A Short History of Oil： 1700-1870 ⧸⧸ Whale Oil, Kerosene, Drake Well & Rockefeller Documentary

The history of oil starts in the dark. Before the modern era of electricity, once the sun dropped below the horizon, it was very dark. If you wanted to do anything after sundown, you needed a source of fuel for fire. This quest for fuel led people to do some interesting things with animals. In the northwestern U.S., Native Americans dried salmon and lit them on fire. In Scotland, people collected oily birds called petrels, dried them, then shoved wicks down their throats and lit them. Around 1700, as the world's population increased and demand for light continued to grow, a new, more robust source of fuel was discovered. From 1700 to 1850, the fuel that lit the houses, governments, and businesses of America, and much of Europe, was whale oil. Crews of whalers would catch the mighty sea creatures, and then either beside the boat or back near shore, they would slice strips of blubber off of the back and the head of the whales, in a process called flensing. Once collected, the blubber was boiled into oil using large cast iron kettles called tripods. People used the oil to light lamps, as well as in perfume, lubricants, and candles. Modern whaling made people very wealthy, particularly in the United States. In 1846, it was the fifth largest industry in the U.S., boasting 735 ships out of 900 in the world. But things were about to change. The way an industry evolves is someone comes up with a more efficient way to do something. In 1846, Canadian geologist and inventor Abraham Gessner did just that. Through his research, Gessner developed a process to refine a liquid fuel from coal, bitumen, and oil shale. He called his new invention kerosene. This new discovery burned more cleanly and was easier to produce than whale oil. This meant it was much less expensive as well, 10 cents to 25 cents per gallon, compared to approximately a dollar and a half per gallon for whale oil. In 1850, Gessner created the Kerosene Gaslight Company, and began installing lighting in the streets in Halifax and other cities. By 1854, he had expanded to the United States, where he created the North American Kerosene Gaslight Company in Long Island, New York. Streetlights started popping up, and rather than hiding in their homes, people started going out at night. Many people picture Texas when they think of crude oil production. But the first breakthrough in this fossil fuel came 1500 miles to the northeast. In 1858, a Dartmouth professor named George Bissell was traveling through rural Pennsylvania when he noticed some locals skimming a dark liquid off the top of the creek. Bissell took some of the liquid back to Dartmouth, and ran tests that showed its potential as a source of fuel. He contacted a local retired conductor, handyman and jack-of-all-trades named Edwin Drake. The two formed an unlikely partnership around a radical idea. They wanted to drill for oil just like people drilled for water. Drake set out for the small town of Titusville, Pennsylvania to go wildcatting. On Sunday, August 28, 1859, Drake's driller, William Uncle Billy Smith, came out to peer into the well and saw dark fluid floating on top of the water. On Monday, when Drake arrived, he found Uncle Billy and his crew standing guard over tubs, wash bins, and barrels filled with oil. Drake attached a hand pump and began to do exactly what he had dreamed about, pump a fuel source up from underground. By the end of 1859, wells had sprung up throughout the new oil country. These early wells produced approximately 4,500 barrels that year. In 1860, wells in northwestern Pennsylvania produced several hundred thousand barrels. And by 1862, production reached three million barrels. The nation's oil bonanza had begun, and huge fortunes would soon be made. However, it would not be a straight upward trajectory. The rapid growth in production led to an oil glut, and the price quickly dropped, driving many producers out of business. This price drop was a boon for customers, though, who flocked to the cheap new fuel source. Petroleum was experiencing its first boom and bust cycle. It continued to spike and drop in the first volatile decade after its discovery, until a shrewd, visionary businessman named John D. Rockefeller organized a company called Standard Oil of Ohio, which streamlined oil production and began a dominating hold on the industry.