All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

The Age of Oil 281 name-“ Drake.” With him was a tall, attenuated, lantern-jawed young fellow who ever responded to the hail, “ Engineer! ” The remaining members com- prised a family of three, “ old Billy Smith and his two sons, typical Americans of the back-lands or “ hay-seed ” type. This trio constituted the working staff. The quintet commenced work on May 20th, 1859, excavating a circular hole in the dim gloom of the building and beneath the apex of the tower. A stranger coming upon the scene might have been pardoned for inquiring the object of their mission. But his inquisitiveness would not have been com- pletely satisfied. He would have received the laconic reply, “ Digging for water ! ” Seeing that the hole resembled the familiar type of water-well he might possibly have accepted the explanation, although he could not have suppressed a feeling of wonder at such vigour being demonstrated in a water-quest, seeing that the crystal stream lazily rolling alongside supplied adequate quantities of this commodity. But the men were not digging for water, although they encountered it in plenty. They were busily probing Mother Earth for another of her many treasures. A few years previously a British patent had penetrated to the United States and aioused widespread attention. It described the invention of a British chemist, Mr. James Young, who had suc- ceeded in perfecting a simple commercial process for producing a new illuminating medium paraffin from crude oil by distillation. This was a momentous discovery, the value of which was not appreciated so much in Britain as