August 31, 1850 – “Town Gas” company forms in San Francisco

The San Francisco Gas Company is incorporated to produce and distribute manufactured gas extracted from coal tar. Irish immigrant Peter Donahue, his brother James, and engineer Joseph Eastland build their coal gasification plant on San Francisco Bay.

Within two years the company illuminates “town gas” street lamps; by 1915 there are almost 8,500 lamps — each hand lit and shut off every day. The last gas lamp is extinguished in 1930. San Francisco Gas Company is now part of Pacific Gas & Electric Corporation.

August 31, 1859 – The First Dry Hole

Just four days after America’s first commercial oil discovery at Titusville, Pennsylvania, a series of far less known “firsts” are achieved by local entrepreneur John Livingston Grandin.

Although Edwin Drake used a steam-powered cable-tool rig to find oil at 69.5 feet, Grandin, assisted by blacksmith H.H. Dennis, uses the simpler, time-honored spring-pole “kick down” method for his well at nearby Gordon Run Creek. The well reaches a depth of 134 feet — but produces no oil, despite many attempts.

Instead of being remembered as America’s second commercial oil discovery, the Grandin exploratory well results in the petroleum industry’s first “dry hole.” Gradin’s drilling attempt might also be credited with the first stuck tool, the first shooting of a well with black powder (and first well ruined by a failed shooting attempt).

Travelers on U.S. 62 about four miles south of the Allegheny River Bridge at Tidioute, Pennsylvania, will find an historic marker erected in July 1959. The marker reads: “At oil spring across river at this point J. L. Grandin began second well drilled specifically for oil, August 1859, after Drake’s success. It was dry, showing risks involved in oil drilling.”

Read more of this little-known story in “The First Dry Hole.”

September 1, 1862 – Union taxes Manufactured Gas

To help fund the Civil War, new federal taxes take effect — up to 15 cents tax per thousand cubic feet of manufactured gas (coal gasified by heating).

Brooklyn Daily Eagle editorials accuse the local gas company of passing on the tax, which “shifts from its shoulders its share of the burdens the war imposes and places it directly on their customers.”

“Not so,” replies the Brooklyn Gas Light Company.  “(We) do not contemplate anything of the kind.” The gas company pays the tax without adding to customers’ bills.

September 2, 2009 – Gulf of Mexico Oil Discovery

A major oil discovery is made at a world-record depth 250 miles southeast of Houston in the Gulf of Mexico. The Tiber Prospect of BP is estimated to hold more than four billion barrels of oil in place– a “giant” oilfield.

Although commercial prospects have not been fully evaluated, the Tiber produces light crude oil, according to Dow Jones News. “Early estimates of recoverable reserves are around 20 percent to 30 percent recovery, suggesting figures of around 600 to 900 million barrels.”

The discovery well — drilled by the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible rig — sets the world oil well depth record by drilling 30,923 feet into seabed from a platform floating 4,132 feet above.

Seven months later at its next drilling site, the Deepwater Horizon will explode and sink while drilling the Macondo well.

September 4, 1841- Early Drilling Technology

Early drilling technology advances when William Morris patents a “Rock Drill Jar” — a drilling innovation he began experimenting with 10 years earlier in Kanawha County, Virginia (now West Virginia). His wells provide settlers with much-needed salt for preserving food.

Morris, using his experience as a brine well driller, patents his device, No. 2243 – a “manner of uniting augers to sinkers for boring artesian well.” It is a telescoping link apparatus that greatly increases the efficiency of percussion drilling because it “would slacken off as the bit hit bottom and pick up the bit with a snap on the upstroke.”

After oil is discovered in Pennsylvania, cable-tool drilling technology will evolve rapidly as drillers improve upon Morris’ patented jars. Today, cable-tool rigs and jars are still in use around the world. See the article “Making Hole — Drilling Technology.”

September 4, 1850 – Chicago Streets get Gas Light

A Chicago company delivers its first manufactured gas to customers. “The Gas Alight! — Wednesday marked an era in Chicago,” reports Gem of the Prairie. “The gas pipes were filled, and the humming noise made by the escaping gas at the tops of the lamp-posts indicated that everything was all right.”

The magazine adds: “Shortly afterward the fire was applied and brilliant torches flamed on both sides of Lake Street as far as the eye could see and wherever the posts were set.”

The Chicago Gas Light & Coke Company, incorporated by special act of the Illinois State Legislature in 1849, has exclusive rights to manufacture, distribute and sell gas for 10 years. The price is set at $3.50 per thousand cubic feet and the cost of lighting Chicago city lamps is fixed at $15 per post.

By 1855 nearly 78 miles of pipe have been installed and there are almost 2,000 manufactured-gas consumers in Chicago.