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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.
The reason for the steam engine was quite simple when you consider. the advantages of steam power at that time. First, anything that will burn can be used as fuel - wood, coal, kerosene, natural gas, whale oil, petroleum - you name it. Second, the design of the actual engine is simplicity itself. Often steam engines have fewer than 25 moving parts. Third, steam power provides nearly instantaneous torque that precludes the need for multi-speed transmissions or gearboxes. Forth, steam power has a long record of reliability.