The story of Pittsburgh: Petroleum and natural gas : in two parts

Petroleum and natural gas : in two parts (Vol. 1, nr. 10)

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Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1831622599

Document type:: Multivolume work

Title:: The story of Pittsburgh

Place of publication:: Pittsburgh

Publisher:: First National Bank

Year of publication:: 1919-1930

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1831623455

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-239811

Document type:: Volume

Title:: Petroleum and natural gas : in two parts

Volume count:: Vol. 1, nr. 10

Place of publication:: Pittsburgh

Publisher:: First National Bank

Year of publication:: 1923

Scope:: [ca. 24] Seiten

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Petroleum and Natural Gas

Collection:: Economics Books

manufacture salt considerably more than a century ago. Some of these wells were operated previous to the year 1810, but when petroleum was struck it was looked upon as a great misfortune, because it ruined the well for salt-making pur- poses. Similar results were found in wells bored for brine in Dhio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Of the early utilization of oil in Venango County, an account written some years ago by the Rev. S. J. M. Eaton, of Franklin, contains the following: “A point was selected where the oil appeared to bubble up most freely, when a pit was excavated to the depth of two or three feet. Sometimes this pit was rudely walled up, sometimes not. Sometimes it was near the edge of the water on the bank of the stream; sometimes in the bed of the stream itself, advantage being taken of a time of low water. In these pits the oil and water would collect together, until a stratum of the former would form on the surface of the latter, when a coarse blanket or piece of flannel was thrown in. This blanket soon became saturated with oil, but rejected the water. The blanket was then taken out, wrung into a tub or barrel, and the operation repeated.” Even in those days, Pittsburgh was the market for oil, long before the drilling of the Drake well, for the Rev. Mr. Eaton’s narration goes on to say: “The first shipment of petroleum was to Pittsburgh, and in this wise: Mr. Cary, one of the first settlers on Oil Creek, possessing perhaps a little more enterprise than his neighbors, would collect or purchase a cargo of oil, proceed to Pittsburgh and exchange it for commodities needed in his family. This cargo consisted of two 5-gallon kegs, which were slung one on each side of a horse, and thus conveyed by land. . . . Sometimes the market in Pittsburgh became very dull, for a flatboatman would occasionally introduce a barrel or two at once, which he had brought down on his raft of lumber or logs. At other times the demand fell off, so that the purchase of a barrel was hazardous. At a period somewhat later than this, General Samuel Hays, who settled in Franklin in 1808, related that at one time he purchased all the oil produced in the country, and that the highest annual yield was 16 barrels. This oil he sold in Pittsburgh at about $1 a gallon.”

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