PITTSBURGH'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF OIL AND NATURAL GAS

Most people know the story about the first oil well drilled in North America by Edwin Drake and “Uncle Billy” Smith on a site near Titusville, Pennsylvania, in August of 1859. However, what is less well known is that the Titusville drilling project might not have happened without the work of a Pittsburgh businessman named Samuel M. Kier (1813-1874) who, by distilling crude oil in the mid-1850s, created the demand for crude oil which led to the Drake Well project in Titusville. Charles Lockhart (1818-1905) and his partner, William N. Frew (1854-1915) greatly expanded the refinery business in Pittsburgh starting in 1861 with the Brilliant Oil Works company using mostly oil brought down river from the Titusville area. In 1868 Lockhart and Frew incorporated seven refineries into one company called the Standard Oil Company, based in East Liberty – Rockefeller’s company came later. Starting in 1882, natural gas was piped into Pittsburgh from the Murrysville gas field, and this prompted George Westinghouse (1846-1914), the inventor of the airbrake system, to search for gas on his own property in the city of Pittsburgh beginning in 1884. The well was successful and he became one of the first homeowners in Pittsburgh to light and heat his home with natural gas; even providing natural gas for some of his neighbors. Westinghouse formed the Philadelphia Company (later to be the Equitable Gas Company) to provide natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Pittsburgh, but Westinghouse did not charge the Pittsburgh fire and police departments. The founders of several major oil and gas companies had Pittsburgh roots, e.g.: Joseph N. Pew (1848-1912), SUNOCO and Peoples Natural Gas Company; the Mellon family, Gulf Oil Company; John Eaton (1840-1911), Oil Well Supply Company; and Michael L. Benedum (1869-1959) who was involved with various oil and gas companies. Thus, Pittsburgh has played a major role in creating the modern oil and natural gas industry.