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American settlers had little use for oil. In the 1840s, Americans began using kerosene to light lamps after the Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner discovered how to distill the fuel from oil or coal. It wasnât until 1859, however, when Edwin L. Drakesuccessfully used a steam engine to drill for oil near Titusville, Pennsylvania, that removing oil from beneath the earthâs surface became practical. This breakthrough started an oil boom that spread to Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and, later, Texas. Petroleum-reï¬ning industries arose in Cleveland and Pittsburgh as entrepreneurs rushed to transform the oil into kerosene. Gasoline, a byproduct of the reï¬ning process, originally was thrown away.
It is a well known fallacy that the lead inventor of the steam engine, James Watt, was inspired by watching the power of steam lifting off a kettle lid. In all truth, Watt was truly inspired when working on a Newcomen engine at the University of Glasgow, where he attempted to repair the engine in May, 1765. It's necessary to look at the engine variations leading up to this point, to properly understand the development of the steam engine. Thomas Savery, an English inventor/engineer, developed a water pimp which utilized steam from a boiler to create its power.