January 2, 1866 – Patent advances Drilling Technology

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An innovative 1866 patent includes a roller bit using "rapid rotary motion," which presages modern rotary drilling technologies.

An  “Improvement in Rock Drills” patent is filed that for the first time includes all the basic elements of modern rotary rigs and notes that its “peculiar construction is particularly adapted for boring deep wells.”

Peter Sweeney of New York City is granted Patent No. 51,902 ^[1], which describes the basic elements of rotary rigs and improves upon an 1844 British patent by Robert Beart. Sweeney’s patent includes a roller bit with replaceable cutting wheels such “that by giving the head a rapid rotary motion the wheels cut into the ground or rock and a clean hole is produced.”

“The drill-rod is hollow, and it connects with a hose through which a current of steam or water can be introduced in such a manner that the discharge of the dirt and dust from the bottom of the hole is facilitated,” it further specifies.

Almost 40 years later, rotary drilling will revolutionize the industry when Capt. Anthony Lucas brings in the 1901 Spindletop gusher with a rotary rig.

Learn more at “Making Hole — Drilling Technology.” ^[2]

January 2, 1882 – Rockefeller creates Standard Oil Trust

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Deft legal maneuvering will preserve John D. Rockefeller's petroleum empire until 1911.

John D. Rockefeller continues his control over the domestic petroleum industry by reorganizing his assets into the Standard Oil Trust.

With Standard Oil Company exercising control of America’s petroleum industry though 40 producing, refining, and marketing affiliates in several states, Rockefeller reorganizes assets into the new trust, which controls 14,000 miles of underground pipelines and all of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s petroleum tank cars.

Samuel Dodd, a Standard Oil attorney, develops a structure by which stockholders in subordinate companies transfer their stock to nine trustees in exchange for participation in the trust’s aggregate earnings. Since the trustees elect directors of the component companies, the Standard Oil Trust is an effective monopoly.

Following enactment of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in July 1890, an Ohio Supreme Court decision orders the trust to be dissolved in 1894. However, with legal maneuvering, the Standard Oil Trust reorganizes and continues to operate from headquarters in New York. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling finally breaks up the trust in 1911.

January 2, 1932 – Union Oil introduces “76″ Brand

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Two million promotional "76" car antenna balls are given out in 1967. The California Oil Museum in Santa Paula is in the original Union Oil Company 1890 headquarters.

The Union Oil Company “76″ brand is born with gas stations in western states. The orange circle with blue type logo is adopted in the 1940s.

The iconic spinning orb will debut at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle, Washington – proving so popular that millions of smaller versions are given away for car antennas over the next decade. Today, the California Oil Museum ^[4] in Santa Paula is in the original Union Oil 1890 headquarters.

The Union 76 brand was sold to Tosco Corporation in 1997. Phillips Petroleum Company acquired Tosco in 2001 and merged with to Conoco to become ConocoPhillips a year later. Visit the Conoco Museum ^[5] in Ponca City, Oklahoma, and the Phillips Petroleum Company Museum ^[6] in Bartlesville.

January 5, 1911 – Steamship burns Oil, sets Record

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The S.S. Honolulan sets a record by using oil instead of coal to power its boilers.

Three years before the Panama Canal is completed — and after a record breaking voyage of 54 days around Cape Horn — the new, fuel oil burning steamship S.S. Honolulan completes a 14,000-mile voyage from Baltimore, Maryland, to Seattle, Washington.

The passenger liner consumes 12,000 barrels of fuel-oil, arriving with 2,000 barrels to spare. For each mile of the voyage, the Honolulan burns 36 gallons of fuel oil.  Although only three of the vessel’s four boilers are used, the ship still cruises at speeds of up to 13 knots — almost 15 mph. See also “Petroleum and Sea Power.” ^[8]

January 7, 1905 – Discovery of Humble Oilfield

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Standard Oil of New Jersey will acquire a 50 percent interest in Humble in 1919.

The Humble oilfield in Harris County, Texas, is discovered by C. E. Barrett. His Beatty No. 2 well will yield 8,500 barrels a day and launch an oil boom.

The small community of Humble will grow from 700 to 20,000 in a few  months. Overall production from the field — the largest in Texas for the year 1905 –  reaches almost 16 million barrels of oil.

Natural gas had been discovered on “Moonshine Hill” in October 1904 by Higgins Oil and Fuel Company. Early reports of natural gas seepages in the area were not uncommon in the late 19th century. According to an historical marker ^[10] in downtown Humble, the oilfield will lead to the 1911 creation of the Humble Oil and Refining Company by a group of its operators, including Ross Sterling, future governor of Texas.

Humble Oil Company will consolidate operations with Standard Oil of New Jersey, eventually leading to Exxon and now a part of today’s ExxonMobil ^[9].

January 7, 1913 – Improved Refining Process patented

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William Burton's process will double the amount of gasoline produced from a barrel of oil.

William Burton of the Standard Oil Company of Whiting, Indiana, is issued a patent (No. 1049667 ^[11]) for a refining process that effectively doubles the amount of “gasolene” produced from each barrel of oil.

Because commercial electricity is being made available to more and more homes and businesses, demand on the petroleum industry for kerosene has plummeted. Simultaneously, the need for gasoline is growing along with the increased popularity and affordability of automobiles. Burton’s innovation, called thermal cracking, is a breakthrough valued at $70 million.

Burton’s process is superseded by catalytic cracking in 1937.

January 7, 1957 – A Giant Oilfield Discovery in Michigan

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A 1957 discovery well on Ferne Houseknecht's dairy farm will uncover a 29-mile-long oilfield -- the largest in Michigan.

After almost two and a half years of drilling, the Houseknecht No. 1 well discovers Michigan’s largest oilfield — the 29-mile-long  “Golden Gulch” Albion-Pulaski-Scipio Field, near Scipio Township in Hillsdale County.

The 3,576-foot-deep well in southwestern Michigan produces from the Black River formation of the Trenton zone. Local lore says that the well’s namesake, Ferne Houseknecht, had been told by a spiritualist that there was oil under her farm. Houseknecht then convinced her uncle, Clifford Perry, to help drill a well one joint of pipe at a time between other farm projects.

The Houseknecht No. 1 discovery at “Rattlesnake Gulch” prompts a local drilling boom that ultimately leads to 734 wells and produces more than 150 million barrels of oil and 250 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

“The story of the discovery well of Michigan’s only ‘giant’ oilfield, using the worldwide definition of having produced more than 100 million barrels of oil from a single contiguous reservoir is the stuff of dreams, and of oilfield legends,” explains Michigan historian and author Jack Westbrook.

“One version of the legend says that a fortune teller told young Ferne Houseknect that a ‘black river of oil’ lay beneath her property in Hillsdale County,” he notes. “Another version of the story says that the Houseknects were taking a cow to be bred and on the way drove past a drilling rig where Perry was working and from their conversation a deal was struck.”

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With 14,123 producing wells in 2009, the state is the nation's 17th largest oil producer and ranked 16th in natural gas production.

The well was begun in May of 1954, but it took a lot of time to drill — often with months off between work, says Westbrook, retired managing editor of the Michigan Oil & Gas News. He adds that the well, drilled with little encouragement from petroleum experts, was financed by Houseknecht’s family and friends.

The giant oilfield will come to be known as the “Golden Gulch” — and “foster a boom on a discovery-hungry petroleum industry to end a 15-year major discovery drought in Michigan,” Westbrook says. The well triggers drilling that results in 734 wells producing more than 150 million barrels of oil and almost a quarter-trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Westbrook notes that modern day oil and natural gas explorers, armed with new detection and completion technology, returned to the Albion-Scipio area in 2006, which increased statewide production and reversed a 25-year downward trend in annual oil output and an eight-year decline in natural gas production. He is author of  Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund 1976-2011: A 35 year Michigan investment heritage in Michigan’s public recreation future – see Books & Artists ^[14].

Visit Central Michigan University’s Clarke Historical Library ^[15] in Mount Pleasant, where the early days of Michigan’s petroleum history is illustrated with examples from the library’s extensive holdings. The Michigan Oil & Gas Association ^[16] was organized in 1934.

January 8, 1864 – Oil Discovery at Pithole Creek

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Managed by Drake Well Museum, a diorama is among the Pithole Visitors Center exhibits of the vanished boom town.

The Pithole Creek field is discovered in Venango County, Pennsylvania, by the United States Petroleum Company. The well reportedly is located with a witch-hazel dowser and comes in as a gusher at 250 barrels a day.

Pithole will make history as an early oil boom town for America’s new petroleum industry, which began in nearby Titusville in 1859. “Many factors fueled the Pithole oil boom,” explains an article at Scripophily ^[18].

“The end of the Civil War found the country flooded with paper currency whose holders were anxious to invest and make more money. Thousands of soldiers had been discharged from the army,” notes the article.

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Today, visitors can walk the grassy paths of Pithole's former streets.

Many veterans wanted jobs, others wanted to make a fortune quickly after having spent long months on army pay. “The speculative bubble of 1864 and 1865 was at its peak,” the article concludes.

“Hundreds of newly-organized companies were ready to lease or buy land wherever there was even a promise of oil. Fired by these circumstances, the Pithole Creek became spectacular.”

Visit Titusville’s Drake Well Museum ^[17], which maintains a visitors center at the ghost town of Pithole.

Join the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. AOGHS is a 501 (c)-3 nonprofit program dedicated to preserving the history of U.S. petroleum exploration by providing advocacy for museums and other organizations that work to preserve that history.

Please support ^[19] this energy-education mission with a donation today.