Recently when I mentioned the important part rubber played in the war, I was not unmindful of the equally great contribution petro­leum made to our air and motor transportation.

     Petroleum was first developed to produce kerosene for home lighting. Before that time only very wealthy people could afford to stay up after dark. And New England whalers sailed the seven seas to get sperm oil for lamps. People laboriously hand-­dipped candles, and Lincoln read by the light of a rude fire­place. So important was the need for oil that in looking for sources which could supply kerosene, petroleum was found quite satisfac­tory. But the quantity was small and uncertain.

     Edwin Drake, a former conductor on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, came to Titus­ville, Pennsylvania, to search for oil. He had a new idea - instead of col­lecting oil in small quantities, wher­ever he could find it, he intended to drill an oil well. After many failures he finally struck oil, and August 1859 dated the beginning of a new me­chanical age. Drake's enterprise had started a great new industry.

     Three years after the first success­ful well, two million barrels of oil a year were being produced. Inciden­tally, we now use more than this amount every day.