This Week in Petroleum History, January 5 – 11
January 7, 1864 – Oilfield Discovery at Pithole Creek –
The once-famous Pithole Creek
This Week in Petroleum History, December 29 – January 4
December 30, 1854 – First American Oil Company incorporates –
George Bissell and six investors incorporated the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New York. Convinced by natural seeps that oil could be produced in northwestern Pennsylvania, Bissell formed this first U.S. petroleum exploration company “to raise, manufacture, procure, and sell Rock Oil” from Hibbard Farm in Venango County. (more…)
This Week in Petroleum History, December 22 – 28
December 22, 1875 – Grant paves Pennsylvania Avenue with Asphalt –
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…)
This Week in Petroleum History, December 15 – 21
December 17, 1884 – Fighting Oilfield Fires with Cannons –
“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…)
This Week in Petroleum History, December 8 – 14
December 8, 1931 – Advanced Blowout Preventer patented –
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…)
This Week in Petroleum History, December 1 – 7
December 1, 1865 – Lady Macbeth arrives in Famed Boom Town –
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…)
