THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY OF CANADA 



of the wealthy men of Canada, John B. Fairbank, came to 

 Oil Springs at that time with very little capital besides his 

 brains, secured a small lot and, of course, put up a drilling 

 plant and started to drill a hole in the ground. His 

 capital, however, was not as elastic as his spirit, and he 

 was "up against it" before he reached the bottom, so 

 much so that he lacked the cash to pay for the necessary 

 sharpening of his tools. From one blacksmith to another 

 he went to get his drill dressed, but they were all too busy 

 with cash trade to bother with him. At last one took pity 

 on him and fixed his drill, and shortly afterwards he struck 

 a well flowing five hundred barrels a day, oil being worth 

 from five to ten dollars a barrel. This was the beginning 

 of his fortune, and he did not forget the blacksmith who 

 helped him along. The early days of the oil fields are full 

 of such cases as this one. 



The wasteful extravagance of the early prospectors, 

 who apparently drilled holes for the mere pleasure of seeing 

 the oil flow away, produced its inevitable result. The 

 supply of oil began to fail, and big discoveries were made 

 at the older Petrolia field. 



With the discovery of these new wells, such as the 

 King Wells, in 1867, the excitement died down to a solid 

 business proposition. The speculative period, such as is 

 found in all mining camps, died out, and the oil men 

 tackled the problem in a business-like manner. The price 

 of crude oil now dropped to about twenty cents a barrel, 

 but as an offset to this low price means were found of stor- 

 ing the oil, and gradually the great waste was stopped. 



The Petrolia field proved much more stable than the 

 Oil Springs field. The oil men learned economic methods 

 and recovered from their original madness. Wells were 

 drilled by steam power instead of the old kicking rig. 

 This slide shows the outfit used at present for drilling. 

 On the right is the steam engine that supplies the power to 

 raise the drill. The drill hangs down the centre of the tall 



