Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1939-09-02
COLONEL BRAKES MESSAGE
TO MONTANA

~ Asst Sunday, August a. was more
than just another day in the petrol
N Aeum industry OF America for 1t
marked the 8Oth anniversary of the day
on which Colonel Edwin l.. Drake proved
that man could drill for oil and produce
il in commercial quantities.
This week, so years ago, was one of
excitement at Titusville, Pa, for brakes
foIly'-a OOM foot hole, had been drill
led into OIL. Drake, a railroad con-
ductOr, conceived the idea of drilling
for oil Just as they drilled for salt, so
he went to the vicinity of some oil
springs near Titusville i'm May 1853 TO
prove his theory The obstacles he had
to overcome were far greater than the
drilling of a 1O.0OO-foOt well today.
Except for the services OF a blacksmith
who was able to make, the tools, the
well could not have been completed
below the rock" which was encounter
ed at SO feet.
1t is easy to overcome obstacles but
it is hard to be laughed at. Colonel
Drake and the crude drilling machinery
was the butt of jokes almost from the
beginning, as they drilled three feet a
day. But late one sultry afternoon when
they measured the depth at 60h feet
they found dark brown liquid in the
well. They rugged up a pitcher pump,
lifted several barrels of oil to the sur
face and then proceeded to inform the
countryside that the laugh was on some
one else.
Used then for cOaI-OiI for lamps in i'm
creasing quantity (as an evolution from
use as a medicine and linament) oil has
never ceased to flow from American
wells. Even though the population OF the
United States has grown, and the use OF
oil has increased so that today the con-
sumption is 63 barrels per family per
year, petroleum products have bten a
valuable in unending supply. Never was
a kerosene lamp unlighted because of
lack of kerosene; never has an autOno-
bile been forced to stand idle because
the supply OF gasoline was inadequate;
never was a diesel motor shut down be-
cause the industry has been unable to
supply enough crude.
There have been times of excess sup
ply but the industry has always been
able to supply it's products in necessary
quantity and at constantly declining
prices.
From the impetus given by the Drake
discovery, the industry has advanced TO
one which contributes more than $4,-
900, OOO,O 900 annually to the income of
the United States; has a payroll of ST.
5OO,OOO,OOO distributed among 1906
400 employees and pays taxes exceeding
S1,125,OOO, 900 annually on the produc-
ton, refining, transportation, and mar
keting of its products
From the original well depth of 09h
feet achieved by Colonel Drake, the in
dustry has prObed constantly deeper into
the earth in search of oil. Oil today is
produced from depths exceeding $4,000
feet; well has been drilled to more
than 10000 feet. Oil is being pro-
duced from 100000 wells drilled in
plains, mountain sides, and into the floor
of the ocean. Petroleum production
adds more than $1,000, 100000 annually
to the value of the mineral production in
the % oil producing states.
Illuminating oil, the principal product
refined from crude oil in the days of
Colonel Drake, continues to be produced
in substantial quantities today. There
are in addition hundreds of products
which flow from petroleum refineries In
commercial quantities. Chief among re-
fined products is gasoline for the tanks
of the nations SO,OOO,OOO motor vehicles
and the commercial and military air
craft; Iubricating oil for industrial and
domestic consumers; fuel oil for domestic
heat and for industrial and transportation
power; special fuels for the farmers
tractors; fuel for the men-Of-war of the
nations navy.