14 PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY, ECONOMICS, AND POLITICS
Mesopotamian seepage sites to the present-day refining operations
that yield a wide variety of products and petrochemicals (Speight,
2007).
1.2 Modern Perspectives
The modern petroleum industry began in the later years of the 1850s
with its discovery in 1857 and its subsequent commercialization in
Pennsylvania in 1859 (Bell, 1945). The modern refining era can be said
to have commenced in 1862 with the first appearance of a commercial
unit for the distillation of petroleum (Speight, 2007) (Chapter 5).
Benjamin Silliman Sr. had a degree in law but he was also as
qualified for geology as he was to be Yale professor of chemistry.
The geology venture prospered, and by 1820, Silliman was in great
demand for field trips on which he took his son, Benjamin Silliman
Jr. When Silliman Sr. retired in 1853, Silliman Jr. took up where
father had left off, as professor of general and applied chemistry
at Yale (this time, with a degree in the subject). After writing a
number of chemistry books and being elected to the National
Academy of Sciences, Silliman Jr. took up lucrative consulting
posts with the Boston City Water Company and various mining
enterprises.
In 1855, one of his clients asked him to research and report
on some mineral samples from the new Pennsylvania Rock Oil
Company. After several months of work, Silliman Jr. announced
that about 50% of the black tar-like substance could be distilled into
first-rate burning oils (which would eventually be called kerosene
and paraffin) and that an additional 40% of what was left could be
distilled for other purposes, such as lubrication and gaslight.
With the acquisition of the original lighting oil (whale oil) seeing an increased demand and becoming more dangerous to acquire
and on the basis of this report, a company was launched to finance
the drilling of the Drake Well at Oil Creek, Pennsylvania. In 1857,
it became the first well to produce petroleum. It would be another
fifty years before Silliman Jr.'s reference to the other fractions available from the oil through extra distillation would provide gasoline
for the combustion engine of the first automobile. Silliman Jr.'s
report changed the world because it made possible an entirely new
form of transportation and helped turn the United States into an
industrial superpower. But, back to the future.
Mesopotamian seepage sites to the present-day refining operations
that yield a wide variety of products and petrochemicals (Speight,
2007).
1.2 Modern Perspectives
The modern petroleum industry began in the later years of the 1850s
with its discovery in 1857 and its subsequent commercialization in
Pennsylvania in 1859 (Bell, 1945). The modern refining era can be said
to have commenced in 1862 with the first appearance of a commercial
unit for the distillation of petroleum (Speight, 2007) (Chapter 5).
Benjamin Silliman Sr. had a degree in law but he was also as
qualified for geology as he was to be Yale professor of chemistry.
The geology venture prospered, and by 1820, Silliman was in great
demand for field trips on which he took his son, Benjamin Silliman
Jr. When Silliman Sr. retired in 1853, Silliman Jr. took up where
father had left off, as professor of general and applied chemistry
at Yale (this time, with a degree in the subject). After writing a
number of chemistry books and being elected to the National
Academy of Sciences, Silliman Jr. took up lucrative consulting
posts with the Boston City Water Company and various mining
enterprises.
In 1855, one of his clients asked him to research and report
on some mineral samples from the new Pennsylvania Rock Oil
Company. After several months of work, Silliman Jr. announced
that about 50% of the black tar-like substance could be distilled into
first-rate burning oils (which would eventually be called kerosene
and paraffin) and that an additional 40% of what was left could be
distilled for other purposes, such as lubrication and gaslight.
With the acquisition of the original lighting oil (whale oil) seeing an increased demand and becoming more dangerous to acquire
and on the basis of this report, a company was launched to finance
the drilling of the Drake Well at Oil Creek, Pennsylvania. In 1857,
it became the first well to produce petroleum. It would be another
fifty years before Silliman Jr.'s reference to the other fractions available from the oil through extra distillation would provide gasoline
for the combustion engine of the first automobile. Silliman Jr.'s
report changed the world because it made possible an entirely new
form of transportation and helped turn the United States into an
industrial superpower. But, back to the future.