Energy And Terrorism
Who would have known that a substance once collected and used as an ointment or skin coloring would become essential in modern day American life. The first time that crude oil was ever considered to be somewhat valuable was when Dr. Francis, a resident of New Hampshire, traveled to Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1851 to toil with a lumbering firm which he was part owner. During his visit Brewer had encountered crude oil and collected some to bring back home with him. Leading his return to New England, Brewer left a bottle of the oil with Dixi Crosby, a chemist from Dartmouth College, who subsequently showed it to a business man, George Bissel.
After Bissel reviewed what Crosby had brought him he was dumbfounded by the similarity between coal and crude oil. In order for them to act on this visual comparison, there would need to be a financial backing of $250,000. In any case, in order to receive financial backing your are going to have to prove or at least give some evidence on why or how your product is going to work and prove to them that you are worth investing in. This was not going to be easy for them seeing as there was so significant evidence on how or why crude oil was going to be beneficial. That was until; Benjamin Silliman Jr. was added into the equation. Silliman, of Yale University, provided some well needed insight and some scientific backing for George Bissel, Dixi Crosby, and Dr. Francis Brewer. Silliman estimated that at least 50 percent of the crude oil could be distilled into a satisfactory illuminant for use in camphene lamps, and that 90 percent of the distilled products held commercial promise. Shortly after, on September 18, 1855, Bissel established the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of Connecticut. This organization was founded principally on conjecture of the prospective value of crude oil in and around Oil Creek Valley and was believed to be the first built on such speculation.
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