Edwin Drake
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Edwin Laurentine Drake (1819-1880), also known as Colonel Drake, was an American oil driller, popularly credited with being the first to drill for oil in the United States. Drake was born in Greenville, New York on March 29, 1819 and grew up in Castleton, Vermont.
[edit] Biography
On August 27, 1859, a well that Drake drilled near Titusville, Pennsylvania struck oil. While petroleum oil was known prior to this, there was no appreciable market for it. Yet, studies of crude oil showed it to be a good source of kerosene if enough could be obtained. Drake's employers were seeking enough crude oil to establish a new enterprise, providing kerosene for lamps.
According to Ida Tarbell's 1904 book The History of Standard Oil, the oil well was not Drake's idea, but rather that of his former employers, George Bissell. Bissell left the Seneca Oil Company in 1857.
James Townsend, President of the Seneca Oil Company, sent Drake to the site in the spring of 1858. Drake, a native of Greene County, New York, had spent his earlier life working as a clerk, an express agent, and a railway conductor on a brand new, sometimes dangerous conveyance, the railroad. Then, in the late 1840’s Edwin Drake was hired by the Seneca Oil Company to investigate suspected oil deposits in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The oil company chose the retired railway man partly because he had free use of the rail. Drake decided that the best way to find oil was to dig for it. He had limited success, but was only able to extract a maximum of 10 barrels (1.6 m³) per day. This was not enough to make a commercial yield sustainable. When attempts to dig huge shafts in the ground failed due to water seepage, Drake decided to drill in the manner of salt well drillers. He purchased a steam engine in Erie, PA, to power the drill. The well was dug on an island on the Oil Creek. It took some time for the drillers to get through the layers of gravel. At 16 feet (5 m) the sides of the hole began to collapse. Those helping him began to despair. But not Drake. It was at this point that he devised the idea of a drive pipe. This cast iron pipe consisted of ten foot long joints. The pipe was driven down into the ground. At 32 feet (10 m) they struck bedrock. The drilling tools were now lowered through the pipe and steam was used to drill through the bedrock. The going, however, was slow. Progress was made at the rate of just three feet (1 m) per day. After initial difficulty locating the necessary parts to build the well, which resulted in his well being nicknamed "Drake's Folly," Drake proved successful.
Meanwhile crowds of people began to gather to jeer at the apparently unproductive operation. Drake was also running out of money. Amazingly the Seneca Oil Company had abandoned their man and Drake had to rely on friends to back the enterprise. On August 27th Drake had persevered and his drill bit had reached a total depth of 69.5 feet (21 m). At that point the bit hit a crevice. The men packed up for the day. The next morning Drake’s driller, Billy Smith, looked into the hole in preparation for another day’s work. He was surprised and delighted to see crude oil rising up. Drake was summoned and the oil was brought to the surface with a hand pitcher pump. The oil was collected in a bath tub.
While some claims of prior art do exist (e.g., Germany in 1857, Petrolia, Ontario, Canada in 1858), the Drake Well at Titusville was the first well to be widely copied. Within a day of Drake's striking oil, Drake’s methods were being imitated by others along Oil Creek and in the immediate area. This culminated with the establishment of several oil boom towns along the creek, and by 1865 nearby Pithole City was producing oil.
Drake set up a stock company to extract and market the oil. But, while his pioneering work led to the growth of an oil industry that made many people fabulously rich, for Drake riches proved elusive. Drake did not possess good business acumen. He failed to patent his drilling invention. Then he lost all of his savings in oil speculation in 1863. He was to end up as an impoverished old man. In 1872, Pennsylvania voted an annuity of $1500 to the "crazy man" whose determination founded the oil industry.
He died on November 9, 1880 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he had lived since 1874.
