The First Oilmen USA PowerPoint

Lesson Snapshot:

• Oil was a key commodity as a fuel source and for lubrication.
• Oil prospectors, or Wildcatters, looked for oil in other regions.
• The most important oil well ever drilled was known as the Drake Well after “Colonel” Edwin Drake, the man responsible for the well.
• In the early 1850’s, George Bissell, a lawyer, conceived a plan to try and produce oil commercially.
• Benjamin Silliman Jr, one of America’s leading chemists, was hired to successfully analyse the properties of “Seneca Oil” as an illuminant.
• Bissell was able to get together financial backers and formed the “Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company”.
• They hoped that “rock oil” could be recovered from the ground in enough quantities to be used commercially as a lamp fuel.
• Oil had already been used and refined and sold commercially for one of its byproducts: kerosene.
• What made Bissell a visionary was that he extracted rock oil from the ground by drilling. Bissell was simply looking for a better, more reliable and plentiful source.

Powerpoint Lesson Plan:

• Aimed at Students studying across UK Year 7,8 & 9 or equivalent
• Premium resource
• Use as you wish in the classroom or home environment
• Structured powerpoint presentation and challenging tasks.
• Complete lesson plan on the impact of oil on the United States.