The History of Oil Well Drilling

By: Heartland Energy Colorado

The history of oil well drilling in the United States begins around the mid-1800s, almost at the inception of the Industrial Revolution. At that time, consumers really needed something else other than candles to light their work during the night and help them read indoors. With this demand for more sustainable lighting, companies then began making oil lamps that were much brighter than candles and lasted much longer with a more dependable light source. Sperm Whale Oil was one of the first oils used to burn these lamps that replaced candles over time. Sperm Whale Oil is very clear and almost odorless; it burns with very little smoke which makes it very convenient for indoor lighting. The biggest problem with Sperm Whale Oil is that it was a very limited resource, and it was so extremely rare that really only the wealthy could afford to use it on a regular basis. It was at this time that whalers had almost hunted the population of Sperm Whales to extinction. So the market was extremely ripe for inexpensive oil that would replace Sperm Whale Oil. As stated previously, this all happened around the time of the Industrial Revolution so there was also a need for good quality lubricants for steam powered machines.

In about 1854 there was an attorney from New York named George Bissell who was the lucky recipient of a small sample of a liquid sent to him from a professor at Dartmouth College. Previous to receiving the sample, the professor had heard Bissell's interest in finding a substitute for Sperm Whale Oil. After having heard this, the professor wanted Bissell's opinion of the liquids value as a lamp oil and lubricant vs. Sperm Whale Oil. The professor informed Bissell that he had collected the sample near a creek which through the woods of Crawford and Venango counties. As you and I both know, this unknown liquid was oil. It was flowing out of the rocky terrain in and around the creek, and many people at that time had called it "rock oil." As a matter of fact there was so much of the substance that the local settlers had named this creek, Oil Creek.

After Bissell had a chance to examine the oil sample he was convinced that this refined rock oil would absolutely burn as clean and safe as any of the available oils at the time, including Sperm Whale Oil. He believed it to be a good lubricant and so he began raising money to collect oil from "Oil Creek" and to market the oil for illumination and lubrication purposes. This was truly the inception of the Seneca oil company in New Haven, Connecticut. One of the many problems that the company had faced was how to best the oil from the land. It was obvious that the best way to collect this oil was not to simply try to scoop it from the ground because of the limited amount of production. Seneca Oil's entire mission was to produce extremely large amounts of this oil and market it into the populace of the northeastern United States, so it was at this time that someone within the Corporation actually came up with the idea of drilling a well in order to tap this oil.

Edwin L. Drake who eventually became a board member of Seneca Oil was hired to oversee the drilling project at Oil Creek which was actually located in Titusville. Drake had previously worked for the railroad as a conductor. In 1859 Drake had employed William A. Smith to be his oil well driller. Smith was previously a blacksmith and had experience as a brine well driller, so he had experience with drilling previously. Considering his previous experience, Smith decided that the best way to drill into the oil well was to place the steel casing (a length of hollow steel pipe) through the soft surface of the earth until it reached bedrock. If he had not used the steel casing, then the loose topsoil would cave back into the hole that they tried to drill. (Modern-day oil rigs and drillers still begin almost all oil wells by casing the top of the hole) Smith then went on to build one of the very first oil drilling rigs ever. He ran drilling tools inside the casing and drilled through the rock.

By August of 1859, Smith was able to drill the hole to a depth of around 70 feet. It was near the end of that day that Smith noticed that the bid actually dropped around 6 inches. The next morning Smith came into the rig and found that the casing was full of oil. Overnight, oil from the formation below flowed into the well casing and filled it all the way up to the top. It was never recorded how much oil this first oil well produced, but it is estimated that 800 to 1200 gallons of oil per day was produced which was far more than the gallon or two that could be collected off of the ground previously. Probably the most exciting find out of this entire venture was the fact that an oil well could produce massive amounts of oil. According to most records Drake's oil well was the first oil well in the United States which was drilled for the sole purpose of finding and producing oil. The news of the oil well spread rapidly and because of the market which existed for oil, dozens of brand-new rigs were erected overnight in the same area to take advantage of the demand for it. This was really the inception of the first oil boom in the United States.