Oil is the energy basis of modern industrial society, but for over fifty years after the first successful well was drilled in the mid-nineteenth century, oil use was insignificant. Although he foresaw his vehicles would be powered by peanut oil, Henry Ford changed all that with his mass-produced automobiles. World War I generated immense demand for gasolinepowered vehicles. During the period 1919 to 1949, oil gradually overtook coal as the most important fuel Source in the United States. Today, oil provides half of U.S. energy and nearly all of our transportation fuel. Click here to read more…
