![]() By some accounts, he suffered from muscular neuralgia (a disease of the nervous system) as early as 1860. Drake never benefited financially from his discovery of oil. His success launched a global industry upon which most of our modern lives depend. Drake drilled the first well specifically intended to produce oil in Titusville, Pa., in 1859. ![]() The Drake well would remain a "pumper" and oil had to be mechanically pumped from the ground. Pennsylvania is the birthplace of commercial oil production, thanks to Colonel Edwin L. ![]() When Smith visited the well later, he found oil pooling from the earth's surface. The men pulled out the drill Drake went to town to observe the Sabbath. On August 27,1859, the drill dropped into a crevice at 69 feet and slipped down six inches. He and Uncle Billy Smith drilled three feet per day. In Titusville, Drake constructed a derrick (a large crane) to drill for oil. Townsend put this advice together with Drake's access to a free railroad pass and asked him to travel to Titusville and oversee the drilling of the first petroleum well. Illness forced Drake to give up his railroad job in 1857, and physicians advised him to leave the urban life and spend some time in the country. An economic boom that began in western Pennsylvania in 1859 set the stage for an industry that transformed the world, notes a documentary commemorating the 2009 sesquicentennial of Edwin Drake drilling the first commercial oil well outside Titusville, Pennsylvania. Drake befriended James Townsend and others who were involved in oil discovery efforts in Pennsylvania. ![]()
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