The significant step that Drake took was to drive a thirty two foot iron pipe through the ground into the bedrock below. This allowed Drake to drill inside the pipe, without the hole collapsing from the water seepage. The principle behind this idea is still employed today by many companies drilling for hydrocarbons. Within a day of Drake's striking oil, Drake’s methods were being imitated by others along Oil Creek and in the immediate area. This culminated with the establishment of several oil boom towns along the creek. Drake's well produced 25 barrels (4.0 m 3 ) of oil a day. By 1871, the entire area was producing 5.8 million barrels (920,000 m 3 ) a year. He failed to patent his drilling invention. Then he lost all of his savings in oil speculation in 1863. He was to end up as an impoverished old man. In 1872, Pennsylvania voted an annuity of $1500 to the "crazy man" whose determination founded the oil industry.
His grandson, Washington A. Roebling, II, died on the RMS Titanic
His first job at age 13 in 1848 was as a bobbin boy , changing spools of thread in a cotton mill twelve hours a day, six days a week. His wages were $1.25 per week, plus another 80 cents for firing the furnace
It was such an important location that it was guarded by Union soldiers during the American Civil War and a number of additional conflicts. During the first half of the 1900s, the Horseshoe Curve was considered, along with the Panama Canal, the Empire State Building, and the Bay Bridge at San Francisco, one of the engineering "Wonders of the World."
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