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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.
There are at least a few different ways you can answer this question. That is because, as is the case with a lot of inventions, the first person who came up with any sort of steam engine is not the person who is most famous. The first person you can credit is Thomas Savery. He invented a crude steam engine in 1698. The next one is Thomas Newcomen. He and a partner built a steam engine in 1712 that was able to pump water up out of mines. The most famous inventor of the steam engine was James Watt.