President Ulysses S. Grant convinced Congress to repave Pennsylvania Avenue’s badly deteriorated plank boards with asphalt. Grant delivered to Congress a “Report of the Commissioners Created by the Act Authorizing the Repavement of Pennsylvania Avenue.” (more…)
“Oil fires, like battles, are fought by artillery,” proclaimed an article in The Tech, a student newspaper of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “A Thunder-Storm in the Oil Country” featured the reporter’s firsthand account of the problem of lightning strikes in America’s oilfields. (more…)
Improving upon the success of the Cameron Iron Works mechanically operated ram-type blowout preventer, James Abercrombie patented a “Fluid Pressure Operated Blow Out Preventer” designed to operate “instantaneously to prevent a blowout when an emergency arises.”
James Abercrombie’s innovative idea used rams – hydrostatic pistons – to close on the drill stem. His improved blowout preventer set a new standard for safe drilling.
Abercrombie and partner Harry Cameron in 1926 had patented the first practical ram-type blowout preventer (BOP), designed in Cameron’s Humble, Texas, machine shop. Abercrombie would receive 30 U.S. patents and become one of Houston’s most generous philanthropists. Cameron International was acquired by Schlumberger in 2016. (more…)
Shakespearean tragedienne Miss Eloise Bridges starred as Lady Macbeth in Pithole, Pennsylvania — America’s first famously notorious oil boom town. A January 1865 oilfield discovery had launched the drilling frenzy that created Pithole, which within a year had 57 hotels, a daily newspaper, and the third busiest post office in Pennsylvania. (more…)
Convinced he could profit by purchasing bulk kerosene in cheaper eastern markets, Isaac Blake formed the Continental Oil and Transportation Company and began transporting kerosene refined in Cleveland, Ohio, for distribution in Ogden, Utah. (more…)
