DID YOU KNOW ?

The modern petroleum industry was born in nineteenth century America. In the early 1800s, entrepreneurs built dams to make oil float to the water surface in an area of western Pennsylvania called Oil Creek. They threw blankets in the water,let them soak up oil, retrieved the oil by wringing out the blankets, and sold the oil for $2 a gallon.

Gasoline was mainly a wasted by-product of the distillation of kerosene from crude oil until demand rose in the early 1900s, when automobiles using gasoline-burning internal combustion engines became commonplace. Farm equipment powered by gasoline and diesel fuel soon became popular as well, dramatically increasing agricultural productivity.

Scientists experimented with further refining petroleum and manipulating the results chemically to produce synthetic compounds called "petrochemicals." Their efforts produced fertilizers and pesticides that increased crop yields, sulphur drugs that conquered infectious diseases, and a new fashion craze: stockings made of nylon instead of silk