by Bruce Wells | May 25, 2026 | This Week in Petroleum History
May 26, 1891 – Carbon Black Patent leads to Crayola –
Edwin Binney of New York City received a patent for his “Apparatus for the Manufacture of Carbon Black.” The process allowed the “manufacture lamp-black from oil in an improved and economical manner.” It created a fine, intensely black soot-like substance — a pigment blacker than any other available at the time. Its success led to a partnership with C. Harold Smith and another petroleum product, Crayola crayons. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Oct 27, 2025 | This Week in Petroleum History
October 27, 1763 – Birth of Pioneer American Geologist –
William Maclure, who would become a renowned American geologist and “stratigrapher,” was born in Ayr, Scotland. He created the earliest geological maps of North America in 1809 and later earned the title “Father of American Geology.” (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jul 29, 2025 | Petroleum Art
Cartoonist Victor Hamlin worked as an oilfield cartographer in the Permian Basin.
The widely popular Depression Era newspaper comic strip character Alley Oop began in the imagination of a young cartographer who drew Permian Basin oilfield maps in Texas.
The club-wielding Alley Oop caveman appeared for the first time in the summer of 1933 when Victor Hamlin, a former Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reporter, published fanciful tales about the Stone Age Kingdom of Moo. Hamlin began syndicating his daily cartoon in Iowa’s Des Moines Register.
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