Petroleum Industry.
The petroleum age began in 1859 when Edwin L. Drake's construction of the first oil well in northwestern Pennsylvania launched several oil rushes in the Appalachian fields and a refinery boom. For the rest of the nineteenth century the United States was the world's leading oil producer, refiner, consumer, and exporter. While demand for American illuminating oil expanded, continual improvements in processing petroleum, such as larger stills, pipeline gathering systems, and railroad tank cars, reduced costs.... ...
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