Karandikars & Associates

Accidental discovery of Oil

The origins of the modern Oil industry are considered to be dating back to 1859, when Col. Edwin L Drake made the first commercial discovery of crude oil near Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA

This was the first reported successful “drilling” opposite to “digging”. It was actually an accidental birth of a new and a very large large energy source

The brief story goes like this:

"A company called Pennsylvania Rock Oil was convinced that drilling, rather than digging was the way forward for oil. It hired Edwin L. Drake for the job. However the progress was slow, and the investors became nervous and sent a letter directing that he cease operations, pay of the debt and give up
The letter was slow to reach, by which time Drake had already drilled about 69 feet. The drill abruptly dropped down, and the next day there was something floating on top of water -- Oil"

Thus a delay of a letter directing to stop drilling, and an accidental dropping down of the drill, gave rise to the birth of new energy source, that was going to dominate the world for next couple of centuries