[History of Haichuan Pipeline] The world’s first oil pipeline
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On August 27, 1859, the first oil field in the United States was established in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The earliest oil-containing tool was a wooden barrel for beer. Various oil producers hired horse-drawn carriages to transport barrels of crude oil to the river, loaded it on flat-bottomed barges, and sailed down the Alleghany River to the Pittsburgh refinery. In the oil area, crude oil is transported by horse-drawn carriage from the wellhead to the river. The freight per barrel is as high as 2.5 to 5 US dollars. How to save this freight cost? An oil producer named Samuel Van Syckle laid the first pipeline in the oil area to transport oil. This is a 2-inch (about 5.08 cm) diameter wrought iron pipe connected by bolts, a total length of 5 miles (about 8 kilometers) from Pithole City to the Miller Farm train station, and buried 2 feet (about 0.5 meters) deep in the ground. The first station uses pumps driven by two steam engines to transport oil, with a daily oil delivery capacity of 800 barrels (about 40,000 tons/year), and the freight per barrel of oil is only US$1. As a result, the oil fields were quickly covered with gathering and transportation pipelines. However, Exxon's "100 Years of Discovery" brochure states that Pennsylvania's earliest oil pipelines were made of wood. The book "Oil, Money, Power" also said that from 1863 to 1865, the cheapest way to transport oil was wooden pipelines. In fact, the Chinese have been using bamboo and wooden pipelines to transport natural gas and brine in the Artesian Well area of Sichuan more than 1,000 years ago. This kind of pipe is called "Jian" or "Jian". Bamboo or wood is hollowed out in the middle, and bamboo strips are wrapped around the outside. The gaps are painted with tung oil and lime to connect, strengthen and prevent leakage. The above is about pipelines inside oil or gas fields. The earliest and first export pipeline, or "long-distance pipeline", was the "Tide Water" pipeline jointly built by some oil producers in the Pennsylvania oil producing area. It was built in May 1879, from Greville, Pennsylvania to Port William, with a total length of 90 miles (about 145 kilometers), a pipe diameter of 6 inches, and a daily oil transportation capacity of 10,000 barrels (about 500,000 tons/year). The pipeline crosses the Allegheny Mountains. The book "Oil, Money, Power" states that this is "the world's first long-distance oil pipeline." However, Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ) reports on the 100th anniversary of the U.S. petroleum industry.: “The world's first trunk pipeline was a pipeline from the Pennsylvania oil fields to Pittsburgh built in 1874. It belonged to the Columbia Pipeline Company. The pipe diameter was 76.2 mm, the total length was 60 miles (about 96.5 kilometers), and the daily transmission capacity was 3,500 barrels (about 175,000 tons/year). At that time, the Pennsylvania Railroad was built to prevent it from crossing the railroad. For this reason, a terminal was built on each side of the railway and a viaduct was built above the railway. ” From 1907 to 1910, in the United States, two 8-inch (about 20 cm) oil pipelines were built from the oil-producing areas of Oklahoma to the Texas Gulf Coast. In 1923, a 10-inch (approximately 25.4 cm) and 12-inch (approximately 30 cm) diameter oil pipeline was built from Wyoming's Teapot Mountain to the Midcontinent.
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There is an "Oil Creek" in Pennsylvania in the northeastern United States. For many years, patches of dark crude oil have drifted on the water. In 1851, a doctor named Frances Brewer hired men to collect crude oil near Oil Creek, which he used to light lamps and lubricate wood machinery. In 1854, Brewer and his partners founded the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company in New York, the world's first oil company. Unfortunately, the company's output has been low. Although crude oil sold for $20 per barrel, the company was in a state of loss. James Townsend, one of the shareholders, decided to start a new business. In 1858, Townsend and some investors established the Seneca Oil Co. Our hero today, Edwin Drake, is a shareholder of the Seneca Oil Company.
In 1849, at the age of 30, Drake became a conductor on the New York to New Haven railroad. In the summer of 1857, severe arthritis cost him his job, and soon after, his wife died. At the age of 38, it can be said that he has reached the lowest point in his life. But it was such a tragic man who became the founder of the world's oil industry! There is an old saying in China that good times will come true. Drake, who had just experienced a major setback in his life, met a noble man - James Townsend. One day, when Drake was alone in a hotel, he met Townsend. Townsend told him about the Seneca Oil Company and invited him to join. At that time, oil was still an emerging industry. The oil discovered at that time basically seeped out through the surface of the earth. Extracting oil from the ground on a large scale has always been a technical problem, and no company has yet succeeded.
Bissell has no more abilities than ordinary people, but he does have one thing that is extraordinary, that is, his persistence and concentration that are beyond ordinary people, and his spirit of never giving up. It is this spirit that has always inspired generations of American oilmen to continue to carry forward the American oil industry. George Bissell was born in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1821. His ancestors came from a Norman family with French ancestry in Somersetshire, England, and his mother was of Belgian and Dutch ancestry. Bissell's ancestors came to settle in Windsor, Connecticut, USA as early as 1628, and were among the first European immigrants to settle there. The late Connecticut Governor Clark Bissell and Illinois Governor William H. Bissell were both distant relatives of the family. His father died when Bissell was about twelve years old. He had to find a way to support himself, working and going to school to complete his studies. No one gave him a dollar. While studying at school, Bissell began to work as a tutor and write articles for newspapers and magazines to make money. * The knowledge in books and the mastery of many practical skills laid a good foundation for him to compete in the market in the future. Bissell attended Military School at Norwich, Vermont. * After two years, he also studied at Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire. * After a while, he transferred to Dartmouth College (Dartmouth College, one of the eight Ivy League universities). * Latin until graduating from the school in 1845.
After that, he first worked as a Greek and Latin teacher at the University of Norwich for two months, but felt that the salary was too low, so he resigned and went to Washington, D.C. C.), worked as a temporary reporter for the Richmond Whig during the winter. In the spring of 1846, Bissell went to Cuba again, and soon returned to New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. There, Bissell connected with the editorial department of the New Orleans Delta newspaper and became a staff writer for the newspaper. For several years, he contributed numerous articles to New Orleans's major newspaper columns. At the same time, in an election for the principal of a New Orleans high school in 1846, Bissell defeated several other opponents and was elected as a high school principal. Later, he was elected as the superintendent of the New Orleans Public Schools. At this time, his excellent administrative ability and excellent scholar's demeanor were fully utilized in his work. Soon, the schools in New Orleans were managed in an orderly and prosperous way. Although he was a director of public schools and a newspaper editor, Bissell still insisted on studying despite his busy work schedule. * Law and some modern languages. Until the summer of 1854, because the humid climate in New Orleans made him often sick, Bissell had to give up his life in New Orleans and return north. It was also this year that he came into contact with oil for the first time. This was completely by chance and was not something he planned at all.
He came to New York from New Orleans to co-open a law firm. He had left his hometown of Hanover for more than eight years, so Bissell decided to take some time to visit his mother in Hanover, where not only his family lived, but also where his alma mater, Dartmouth College, was located. One night, he remembered visiting Professor Crosby (Dr. Di), professor of chemistry at the school. * Crosby). At the professor's house, Bissell saw a bottle on the table, which contained some black substance that he had never seen before. Out of curiosity, he asked Professor Crosby what was in the bottle. It turned out that this was a rock oil sample collected by Dr. Brewer, another visiting alumnus a few weeks ago, from the Oil Creek in Titusville, Pennsylvania. These black greasy substances often emerge from the oil springs there and can be fished out while floating on the water. Three to five gallons can be collected every day. Dr. Brewer wanted to ask Professor Crosby to conduct some chemical tests to see if they had any practical value. After testing, it was found that the composition was similar to the kerosene burned by kerosene lamps at that time, but it produced unpleasant smoke when burned. After listening to Professor Crosby's introduction, Bissell suddenly became very interested in this new thing. Perhaps what he saw at that time was not that oil had properties similar to kerosene, but that he realized a potential business opportunity and a bright material that illuminated the darkness of mankind. This was the same idea that Rockefeller later had. If oil could be provided to replace the expensive whale oil at the time for lighting people at night, the light lit by kerosene lamps would enter the homes of thousands of civilians, which would be ten thousand times more meaningful than being a small lawyer. This visit unexpectedly planted a seed deep in Bissell's heart that will never be extinguished. This seed later sprouted and became his actions and pursuits for the rest of his life.
Six months after returning to New York, Bissell decided to discuss a plan of action with his law firm partner, Jonathan G. Eveleth. The first step is for Eveleth to inspect the place where the Titusville oil samples were collected. If feasible, invest in purchasing the mineral lease rights there. Then, set up a company to go public and make profits by selling stocks. Since no one had heard of oil minerals at the time, they soon purchased one hundred acres of mineral rights surrounding Titusville Oil Springs for ninety-nine years for five thousand dollars. These two young lawyers registered the first oil company in the United States under the laws of New York State at the end of 1854, named Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co. (Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co.). The original meaning of petroleum in English is also a combination of the Latin for rock oil. Petro means rock and leum means grease. Later, the academic name was defined as petroleum Petroleum. The difficult challenges began after the company was established. It is difficult for such a leather company with few fixed assets to be promoted in today's Chinese stock market, let alone being listed in New York. Not to mention, the issue price was set at US$25 per share, which was an extremely high price. In order for the company's stock to be successfully listed, they spent a lot of money from their tight law firm income to take samples from Titusville Oil Spring to Yale University, and asked Benjamin Silliman Jr., the most famous chemistry professor in the United States at the time, to test and endorse it. Even so, they still spent a lot of money and gained little.
Silliman's test report gave the oil samples a high rating, but it did not inspire the enthusiasm of the majority of American investors. From the beginning, Penn Rock's stock plummeted, and before long it was almost worthless. In this embarrassing predicament, Bissell and Eveleth had to tighten their belts and buy back cheap company stocks with their own money, trying their best to save the oil company they created. In fact, they also know that the reason for the poor stock sales is not that people doubt the high-quality characteristics of oil, but how this thing measured in gallons can become a climate. Thousands of households burned kerosene lamps, and one New York street alone burned several barrels of oil in one night. Obviously, this is not a question of the practical value of oil, but a huge difference in quantity. Professor Silliman even declared this unavoidable reality to everyone through actions. At that time, in order to take advantage of the celebrity effect, Bissell also hired Silliman as the company's president by giving away shares. After a period of research on oil springs, Silliman believed that oil would not have abundant reserves underground and would be difficult to become a mineral of economic value. Even non-professionals today may not have a good understanding of the storage and distribution of oil underground. So, when the stock fell, Silliman handed over his shares, resigned and returned to school. Bissell suffered a major setback on the way to pursue his dream, which was close to a catastrophe.