Edwin L Drake, Father of Modern Petroleum Industry

Edwin L Drake

Edwin L Drake, Father of Modern Petroleum Industry
History of the modern oil industry can not escape the name of Edwin Drake Laurentin. The first commercial drilling of petroleum in the world when Edwin L Drake with his company Senca Oil Company discovered oil in Titusville America. He managed to remove the oil from the earth. The well is made in the middle of agricultural areas in northwestern Pennsylvania. Drake chose the location for the business of oil drilling because of earlier citizens of the region is often found when digging oil wells to find water. The first oil well was known as The Drake Well and the success of the first oil drilling is to start oil exploration around the world. Laurentin Edwin Drake was born in March 1819 in Greenville, New York, United States.



Drake is also known as Colonel Drake. Her father, Lyman Drake and his mother Laura (Nee Lee) Drake. He grew up in farming families around Castleton and New York State, Rutland County, Vermont before leaving home at age 19 years. He spent his life working on the railroad in New Haven, Connecticut as a clerk, conductor and express agent. During that time he married Philena Adams who died while giving birth to her second child in 1854. Drake married again three years later to Laura Dowd in 1857.


Laurentin Edwin Drake claims the title as the Father of Modern Petroleum Industry as on date of August 27, 1859 the first commercial oil drilling in Titusville, Pennsylvania. His discovery began when one day the eyes of drill touches the oil layer at a depth of 69.5 feet (21 meters). Kerosene is known prior to this, there is no market that can be assessed for it. Samuel Martin Kier credited with establishing first U.S. oil refinery in Pittsburgh. He was the first in the United States to refine crude oil into lamp oil (kerosene) a new market to replace whale oil as lamp oil Seneca Oil formed in 1858 by George Bissell and Jonathan Eveleth initially contacted the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company. They created the company after learning the report on petroleum collected from a source of oil in Titusville,



Pennsylvania is suitable for use as lamp fuel was whale oil. Bissell found that this would be a practical alternative if a method could be devised to refine oil from the ground. Interest in the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company was originally a low to a report by Eveleth and Bissell showed that there is significant value in the oil economy. Before being offered a job by Eveleth and Bissell, Drake bought the shares at the Seneca Oil. But the company got the job opportunities for both parties live in the same hotel in Titusville. He was hired with a salary of $ 1,000 a year investigating the seepage of oil on land owned by Reference Biography: Seneca Oil. Edwin Drake was hired by Seneca Oil Company to investigate suspected to be the place of oil deposits in Titusville, Pennsylvania. James Townsend, President of the Seneca Oil Company, sent Drake to the source location in 1858. Drake bought a steam engine in Erie, Pennsylvania, to move the drilling machine. Wells dug on an island in the Oil Creek took a lot of time to penetrate the layers of rocks.


At 16 feet (5 m) side of the hole began to collapse. They made him begin to despair. But not Drake. That makes the idea for her to make the steering tube. This iron pipe consisting of a ten foot connection. Pipe driven into the ground. At 32 feet (10 m) they hit a rock. The tool then lowered through the drill pipe and the steam engine used to drill rock. Drilling is slow. Progress gained only three feet (1 m) per day. The crowd began to flout the seemingly non-productive operations. Drake was running out of money, with wonderful Seneca Oil Company which has left Drake, they had to rely on friends to re-try. On August 27 Drake drilling has reached total depth of 69.5 feet (21 m). Billy Smith, studying and preparing for the job opening.


He was surprised to see crude oil that comes out. Drake summoned and brought to the surface oil with a pump. Oil is collected in a bath tub. Famous Drake pioneered a new method for producing oil from the ground he memasangn pipe-lines to prevent the drill hole collapsed to penetrate further into the ground. Previous methods to collect oil that rely on very limited oil seepage where it occurs naturally, or dig a shallow hole into the ground. Drake an important step to take is to guide the thirty-two iron pipes to the ground into the rock below. Drake drilled in the pipe, without the hole collapsing from water seepage. The principle idea is still practiced today by many companies that drill for hydrocarbons.



Drake Well in Titusville is the first well that was widely imitated. In a day of Drake's striking oil, Drake's methods are emulated by others along Oil Creek and in the immediate area. This culminated with the establishment of a city suddenly rising prices of oil along the bay. Drake wells producing 25 barrels (4.0 m3) of oil per day. In 1871, the entire area was producing 5.8 million barrels (920 000 m3) per year. Drake that provides trading business to refine and sell oil. But, while his pioneering work in the direction of growth in the oil industry that made an incredibly rich man, Drake riches proved the least .. Drake did not control a good business acumen. He failed to get his patent drill discovery. Then he lost all of his savings in oil speculation in 1863. He was to end up as a weak father and husband. In 1872, Pennsylvania gave $ 1,500 allowance for "the bankrupt" to find the oil industry. Drake died 9 November 1880 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, at the age of 61 years. where he lived since 1874. He and his wife were buried in Titusville, built a memorial in his honor.