Virtual Whistler

The oil and petroleum were discovered by Edwin L. Drake, an American is 1859. He was an illiterate.

Oil is a sticky, muddy substance found in the earth at a depth of half a mile to four miles. Without oil we cannot imagine this world. About 90% things of modern world are made up of mineral oil.

The first oil well of the world was dug by Drake in 1852 in Titusville in Pennsylvania where oil struck at a depth of 21 meters only.

The local people ridiculed him. But Edwin pumped out 20 barrels of oil from this well every day. By 1867 the coal oil was completely replaced by kerosene oil. Oil became the mainstay of America's industrialization after the civil war.

How oil was discovered in India?

The first oil well in India was dug at Nahar Pang in assam in 1866. But it did not yield oil. Oil was stuck first in 1867 at a place called Makum in Assam.

An oil factory was set up in Digboi in 1901 for processing crude oil. Assam oil company had dug 80 oil wells and was pumping 14,000 gallon mineral oil per day by 1920.