By Anant Gupta
We all know how precious oil is, but what most of us do not know is how it reached our petrol pumps in the first place. We have Edwin Drake to thank for it. Drake, an ordinary railroad conductor achieved the impossible by extracting oil from the ground. With no prior experience and moderate education, Drake possessed a quality that made him stand out, he did not know how to quit. When others gave up, Drake kept on digging (quite literally) to unearth black gold.
Born in a poor farming family in 1819, Drake left home at the age of nineteen and worked odd jobs until 1831, when he landed a job as a railway conductor. Though the work was good, Drake was forced into early retirement in 1857 due to flailing health. What seemed like the end of his career was in reality the beginning of a rigorous job which would cement his legacy in the industrial world.
Drake landed his new job through the most unusual of routes. He was residing in the same hotel as the founders of Seneca Oil Company who wanted someone to investigate suspected oil reserves in Titusville. They hired Drake as they wanted to capitalise on his free railroad passes. With no prior experience, Drake was sent packing to Titusville to explore the possibility of setting up an oil well.
Early struggles and resistance
Drake arrived in Titusville in the spring of 1858. Though warmly greeted by the 150-odd residents of Titusville, his endeavor was dismissed as pointless. Drake started his oil search by digging. However, he soon realised that oil would not be found floating on the surface, but compressed somewhere deep underground. Drake knew digging to such great depths would be physically impossible and instead, he tried to extract oil by sinking a huge shaft beneath the ground. In doing so he encountered the twin problems of seeping water which rendered the shaft useless.
By then, the operation had already taken 5 months and was beginning to lose steam. The investors became wary of the operation and it was only a matter of time before they cut off funds to Drake and his excavation team. That should have been a signal enough for anyone to quit trying and move forward. But not for Drake.
Drake then bought a steam engine and a 450-horsepower drill, and built an engine house to accommodate the engine inside the derrick. Using the steam engine to power the drill, Drake was able to drill 32 feet deep till the hole started to crack. The water-quicksand problem returned to haunt him, and Drake had to think of a way round the problem. By using a cast iron pipe and housing the drill inside it, he insulated the power drill from any external entity. All the sand and water would stick onto the pipe, leaving the drill dry and secure. Little did Drake know that his idea of using an iron pipe would lead to one of the greatest inventions in mankind, and the birth of a new industry.
The origins of Crazy Drake and the first oil well
First oil well in the United States, built in 1859 by Edwin L. Drake, Titusville, Pennsylvania. Credit: Photos.com/ThinkstockAt that time, the entire crew was focused on the results of his invention. The speed of drilling had lowered to a miserable 3 foot/day, but Drake was not demotivated by this. He believed that as long as they dug deeper without damaging the drill, they were right on track.
In fact, as each day passed with no sign of oil, crowds accumulated around the site to jeer him. They named his digging site Drakes Folly, and referred him to as Crazy Drake, far from the prestigious title of Colonel when he had landed in Titusville. However, one day Drake finally struck gold.
Tired after another full day of drilling with the no success, the crew returned the next day to an astonishing discovery. Bubbling inside the pipe was a black liquid, which looked distinctly similar to what the team was after all this time. Drake was swiftly summoned, and he frantically arranged a way to extract the black liquid using a hand pump. As the liquid rose to the surface, the excitement was palpable. The team, after years of struggle, mockery, and ridicule, had proven the naysayers wrong and extracted the mystical black gold from the groundoil. The ridicule turned to applause, and turned Drake into an overnight hero.
However, the glory was short lived. The captivating news of Drakes discovery spread like wildfire. Next day, thousands of business veterans had started to build their own oil well on the pattern which Drake had built. Drakes biggest folly was he never patented his oil well design, and soon mass piracy proliferated the woods.
Last days
Though Drake managed to withdraw 20-30 barrels of oil a day (the same amount of whale oil would take 4 weeks to collect on a sea voyage), he never amassed the fortune which he richly deserved. On top of that, Seneca had refused to lend any further money to Drake, and instead bought every farm to set up an oil rig with their own funds. Within a few years, the Gold Rush movement sparked by the discovery of oil brought the oil prices down from $5 a barrel to 10 cents a barrel. As oil prices plummeted, so did the fortunes of those riding its coattails. One of them was Drake itself, who lost most of his investments in oil farms at that time. By the time prices picked up, Drake was too broke to capitalise on it.
Sadly, Drakes last years were spent in a fragile state. Pennsylvania, however, did not forget his contribution to its booming economy. The residents coerced the state to contribute $1500 lifetime pension for Drakes well-being. Though not rich, Drake accomplished what he aspired for greatlycrafting his own legacy. His words exemplify his beliefs, “I claim that I did invent the driving Pipe and drive it and without that they could not bore on bottom lands when the earth is full of water. And I claim to have bored the first well that ever was bored for the Petroleum in America and can show the well. If I had not done it, it would have not been done to this day.
When he started to face a crunch in funds, he invested his own savings to fuel the project. When that also went down the drain, Drake did not hesitate to borrow money from friends to keep the project running. Though he was broke, he made sure the digging didnt stop.
Impact of Drakes discovery in the modern world
Oil is called black gold for a reason. With supply of 1.8 million barrels/day, oil is the lifeline of many industries such as transport and energy. None of this would have been possible if Drake had not kept digging, despite repeated failures. Through his discovery, Drake taught us the power of believing in oneself and carrying on through routine failures to achieve something big.
Remember the Titans is a weekly ode to the inventors, geniuses, and business pioneers who left the world better than they got it. Check out stories of other Titans here.