He made an invention that made oil drilling easier, but there was one thing he forgot: Who is Edwin Drake?
Although Edwin Drake pioneered oil drilling and made an important invention, he lived in poverty for the rest of his life. The use of oil and electricity means the second industrial revolution. The first oil well in the USA was opened in 1859 by Colonel Edwin Drake (1819-1880).
Then Russia joined the game.
Petroleum, which was first used in lighting, began to be used in different areas with the invention of the explosion engine.
In 1859, Edwin L Drake, a Pennsylvania railroad chief, found a practical way to extract oil. Edwin Drake's oil extraction method was an invention that triggered the oil industry. Before Edwin Drake's invention, people were producing by allowing oil to leak out, and therefore, oil was sold at a high price because the production was very low with this method. Edwin Draka started producing 300 barrels a day. Edwin Drake was making very good money and investors started investing in his company.
Edwin Laurentine Drake (March 29, 1819 – November 9, 1880), also known as Colonel Drake, was an American businessman and the first American to successfully drill for oil.
But Edwin Drake neglected one thing. HE DID NOT APPLY FOR A PATENT for this system he invented to extract oil quickly. Within a few months, hundreds of oil wells using the same method were drilled in Pennsylvania and New York, and as a result, oil prices fell sharply when the supply of oil, whose use was not yet widespread and the amount needed was low, suddenly increased.
And ultimately Edwin Drake's company went bankrupt. Within two years, western Pennsylvania experienced an oil boom, with wells producing thousands of barrels of oil a day. The price of oil had fallen so low that Drake was essentially put out of business.