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KF5JRV > TODAY 10.01.19 14:36l 48 Lines 2528 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 29021_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jan 10
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<IZ3LSV<IK6ZDE<VE2PKT<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 190110/1229Z 29021@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.17
On this day in 1901, a drilling derrick at Spindletop Hill near
Beaumont, Texas, produces an enormous gusher of crude oil, coating the
landscape for hundreds of feet and signaling the advent of the American
oil industry. The geyser was discovered at a depth of over 1,000 feet,
flowed at an initial rate of approximately 100,000 barrels a day and
took nine days to cap. Following the discovery, petroleum, which until
that time had been used in the U.S. primarily as a lubricant and in
kerosene for lamps, would become the main fuel source for new inventions
such as cars and airplanes; coal-powered forms of transportation
including ships and trains would also convert to the liquid fuel.
Crude oil, which became the world’s first trillion-dollar industry, is a
natural mix of hundreds of different hydrocarbon compounds trapped in
underground rock. The hydrocarbons were formed millions of years ago
when tiny aquatic plants and animals died and settled on the bottoms of
ancient waterways, creating a thick layer of organic material. Sediment
later covered this material, putting heat and pressure on it and
transforming it into the petroleum that comes out of the ground today.
In the early 1890s, Texas businessman and amateur geologist Patillo
Higgins became convinced there was a large pool of oil under a salt-dome
formation south of Beaumont. He and several partners established the
Gladys City Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Company and made several
unsuccessful drilling attempts before Higgins left the company. In 1899,
Higgins leased a tract of land at Spindletop to mining engineer Anthony
Lucas. The Lucas gusher blew on January 10, 1901, and ushered in the
liquid fuel age. Unfortunately for Higgins, he’d lost his ownership
stake by that point.
Beaumont became a “black goldö boomtown, its population tripling in
three months. The town filled up with oil workers, investors, merchants
and con men (leading some people to dub it “Swindletopö). Within a year,
there were more than 285 actives wells at Spindletop and an estimated
500 oil and land companies operating in the area, including some that
are major players today: Humble (now Exxon), the Texas Company (Texaco)
and Magnolia Petroleum Company (Mobil).
Spindletop experienced a second boom starting in the mid-1920s when more
oil was discovered at deeper depths. In the 1950s, Spindletop was mined
for sulphur. Today, only a few oil wells still operate in the area.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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