Researched
Oil & Natural Gas
The first oil well in Pennsylvania opens up the liquid fuel that powers the 20th century.
Open in the interactive tree →In August 1859 Edwin Drake struck oil from a drilled well near Titusville, Pennsylvania, using a steam engine to drive the drill. Refineries first supplied kerosene for lamps; after the internal combustion engine came gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Oil and gas together remain the largest primary energy sources and shape geopolitics, chemistry and transport.
Prerequisites
- Alchemy & Distillation~800Refineries separate crude oil by distillation, a method developed by alchemists
- Wood, Charcoal & Coal~1709
- Steam Engine1712
Unlocks
More in Energy · Industrial Age
- Wood, Charcoal & Coal~1709
- Steam Engine1712
- Voltaic Pile (First Battery)1800
- Water Turbine1827
- Dynamo & Electric Motor1831-1866
- Fuel Cell1839
- Rechargeable Battery1859
- Incandescent Light Bulb1879