Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-08-13

tools for drilling through the hard rock
with the aid of steam engine and they
kept on drilling until they were nearly
20 feet below the surface.
One day in August, 1859, Sam Smith,
one of Uncle Billys sons looked into the
well and there, less than foot from the
top, he saw a dark, rising tide.
''onl Oil! on!' he cried. shout
that was heard around the world, for it
was the first commercial oil well ever
drilled. Within a year thousands Of
prospectors and promoters, wild with ex-
element, were drilling wells throughout
the. region.
Within a few years after its humble
beg inning in Pennsylvania in 1859, the
petroleum industry began to spread. Oil
developments took place in New York,
West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and
other states.
Then the industry moved west with
the tide of humanity. Wildcat" wells
so called because they were drilled in
undeveloped territory, "out among the
wildcats, soon began to produce in
Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and even Cali
lorna Production began in these areas
before 1880, but it was 1900 before the
vast extent of commercial possibilities
began to be apparent. Then, within the
period of Is years, the wells Of the South
west and West produced more oil then
came from the fields east of the fields
east of the Mississippi river!
Concurrent with the development of
new oil-producing areas in the West and
Southwest the original American pet
roleum industry of Pennsylvania began
to encounter difficulties Few railroads
served the oil fields. To meet the grow
ing demand for crude from which to
refine kerosene, the new and popular
illuminant, it was necessary to haul the
oil in barrels by wagon to the nearest
railroad freight terminal, there to await
shipment.
Demand for service boosted railroad
rates The teamsters who hauled the
oil to the terminals increased their
charges. Soon more than half the cost
of the oil represented transportation
charges.
Oil men wondered what to do. Then
Samuel Van Syckle, who lived near
had an idea. He said to a
friend Water is pumped up hill and
down to supply Philadelphia. Why can't
we pump oil the same way?"
Then, around 1866, began the construc-
ton of the first pipe lines-pipe which
carried oil directly from the fields to
railroad terminals. Transfers wrecked
the lines, but the oil men persisted
even built their pipes across mountains
to tidewater. Years of trouble with
railroaders and teamsters ensued, but the
young industry had found a way to assure
cheap and continuous transportation and
the pipe line idea triumphed. Today
there are more than 100000 miles of
pipe lines in the United States. They
transport petroleum products to markets.
But the industry also utilities the motor
tank truck, successor to the Transfers
wagon, and it is one of the biggest users
of railroad tank cars, and of tank ships.
The American oil industry during its
pioneer years was built on a foundation
Of kerosene for the lamps of the world.
One night in 1860, a year after Colonel
Drake struck oil, man who was tending
a still where petroleum was being refined
INTO kerosene, left his post of duty and
stole away to a village dance. Before
leaving the work-room, he turned up
the fire under the still so that it would
keep burning during his absence, but
he stayed away too long and when
he came back he found gasoline instead
Of kerosene.
So it was quite by accident that the
idea of refining petroleum into gasoline
was discovered. Although this process
called cracking" was not perfected un-
til the 1920's, it has added billions OF
barrels to the worlds reserves of pet
roleum.
Between 1889 and 1904 the internal
combustion engine was developed The
motor boat. the automobile and the air
plane needed gasoline to run on and the
was kept busy building huge
refinerfes, storage tanks and filling sta