January 28, 1921 – “Vaseline Well” erupts in Oklahoma –
After reaching a depth of 3,710 feet, drillers of the W.C. Newman well near Lamar, Oklahoma, “hit into a strata of oil, the like of which never before, nor since has been found,” reported the Daily Oklahoman in a 1933 retrospective of the well, which “caused oil men to marvel then, as today, since it produces the same Vaseline-like content.”
High-viscosity oil from the 1921 Oklahoma well was featured by the syndicated Believe It or Not by Ripley. Illustration courtesy Hughes County Historical Society Facebook Page.
The Hughes County well erupted a dark green oil that “turned into a brilliant yellow when it came into contact with the outside air” and sprayed 200 feet of a semi-solid mass that “hung like gum from the nearby fences, trees and other structures,” noted the newspaper.
“Ordinary pipelines would not carry the oil, so a special line, sandwiched between four steam pipes to heat the almost solid lubricant enabled it to flow to storage tanks,” the article added. Featured as the “jelly” well in the syndicated Believe it or Not by Ripley, by 1933 daily production of 350 barrels of the high-viscosity oil had declined to 15 barrels.
January 28, 1969 – Santa Barbara Oil Spill
After drilling 3,500 feet below the Pacific Ocean floor, a Union Oil Company drilling platform six miles off Santa Barbara suffered a blowout. The accident spilled an estimated 100,000 barrels of oil into the ocean with some reaching southern California’s beaches, including Summerland — where early U.S. offshore petroleum history began in 1896 with wells drilled from piers.
Beyond the 1969 spill, marine scientists have noted California’s natural oil seeps continue to leak tons of petroleum every day.
The drilling crew had begun to retrieve pipe in order to replace a drill bit when the mud used to maintain pressure became dangerously low, causing a natural gas blowout, according to the University of California, Santa Barbara. The well, which was brought under control after 12 days, turned public opinion against offshore exploration and helped lead to creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December 1970.
Naturally occurring oil seeps in the Santa Barbara Channel have been significantly reduced by offshore oil production, according to “History of Oil in the Santa Barbara Channel,” a 2018 exhibit at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum.
Learn more in Oil Seeps and the Santa Barbara Spill.
January 28, 1991 – Rig No. 114 becomes Tourist Attraction
Among the largest drilling rigs in the world, the Parker Drilling Rig No. 114 was erected in Elk City, Oklahoma, after civic leaders realized the retired rig — easily seen from I-40 and historic Route 66 — could be a tourist attraction. No. 114 once drilled deep wells for testing nuclear bombs.
Parker Rig No. 114 has welcomed visitors to Elk City, Oklahoma, since January 1991. Photo by Bruce Wells.
In 1969, Parker Drilling signed a contract with the Atomic Energy Commission to drill a series of holes up to 120 inches in diameter and 6,500 feet deep in Alaska and Nevada. After the nuclear experiments, the company modified its rig to drill conventional wells that set records by reaching beyond four miles deep (see Anadarko Basin in Depth).
The 181-foot Parker No. 114 towers over Elk City’s former Casa Grande Hotel at the intersection of 3rd Street and Route 66. The Casa Grande, which opened in 1928, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995; it was once home to a natural history museum that included petroleum exhibits.
January 29, 1850 – Kerosene Inventor patents Gasification Process
Canadian geologist Abraham Gessner received a U.S. patent for a gas manufacturing process, “to enable others skilled in the art…for obtaining of illuminating gas from compact and fluid bitumen (crude oil), asphaltum, chapapote, or mineral pitch as found in mines, quarries and springs in the earth.”
Gessner licensed his “coal gas” distillation apparatus (patent no. 7052) for about $1 per burner, declaring his manufactured gas “affords the cleanest, safest, and most agreeable light ever used.” By 1854, Gessner’s research would lead him to invent another illuminating fuel, “a new liquid hydrocarbon, which I denominate Kerosene.”
January 29, 1886 – Karl Benz applies to Patent Gasoline Powered Auto
German mechanical engineer Karl Benz applied for a Reich Patent (no. 34735) for his Benz motorwagen, a three-wheeler with a one-cylinder, four-stroke gasoline engine. His innovative “Fahrzeug mit Gasmotorenbetrieb” (vehicle with gas engine operation) was the world’s first patent for a practical internal combustion engine-powered car.
Detail from “vehicle with gas engine operation,” patent No. 37435, submitted by Karl Benz on January 29, 1884, at the Reich Patent Office in Berlin.
Although there had already been “auto-mobiles” powered by steam or electricity, Benz used the internal combustion engine as the drive system. The Imperial Patent Office 1886 Benz patent has been called the birth certificate of the automobile.
In August 1888, his wife Bertha would drive a Benz motorwagen from Mannheim to Pforzheim in a headline-making publicity stunt (see First Car, First Road Trip).
January 30, 1998 – Spy Ship relaunched as Ultra-Deep Drill Ship
Decades after secretly recovering parts of a lost Soviet ballistic missile submarine, and after a $180 million shipyard conversion, the Glomar Explorer began its career as a record-setting, deep-water drill ship for the offshore petroleum industry.
Glomar Explorer in 1998 began a record-setting career as a drill ship. Photo courtesy American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Launched by Global Marine Drilling with a long-term lease of $1 million per year from the U.S. Navy, the world’s largest drill ship would spend 17 years drilling ultra-deep wells around the world. The pioneering vessel began its career in 1972 as the Hughes Glomar Explorer, designed and built for the CIA’s “Project Azorian” to raise submarine K-129 from more than three miles deep.
Learn more in Secret History of Drill Ship Glomar Explorer.
January 31, 1888 – Death of a Famed Pennsylvania Oil Scout
Thirty-seven-year-old Justus McMullen, already a famous Pennsylvania oil scout, succumbed to pneumonia contracted while investigating production data from a well near Canonsburg, southwest of Pittsburgh.
Oil scouts like Justus McMullen of Bradford, Pennsylvania, braved harsh winters to gather intelligence about oil wells.
McMullen, an oilfield detective who published the Bradford “Petroleum Age” newspaper, contributed much to the early U.S. oil exploration and production industry. Sometimes called “night riders of the hemlocks,” oilfield scouts debunked rumors and demystified oil well production reports — sometimes despite armed guards.
Learn more in Oil Scouts – Oil Patch Detectives.
January 31, 1946 – Houston Petroleum Club founded
Texas independent producers founded the Petroleum Club of Houston. The group began meeting on the top floor of the Rice Hotel in downtown Houston in 1951. Club members hosted industry events and lunchtime business meetings where deals were made with a handshake. One wall featured a 21-foot tapestry of a geological cross-section of Texas.
Founded in 1946, the Petroleum Club of Houston began meeting at the Rice Hotel in 1951.
The Houston Petroleum Club moved to the ExxonMobil Building in 1963 and occupied 45,000 square feet on floors 43 and 44 before moving into the top floor of nearby Total Plaza in 2015.
February 1, 1868 – Oil Quality weighed for Pricing
For the first time, crude oil price quotations began to be based on specific gravity — the heaviness of a substance compared to that of water. In the new oil regions of Pennsylvania, independent producers frequently met to sell shares of stock, argue prices and enter into refining contracts that depended on the oil’s quality.
Before establishment of the Titusville Oil Exchange, in 1871, producers often gathered along Centre Street in Oil City, known as the “Curbside Exchange.” In 1921, the American Petroleum Institute established API gravity, which would become the worldwide standard. Crude oil can be classified as light, medium, or heavy, according to its measured gravity.
February 2, 1923 – First Anti-Knock Gas goes on Sale
The world’s first anti-knock gasoline containing a tetra-ethyl lead compound went on sale at the Refiners Oil Company service station in Dayton, Ohio. Discovered two years earlier by General Motors scientists, “Ethyl” vastly improved engine performance. The company initially provided service stations with bolt-on adapters called “Ethylizers” to meter the proper proportion of the new additive.
“Ethyl” gasoline goes on sale for the first time at this Refiners Oil Company service station in Dayton, Ohio. Photo courtesy Kettering/GMI Alumni Foundation.
“By the middle of this summer you will be able to purchase at approximately 30,000 filling stations in various parts of the country, a fluid that will double the efficiency of your automobile, eliminate the troublesome motor knock, and give you 100 percent greater mileage,” Popular Science Monthly reported in 1924. The toxicity of tetra-ethyl lead resulted in a federally mandated phase out of the additive beginning in 1976.
Learn more in Ethyl Anti-Knock Gas.
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Recommended Reading: Trek of the Oil Finders: A History of Exploration for Petroleum (1975); Slick Policy: Environmental and Science Policy in the Aftermath of the Santa Barbara Oil Spill
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please become an AOGHS annual supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. Copyright © 2025 Bruce A. Wells. All rights reserved.
