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

The Age of Oil 283 were dug, the oil being sought after the manner of gravel and sand in these islands. Upon receiving the notification of Young’s discovery an organised attempt to search and dig for oil was made, a company being incorporated in 1854 to this end. But after two years’ barren work during which many holes were dug at likely spots, but without encountering a trace of the oil, the project was abandoned, and the com- pany ceased to exist. Three years later Colonel Drake, who had been attracted to the subject, decided to make a further effort, and it was this mission which brought him to the unnamed picturesque sylvan dale in Pennyslvania during the opening weeks of the spring of 1859. Drake’s idea was to sink an oil-well upon the lines of an open water-well, and his engineer concurred in his suggestion. They decided to go down deeply for the new wealth, just as if they were bent upon a large, steady flow of water. All went well for a few days, the hole sinking deeper and deeper with satis- factory speed, owing to the soft nature of the soil in which the excavation was being made. But one day the sinkers, after disappearing a few inches below the level of the ground, had to scamper wildly out of the hole. Water came in with a mad rush ; in fact, it welled up so rapidly and wildly as to cause the sides of the hole to cave in, a miniature deep pond being quickly formed. The party strove desperately to empty the hole, but their most strenuous efforts were unavailing. The water flowed in more rapidly than it could be baled out. Work had to be stopped. But Colonel Drake was not the man to be beaten by an irruption of