The Impact of Oil on the 1900s

Oil has been changing American lives throughout the 1900s and continues to do so today. Oil is made in the rock cycle and then bubbles up in oil springs and wells, but most of it remains in pools underground. The oil companies drill it and sell it making huge profits. It was sold to consumers who used it for many things, such as gas lamps and now transportation.

The rock cycle is the system the earth has to break down rocks and decompose plants and animals. The earth has been recycling organic materials for billions of years. On the earths crust there are huge platonic plates that cover and move around the earth. The plates are so big that when they crash together they form mountains and rocks get crushed into small pieces creating rubble. The pressure of the huge plates colliding also melts the rocks. All the rocks then fall to the bottom of the ocean floor. Animal carcasses and decaying plants that have fallen to the bottom of the ocean are covered with the rocks. As the rocks act like a huge barrier for the decaying plants, oil is made from all the organic compounds deteriorating. The oil gathers in big underground pools that are trapped under the rocks. Some of the oil seeps up threw the rocks and onto the land. That is a natural oil spring. These springs are drilled deep for oil. (Source 3)

Oil Wells are the one source of oil on the earth. Originally the Native Americans took the oil off the oil spring’s surface. They used it for lamp fuel and lubrication. One of the U.S.’s largest oil wells was first discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Native Americans had been using the spring since 1410 AD. In 1850, George Bissell decided he wanted to sell the oil in the spring. He hired a chemist to analyze the oil and found tha...

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