We take oil for granted now I want to know where the first oil strike was made /what year? First Oil refinery? Oldest Oil company? Read all about the oil industry yet we know little about its historical or commercial origins I think it was the beginning of the Steam age(1820's) that brought it into commercial use. Yet there is reams of info on metal and engineers... and zilch on Oil
Posts: 13342 | Location: 6 miles west of Wigan UK | Registered: 06-05-02
Petroleum has been known in the Middle East since classical antiquity, or even before, in places where it seeps steadily from the ground, without the necessity of digging for it. "Naptha" was, I believe, an important component of the Greek Fire that protected the Byzantine from naval attack for so many centuries.
It became an important commercial product with the industrial revolution, which required lubricants, and fuels more convenient than coal - enough to provoke exploration for accessable resources. The first oil wells were located, I believe, in Poland, but I could be mistaken. I believe the earliest oil wells in the US were in Pennsylvania. The advantages of oil over coal as a fuel were such that the industry spread rapidly. I've never been particularly interested in the history of the industry, so I can't say anything useful about which companies came first, or by which modern firms they were absorbed.
Alan Moore
Posts: 2012 | Location: USA | Registered: 10-05-03
"The gigantic struggle for oil began in Titusville, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1859, when Colonel Edwin L. Drake struck oil in the world’s first well.
This small hole drilled through the rock so peacefully opened the way to wealth hitherto unknown. It yielded about forty barrels per day, but the precious fuel was now produced in commercial quantities. It opened also the most important natural production of Pennsylvania, after iron and coal.
This first well was in Cherry Tree Township, on the Watson Flats, on the bank of Oil Creek , about two miles below the thrifty borough of Titusville." - .dep.state.pa.us
Surprisingly, it is not far from Oil City. Honest!
Posts: 17277 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
