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Shooters – A “Fracking” History http://aoghs.org/oilfield-technologies/shooters-well-fracking-history/

Since the first commercial U.S. oil well in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania, dynamite and later nitroglycerin detonations increased an oil or natural gas well’s production from petroleum bearing formations. On April 25, 1865, Civil War veteran Col. Edward A. L. Roberts received the first of his many patents for an “exploding torpedo.”

Since the first commercial U.S. oil well in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania, dynamite and later nitroglycerin detonations have increased an oil or natural gas well’s production from petroleum bearing formations. Modern hydraulic fracturing technologies trace their roots to April 25, 1865, when Civil War veteran Col. Edward A. L. Roberts received the first of his many patents for an “exploding torpedo.”

“Gasbuggy” tests Nuclear Fracking http://aoghs.org/oilfield-technologies/project-gasbuggy/

It’s the first of a series of nuclear denotations conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission to test the feasibility of using nuclear explosions to release natural gas trapped in dense shale deposits. This is “fracking,” late 1960s style.

In December 1967, government scientists – exploring the peacetime use of controlled atomic explosions – detonated Gasbuggy, a 29-kiloton nuclear device they had lowered into a natural gas well in rural New Mexico. The Hiroshima bomb was about 15 kilotons.

Project Gasbuggy included experts from the Atomic Energy Commission, the U.S. Bureau of Mines and El Paso Natural Gas Company.

John Wilkes Booth: Failed Oilman turns Assassin http://aoghs.org/popular-oil-history-articles/the-dramatic-oil-company/

In late 1863, with local news-papers full of tantalizing stories of the oil boom in Venango County, Pennsylvania, John Wilkes Booth convinced his friend John Ellsler and Thomas Mears to join him in a new investment. Together, they formed the “Dramatic Oil Company.” In January 1864, Booth made his first trip to Franklin, Pennsylvania, where much of the oil excitement was centered. There he purchased a 3.5-acre lease on the Fuller farm.

Believing his fortune would be made in the Pennsylvania oilfields, Booth drew his last paycheck as an actor and left the Boston stage on May 28, 1864, to focus exclusively on his oil business. His Dramatic Oil Company drilled a well tha produced about 25 barrels of oil daily — but was beset with problems and mounting costs. Booth and his partners finally determined that “shooting” their well could increase its production. At the time, this technique required that a large quantity of black powder be detonated deep in the well.

Successful shooting would fragment an oil-bearing formation and enable far more oil to be extracted from the well. Booth and his partners gambled. They lost. Thomas Mears’ son Frank later recorded, “…the well was ‘shot’ with explosives to increase production. Instead of accomplishing that, the blast utterly ruined the hole and the well never yielded another drop.”

John Wilkes Booth’s dreams of oil wealth abruptly and permanently collapsed. He had lost over $6,000 in the Wilhelmina well. Booth left the oil region in July 1864 — no longer the wealthy entrepreneur he had been just 18-months earlier. A few weeks later, Booth checked into Baltimore’s Barnum Hotel.