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The original oil well is probably the ultimate example of how the best ideas often sound completely insane. The basic story is that the guy pitched a bunch of V
by Alex3917 7y ago
The original oil well is probably the ultimate example of how the best ideas often sound completely insane. The basic story is that the guy pitched a bunch of VCs in New Haven in the 1850s and got laughed out of the room for saying that he thought the stuff inside whales was buried under a mountain in Pennsylvania.
- thombat 7y agoMaybe they were (bio)chemists at heart? That stuff under a mountain is mineral oil: more useful than edible oils in many ways but it has to go under the frying pan, not in it.
- tempguy9999 7y agoIt was not used much as food. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_oil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_oil only mentions margarine as an edible product. The rest are lubricants, lighting and soap. From reading the article, it seems some of the whale products were waxy esters which I guess weren't digestible anyway.
- sacrificedcapon 7y agoLike most of those stories, it's likely exaggerated nonsense. Everyone knew there was tons of oil in Pennsylvannia. Europeans knew of the oil-mineral since the 1600s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Well#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Well#History There were rivers of oil seeping out of the ground in pennsylvannia, ohio, etc. It was viewed mostly as a nuisance more than anything. What the "VCs" laughed at was the idea of oil replacing whale blubber as a light source.
- tempguy9999 7y agoCombustible oil from the ground has been known about since antiquity.