A major new industry, oil refining, increased after the civil war. Crude oil, oil or – one black, thick mud of the Earth – was known since hundreds of years, but little assistance has never been done. In the 1850s, Mr. Samuel Kier, a manufacturer in Western Pennsylvania, began to collect oil refining and local infiltration in kerosene. Refining, as melting is a process of elimination of impurities from the raw material.Kerosene was used to light lamps. It was a cheap substitute for whale oil, which became more difficult to obtain. Soon there was a strong demand for kerosene oil. People have begun to search for new oil supplies.The first oil well was drilled by E.L. Drake, a retired railway operator. In 1859, he began drilling at Titusville, Pennsylvania. The entire company seemed so difficult and stupid spectators called “Drake’s Folly”. But when he had drilled about 70 feet (21 meters), Drake found oil. Its well started with a yield of 20 barrels of crude oil per day.News of the success of Drake a prospectors of oil at the scene. At the beginning of the 1860s these prospectors have been drilling for “black gold” throughout Western Pennsylvania. The boom to compete with the 1848 California gold rush in her excitement and atmosphere of the Wild West. And it brought much wealth to gold rush prospectors.Crude oil could be refined in many products. In recent years, kerosene has continued to be the principal. It was sold in grocery stores and door-to-.door. In the 1880s, refiners have learned to make other products such as waxes and lubricating oils. Oil was not then used to manufacture gasoline or heating.