The anniversary slipped by largely unnoticed, but the commercial exploitation of petroleum began 150 years ago last August. The first producing well, in Titusville, Pennsylvania, was opened by Edwin Drake, an American entrepreneur. He first started the economically profitable business of refining crude petroleum into kerosene (‘paraffin’ in much of the world). Once it was seen that there was money to be made and a useful product, the oil business—with rushes and busts—was on.

Christian Science Monitor reviews a book, Crude World, which gives a history of petroleum exploitation, though from a ‘peak oil’ perspective it seems. Not only that, but the author, Peter Maass, seems to be saying that petroleum has brought no blessings, to anyone: it has only brought misery. I doubt that I’ll be reading the book.