The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-08-02
How Petroleum WAS DIscOvereai..-The
PennsyIVania OIL Region in 1857.

A@SNs = IN lDAlg0NGEGlss@A A0G
PennsyIVaniR OIL Region in 1857.
The Titusville (Pa.) Herald of the
9th instant gives the followingaccount
of the discovery of petroleum.
"Colone1 E. L. Drake has for the past
few days been visiting our city, the
scene ofhis form er labors as the oriGi-
nal n2 pioneer of the petroleum business,
we nave collected from him some re-
miniscences of that great discovery,
which may be of some interest to our
readers. His first visit to Titusville
was in the year 1857. This was before
the building of the Atlantic and Great
Western and Philadelphia and
Erie Railroads. AT that time there
hundred and twenty-five in I'll
tusVille, no churches and two hotels.
Among the families here at that time
were those of j. L. and e. H. Chase,
the Tituses, and Brewer q Watson-the
latter were engaged in the numbering
business. Thestages ran twice week
from this point to Erie. At that time
the oil was collected from the springs
on the Flats by means of blankets or
cloths, and bottled for medical use. 1t
WAS also used for lighting the mills.
While sitting in the store Colonel
brakes attention was called to the
bottles ofoil, and he expressed incredu-
and the next day accompanied DIR.
Brewer down the Flats to examine the
phenomenon. He says, when he found
their statements verified, the idea flash
ed upon him that there was a basin or
spring of oil in the earth or rocks be-
low, and that he then formed the reso-
luton of sinking we'll. On his return
to the East he told his friends of the
experiment he wished to make, and
expressed the belief that oil would yet
De found in immense quantities in this
region, and become used extensively in
commerce and the arts. The popular
idea In this section, ard even the scien-
titc opinions of Professors Silliman
and Park, whom Mr.. Drake consulted
on his return to the East, were that the
oil was the drippings of the coal inn
bedded in the contiguous hills-that ii
was idle to bore for 1t, and that the only
method of accommodating it was by dig
ging bitches leading to vat.
'There were no books to be found in
the country which treated on the sub
ject, and Mr.. Drake had never had any
practical experience in boring; but he
was unable to divest himself of the
idea which haunted him day and night.
He induced some men of capital to en-
bark with him in the enterprise, and
entered upon his experiments in the
spring OF 1858. His first step was to
visit the salt wells on the Allegheny
and observe the DlodWs opeTdndi. FL
nally he selected u spot near AmeS's
Mills, below Watson's Flats, and was
delayed till the spring of 1859 before he
had secured a competent driller and the
necessary tools. His supposition was
that he would have to sink his we'll to
the depth of one thousand feet. The
same kind of tools were used then as
now. The driller charged one dollar
and half per foot for boring. The en-
terprise was the subject of good deal
of ridicule in those parts, and many
persons made themselves merry at the
expense OF thepioneer.
"Mr. Drake's assistant proposed TO
crib to the rock, which was the invari-
able practice in those days. Mr.. Drake
advocated the driving OF iron tube to
the rock-an idea which the miner
secuted, but having failed to crib, ow-
ing to the water, the tubing was tried
and proved success. This was an
entirely new feature then, but is now
the universal practice. Indeed, it is
now applied to putting down fresh
water wells. Had Mr.. Drake procured
a patent to which he was justly entitled,
he would have realized a fortune
from it.
"The pipe was driven thirty-two feet
to the rock, and then the well bored
thirty-seven feet and six inches in the
first sand rock. Not having any pipe,
Mr.. Drake commenced pumping before
he had tubed the well, using common
iron water-pump for the purpose,
fastening the handle of the pump
to the walking-b beam. Satisfied
by this process of the presence of
oil in considerable quantities in this
well, he then went to Erie and Cleve-
land for tubing; could obtain none
there, nor at Buffalo, and finally or
dered it from Philadelphia. After
tubing the well it turned out complete
success, pumping twenty-five barrels
a day, and continuing when in opera
ton to yield about this quantity for the
period of two years.
"Mr. Drake was then in the position
of the man who drew the elephant at
the rattle, and did not know what to do
with 1t after he had got it-oil being
comparatively good for nothing. Then
there was no home or foreign demand
for 1t, no refineries in existence, and its
illuminating and lu ubricating properties
were not then discovered. The parties
engaged in the manufacture of coal oil
were slow to acknowledge or discover
that petroleum possessed equal illum-
mating qualities. The first refiuers
who commenced refining petroleum
were james McKeown and Samuel
Kier, of Pittsburgh.
From this period it came rapidly
into commercial use, stimulated deveI-
opment, and rose in value in cores
ponding degree"