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Striking Oil
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Credit: WITF, Inc.

Transcript:
Background music:

Bluegrass/Appalachian Style music through entire duration.

Sound effects:

Explosions from accidents.

Narrative:

In the early to mid 19th century some farmers in northwestern Pennsylvania discovered that their soil was occasionally saturated with oil. Initially, oil was a nuisance; it appeared to have no value. However, in 1855 the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company was formed to drill for oil; its potential as an illuminant and fuel soon became apparent.

Video:

Pennsylvania landscape.

Narrative:

Oil was first gathered from pools and creeks where it naturally came to the surface, but Edwin Drake and Billy Smith used a new technique of drilling for oil under the earth's surface.

Video:

Shot of oil on surface of creeks, Native Americans and pioneers gathering oil on creek. Wide shot of new drilling technique.

Narrative:

In 1859, Drake and Smith struck oil along Oil Creek, just south of Titusville. It was here that the American oil industry began.

Video:

Shot of oil bursting out of the ground and up out the top of the well.

Narrative:

Things weren't easy though. The danger of explosions and fire were rampant as different techniques of oil extraction were invented.

Video:

Montage of Torpedo style well drilling, fire images, oil bursting and other fire shots.

Narrative:

Until the oil booms in Texas, Oklahoma and the southwest, Pennsylvania was the largest supplier of oil, at one time pumping nearly 2.5 million barrels per year. Speculators, investors, workers, and industrialists such as John D. Rockefeller brought Pennsylvania's oil to a burgeoning industrial country.

Video:

Old films of barrels being loaded onto horse drawn wagons and still images of men next to hundreds of barrels. More images of oil toens and oil barrels.

Narrative:

In the latter half of the 19th century, Pennsylvania crude oil and its by-products dominated the American petroleum marketplace.

Video:

Live action shots inside oil well with turning machines.

Narrative:

Oil, so central to our lives today, can trace its beginnings to the northwestern corner of the Keystone State.

Video:

Modern video shots of the Drake Mill.

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