Edwin Drake was an American businessman and the first to extract oil.
He was born in 1819 in New York and grew up on his family farm.
At the age of 19 he left home to go to work.
In 1845 he married. In 1854 his wife died while giving birth to their second child. He remarried three years later.
In the same year he was forced to stop working due to illness.
Nevertheless, he was offered a job at Seneca Oil company, which had forecast increased demand for the oil. His responsibility was to explore the earth’s oil resources.
So in 1858 he started drilling using a steam engine.
A year later things got financially difficult, so he borrowed $ 500 in order to continue. Fortunately for him, he finally managed to discover oil the same year.
He was responsible for the invention where piping was used in the drill to prevent the soil from collapsing during drilling. This was a problem he encountered at the beginning of his work. Unfortunately, however, he did not secure his patent and for this many others used his technique. So they got rich but he did not.
He then set up a company to extract oil and sell it.
Following his actions, the oil industry was significantly consolidated.
[Source: en.wikipedia.org]
