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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph from Dr. D. T. Day 



the site oe America's pioneer oil well 



A new chapter in industrial history began sixty years ago with the flow of petroleum 

 from this 69-foot bore-hole on Oil Creek, Pennsylvania. Edwin L. Drake did not strike it 

 rich, receiving only an annuity from the Keystone State and a monument from the industry 

 he founded. 



smaller stream flowing past the Nation's 

 Capital, if the Potomac at Great Falls 

 were a river of crude oil, the nation's an- 

 nual requirements could be met only with 

 the flow at the summer rate for nearly 

 four days and a half. 



So it is that while in 191 8 our "home 

 fires" in power plant, blast furnace, loco- 

 motive, and residence consumed a moun- 

 tain of coal a mile and a third in diameter 



and nearly 2,000 feet high, we also used 

 a river of oil. 



Credit is often due to the silent partner 

 in a business, and the marvelous growth 

 of our oil industry owes much to its own 

 transportation system, unseen and un- 

 known by most citizens, yet far more 

 efficient than the railroad lines of which 

 we are so proud. 



Beginning with four miles of iron pipe 



