by Bruce Wells | Sep 21, 2025 | Petroleum History Almanac
America’s largest ranch signed a record-setting lease in 1933, launching a major oil company.
The largest U.S. private oil lease ever negotiated was signed in Texas during the Great Depression. The 825,000-acre King Ranch oil deal with Humble Oil and Refining, signed on September 26, 1933, would help the company become ExxonMobil, which has extended the agreement ever since.
At its peak, covering one million acres, the King Ranch has remained bigger than the state of Rhode Island (776,960 acres). Despite unsuccessful wells drilled on the south Texas ranch for more than a decade, a Humble Oil geologist was convinced an oilfield could be found. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Aug 19, 2025 | Petroleum History Almanac
Indiana researcher’s detailed “Informal History Notes” preserve U.S. petroleum company legacies.
James Hinds of Columbus, Indiana, originally completed his extensively researched history of the Indian Refining Company in November 2003. His work documented the early histories of Havoline Motor Oil (through 1962) and the Texas Company, the future Texaco (through 1985).
“Emphasis was placed on Indian Refining Company and on an accurate account of Havoline’s early days,” Hinds noted about his extensively researched “Informal History Notes” emailed to the American Oil & Gas Historical Society in 2023. He added, “Please feel free to use (or not use) as you see fit.”
James Hinds Informal History Notes
INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, INCORPORATED
HAVOLINE Motor Oil (through 1962)
The Texas Company / Texaco Inc. (through 1985)
Compiled by Jim Hinds, Columbus, Indiana
November 2003
In Memory of R. R. Hinds, Distributor
FOREWORD
1. These notes consist of information that I (with appreciable assistance) have been able to piece together on the corporate history of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, INCORPORATED, the origins of HAVOLINE Motor Oil, and (to a lesser extent) the history of The Texas Company / Texaco Inc. Emphasis was placed on INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, and on an accurate account of HAVOLINE’s early days, since surprisingly little such information (especially on the “old INDIAN”) is readily available elsewhere. They are by no means a comprehensive history of The Texas Company / Texaco Inc. but only attempt to cover those events I believe were most relevant to the histories of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY and HAVOLINE Motor Oil.
2. I am aware that these notes conflict, in some details, with “The Texaco Story – The First Fifty Years 1902-1952” (Marquis James, The Texas Company, 1953), which has come to be viewed as the “official history” of The Texas Company. Based on information that I have verified through multiple independent sources, however, it appears that portions of the material with which Mr. James was given to work were either erroneous or misinterpreted.
3. It is recognized that “The Texas Company”, “TEXACO”, “HAVOLINE”, “INDIAN”, “FIRE-CHIEF”, and “Sky Chief” are or were registered trademarks of Texaco Inc. (a subsidiary of ChevronTexaco Corporation) or of its antecedents. They are used here for informational and historical research purposes only. These notes are in no way an official publication of Texaco Inc. or of ChevronTexaco Corporation.
A Texaco station was among the 2012 indoor exhibits featured at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma. Photo by Bruce Wells.
Chronology
28 March 1901 – The Texas Fuel Company is among some 200 companies organized in the days immediately following the famed oil strike at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, Texas. The company establishes an office in Beaumont.
4 October 1901 – John F. Havemeyer of Yonkers, New York incorporates The Havemeyer Oil Company under the laws of that state, for purposes (as detailed on its certificate of incorporation) related to “lubricating and all other oils of every kind and nature” (probably referring to whale oil, other animal renderings, and – possibly – to various seed oils, in addition to petroleum).
2 January 1902 – The Texas Fuel Company begins business.
7 April 1902 – The Texas Fuel Company becomes The Texas Company and incorporates under the laws of the State of Texas.
1 January 1903 – “TEXACO” (having originated as the cable address of The Texas Company) is first used as a product name.
13 November 1903 – The Texas Company begins operations at its first refinery – Port Arthur [Texas] Works
14 November 1904 – Although its plant is physically located in the tiny northwestern-Indiana hamlet of Asphaltum, and 99.8% of its common and 100% of its preferred stock are listed in the name of 23-year-old Richmond M. Levering (a Lafayette, Indiana native currently residing in Chicago, Illinois), Indian Asphalt Company incorporates under the laws of the State of Maine. (While not recorded, it is speculated that the name “Indian” is an allusion to Indiana – meaning land or place “of Indians”.)
1904 – The Havemeyer Oil Company — having developed a unique cold-filtration process and blending package for oils — coins, and first uses, the name “HAVOLINE.”
1905 – Realizing that the Jasper County, Indiana oil field which it originally intended to exploit is effectively depleted, Indian Asphalt Company is persuaded (in “an extensive campaign by the [Georgetown] Board of Trade”) to move its offices and plant to Georgetown, Kentucky.
1 May 1906 – Growing quickly in both size and scope, Indian Asphalt Company changes its name to INDIAN REFINING COMPANY. Its plant is upgraded to “refinery” status and its product line expanded to include paraffin wax, paint, “Sunset Engine Oil”, “Bull Dog Compound”, and “Blue Grass Axle Grease” in addition to asphalt. Richmond M. Levering becomes the first president of the renamed company and is soon joined in business by his father and mentor – Indiana banker, financier, and entrepreneur J. Mortimer Levering — who becomes the company’s secretary.
8 December 1906 – “HAVOLINE” is registered as a trademark of The Havemeyer Oil Company for use as a brand name on oils (not strictly motor oil) and greases.
5 January 1907 – Havoline Oil Company (a “spin-off” of The Havemeyer Oil Company) is incorporporated under the laws of State of New York. As with The Havemeyer Oil Company, its stated purposes include production, purchase, refining, sales, and other dealings involving “animal” oils and fats as well as “mineral” (i.e. petroleum) oils.
1907 – Construction of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY’s Lawrenceville, Illinois refinery is completed and the refinery begins operation.
1908 – Although continuing to operate its Georgetown refinery, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY relocates its offices to Cincinnati, Ohio. The company also begins operation of a small refinery near East St. Louis, Illinois.
20 May 1909 – As part of a program of rapid expansion, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY incorporates under the laws of the State of New York and purchases The Havemeyer Oil Company, Havoline Oil Company, and the by-now established “HAVOLINE” name (which is then registered as a trademark of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY as a brand name for lubricating oils – again, not strictly motor oil).
1909 – Production of HAVOLINE products at the Lawrenceville refinery begins.
1 December 1909 – Following a brief illness, J. Mortimer Levering (secretary of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY) passes away.
17 December 1909 – The Havemeyer Oil Company is dissolved.
2 September 1910 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY (Maine) is chartered to do business in the State of Louisiana and begins operating a refinery in New Orleans.
1909-1911 – Also included in this period of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY’s expansion are the purchases of the Bridgeport Oil Company (Bridgeport, Connecticut), the Record Oil Refining Company (Newark, New Jersey), a small refinery in Jersey City, New Jersey, and control of a large storage station at Kearny, New Jersey. The company launches a program aimed at making a full-scale entry into the European market.
16 March 1911 – Primarily in anticipation of expanding to the West Coast, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA is created (and is incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey).
20 March 1911 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY (New York) changes its name to INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF NEW YORK and becomes the principal operating subsidiary of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY (Maine). The parent company’s main offices are moved from Cincinnati to New York City. Although its offices are moved, the company retains its close ties to the Cincinnati business community (which have existed since its inception as the Indian Asphalt Company) for many years. Its stock continues to be traded on the Cincinnati Stock Exchange and its board of directors includes (at various times) such well-known Cincinnati businessmen as William C. Procter, M. C. Fleischman, Lazard Kahn, and Bernard Kroger.
17 September – 6 November 1911 HAVOLINE Motor Oil lubricates the 28-horsepower engine of the first airplane to fly across the United States. Piloted by Calbraith Perry (“Cal”) Rodgers, the Wright EX bi-plane publicizes the new soft drink “Vin Fiz”, after which the the plane is named.
1 April 1912 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF LOUISIANA incorporates under the laws of the
State of Louisiana.
December 1913 – January 1914 In conjunction with a sweeping organizational and financial restructuring, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY (Maine) applies for and receives “authority to do business” in the States of New York and California. It assumes those functions formerly performed by INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF NEW YORK. The planned expansion to the far West, however, is effectively cancelled and INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA is dissolved.
1915 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY closes its Georgetown, East St. Louis, and Jersey City refineries and abandons the company’s European venture (which has proven to be a severe financial drain due largely the First World War).
1916 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY (Maine)’s president, Richmond M. Levering, resigns, as do several other senior officers of the company.
December 1918 – January 1919 In yet another reorganization, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF NEW YORK, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY OF LOUISIANA, Havoline Oil Company, the Record Oil Refining Company, and the Bridgeport Oil Company – all subsidiaries of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY (Maine) (hereafter referred to simply as INDIAN REFINING COMPANY) – are dissolved. The New Orleans plant is closed.
1920 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY purchases the capital stock of the Central Refining Company, which is located immediately north of the Lawrenceville refinery. The Central refinery facilities are ultimately reconfigured for lubricants manufacture.
1923 – The general offices of INDIAN REFINING COMPANY are moved from New York City to Lawrenceville.
1924 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY sells its remaining producing properties (consisting mainly of wells and leases in Illinois and Ohio) to the Ohio Oil Company (later to become the Marathon Oil Company).
1924 – The globes for INDIAN gasoline pumps are redesigned: a red “ball” with “INDIAN” arched above and “GAS” arched below (both in blue letters) on a white globe, replaces the reddish-brown and black “running Indian” design which was previously used. (One-piece globes also include “HAVOLINE”, in letters, vertically on each side.)
1924-1925 – Wishing to even more closely associate the two names, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY adopts a totally re-designed “HAVOLINE” trademark and virtually identical “INDIAN GAS” logo, both of which prominently feature the red-white-and-blue “ball” which had first been incorporated into the “HAVOLINE” logo in 1922. A “dot” is added to the middle of the “D” and above the second “I” in the word “INDIAN” (replicating the dots within the “O” and above the “I” in “HAVOLINE”). “INDIAN HI-TEST” Gasoline (made identifiable by red dye) is introduced on a limited basis.
1926 – The subsidiary Indian Pipe Line Corporation is sold to the Illinois Pipe Line Company.
May 1926 – The Texas Company introduces “New and Better TEXACO Gasoline”.
26 August 1926 – The Texas Corporation is incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware and, by exchange of shares, acquires substantially all outstanding stock of The Texas Company (Texas).
20 April 1927 – The Texas Company incorporates (under the laws of the State of Delaware) as the principal operating subsidiary of The Texas Corporation. All assets of The Texas Company (Texas) are transferred to The Texas Company (Delaware) and The Texas Company (Texas) is dissolved. The Texas Corporation becomes the “parent company” of the by-now numerous “Texas Company” entities and other subsidiaries.
2 March 1928 – The Texas Corporation acquires the California Petroleum Corporation, which is reorganized as The Texas Company (California).
16 August 1929 – Its chemists and engineers (led by Dr. Francis X. Govers) having perfected a revolutionary solvent-dewaxing process, INDIAN REFINING COMPANY introduces “HAVOLINE WAXFREE” motor oil, replacing “HAVOLINE –the power oil” (which had, early in the 1920’s, supplanted “HAVOLINE It Makes a Difference”). (An economy “Blended HAVOLINE” is also offered, primarily in bulk.)
By 1930 ,“HAVOLINE” sales (both nation-wide and overseas) not only remain strong but grow, markedly, following the introduction of “HAVOLINE WAXFREE”. But, while it had once been in the retail gasoline, kerosene, and fuel oil markets (to varying extents) in over 25 states, the growing effects of the Depression, increasing difficulty in competing with the larger oil companies, the lack of reliable sources of crude, and (especially) the huge amount of money spent in developing the Govers solvent-dewaxing process, combine to force INDIAN REFINING COMPANY to retrench and restrict such marketing to Indiana, Michigan, eastern Illinois, northern Kentucky, and western Ohio. (Within this limited area, however, the company still has a well-developed and efficient distribution and sales network. Into the latter 1920’s, for example, “INDIAN” accounts for some 20% of all gasoline sales in Indiana.)
1930 – The Texas Corporation introduces “TEXACO Ethyl Gasoline” (which is renamed “FIRE-CHIEF Ethyl” 15 April 1932).
August 1930: INDIAN REFINING COMPANY introduces a higher-octane “regular” gasoline which is made identifiable by green dye and which is dubbed “INDIAN Green-Lite” Gasoline.
14 January 1931 – The Texas Corporation gains controlling interest in INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, including the rights to HAVOLINE Motor Oil (and the all-important Govers solvent-dewaxing process) and INDIAN REFINING COMPANY’s
remaining active and inactive subsidiaries (the Indian Realty Corporation, the Central Refining Company, and the Havoline Oil Company of Canada, Ltd.). This also gives The Texas Corporation an established distribution and sales network
and entry into the retail gasoline market in Indiana, Michigan, eastern Illinois, northern Kentucky, and western Ohio – areas in which it has not previously had any significant presence. (The Texas Corporation limits use of the “HAVOLINE” name to motor oil, only; it is not again used on products other than motor oil until the mid-1990’s)
14 January 1931 – 15 March 1943 INDIAN REFINING COMPANY continues in operation as an “affiliate” of The Texas Corporation, although all sales outlets and company facilities and equipment are rebranded as “TEXACO.” Production of “TEXACO” gasolines begins at the Lawrenceville refinery. An “INDIAN” brand gasoline becomes a “sub-regular” (priced below “TEXACO” gasolines) and is added to the product line at most outlets, nationwide. Production of “INDIAN” gasoline is included at other Texas Corporation refineries. (It is during this period that “INDIAN” pumps bear a distinctive plate – either round or rectangular – featuring an art deco Indian beadwork design.) National marketing and sales offices for INDIAN REFINING COMPANY are opened in Indianapolis, Indiana.
15 April 1932 – “TEXACO FIRE-CHIEF Gasoline” is introduced.
1934 – Furfural solvent-extraction (developed by The Texas Corporation) is combined with the Govers solvent-dewaxing process in the manufacture of “HAVOLINE WAXFREE”.
1935 – Production of “HAVOLINE WAXFREE” at Port Arthur Works is begun in order to supplement the output of the Lawrenceville refinery.
May 1936 – “New TEXACO Motor Oil” (also produced with the solvent-dewaxing/furfural solvent-extraction process but with a totally different and less-expensive formulation than that of HAVOLINE) is introduced.
1938 – “HAVOLINE – DISTILLED AND INSULATED” is introduced.
October 1938 – “TEXACO Sky Chief Gasoline” is introduced (replacing “FIRE-CHIEF Ethyl”).
1 November 1941 – The Texas Company (California) is instructed to transfer all assets to The Texas Company (Delaware) and is then dissolved. The Texas Corporation “merges itself into” The Texas Company (Delaware). The Texas Company (Delaware) — hereafter referred to simply as “The Texas Company” — becomes the “parent company”.
15 March 1943 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY’s stockholders transfer all of the company’s property and assets to The Texas Company in exchange for shares of that company’s stock. The Texas Company discontinues “INDIAN” gasoline and all other use in trade of the INDIAN name.
24 April 1943 – An agreement is implemented under which The Texas Company (partially by what amounts to cash purchase but, primarily, through exchange of shares) secures all INDIAN REFINING COMPANY stock, which is then cancelled. (INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, INCORPORATED is thus liquidated and is placed in “inactive corporation” status by the State of Maine (under whose laws it was incorporated) 31 December 1943.)
30 April 1943 – The Texas Company creates a second “Indian Refining Company”, which it incorporates under the laws of the State of Delaware – a “shell” company which it lists as an inactive subsidiary.
1946 – “New and Improved HAVOLINE” is introduced.
1950 – “Custom-Made HAVOLINE” is introduced.
Early 1950’s Lubricants production at the Lawrenceville refinery is discontinued; the lubricants production facility is dismantled and portions of that area of the property are disposed of.
1953 – “Advanced Custom-Made HAVOLINE” is introduced.
1955 – “Advanced Custom-Made HAVOLINE Special 10W-30” is introduced.
26 August 1958 – INDIAN REFINING COMPANY, INCORPORATED is officially dissolved by the State of Maine.
1 May 1959 – The Texas Company becomes Texaco Inc.
1962 – New HAVOLINE cans are introduced. The “TEXACO” trademark replaces the INDIAN REFINING COMPANY-era red-white-and-blue “ball” in a totally redesigned “HAVOLINE” logo.
1980 – For numerous reasons (among them the expense of needed technological upgrades), the prospects for the Lawrenceville refinery’s future profitability have eroded significantly. Unable to establish what might be a viable alternative means of supplying product to the area, Texaco Inc. makes the decision to withdraw from the retail gasoline market in that portion of the upper Midwest traditionally serviced by Lawrenceville.
1982 – The marking of all 55-gallon TEXACO drums becomes black with a red band. TEXACO oil drums had, historically, been gray with a green band with two exceptions. Drums of multi-grade (SAE 10W-30 and 10W-40) HAVOLINE Motor Oil were painted dark blue with a gold band and “head”. Those of “straight-grade” HAVOLINE were painted dark blue with a white band and head – Texaco Inc.’s last remaining use of The Havemeyer Oil Company’s original colors.
March 1985 – The diminution of reasonably-accessible sources of suitable crude, the cost of compliance with governmental regulations and other business considerations combine to make continued operation of the Lawrenceville refinery economically unfeasible. Texaco Refining and Marketing Inc. (a recently-formed subsidiary of Texaco Inc.) completes the withdrawal from the retail and wholesale motor fuels market in a contiguous area spanning Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and
Wisconsin. The Lawrenceville refinery is closed.
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Recommended Reading: The Texaco Story: The First Fifty Years, 1902-1952
(2012). Your Amazon purchase benefits the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. As an Amazon Associate, AOGHS earns a commission from qualifying purchases.
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society 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.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Histories of Indian Refining, Havoline, and Texaco.” Author: James Hinds. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/histories-of-indian-refining-havoline-and-texaco Last Updated: August 23, 2025. Original Published Date: June 21, 2023.
by Bruce Wells | Jul 23, 2025 | Petroleum History Almanac
Oilfield service provider Zero Hour Bomb Company in 1949 introduced its “cannot backlash” fishing reel.
Zebco oilfield history began well before 1947 when Jasper R. Dell Hull walked into the Tulsa offices of the Zero Hour Bomb Company. The amateur inventor from Rotan, Texas, carried a piece of plywood with nails arranged in a circle wrapped in line. His device included a coffee-can lid that could spin.
Hull, known by his friends as “R.D.,” had an appointment with executives at the Oklahoma oilfield service company. Incorporated in 1932, the Zero Hour Bomb Company was a leading manufacturer of dependable electric timer bombs used for fracturing geologic formations. The company designed and patented innovative technologies for “shooting” wells to increase oil and natural gas production.
In 1932, the oilfield service company Zero Hour Bomb Company began manufacturing electric time bombs in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Photos courtesy Zebco.
Zero Hour Bomb Company’s timer controlled a mechanism with a detonator inside a watertight casing. The downhole device could be pre-set to detonate a series of blasting caps, which set off the well’s main charge, shattering rock formations.
Hull’s 1947 visit proved timely for Zero Hour Bomb Company, because post World War II demand for its electrically triggered devices had declined. With the military no longer needing oil to fuel the war, the U.S. petroleum industry faced a major recession.
The company and other once booming Oklahoma service companies were reeling, and the future did not look good.
“Vast fossil fuel reserves beneath other Middle Eastern nations were being unlocked,” noted journalist Joe Sills in a 2014 article. With OPEC beginning to take shape, Texas and Oklahoma-based oil production could only look forward to taking “a decades-long backseat to foreign oil.”
Further, with company patents expiring in 1948, “the Zero Hour Bomb Company needed a solution,” explained Sills, an editor for Fishing Tackle Retailer. After examining Hull’s contraption, a prototype fishing reel, the company hired him for $500 a month.
Meanwhile, as “fishing” petroleum wells helped recover downhole tools, Hull received a patent that transformed the Zero Hour Bomb Company — and sport fishing in America.
Downhole Patents
Beginning in the early 1930s, Zero Hour Bomb engineers patented many innovative oilfield products. A 1939 design for an “Oil Well Bomb Closure” facilitated the assembly of an explosive device capable of withstanding extreme pressures submerged deep in a well.
A 1940 innovation provided a hook mechanism for safely lowering torpedoes into wells. The locking method could “positively prevent premature release of the torpedo while it is being lowered into the well.”
The July 28, 1953, patent for a canvas “well bridge” would be among the last Zero Hour Bomb Company received as an oilfield equipment manufacturer, thanks to R.D. Hull’s late-1940s design for a fishing reel (insert) illustrated in his February 2, 1954, patent.
The separate patent in 1941 improved positioning blasting cartridges using a plugging device made of canvas. It looked like an upside-down umbrella that automatically opened, “when the time bomb or weight reached a position at the bottom of the well.”
In 1953, an improved “well bridge” design took the concept even further, but it would be the last patent Zero Hour Bomb received as an oilfield equipment manufacturer. By then, the earliest model of Hull’s new “cannot backlash” reel attracted large crowds at sports shows.
Zebco Reels
“After trying to design ‘brakes’ for bait-casting reels, and even failing at launching one fishing reel company, Hull hit on a better way one day as he watched a grocery store clerk pull string from a large fixed spool to wrap a package,” reported Lee Leschper in a 1999 Amarillo Globe-News article.
Zero Hour Bomb Company’s first “cannot backlash” reel made its public debut at a Tulsa sports expo in June 1949.
Hull realized he needed a cover to keep the line from spinning off the reel itself and soon developed a prototype, Leschper noted.
“Zero Hour officials asked two company employees who were avid fishermen for their opinions on the reel,” Leschper explained. “One tied his set of car keys to the end of the line and sent a cast flying through one of the windows in the plant. The other sent a cast high over the building. All were impressed.”
Given his own Hull-designed fishing reel at about age six, Leschper recalled, the “tiny black pushbutton reel” came with 6 lb. monofilament line (see Nylon, A Petroleum Polymer) and a four-foot hollow fiberglass rod. His small rig included a hard, yellow plastic practice plug. “I wore it down to a nub pitching it across the hard-baked grass in our front yard.”
White House security officials in 1956 quickly submerged in water a Zero Hour Bomb Company package addressed to President Eisenhower. Photo courtesy Fishing Tackle Retailer magazine.
Earlier, Hull had tested several designs before developing a manufacturing process; the first reel debuted on May 13, 1949. Called the Standard, it made its public debut at a Tulsa sports expo in June. By 1954, the reel included the simple push-button system used today.
In 1961, Brunswick Corporation acquired Zebco — and introduced the 202 ZeeBee Spincast, “an instant classic.”
White House Insecurity
The regional marketing name — Zebco — became popular, but the bottom of each reel’s foot remained stamped with the name of the manufacturer: Zero Hour Bomb Company. The official name change to Zebco came in 1956 — soon after a friend of President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked the company to send a reel to the president.
According to a Zebco company history, when White House security officers saw the package labeled “Zero Hour Bomb Company,” they plunged it into a tub of water and called the bomb squad. After changing its name to Zebco, the company left the oilfield for good.
Jasper R. Dell “R.D.” Hull joined the Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame in 1975 after receiving more than 35 patents. At the time of his induction, 70 million Zebco reels had been sold. He retired from the former oilfield time-bomb company in January 1977 after being diagnosed with cancer and died in December at age 64.
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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. © 2025 Bruce A. Wells.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Zebco Reel Oilfield History.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/zebco-reel-oilfield-history. Last Updated: July 23, 2025. Original Published Date: February 20, 2018.
by Bruce Wells | Jul 13, 2025 | Petroleum History Almanac
As the U.S. petroleum industry expanded following the January 1901 “Lucas Gusher” at Spindletop Hill in Texas, service company pioneers like Carl Baker and Howard Hughes brought new technologies to oilfields.
Baker Oil Tools and Hughes Tools specialized in maximizing petroleum production, as did oilfield service company competitors Schlumberger, a French company founded in 1926, and Halliburton, which began in 1919 as a well-cementing company.
R.C. “Carl” Baker Sr.
Baker Oil Tool Company (later Baker International) had been founded by Reuben Carlton “Carl” Baker Sr., who among other inventions patented a cable-tool drill bit in 1903 after founding the Coalinga Oil Company in Coalinga, California.
A 1919 portrait of Baker Tools Company founder R.C. “Carl” Baker (1872 – 1957).
The oil wells Carl Baker had drilled near Coalinga encountered hard rock formations that caused problems with casing, so he developed an offset cable-tool bit allowing him to drill a hole larger than the casing. He also patented a “Gas Trap for Oil Wells” in 1908, a “Pump-Plunger” in 1914, and a “Shoe Guide for Well Casings” in 1920.
Coalinga was “every inch a boom town and Mr. Baker would become a major player in the town’s growth,” according to the R.C. Baker Memorial Museum. He also organized several small oil companies and the local power company and established a bank.
After drilling wells in the Kern River oilfield, Baker added to his technological innovations on July 16, 1907, when he was awarded a patent for his Well Casing Shoe (No. 860,115), a device ensuring uninterrupted flow of oil through a well. His invention revolutionized oilfield production.
R.C. “Carl” Baker standing next to Baker Casing Shoes in 1914. Photo courtesy R.C. Baker Memorial Museum.
In 1913, Baker organized the Baker Casing Shoe Company (renamed Baker Tools two years later). He opened his first manufacturing plant in Coalinga.
When Baker Tools headquarters moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s, the building remained a company machine shop. It was donated by Baker to Coalinga in 1959. Two years later, the original machine shop and office of Baker Casing Shoe reopened as the R.C. Baker Memorial Museum.
By the time Carl Baker Sr. died in 1957 at age 85, he had been awarded more than 150 U.S. patents in his lifetime. “Though Mr. Baker never advanced beyond the third grade, he possessed an incredible understanding of mechanical and hydraulic systems,” reported the former Coalinga museum.
Baker Tools became Baker International in 1976 and Baker Hughes after the 1987 merger with Hughes Tool Company.
The Houston manufacturing operations of Sharp-Hughes Tool at 2nd and Girard Streets in 1915. The site is on the campus of the University of Houston–Downtown. Photo courtesy Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library.
Howard Hughes and Walter Sharp
The Hughes Tool Company began in 1908 as the Sharp-Hughes Tool Company, founded by Walter B. Sharp (1870–1912) and Howard R. Hughes, Sr.
Sharp was an experienced Texas oilfield pioneer who in 1893 drilled for the Gladys City Oil and Gas Manufacturing Company at Beaumont, Texas. The exploratory well on Spindletop Hill did not find oil, but it helped lead to the giant oilfield’s discovery in 1901, according to Texas State Historical Association (TSHA).
In 1896, Sharp was one of the drillers at Corsicana when the state’s first commercial oilfield was developed. While there, he met Joseph “J.S.” Cullinan, who became a lifelong friend. Cullinan in 1902 founded the Texas Company (see Sour Lake produces Texaco).
Sharp and Hughes in 1907 drilled test wells at Goose Creek/ “When both wells had to be abandoned because of the hard rock encountered, the two men began to consider the possibility of developing a roller rock bit. It was eventually arranged for Hughes to proceed with the designing and construction of a bit, with capital provided equally by Sharp and Cullinan.
Rotary drilling bits shaped like fishtails became obsolete in 1909 when the two inventors introduced a dual-cone roller bit. They created a bit “designed to enable rotary drilling in harder, deeper formations than was possible with earlier fishtail bits,” according to a Hughes historian. Secret tests took place on a drilling rig at Goose Creek, south of Houston.
Hard Rock at Goose Creek
“In the early morning hours of June 1, 1909, Howard Hughes Sr. packed a secret invention into the trunk of his car and drove off into the Texas plains,” noted Gwen Wright of History Detectives in 2006. The drilling site was near Galveston Bay. Rotary drilling “fishtail ” bits of the time were “nearly worthless when they hit hard rock.”
The new technology would soon bring faster and deeper drilling worldwide, helping to find previously unreachable oil and natural gas reserves. The dual-cone bit also created many Texas millionaires, explained Don Clutterbuck, one of the PBS show’s sources.
“When the Hughes twin-cones hit hard rock, they kept turning, their dozens of sharp teeth (166 on each cone) grinding through the hard stone,” he added.
Although several inventors tried to develop better rotary drill bit technologies, Sharp-Hughes Tool Company was the first to bring it to American oilfields. Drilling times fell dramatically, saving petroleum companies huge amounts of money.
Howard Hughes Sr. (1869 – 1924) on August 10, 1909, was awarded a U.S. patent for a dual-cone drill bit that could crush hard rock.
The Society of Petroleum Engineers has noted that about the same time Hughes developed his bit, Granville A. Humason of Shreveport, Louisiana, patented the first cross-roller rock bit, the forerunner of the Reed cross-roller bit.
Biographers have noted that Hughes met Granville Humason in a Shreveport bar, where Humason sold his roller bit rights to Hughes for $150. The University of Texas Center for American History Collection includes a 1951 recording of Humason talking about that chance meeting. He recalled spending $50 of his sale proceeds at the bar that evening.
After Walter Sharp died in 1912, his widow Estelle Sharp sold her 50 percent share in the company to Hughes. It became Hughes Tool in 1915. Despite legal action between Hughes Tool and the Reed Roller Bit Company in the late 1920s, Hughes prevailed and his oilfield service company prospered.
Hughes Tool
By 1934, Hughes Tool engineers designed and patented the three-cone roller bit, an enduring design that remains much the same today. Hughes’ exclusive patent lasted until 1951, which allowed his Texas company to grow worldwide. More innovations (and mergers) would follow.
A February 1914 advertisement for the Sharp-Hughes Tool Company in Fuel Oil Journal.
Frank Christensen and George Christensen had developed the earliest diamond bit in 1941 and introduced diamond bits to oilfields in 1946, beginning with the Rangley field of Colorado. The long-lasting tungsten carbide tooth came into use in the early 1950s.
After Baker International acquired Hughes Tool Company in 1987, Baker Hughes acquired the Eastman Christensen Company three years later. Eastman was a world leader in directional drilling.
When Howard Hughes Sr. died in 1924, he left three-quarters of his company to Howard Hughes Jr., then a student at Rice University. The younger Hughes added to the success of Hughes Tool while becoming one of the richest men in the world. His many legacies include founding Hughes Aircraft Company and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Learn more in Making Hole – Drilling Technology.
Oilfield Service Competition
A major competitor for any energy service company, today’s Schlumberger Limited can trace its roots to Caen, France. In 1912, brothers Conrad and Marcel began making geophysical measurements that recorded a map of equipotential curves (similar to contour lines on a map). Using very basic equipment, their field experiments led to the invention of a downhole electronic “logging tool” in 1927.
After developing an electrical four-probe surface approach for mineral exploration, the brothers lowered another electric tool into a well. They recorded a single lateral-resistivity curve at fixed points in the well’s borehole and graphically plotted the results against depth – creating first electric well log of geologic formations.
Meanwhile, another service company in Oklahoma, the Reda Pump Company had been founded by Armais Arutunoff, a close friend of Frank Phillips. By 1938, an estimated two percent of all the oil produced in the United States with artificial lift, was lifted by an Arutunoff pump.
Learn more in Inventing the Electric Submersible Pump (also see All Pumped Up – Oilfield Technology).
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Recommended Reading: History Of Oil Well Drilling
(2007); Trek of the Oil Finders: A History of Exploration for Petroleum (1975). Your Amazon purchase benefits the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. As an Amazon Associate, AOGHS earns a commission from qualifying purchases.
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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. © 2025 Bruce A. Wells.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Carl Baker and Howard Hughes.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/carl-baker-howard-hughes. Last Updated: July 17, 2025. Original Published Date: December 17, 2017.
by Bruce Wells | May 21, 2025 | Petroleum History Almanac
Marketing icon “Dino” and friends introduced children to wonders of the Mesozoic era courtesy of Sinclair Oil.
Harry Ford Sinclair established his petroleum company in 1916, making it one of the oldest continuous names in the U.S. energy industry. Appearing among other Sinclair Oil Company dinosaurs during the 1933-1934 World’s Fair in Chicago, “Dino” became a marketing icon whose popularity with children remains today. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | May 19, 2025 | Petroleum History Almanac
Less than 10 months after Edwin L. Drake and his driller William “Uncle Billy” Smith completed the first commercial U.S. oil well on August 27, 1859, along Oil Creek in Titusville, Pennsylvania, Thomas A. Gale wrote a detailed study about rock oil — and helped launch the petroleum age.
Published in 1860, The Wonder of the Nineteenth Century: Rock Oil in Pennsylvania and Elsewhere described a radical fuel source for the popular lamp fuel kerosene, which had been made from coal for more than a decade.
“Those who have not seen it burn may rest assured its light is no moonshine; but something nearer the clear, strong, brilliant light of day,” Gale declared in his 25-cent pamphlet printed in Erie by Sloan & Griffith Company.
Thomas Gale’s 80-page pamphlet in 1860 marked the beginning of the petroleum age, illuminated with kerosene lamps.
“In other words, rock oil emits a dainty light; the brightest and yet the cheapest in the world; a light fit for Kings and Royalists, and not unsuitable for Republicans and Democrats,” Gale added.
Oil in Rocks
Gale’s descriptions of the value of petroleum helped launch investments in new exploration companies, especially as he noted the commercial qualities of Pennsylvania oil for refining into kerosene, the distilled “coal oil” invented in 1848 by Canadian chemist Abraham Gesner.
Historians regard the 80-page publication as the first book about America’s petroleum industry. The Wonder of the Nineteenth Century: Rock Oil in Pennsylvania and Elsewhere was almost forgotten until 1952, when the Ethyl Corporation of New York republished the work. Only three original copies were known to exist.
“Not by the widest stretch of the imagination could Thomas Gale have realized, when he put down his pen on June 1, 1860, that he had written a book destined to become one of the rarest of all oil books,” proclaimed the Ethyl historian when the company republished Gale’s book.
Ethyl Corporation noted the scarcity of copies of the book had prevented “all but a few historians” from giving the book the attention it deserved.
“Gale wrote his book to satisfy a public desire for more information about petroleum. Newspapers had carried belated accounts of Drake’s discovery well, and the mad scramble for oil that followed, but actually the world knew little about petroleum.”
“The Rock poured…”
The book’s 11 chapters explain practical aspects of the new petroleum industry. Chapters one and two, “What is Rock Oil?” and “Where is the Rock Oil found?” were followed by “Geological Structure of the Oil Region.”
Chapters four through six explained the early technologies (and costs) for pumping the oil, while the next two chapters examine “Uses of Rock Oil.” The final three chapters offered “Sketches of several oil wells,” “History of the Rock Oil Enterprise,” and “Present condition and prospects of Rock Oil interests in different localities.”
Chapter three in The Wonder of the Nineteenth Century: Rock Oil in Pennsylvania and Elsewhere features the “geological structure of the oil region,” today part of Oil Creek State Park in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Originally published by Sloan & Griffith of Erie, Pennsylvania, the 1860 cover noted the author as “a resident of Oil Creek” and included a biblical quote, “The Rock poured me out rivers of oil,” from Job, 29:6.
In addition to mysteriously burning gasses and “tar pits,” explorers for millennia have referenced signs of coal, bitumen, and substances very much like petroleum — a word derived from the Latin roots of petra, meaning “rock” and oleum meaning “oil.”
But did Thomas Gayle’s 1860 work produce the first book about oil as Ethyl Corporation historians believed when the company reprinted it in 1952? In fact, there have been many references to natural oil seeps recorded millennia ago (including in the Bible), according to a geologist who has researched the earliest sightings of petroleum.
Illuminating Petroleum
Several years before the 1859 oil discovery in Pennsylvania, businessman George Bissell hired a prominent Yale chemist to study the potential of oil and its products to convince potential investors (see George Bissell’s Oil Seeps).
“Gentlemen, it appears to me that there is much ground for encouragement in the belief that your company have in their possession a raw material from which, by simple and not expensive processes, they may manufacture very valuable products,” reported Benjamin Silliman Jr. in 1855.
Silliman’s groundbreaking “Report on the Rock Oil, or Petroleum, from Venango Co., Pennsylvania, with Special Reference to its Use for Illumination and Other Purposes,” convinced the petroleum industry’s earliest investors to drill at Titusville. Cable-tool technology developed for brine wells would drill the well.
According to historian Paul H. Giddens in the 1939 classic, The Birth of the Oil Industry, Silliman’s 1855 report, “proved to be a turning-point in the establishment of the petroleum business, for it dispelled many doubts about its value.”
The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company would evolve into the Seneca Oil Company of New Haven, Connecticut, which became America’s first oil company after Drake completed the first U.S. commercial well drilled seeking oil in 1859.
Rock Oil Products
In addition to providing oil for refining into kerosene lamps (and someday rockets), oilfield discoveries led to many products. Early petroleum products included axle greases, an oilfield paraffin balm, and in Easton, Pennsylvania, Crayola crayons.
Further, oil offered an improved asphalt prior to the first U.S. auto show in November 1900 in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
Ethyl Corporation was established in 1923 by General Motors and Standard Oil of New Jersey,
Responding to consumer demand for better automobile gasoline, General Motors and Standard Oil of New Jersey established the Ethyl Corporation in 1923. The company initially downplayed the danger of tetraethyl lead. Leaded gas would be banned for use in cars in the 1970s
Importantly, high-octane leaded aviation fuel proved vital for victory in World War II — and the additive still fuels many piston-engine aircraft and racecars.
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Recommended Reading: The Wonder of the Nineteenth Century: Rock Oil in Pennsylvania and Elsewhere (1952); The Birth of the Oil Industry (1939); Myth, Legend, Reality: Edwin Laurentine Drake and the Early Oil Industry
(2009). Your Amazon purchase benefits the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. As an Amazon Associate, AOGHS earns a commission from qualifying purchases.
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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.
Citation Information – Article Title: “First Oil Book of 1860.” Authors: B.A. Wells and K.L. Wells. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/oil-almanac/first-oil-book-of-1860. Last Updated: May 17, 2025. Original Published Date: May 31, 2020.
