Though he drilled only three oil wells in his lifetime, Edwin Drake (1819-1880) is known as the "Father of the Petroleum Industry" because the technology he devised to drill the first commercial oil well in the United States revolutionized how crude...

1819-1880 American petroleum engineer who pioneered a new method of oil drilling. In his early years, Drake was a jack-of-all-trades, working as a hotel clerk, railway express agent, and conductor before finding a position with a Pennsylvania oil...

In 1859, Edwin L. ("Colonel") Drake (1819-1880) helped dig the world's first petroleum well. This launched the era of relatively cheap and abundant energy. In a very short time, petroleum was powering the industrial world in the...

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...