American Edwin L. Drake Drills the First Oil Well (1859)
Overview
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 form of internal combustion engines, jet turbines, and many power plants. In the twentieth century, petroleum has furnished raw materials for plastics, roadways, fertilizers, and more. Petroleum has become so important to a country's economic and military power that petroleum extraction and distilling facilities have become prime military assets and targets and, in fact, secure access to petroleum was a major factor in events leading to the Persian Gulf War of 1990 and 1991. Petroleum, however, seems to be a mixed blessing. Of primary concern to most environmentalists is the environmental risk that accompanies all aspects of petroleum extraction, processing, and use, while economists and industrialists are concerned about the leverage that petroleum-producing nations have over national economies. All of this notwithstanding, petroleum continues to be the most important resource on Earth for billions of people, a position it is likely to retain for some time to come.
Background
Petroleum was known to man from prehistoric times in the form of a sticky, black substance that appeared in the occasional seep.
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