Edwin Drake

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Edwin Laurentine Drake

Born March 29, 1819(1819-03-29)
Greenville, New York
Died November 9, 1880 (aged 61)
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Nationality American
Other names Colonel Drake
Known for Petroleum exploration

Edwin Laurentine Drake (March 29, 1819 – November 9, 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.

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[edit] Early life

Edwin Drake was born in Greenville, New York on March 29, 1819 and grew up on family farms around New York State and Castleton, Vermont before leaving home at the age of 19. He spent these early parts of his life working the railways around New Haven, Connecticut as a clerk, express agent and conductor. During this time he married Philena Adams who died while giving birth to their second child in 1854. Drake re-married three years later to Laura Dowd in 1857, sixteen years his junior. It was during this summer in 1857 that Drake became ill preventing him from carrying on with his job. He retained the privileges of a train conductor which allowed him free travel on the railroads. The Drake family eventually found themselves living in Titusville by 1858.

[edit] Seneca Oil

Seneca Oil, originally called the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, was founded by George Bissell (industrialist) and Jonathan Eveleth. They created the company after catching wind of reports that petroleum collected from an oil spring in Titusville, Pennsylvania was suitable for use as lamp fuel. Lamp fuel was in high demand since the market had been using kerosene as a replacement for whale oil. Interest in the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company was initially low until a report commissioned by Bissell and Eveleth showed that there was significant economic value in petroleum. Due to a disagreement between the shareholders and the pair, the company was split and Seneca Oil was formed in 1858. Before being offered a job by Bissell and Eveleth, Drake bought stock in Seneca Oil. But his job opportunity with the company arose because both parties were staying in the same hotel in Titusville. He was hired on a salary of $1,000 a year to investigate the oil seeps on land owned by Seneca Oil.

[edit] Drilling for Oil

Drake is famous for pioneering a new method for producing oil from the ground. He drilled using piping to prevent borehole collapse, allowing for the drill to penetrate further and further into the ground. Previous methods for collecting oil had been limited. Ground collection of oil consisted of gathering it from where it occurred naturally, such as from oil seeps or shallow holes dug into the ground. Drake tried the latter method initially when looking for oil in Titusville. However, it failed to produce economically viable amounts of oil. Alternative methods of digging large shafts into the ground also failed, as collapse from water seepage almost always occurred. The significant step that Drake took was to drive a thirty two foot iron pipe through the ground into the bedrock below. This allowed Drake to drill inside the pipe, without the hole collapsing from the water seepage. The principle behind this idea is still employed today by many companies drilling for hydrocarbons.

[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 employer, 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. 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 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, Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada in 1858), the Drake Well at Titusville was the first well to be widely copied.[citation needed] 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.

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Persondata
NAME Drake, Edwin Laurentine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Drake, Colonel
SHORT DESCRIPTION American oil driller, popularly credited with being the first to drill for oil in the United States
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Greenville, New York
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 1880
PLACE OF DEATH Bethlehem, Pennsylvania