ii6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



America had been altogether forgotten, when, in 1826, salt- workers 

 who were engaged in boring brine-shafts in Ohio were amazed to find 

 that they had struck oil as well as^rine. 



Certainly it was known to the Seneca Indians of Pennsylvania 

 that oil flowed from the rocks at various points in the Alleghany 

 Mountains ; and a French traveler has recorded a curious incident 

 which he witnessed in 1750, when the tribe assembled for a religious 

 ceremony, at the junction of a small stream with the Alleghany River. 

 The stream was covered with a thick, oily scum, to which, after a sol- 

 emn oration, the chief applied a lighted torch. Immediately the flames 

 spread over the surface of the water, amid shouts of the red warriors. 



In the same district, at the spot now known as Titusville, was a 

 well on the surface of which oil habitually floated ; and the Indians, 

 who had long known its healing properties (now so fully recognized 

 in its refined form as vaseline), were in the habit of collecting it by 

 laying their blankets on the glassy surface of both well and stream, 

 thus absorbing the oil, which they then wrung out and stored for the 

 use of the tribe. So early as 1833 an account was published in "The 

 American Journal of Science," describing how certain persons made 

 a living by skimming this dirty-looking and most unfragrant grease 

 with their boards, and then purified it by heating and straining it 

 through flannel, when it was sold under the name of Seneca-oil, as 

 an excellent specific for healing sores of man and beast, and curing 

 sprains and rheumatism. 



In 1853 it occurred to Dr. Brewer that this natural oil might be 

 turned to account for lamps, and the Pennsylvania Rock-Oil Company 

 was formed to develop the idea, with very small result, however, till, 

 in the year 1859, Colonel Drake's attention was attracted by the oil 

 which oozed from fissures of the rock all along the stream now known 

 as Oil Creek. He bethought him that since the rock was apparently 

 saturated with this oil, there must surely be a reservoir which, if it 

 could be found and tapped, would yield a far larger supply than that 

 which was so carefully collected by the company. Little, however, 

 did he dream when he first communicated to them his idea, and was 

 by them empowered to work it on their account, what amazing results 

 would attend his experiment. 



He commenced sinking a shaft on the artesian-well principle, and 

 had bored to a depth of six hundred feet, when, to his unspeakable 

 delight, he found that he had indeed reached the main supply, and oil 

 was henceforth pumped up at the rate of from four hundred to one 

 thousand gallons daily. Very soon he was able to rejoice his employ- 

 ers with about two thousand barrels of crude petroleum. New shafts 

 were quickly sunk in every direction, and in the following year five 

 hundred thousand barrels rewarded the lucky borers. This strike 

 proved magical in another sense, for at once the price of crude petro- 

 leum fell from twenty -three cents per gallon to twelve cents, and that 



