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Article: Petroleum Industry
- Article from:
- Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History
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PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Crude oil seeps from the earth's crevices and fissures, and accumulates in pools on surface rocks; it has been used as a fuel source since approximately 3500 b.c.. In the early nineteenth century, crude oil was collected from rock pools and primitively refined for commercial use. Dr. Abraham Gesner of Pittsburgh, inventor of kerosene lamp oil, formed the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company in 1854. In 1859 Edwin Drake and W.A. Smith drilled the first U.S. well, specifically to find petroleum, in Titusville, (Oil Creek) Pennsylvania. Because crude oil was unsuitable for direct use, it had to be refined and converted into such products as kerosene, gasoline, and motor oil. In ...