Reading the June 16th edition of Time, there was a very interesting article regarding the [Brief] History of The Oil Barrel. Some interesting facts:
Oil was first discovered in the United States in Pennsylvania (circa 1850's).
Used to be called Rock Oil to differentiate from vegetable oil or animal fat.
In the 1860's, overproduction resulted in the whiskey storage barrel being twice as expensive as the oil contained within.
As the oil boom blossomed, the "barrel" size was standardized at 42 gallons (standardized in 1866).
First pipelines for the "black oil" were made of wood.
1870's, first oil tanker passed through the Suez Canal.
Today, oil tankers hold 4,000,000 barrels, and the world demand is 85,000,000 barrels.
5 comments:
Thinking about whiskey barrels is more fun than thinking about oil barrels lately. And I don't even like whiskey!
Beth
Gee, I wonder what the price of a barrel of oil was then! LOL
Missie
That is interesting
hugs
Sherry
... I agree ... those were interesting tidbits ...
nice entry..I did not know Pennsylvania was the first place
natalie
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