Edwin Drake

Edwin Laurentine Drake was an American oil driller credited as the first person to successfully drill for oil in the United States using a purpose-built drilling operation. Hired by the Seneca Oil Company in 1858 to investigate oil deposits near Titusville, Pennsylvania, he was given the honorary title Colonel to lend him local credibility despite having no military background, and his project was widely mocked as Drake's Folly as funds ran low. On August 27, 1859, his crew struck oil at a depth of 69.5 feet, using a technique of driving an iron pipe down to bedrock to keep the borehole from collapsing, a method still used in drilling today, and the well initially produced about 25 barrels of oil a day. The strike triggered a drilling boom around Titusville that launched the American petroleum industry, though Drake himself never patented his drilling method, lost his savings to oil speculation by 1863, and lived the rest of his life in poverty until Pennsylvania granted him an annual pension of 1,500 dollars in 1872.