| An important new industry, oil refining, Grew after the | | | | Folly". But when he had drilled down about 70 feet, |
| Civil war. Crude oil, or petroleum - a dark, thick ooze | | | | Drake struck oil. His well began to yield 20 barrels of |
| from the earth - had been known for hundreds of | | | | crude oil a day. News of Drake's success brought oil |
| years, but little use had ever been made of it. In the | | | | prospectors to the scene. By the early 1860's these |
| 1850's Samuel M. Kier, a manufacturer in western | | | | wildcatters were drilling for " black gold" all over |
| Pennsylvania, began collecting the oil from local | | | | western Pennsylvania. The boom rivaled the California |
| seepages and refining it into kerosene. Refining, like | | | | gold rush of 1848 in its excitement and Wild West |
| smelting, is a process of removing impurities from a | | | | atmosphere. And it brought far more wealth to the |
| raw material. Kerosene was used to light lamps. It was | | | | prospectors than any gold rush. Crude oil could be |
| a cheap substitute for whale oil, which was becoming | | | | refined into many products. For some years kerosene |
| harder to get. Soon there was a large demand for | | | | continued to be the principal one. It was sold in grocery |
| kerosene. People began to search for new supplies of | | | | stores and door-to-door. In the 1880's refiners learned |
| petroleum.the first oil well was drilled by E.L. Drake, a | | | | how to make other petroleum products such as |
| retired railroad conductor. In 1859 he began drilling in | | | | waxes and lubricating oils. Petroleum was not then |
| Titusville, Pennsylvania. The whole venture seemed so | | | | used to make gasoline or heating oil. |
| impractical and foolish that onlookers called it " Drake's | | | | |