CHAPTER I. PETROLEUM IN HISTORY AND LEGEND 3

II. WHAT IS PETROLEUM? 11

III. DAWN OF AMERICA’S PETROLEUM INDUSTRY 30

IV. FOUNDER OF THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY 37

V. PETROLEUM AS A WORLD INDUSTRY 44

VI. LOCATING THE OIL WELL 57

VII. DRILLING THE OIL WELL 65

VIII. COLLECTING AND TRANSPORTING CRUDE: THE PIPE LINE 76

IX. REFINING AND MANUFACTURING PETROLEUM PRODUCTS 89

X. PETROLEUM AND OTHER INDUSTRIES 106

XI. PETROLEUM ON THE SEVEN SEAS 116

XII. PETROLEUM IN THE GREAT WAR 129

XIII. AMERICA’S INVESTMENT IN PETROLEUM 148

XIV. PETROLEUM IN THE FUTURE 160

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The first oil well, drilled near Titusville, Pa., on August 27, 1859, by Col. Edwin L. Drake _Frontispiece_

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A temporary oil reservoir in Oklahoma 26

Early activity; the famous Red Hot Oil Field near Shamburg, Pa. 42

Where Pithole stood 43

The Drader Well in the Moreni Field, Roumania 66

Burkburnett in Northern Texas 67

Big yield well in Mexico flowing into temporary storage pond 82

Laying a pipe line through a Louisiana forest 83

Lines for loading oil on vessels standing from one to two miles at sea 98

Battery of crude stills at the Bayway Refinery, Linden, N. J. 99

“Look boxes” in the “Still House” where the grades of oil are separated according to gravity 114

A modern tanker carrying 4,000,000 gallons of oil 115

A tanker being loaded with gasoline and oil at a refinery dock at Port Arthur, Texas 146

Kansas wells flowing oil into a temporary sump, or earthen reservoir 147

Steam stills at a modern refinery 162

Storage tank at Cushing, Oklahoma, struck by lightning 163

THE EVOLUTION OF THE OIL INDUSTRY