To industrial use of oil

The Industrial Revolution led to the development of new products and new technologies. Towards the end of the Industrial Revolution (late XIX th century), the use of oil is still quite marginal, but interest in this resource is growing. 

In 1852, Abraham Gesner invented kerosene , an inexpensive and fuel good for lighting. In 1855, Benjamin Silliman , publish a list of the range of products that can be obtained by distillation of petroleum . 

Initially used mainly in raw form for lighting (in oil lamps ), the gradual increase in demand and the emergence the combustion engine drives the development of new forms of oil better. 

Therefore, it conducts research to locate the various oil fields , and conducted the first underground drilling in Germany in 1857. Two years later, it was the beginning of the black gold rush. 

The August 30, 1859, in Titusville, Pennsylvania, "Colonel" Edwin Drake drilled the first wells oil producer. This is the United States was born really the oil industry modern, already led by financial and indutriels looking for quick profit. From January 1870, John R. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil and makes sure 95% of the world oil market. Production so concentrated in the United States to other countries swarms through the action of the oil companies U.S.. More information about the history of the oil industry here . 

The use of oil remains despite modest before the beginning of XX th century. Second, world oil consumption is exploding, supported by advances in chemistry (especially that of the petrochemical ) and development of the automotive market and the internal combustion engine . 

Even in the years 1930-1940, oil production is essentially American, it is only then that we discover the presence of large deposits in the Middle East.