Beschreibung:

Dale, Samuel. Map of Oil Regions of Pennsylvania. Meadville, Pa., 1865. 19.5 x 24", hand-colored folding map in 3.25 x 5.5" marbled paper boards. One of the earliest maps of the region, not listed in Phillips or located in any other map source. Although Native Americans had used oil and related substances (such as asphaltum) for waterproofing, medicine, and other purposes before the arrival of Europeans, it was not until the mid-19th century that European Americans found a use for it making the large-scale extraction economically profitable. In the 1820s, William Hart drilled for gas in Fredonia, New York, and using a pipeline of hollow logs, had Main Street illuminated by natural gas. But it was the discovery by Yale chemist Benjamin Stillman, Jr. that oil could be made into a fuel for lamps, that a market that would justify its large-scale extraction was created. In 1859, Edwin Drake decided to explore the area around Titusville, Pennsylvania. Besides being close to the eastern markets, the primary advantage of the Pennsylvania fields was their easy access. The first successful well dug by Drake was only 69.5 feet deep. By the start of the Civil War, Pennsylvania fields were producing two million barrels a year, half of the world's supply. These shallow oil fields would be the world's leading producers for the next four decades. This map places Titusville at the center and covers Crawford, Warren and Venango Counties, with parts of Mercer, Clarion and Erie Counties at the periphery, the core of the Appalachian Basin in the western part of the state. It shows each township and numbered oil leases. An extremely rare and important early map of the industry that changed a nation. Condition: Shelf wear to boards, minor toning and damp stains, small separations at folds, still VG.