The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-09-17
Growth OF the Petroleum Industry.

An exchange has the following interest
ing review of the first quarter of century
of the existence of the petroleum industry:
Z" The growth of the petroleum industry
dates back only twenty-five years. On
August 81, 1859, the first oil we'll ever
drilled was put down near Titusville, Pa,
just without the city limits. The well
was sunk by Colonel Drake of New
Haven, Conn. From the old Indian days
petroleum, known as Seneca oil, had ex.
listed in the vicinity. Large quantities
floating on Oil Creek had been gathered
and used for medicinal purposes. From
1854 to 1858, producing operations of a
crude nature were carried on by Messrs.
Bssell & Evereth. Trenches were dug
into which oil oozed, and was afterwards
pumped into vats. In 1855 these gentle
men sold one-third of their property to
some New Haven capitalists. The Penn
sylvauia Rock Oil Company was formed,
and Colonel Drake engaged to sink we'll
on the artesian principle. Work was
commenced May, 1859, and the first vein
of oil was struck August %, at depth of
sixty.nine and one-half feet. The produc-
ton of the we'll at first was ten barrels a
day and sold for fifty cents barrel. In
September pumping apparatus was ap-
piled to the we'll and it yielded for long
time between twenty and forty barrels
daily. The tools used were, compared
with those of to-day, of primitive type.
Wells were then what is called kicked
down by the feet. The use of steam was
an afterthought. Colonel brakes success
revolutionized things in the little North.
west Pennsylvania hamlet. In a short
time on the level lands around brakes
we'll and along the banks of the shallow,
ripping Oil Creek, and on the sides of
the neighboring hemlock-clad hills, re-
sounded the rap of the hammer and the
rumble of the wagons as derrick after
derrick arose. Titusville was in few
years city of ten thousand inhabitants.
The next step in producing was the drill
ing of wells down to the third sand,
where much larger production was main
tanned. In September, 1861, the famous
Phillips we'll on Oil Creek was struck,
and did four Thousand barrels the first
day. New fields we're soon opened in
Venango, Butler, Clarion and Mexican
counties, in Pennsylvania, and in New
York at Richburg. The total production
increased rapidly from eighty-two thous-
and barrels in 1850 to nine million in 1876.
Then came the great Bradford field, and
the following year the product jumped to
thirteen million. Since then the yearly
increase has been about five million bar
rels. The greatest production was made
in 1882, when it reached the enormous
total of thirty-one million seven hundred
eighty-nine thousand one hundred ninety
barrels. Petroleum was shipped to mar.
ket at first in barges down the Allegheny
river and by teams and rail. In time the
trade outgrew these modes of transit
speedier, and, above all, cheaper means
were necessary. Then came the pipe lines,
which to-day are connected with twenty
one thousand wells, receiving from them
daily sixty.fve thousand barrels of oil. In
addition they hold, stored in iron tanks
over forty-one million barrels, represent
ing the surplus of accumulated stock. To
transport and store this enormous guam
tity of oil about five thousand miles OF
pipe line and over one thousand SIX
hundred iron tanks of an average capacity
are necessary. Besides the five thousand