The History of Oil 1859 to 1950 Norman W. Garrick Lecture 5.2 Sustainable Transportation.
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Transcript of The History of Oil 1859 to 1950 Norman W. Garrick Lecture 5.2 Sustainable Transportation.
Based mostly on
Kunstler, The Long Emergency, 2005, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, pg. 73-87(Chapter 2: Modernity and the Fossil Fuels Dilemma)
Ancient Use of OilMuch of the world’s oil is found at the level of the ‘oil window’
but some has also seeped to the surface
Examples of surface oil includeTrinidad Lake Asphalt
La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles
Surface and shallow oil are relatively rare but were used in antiquity forCaulking boats Paving streets
Flaming weaponsMedical treatment
Large scale commercial use of oil only started once the first oil well was drilled in the 1850s
1859The Start of the Oil Industry
The oil industry started with the drilling of the first ever oil well in the world in NW Pennsylvania in 1859
Drake’s effort to drill for oil was backed by financial sponsors in New Haven, Connecticut
In 1859, the industrial revolution was well on the way, powered by wood, water and coal so the ‘Age of Fossil Fuel’ pre-dated the commercial exploitation of oil
In fact, Drake and his backers were not necessarily looking for a machine fuelrather they were looking for a substitute for whale oil to light America’s towns and cities
http://www.roberthouse.com/images/antiques/whale_oil_lamp.jpg
Whale Oil Lamp
The End of Sperm Whale Oil
In 1859, Sperm Whale Oil was the highest quality illuminant known but it was very expensive and supplies were dwindling
Gaslight was used to light the streets but was not good for homes - noisy, hot, dangerous and inconvenient since it was fixed to the wall
In the 1850s, kerosene emerged as an attractive substitute to whale oil it was similar to whale oil in brightness
and did not need pipes for delivery and was not noisy when burning
However, the kerosene used then was from rock oil The Drake experiment was in search of another source of kerosene
During the American Civil War, the kerosene lamp was new technology
The End of Sperm Whale Oil
http://dirtyglasses.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/050320_peak_whale_oil_prices.jpg
The First Oil Bust
Other big use of oil was to replace lard as lubricant in the burgeoning factories of the time
However, this did not save the oil industry from quickly encountering the first of many busts in a continuous cycle of bust and boon
Since the system was not geared up to distribute all the oil produced this led to a glut of oil
and resulted in the first bust for the nascent industry
However, by 1890 may of the great Oil companies had already been formed includingStandard Oil (US)
Royal Dutch (Netherlands)Shell (UK)
1900 to 1920
By 1900, the fields of the east had been played out and extraction moved to Ohio and Indiana and then Texas and Oklahoma
In 1911, Standard Oil was broken up by the government into multiple companies due to anti-trust concerns
Also, this was around the time that electrification had replaced kerosene in most cities
However, at around the same time Ford’s assembly lines for the Model T were just coming into production and gasoline replaced kerosene and lubricants as the major use for oil
The Great Wars and Oil
The changes in WWI illustrate the rate at which the switch to oil power occurred
In 1914, the British started the war with 15 motorcycles and 827 motorcars
By war’s end in 1918, they had 34,000 motorcycles, 23,000 motorcars and 56,000 trucks
According to Kunstler, oil and the control of oil played a role in the outcome of both WWI and WWII
In WWI, Germany suffered from being oil poor Britain bought a control of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company
that shipped oil from Iran through the Suez Canal to supply British oil powered warships
He states that WWII was fought with and for oil
The war was partly an effort by Germany and Japan to extend control to oil producing regions – they lost the war because they failed to do so
The Roaring 20s and the Birth of Modernism
Between 1880 and 1930 American cities grow to a scale never seen before
According to Kunstler, the intelligentsia, especially in architecture and urbanism,assumed that human life had crossed an evolutionary threshold
that rendered human history and tradition obsolete
Modernism in architecture and urban planning come out of this period It has left a huge impact on our cities and how we live, work and travel in them
Kunstler goes further in saying that the Modernist Machine Ethos found an analog in FascismNazism
Soviet Communism
Norman W. Garrick
A Bold, Shiny New World
”Abundant sunshine, fresh air, fine green parkways would blend together seamlessly with dazzling skyscrapers and seven-lane highways”
Futurama, 1939 New York World’s Fair
True American Exceptionalism
American exceptionalism is an ugly term in its common usage but Kunstler points out one way in which America was different from other industrialized countries
– We had oil, they did not
Of the countries that started down the road to industrialization in the 19th centuryAmerica had by far the most oil
America was the first to exploit oil in commercial quantities and use it fullyThe auto industry started in America
Plastics and synthetics fibers also started here
The USA has always been the world’s leading consumer of oil
Hints of Trouble
During the Great Depression in America, oil was so plentiful and demand was so low
that the price of oil fell to 10 cents per barrel
However, oil discovery in America also peaked in 1930s –a hint of trouble to come that few, if any, noticed
The 1940s and 1950s
After WWII America emerged with its manufacturing and oil infrastructure intact
While Europe and industrialized Asia were devastated
Although oil discovery was decreasing, production continued to rise until 1970
In the 1950s, America had much more oil than it could use
This was the timeframe that cemented Americas dependency on oil with two major, interrelated policy decisions
Continued suburbanizationThe building of the freeway system
The Decision to Suburbanize America
According to Kunstler, the suburbanization of America started in the 1920s but was interrupted by the Depression, and later, WWII
Kunstler felt that the desire to suburbanize American cities was totally understandable given how overcrowded and how artless American cities were
“Americans were sick of them and saw no way to improve them”
In addition, the ethos of country life was idealized in American (Anglo?) culture
People equated suburbia with country living in their minds
“That suburbia turned out to be a disappointing cartoon of country living rather than the real thing
was a tragic unanticipated consequence”
The Biggest Public Works Project in HistoryThe American Freeway System
The decision to construct the freeway system was made in 1955
Kunstler attributes the decision to the fact that the American public was entranced with cars and saw the highways as a reward for winning the war
The disinvestment in American cities and the debasement of the countryside
was an unforeseen consequence of this decision (although a number of voices did predict what would happen – including Lewis Mumford)
These two decisions, the suburbanization of the cities and the construction of the freeways,
locked us into our current dependency on oil
Why Did Europe Not Follow This Same Path?
After WWII, America had oil Europe did not have a ready supply
In fact, it could be argued that Germany lost two wars trying to get a secure source of oil
Thus, Kunstler argues that Europeans have always been much less complacent about oilFor this reason, after the war
Europeans maintained compact living arrangementsAnd taxed oil as a luxury
Americans made different decisionsKunstler says that we were overconfident and complacent about the future