stream of the precious liquid sometimes a hundred feet and more
into the air, became an almost every-day occurrence. The
discovery took the whole section by surprise; there were no
towns, no railways, and no wagon roads except a few almost
impassable lumber trails. Yet, almost in a twinkling, the whole
situation changed; towns sprang up overnight, roads were built,
over which teamsters could carry the oil to the nearest shipping
points, and the great trunk lines began to extend branches into
the regions. The one thing, next to Drake's well, that made the
oil available, was the discovery, which was made by Samuel Van
Syckel, that a two-inch pipe, starting at the well, could convey
the oil for several miles to the nearest railway station. In a
few years the whole oil region of Venango County was an
inextricable tangle of these primitive pipelines. Thus, before
the Civil war had ended, the western Pennsylvania wilderness had
been transformed into the busy headquarters of a new industry.
Companies had been formed, many of them the wildest stock-jobbing
operations, refineries had been started, in a few years the
whalers of New England had almost lost their occupation, but
millions of American homes, that had hitherto had to spend the
long winter evenings almost in darkness, suddenly found
themselves flooded with light. In Cleveland, in Pittsburgh, in
Philadelphia, in New York, and in the oil regions, the business
of refining and selling petroleum had reached extensive
proportions. Europe, although it had great undeveloped oil-fields
of its own, drew upon this new American enterprise to such an
extent that, eleven years after Drake's "discovery," petroleum
had taken fourth place among our exported articles.

The very year that Bissell had organized his petroleum company a