THE PRODUCTION OF PETROLEUM unprecedented oil boom which marked the years following the discovery of Drake's well, and, in fact, the tremendous development of the indus try later in all parts of the world, was primarily due to the introduction of new methods of obtain ing crude petroleum from the underground sources. So far as can be determined every important pe troleum industry has gone through the same three distinct steps in its evolution. First, the skimming of oil from the surface of streams, pools or springs ; then, the advance to dug wells or pits, and finally, the advent of the modern drilled well in one form or another. The first two of these methods of se curing the crude oil have been typical of the primi tive industries in every country, although, in cer tain cases, the extensive development of dug wells must be regarded as a sort of transition stage be tween the ultra primitive and the truly modern.
In this country, the early skimming operations were done with a broad flat board, made thin like a knife on one edge. By moving this board forward just under the surface of the water, it soon became covered with the thick, adhesive oil, which was re moved by scraping the board on the edge of some receptacle. Variations of the same idea are found in other primitive operations, but all of these meth ods of working surface accumulations were capa ble of yielding only very small amounts, and, as man came to use petroleum more extensively, it was necessary to devise other means of getting the de sired quantity.
The digging of wells to secure petroleum appears to have been first and most extensively developed in Oriental countries, especially in China, Japan, and Burma. Some of the Japanese wells in the district about Echigo, dating back into the early part of the Christian era, are said to have reached a maximum depth of 900 feet, though the majority rarely penetrated more than 200 feet. Excavation by hand to such depths in a well only a few feet square seems like a Herculean task, yet the cost is said to have been only a few hundred dollars for a well, or no more than the cost of the shal lowest drilled wells of modern times. Common dig
gers, working for ten cents and a small portion of rice beer, per day, explain the mystery of cheap ness. Under no other conditions could the indus try have been carried on, for a daily yield of a few gallons, laboriously pumped by hand, was all that could be expected from these wells when completed.
The Burmese oilmen used a sort of primitive method of drilling, with the practice unchanged until comparatively recent times. As soon as the laborers encountered solid rock in their digging, a prismlike lump of iron, weighing about 150 pounds, was suspended by a cord from a beam across the mouth of the pit. Then the cord was cut, allowing the iron to fall, the sharp edges cut ting and puncturing the rock. After each fall it was necessary for a man to descend and attach a rope for hauling the iron up again. By this slow, laborious method the wells were sunk to depths of 250 or more feet, despite the fact that the presence of inflammable gases prevented the use of any ar tificial the work going on in absolute dark ness, and no man being able to work more than five minutes at a time. Here, also, as in Japan, pumping by hand with a primitive form of wind lass, rewarded their efforts with a few barrels of oil daily.
In these localities, as in the fields of Western Asia and Europe, the dug well—like the ordinary well for household water supplies—was extensively used, and continued to be the chief source of petro leum until comparatively late in the last century. Even now, in some of the more remote districts of Galicia, Roumania, Burma, and Japan, the primi tive methods are still followed. But the widely heralded success of the American oilmen and the desire for more oil quickly placed modern tools and up-to-date machinery where tedious methods and crude implements had held sway for scores of generations.