Man Who First Found Oil…Texas Tea…Was no Jed Clampett August 28, 2009

Jed Fared Better than Ed

Drake (in top hat) Visits What Should Have Been His

On This Date In History: Edwin Laurentine Drake retired as a railroad conductor in 1858 due to a bad back. He lived at the Tontine Hotel in New Haven, Connecticut with his wife and child. Some retirement, huh? Well, that’s why a fellow boarder named James Townsend talked him into investing in the Seneca Oil Company. See, it was widely known that the Indians in Pennsylvania had used crude oil that bubbled to the surface as an ointment for aching joints. Townsend thought that the stuff could be used as a substitute for whale oil and as a lubricant. Trouble was, no one knew how to produce it in large quantities.

So, Townsend talked Drake into investing his life savings of $200, gave him a large stake of stock and promised him a salary of $1000 a year for expenses. Drake took him up on it and moved to Titusville, Pa. Well, Townsend and his partners took back their stock from Drake, but that didn’t stop him. After finding out that having men digging with picks and shovels didn’t work, he came up with a new idea. He turned to drilling. He hired Uncle Billy Smith, who was a blacksmith who had salt-boring experience. By 1859, the directors of the company, including Townsend, had lost interest but Drake persisted. They built a derrick and bought a small nautical engine. Sand and clay clogged their drill hole but they persisted. Drake had a brainstorm….he decided to use a pipe to form a shaft for the drill. On this date in 1859 Drake looked down the hole and saw something glistening. When he inquired as to what it was, Uncle Billy said, “it’s your fortune.”

Well, it would have been if he had patented his drilling apparatus and scheme. It would have been had he been able to hold on to his stock. Others rushed in and became overnight millionaires while Drake made a total of $16,000 over four years serving as an agent and justice of the peace. Then he lost it all on Wall Street. Later, he and his family were found living destitute and the state of Pennsylvania granted him a $1500 annual pension. After he died, a monument was erected in Titusville to the man who started the oil industry. That monument is about all there is to show for it.  This is a common tale. There are many stories of how the man who makes a fortune possible gets nothing.  That was certainly the case for the man who discovered gold in California, as well as other tales of yore found on these here pages.

Weather Bottom Line:  No real change in the general thinking.  A front is easing down our way.  We may see some scattered afternoon t’storms in the heating of the day.  This first front is slow to move through and the best chance for rain/t’storms will be in the evening and overnight.  The boundary is kinda stuck in the region for much of Saturday but the main cold front comes down and kicks out everything.  There may be a few showers or maybe even a t’storm on Saturday.  The most remarkable thing about this front is its vitatlity for this time of year.  Look for highs through the middle of the week to be in the mid 70′s…maybe even low 70′s for some folks, especially Sunday and Monday.  I still think that there may be some clouds on Sunday with a shortwave rotating around the base of the trof.

US Gov’t backs Brazil Offshore Drilling-Hypocritical or Good Deal? Dolley Madison: Savior Cupcake?. August 24, 2009

 

Except if The Drilling is off Brazil's Coast, then Uncle Sam is All For It!

 

Petrobras Drillship Will Have Plenty of Work

What about alternative energy?  You may have heard about a new oil field discovery.  Brazil found a huge oilfield over 100 miles offshore with an estimated reserve of some 40 billion barrels of oil.  And it’s light crude, which is the good stuff.  Now, Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of alternative fuels and has been pushing that way for some time.  They were despearate for oil in the 1970′s and decided it was best to find domestic energy sources for national security.  Now that they found the Sugar Loaf Field as well as a previous big find, Greenpeace Brazil is claiming that Brazilian arms are wrapped around the national oil company and letting go of the environmentally frieindly alternatives.  The Brazilian oil discovery has brought joy to many, but controversy in the domestic press as well.   Now, there is plenty of investment dollars out there. The stockprice of the Brazilian national oil company Petrobras sky rocketed on the news.  But, there is a new investor….Uncle Sam.  President Obama campaigned against offshore drilling in the United States but the Obama Administration has pledged $2 billion to Brazil for offshore drilling development and there could be more where that came from. 

Petrobras Has Converted Tankers Into Floating Production Storage Offloading (FSO) Units

There are critics who claim that is hypocritical and want to know why its okay for the US to invest in drilling off Brazilian waters and not the good old USA, where even Russia just agreed with Cuba to begin drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.  The Chinese are not yet drilling offshore near Floridia. The China drilling in the Gulf story was wrong, but the Chinese are drilling exploratory wells on Cuban soil.  In any event,  you can look at it another way.  They found the oil.  So, if we help them to develop the field, then maybe they would be willing to allow US companies access.  But, then again, it would probably be most feasable to export to the US than elsewhere anyway.  Either way, having access to oil in our hemisphere with a frienidly neighbor is a better national security proposition for America than depending on more unstable or unfriendly regimes half way around the world.

The Saving Cupcake?

On This Date in History: Dolley Payne Todd Madison was the First Lady of the United States and wife of President James Madison. In 1790, she married a fellow named John Todd, Jr. of Philadelphia and had two sons. He was a lawyer and things were dandy until a yellow fever epidemic in 1793 that claimed his life, that of one of his sons and his mother and father. I’m not certain if John Todd, Jr. was related directly to the Todds of Kentucky. But, following his death, Dolley married James Madison and Dolley’s sister, following the death of her husband married Judge Thomas Todd of Kentucky in what was the first marriage ceremony in the White House. Sounds like it wasn’t very good luck to be the first to marry the Payne girls.

   Anyway, Dolley goes and marries James Madison and was a very well thought of First Lady.  Perhaps

her biggest claim to fame, other than having a pastry company immortalized by the Peanuts gang named after her, was her valor. On this date in 1814, First Lady Dolley Madison was scowering  White House, looking for artifacts and paintings to save. This was the time of the War of 1812…even though it was 1814. The British had invaded and burned the city, including the White House. A few weeks later in Baltimore Harbor, Francis Scott Key would write the words to the Star Spangled Banner. But, when the British were coming, Dolley didn’t have time to write poetry, she was concerned

with not just saving herself, but also valuables in the White House. Her quick thinking saved many historic and valuable papers. She is also credited with saving many paintings, including a famous portrait of George Washington.  All would have been lost without Dolley because the British burned the Executive Mansion, leaving nothing but the outer walls.

Of course, the British got their payback when Andy Jackson took’em to the Woodshed at the Battle of New Orleans, before anyone realized that a peace treaty had been signed days before. Oh well…the redcoats deserved it. And Dolley Madison’s name is in its proper place near the top of the First Lady list…and on

the top of a box of Zingers. 

Weather Bottom Line:  I’m telling you, this pattern is very unusual.  Really a more early fall pattern than late August.  Hurricane Bill acted like storms do in late October.  If you recall the movie The Perfect Storm, it had to do with Hurricane Grace which ran a similar path to Bill. That was in late October.  So, enjoy it while you can.  Certainly was great for the Inaugural Celtic Fest in New Albany on Saturday.  Snow White and I enjoyed it thoroughly and there were some 2000 visitors.  The bands were great and the headliner, Brendan Loughrey from Ireland was not only good, but also a great guy to hang with.  He has some good stories and his career continues to blossom.   You should be on the lookout of next year’s event.  I hope its in New Albany again because the venue is great.  But, don’t look for the same type of weather again in August.  This long wave pattern won’t last but we will remain relatively dry with lower than normal temperatures for much of the week.  By week’s end, there may be a front close enough by and humidity levels high enough to prompt some showers, but until then we can save on our air-conditioning bills probably through midweek.