Oil & Gas History News: September
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 20, 2024An eternal thanks goes to Bruce Wells and the American Oil & Gas Historical Society. His fascinating look back at major industry events of the last 150 years is both educational and inspirational. It is upon the backs of our ancestors that we enjoy today’s high-energy civilization.
“Petroleum history provides a context for understanding modern energy challenges,” the Society explains.
AOGHS preserves U.S. petroleum history, which provides an important context for understanding the modern energy industry. This history, which began in August 1859 with the first commercial U.S. well in Pennsylvania, can help make informed decisions about meeting future energy needs. AOGHS offers education resources, including links to community oil and gas museums, county historical societies, libraries, and others dedicated to material preservation. Please join our effort.
The latest edition covers September in Oil & Gas History News, Vol. 5, No. 9 (September 18, 2024).
“Welcome to September’s back-to-school review of petroleum history milestones, which begins with updated summaries of the 1908 founding of General Motors; a second test of nuclear “fracking” in 1969; the Bartlesville, Oklahoma, incorporation of Cities Services in 1910; and the 1926 reincorporation of the future Texaco.
Our featured image illustrates the evolution of self-measuring gasoline pumps, which began in 1885 as kerosene dispensers. Also featured are the first oil discoveries in five states: Utah (1948), Mississippi (1930), Louisiana (1901), Texas (1866), and Pennsylvania — the 1859 oil discovery that launched America’s petroleum industry.
Highlights for Oil & Gas History News, Vol. 5, No. 9 (September 18, 2024) follow:
September 16, 1908 – Carriage Maker becomes General Motors
The co-owner of America’s largest manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages, William Durant, founded General Motors Holding Company in Flint, Michigan. The Durant-Dort Carriage Company, after taking control of Buick Motor Company, acquired Olds Motor Works of Detroit…MORE
September 10, 1969 – Second Nuclear Fracturing Test
Scientists detonated a 40-kiloton nuclear device in a natural gas well eight miles southeast of present-day Parachute, Colorado. Project Rulison was the second of three reservoir stimulation tests of Operation Plowshare to study the use of nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes…MORE
September 2, 1910 – Cities Service Company incorporates
Henry Doherty organized the Cities Service Company as a public utility holding company in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Doherty acquired natural gas distribution companies and producing properties in Oklahoma and Kansas, where a Cities Service subsidiary in 1915 discovered the 34-square-mile El Dorado oilfield…MORE
August 26, 1926 – Future Texaco expands
After years of growth thanks to oilfield discoveries at Spindletop and Sour Lake, the Texas Corporation reincorporated in Delaware, acquiring the outstanding stock of the Texas Company of Beaumont, which was dissolved by the next year…MORE
Energy Education
Early gasoline pump designs with dials were followed by calibrated glass cylinders by 1925. Meter pumps using a small glass dome with a turbine inside replaced the measuring cylinder as pumps continued to evolve. Illustration courtesy Popular Science, September 1955.
Gasoline pumps began with a small device for easily dispensing kerosene. On September 5, 1885, S.F. (Sylvanus Freelove) Bowser sold his first newly invented kerosene pump to the owner of a grocery store in Fort Wayne, Indiana. With the pump popular at Jake Gumper’s store, Bowser formed the S.F. Bowser & Company and began designing outdoor gasoline pumps. The company expanded and by 1905 added a hose attachment for dispensing gas directly into an automobile fuel tank. The S.F. Bowser Self-Measuring Gasoline Storage Pump soon became known to motorists as a “filling station” as more design innovations followed.
Learn more in First Gas Pump and Service Station.