Petroleum or Rock Oil, Celebrat- the Chemistry Department of his alma mater. ed for Its Wonderful Curative Powers. A George Bissell (1824–1888), a New York City Natural Remedy! Procured from a Well lawyer and fellow Dartmouth graduate, was in Allegheny County, Pa., Four Hundred familiar with Kier’s Rock Oil. On a visit to the tribes of the Iroquois Nation, traded seep Feet Below the Earth’s Surface. Put Up oil. It was collected in shallow pits and used as salve, mosquito repellent, purge and tonic, as well as wigwam water-proofing, body paint, and for religious practices. The product was simply called Seneca Oil. Western Pennsylvania’s large, under- ground brine deposits were harvested and boiled down to produce crystalline salt. To access the brine, holes several hundred feet deep were dug by dropping a metal weight down a shaft to crush the rock and release the brine, which flowed to the surface. Oil would sometimes seep into these wells, making them unusable, but providing another source of petroleum. Samuel Kier (1813–1874) operated various companies in the region, from flatboats to firebrick manufacture, iron works to coal mines. His father operated two salt WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 7 Up Front Dartmouth, Bissell saw the petroleum sample, recognized its similarity to Rock Oil, and was inspired to lease 105 acres near Titusville from Brewer for 99 years at $5,000. This was the world’s first oil lease. Bissell sent a petroleum sample to Professor Benjamin Silliman, Jr., at Yale, who recommended distilling the crude oil to recover kerosene and products such as paraffin and naphtha. His report, projecting profitability, attracted investors, but a dependable supply of oil was still needed. Bissell organized the nation’s first oil company, the Pennsylvania Rock (later Seneca) Oil Co., on December 30, 1854. Drilling was treated with great skepticism, but Bissell and his partners nonetheless contracted Edwin Drake (1819–1880), a former railroad conductor and jack-of-all-trades, to drill for oil in the region. Under the auspices of the Seneca Oil Co., Drake went to Titusville in 1857. After experimenting with damming creeks and digging shafts in unsuccessful efforts to recover petroleum, Drake turned to the drilling concept. He visited the Kier brine well at Tarentum where he engaged the services of William “Uncle Billy” Smith, who was the Kier family’s salt well driller. After some hesitation, Smith went to Titusville to tackle the job. It was derided as “Drake’s Folly” but Smith brought in the first oil well on August 27, 1859. The well was drilled to 69 feet and yielded about 20 barrels per day. Kier had become interested in petroleum for uses other than medicinal, such as a Charles Lockhart. 8 WESTERNPENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 lubricant for use on factory machinery. He Shortly after the completion of Drake’s 7 Ernest C. Miller, “A Guide to the Early History of Pennsylvania Petroleum,” Western Pennsylvania also sent a sample of crude oil to James Curtis well, Lockhart and many others began Historical Magazine, Vol. 52, No. 2, April 1969, pp. Booth, Professor of Chemistry Applied to the producing crude oil in the Oil Creek area. 363-385. 8 Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, Lockhart’s crude was the first oil from Oil Ernest C. Miller, “Pennsylvania’s Oil Industry” (Gettysburg: Pennsylvania Historical Association, Philadelphia. Booth’s advice was to distill Creek to come down the Allegheny River, and 1974). crude oil to produce an illuminant to serve as Kier was the first to distill it. In 1861, 9 “Success at Oil Creek,” U.S. Department of the Interior, reprinted 1980. a replacement for whale oil, which had Lockhart and partners built the first 10 Harold F. Williamson and Arnold R. Daum, The become scarce and expensive. Booth also commercial scale oil refinery in the United American Petroleum Industry: The Age of provided Kier with drawings of a still. Based States at Brilliant Station on the south bank Illumination 1859-1899 (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1959), pp. 1-24. on this, about 1854 Kier set up a wrought iron of the Allegheny River near Negley Run. 11 W.K. Cadman, “Kier’s 5-Barrel Still,” Western whiskey still of one barrel capacity, equipped Capacity was 250 barrels a day. The oil Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, Vol. 42, No. 4, December 1959, pp. 351-362. with a condenser11-18 at his offices at 363 industry was on its way. 12 Paul H. Giddens, “Pittsburgh and the Beginnings of Liberty St. (now Ave.) in Pittsburgh. Initially the Petroleum Industry to 1866, Western using raw petroleum recovered from his Alfred Mann received a B.S. in Chemical Pennsylvania History Magazine, Vol. 24, No. 3, September 1941, pp. 137-160. Engineering from Cornell University and an father’s brine wells at Tarentum, Kier sold the 13 M.S., also in Chemical Engineering, from the Martin D. Saltzman, “The First North American liquid product as an illuminant, calling it Petroleum Refinery,” Chemical Heritage, Vol. 21, No. University of Pittsburgh. He worked for both 4, Winter 2003/4, pp. 12-14. “carbon oil.” Gulf Research & Development Corporation and 14 Charles A. Locke and George Swetnam, The But a significant problem developed: the National Energy Technology Laboratory of Bicentennial History of Pittsburgh and Allegheny burning carbon oil in existing lamps used for the U.S. Department of Energy in Pittsburgh. County (Hopkinsville, Ky., and Pittsburgh: Historical Record Association, 1955). To read Mr. Mann’s entire unedited draft, coal oil and whale oil produced smoke and 15 Williamson and Daum, pp. 63-81. please visit the Heinz History Center’s odor. An inventive man, Kier devised a lamp 16 George S. Davison, “Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh with a four-pronged holder for the wick that Publications page at Spirit,” address given at the Chamber of Commerce www.heinzhistorycenter.org/secondary.aspx?id= of Pittsburgh, 1927, pp. 87-103. eliminated these problems, and he proceeded 234/. 17 Tom Powers, “The Entrepreneur vs. the Railroad,” to manufacture and sell it.19 Demand for Western Pennsylvania History, Summer 2007, pp. 26-35. Kier’s lamp oil increased as it was cheaper 1 Hand-Book of Petroleum: Petroleum Developments 18 Stefan Lorant, Pittsburgh: The Story of an American from 1859 to 1898 (Oil City: Derrick Publishing Co., than other available illuminants. City, fifth ed. (Pittsburgh: Esselmont Books, 1999), 1898). One other Pittsburgher helped the pp. 112, 119. 2 “What is Crude Oil?” Chevron World, Winter 1992. industry expand at this point. In 1852, 19 Ralph and Terry Kovel, “Samuel Kier of Pittsburgh 3 Parke A. Dickey, “The First Oil Well,” Journal of Made Kerosene Lamps,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Charles Lockhart began purchasing seep oil Petroleum Technology, January 1959, pp. 14-26. November 12, 2006. for 31 cents per gallon and in turn sold the oil 4 Paul H. Giddens, Pennsylvania Petroleum 1750- 20 Charles Lockhart, Short Autobiographical Sketch: 1872 (Titusville: Drake Well Memorial Park, 1947). Charles Lockhart, 1818-1905 (Pittsburgh: Historical to Samuel Kier for refining at 62 cents per 5 Paul H. Giddens, Early Days of Oil (Princeton, N.J.: Society of Western Pennsylvania, n.d.), in HC L&A. gallon. Lockhart’s contract to purchase all the Princeton University Press, 1948, reprinted 2000), 21 Williamson and Daum, pp. 254-257. crude from his source for the next five years pp. 1-3. 6 John J. McLaurin, Sketches in Crude-Oil (Harrisburg: was the first known instance of buying and self-published, 1896), pp. 29-33, 61-81. selling crude oil in advance of production.20-21 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 9.