On August 27th, 1859, George Bissel and Edwin Drake changed the American petroleum industry forever.
The two men were responsible for the first successful use of a drilling rig for a commercial well. Drilled especially for oil.
Named the Drake well, and drilled to a whopping depth of 69 feet, it took Titusville, Pennsylvania by storm.
And set the course for investment and speculation in the oil industry.
You might not know this, but the history of drilling for oil predates Bissel and Drake by at least 1,500 years.
The earliest known wells, discovered in China, date to AD 350 and were drilled out to depths of up to 800 feet by using drill bits attached to bamboo poles.
But Drake’s well stands out from its predecessors for several reasons:
Before this point in the U.S., oil was only collected where it seeped to the surface, such as in northwestern Pennsylvania where it was skimmed from the tops of ponds.
