Pittsburgh History: Birth of America's Oil Industry

Pittsburgh History: Birth of America’s Oil Industry

Kier Refinery

Perhaps to the dismay of modern day environmentalists, the Pittsburgh region gave birth to America’s oil industry which–along with the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company–helped to ignite the Second Industrial Revolution.

Born in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, inventor and businessman Samuel Kier created the American petroleum refining industry and is often referred to as the “Grandfather of the American Oil Industry”.

Kier owned several salt mines in the area along with interests in coal mines, brickyards and even a pottery factory. In the 1840’s his salt mines were being drowned and fouled with excess petroleum.

Initially Kier had the useless oil dumped into nearby water canals, but one day an oil slick caught fire and he instantly saw a was to profit from this byproduct of salt mining.

He partnered with a chemist a began experimenting with ways to distill the crude oil. He came up with several products which never amounted to much commercial success for him, including petroleum jelly, but eventually he came across an affordable formula for creating Kerosene from the crude.

Kerosene was an already established fuel for lamps, but until then it was being distilled from scarce and expensive whale oil.

In the early 1850’s Kier began selling his cheap Kerosene along with a new oil lamp he invented to burn his product to local miners. Having neglected to obtain patents on his inventions, many other businesses took Kier’s work and converted it into larger fortunes than Kier himself ever amassed.

Still, Kier did well enough from his inventions and other business interests to establish America’s very first oil refinery in 1853, right here in Pittsburgh, on 7th Avenue near Grant Street–and America’s oil industry was born.