Progress
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PRODUCTS FROM PETROLEUM
Since the early days of the petroleum industry in the 1860’s through present times, a nearly countless list of distinct petroleum derived products have been discovered or created by man.
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SAMUEL KIER (1813-1874) – GIVING OIL COMMERCIAL VALUE
Samuel Kier was the first to give crude petroleum a sustained market value when in 1848 he packaged pure crude oil from Tarentum area salt wells in half-pint bottles for sale as a medicine. A half-pint bottle of Kier's Petroleum, or Kier's Rock Oil, sold for 50 cents.
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PENNSYLVANIA OIL INDUSTRY AND EARLY AVIATION
Oil “fueled” the development of aviation. This fact was noted by Daniel Yergin in The Prize (1991). “When the Wright Brothers airplane first flew into the air at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903, its engine burned gasoline and lubricants that had been brought to the beach in wooden barrels and blue tin cans by salesman from Standard Oil.”
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The 42 Gallon Barrel [History]
As crude prices hit record highs, questions arise over barrel measurement [history]
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Three Fabulous Decades
The decades from 1900 to 1930 were the period of accelerated development for the petroleum industry. Accelerated development is when improvements multiply, prices are reduced, new markets are tapped, and the industry swiftly expands.
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Oil Strategy in World War II
The Allies hastened their victory by crippling German synthetic gasoline capacity and by severing Japan’s precarious supply lines.
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Galena Oil
Galena Oil manufactured in Franklin rose from humble beginnings in the 1860s to lubricate all the railroads in the United States and Canada, 75 percent of the South American railroads, 29 percent of the street railways in the United States and a large percentage of the rail lines in Europe.
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Nitroglycerine Saved Many Wells
Less than a year after the first oil well was drilled in northwestern Pennsylvania, well owners had trouble. Paraffin was the culprit. Petroleum in this region is rich in the waxy substance and it was clogging the underground flow of oil. The producers were an ingenious lot and they quickly set out to find a solution.
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Franklin Heavy Crude
The oil business was still in its infancy when producers started to notice a difference in the petroleum they were pumping. In Franklin where traces of that “nasty Seneca oil” had crept into water wells along French Creek, the success of Colonel Edwin L. Drake’s well was quick to spawn interest.
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Eclipse Refinery
The Eclipse Refinery, located near Franklin, was reported at one time to be the “largest refinery in the world.” While this claim is frequently contested it is known that the refinery turned out every petroleum product known at the time and that it was an important part of the Venango County economy for 65 years.