John Shaw (oil Driller)
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John Shaw (oil Driller)
John Shaw (1831-July 1871) was an American oil driller, businessman and photographer. Shaw is best known for striking Canada's first oil gusher at Oil Springs on January 16, 1862. Shaw's oil gusher marked the beginning of the first oil boom in Enniskillen Township, as speculators rushed to Oil Springs seeking similar fortunes. Biography The Shaw gusher John Shaw was likely born in Port Huron, Michigan, and immigrated to Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ..., before arriving in Enniskillen Township sometime in the early 1860s. Reportedly, after failing to find oil at well somewhere in Enniskillen, Shaw travelled to Oil Springs in June 1861 and began to dig another well. For roughly seven months, Shaw worked the well despite not finding any oi ...
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Petrolia, Ontario
Petrolia is a town in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is part of Lambton County and is surrounded by Enniskillen Township. It is billed as "Canada's Victorian Oil Town" and is often credited with starting the oil industry in North America, a claim shared with the nearby town of Oil Springs. Lambton Central Collegiate & Vocational Institute (LCCVI) is located in Petrolia. History In 1857 James Miller Williams of Hamilton began distilling some of the "tar" lying around Oil Springs (located a few kilometers south from Petrolia), after buying the property rights from Charles Nelson Tripp. In July or August 1858 he struck an oil deposit in Oil Springs while digging a shallow well, sparking the oil drilling industry. In 2008, the 150th anniversary of the discovery, Canada Post issued a stamp commemorating this first commercial oil well, featuring portraits of Charles Tripp and Williams. However, these early wells resulted in a large amount of wastage from gushers, estimated at ...
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Canada West
The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of 1837–1838. The Act of Union 1840, passed on 23 July 1840 by the British Parliament and proclaimed by the Crown on 10 February 1841, merged the Colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada by abolishing their separate parliaments and replacing them with a single one with two houses, a Legislative Council as the upper chamber and the Legislative Assembly as the lower chamber. In the aftermath of the Rebellions of 1837–1838, unification of the two Canadas was driven by two factors. Firstly, Upper Canada was near bankruptcy because it lacked stable tax revenues, and needed the resources of the more populous Lower Canada to fund its internal transportation improvements. Secondly, ...
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Blowout (well Drilling)
A blowout is the uncontrolled release of crude oil and/or natural gas from an oil well or gas well after pressure control systems have failed.'All About Blowout', R. Westergaard, Norwegian Oil Review, 1987 Modern wells have blowout preventers intended to prevent such an occurrence. An accidental spark during a blowout can lead to a catastrophic oil or gas fire. Prior to the advent of pressure control equipment in the 1920s, the uncontrolled release of oil and gas from a well while drilling was common and was known as an oil gusher, gusher or wild well. History Gushers were an icon of oil exploration during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During that era, the simple drilling techniques, such as cable-tool drilling, and the lack of blowout preventers meant that drillers could not control high-pressure reservoirs. When these high-pressure zones were breached, the oil or natural gas would travel up the well at a high rate, forcing out the drill string and creating a gus ...
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Oil Springs, Ontario
Oil Springs is a village in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada, located along Former Provincial Highway 21 south of Oil City. The village, an enclave within Enniskillen Township, is the site of North America's first commercial oil well. It is home to the Oil Museum of Canada. History Before the village was formed, the indigenous people already knew about the gum beds and used the sticky oil to waterproof their canoes. The place, originally called Black Creek, became the site of North America's first commercial oil well when asphalt producer James Miller Williams set out to dig a water well in September 1858 and found free oil instead.''New York Times'' 1866-03-2
(JPG images) Williams' discovery triggered North America's first oil rush and the village's name was changed to Oil Springs that same year.
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Enniskillen, Ontario
Enniskillen is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario, within Lambton County. It is located at the intersection of Highway 21 (Oil Heritage Road) and Rokeby Line. The economy of the township is based on agriculture. It was named after Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole's father who was the Earl of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. Communities The township comprises the communities of Oil City, Glen Rae and Marthaville, and surrounds but does not include the independent municipalities of Petrolia and Oil Springs. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ... conducted by Statistics Canada, Enniskillen had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it ...
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Port Huron, Michigan
Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair River, it is connected to Point Edward, Ontario in Canada via the Blue Water Bridge. The city lies at the southern end of Lake Huron and is the easternmost point on land in Michigan. Port Huron is home to two paper mills, Mueller Brass, and many businesses related to tourism and the automotive industry. The city features a historic downtown area, boardwalk, marina, museum, lighthouse, and the McMorran Place arena and entertainment complex. History This area was long occupied by the Ojibwa people. French colonists had a temporary trading post and fort at this site in the 17th century. In 1814 following the War of 1812, the United States established Fort Gratiot at the base of Lake Huron. A community developed around it. The early 19th ce ...
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Kingston, Ontario
Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. Kingston is also located nearby the Thousand Islands, a tourist region to the east, and the Prince Edward County tourist region to the west. Kingston is nicknamed the "Limestone City" because of the many heritage buildings constructed using local limestone. Growing European exploration in the 17th century, and the desire for the Europeans to establish a presence close to local Native occupants to control trade, led to the founding of a French trading post and military fort at a site known as "Cataraqui" (generally pronounced /kætə'ɹɑkweɪ/, "kah-tah-ROCK-way") in 1673. This outpost, called Fort Cataraqui, and later Fort Frontenac, became a focus for settlement. Since 1760, the site of Kingston, Ont ...
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Hugh Nixon Shaw
Hugh Nixon Shaw (1812 – February 11, 1863) is an Irish-Canadian oil producer and businessman. Shaw is best known for being misidentified as the discoverer of the Shaw well, Canada's first oil gusher, on January 16, 1862. Biography Hugh Nixon Shaw was born near Dublin, Ireland, in 1812. At some point, Shaw emigrated to Canada West and operated a general store in Cooksville, before moving to Enniskillen Township sometime in the late 1850s or early 1860s. Shaw became a successful oil producer, patenting a distilling process that made oil less volatile.Armstrong, Robert. (2019An Environmental History of Oil Development in Southwestern Ontario, 1858-1885(PhD Thesis). Western University. p. 66. Shaw defined his process as applying heat and benzol to remove the impurities out of the oil. Shaw operated a refinery until it burnt down in May 1862. On February 11, 1863, Shaw died checking the status of one of his oil wells. According to one of his employees, he asked two workers to l ...
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Canadian Oilmen
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''Canadian''. Canada is a multilingual and multicultural society home to people of groups of many different ethnic, religious, and national origins, with the majority of the population made up of Old World immigrants and their descendants. Following the initial period of French and then the much larger British colonization, different waves (or peaks) of immigration and settlement of non-indigenous peoples took place over the course of nearly two centuries and continue today. Elements of Indigenous, French, British, and more recent immigrant customs, languages, and religions have combined to form the culture of Canada, and thus a Canadian identity. Canada has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic, and ec ...
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History Of The Petroleum Industry In Canada
The Canadian petroleum industry arose in parallel with that of the United States. Because of Canada's unique geography, geology, resources and patterns of settlement, however, it developed in different ways. The evolution of the petroleum sector has been a key factor in the history of Canada, and helps illustrate how the country became quite distinct from her neighbour to the south. Although the conventional oil and gas industry in western Canada is mature, the country's Arctic and offshore petroleum resources are mostly in early stages of exploration and development. Canada became a natural gas-producing giant in the late 1950s and is second, after Russia, in exports; the country also is home to the world's largest natural gas liquids extraction facilities. The industry started constructing its vast pipeline networks in the 1950s, thus beginning to develop domestic and international markets in a big way. Despite billions of dollars of investment, its bitumen—especially wi ...
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1831 Births
Events January–March * January 1 – William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing '' The Liberator'', an anti-slavery newspaper, in Boston, Massachusetts. * January 10 – Japanese department store, Takashimaya in Kyoto established. * February–March – Revolts in Modena, Parma and the Papal States are put down by Austrian troops. * February 2 – Pope Gregory XVI succeeds Pope Pius VIII, as the 254th pope. * February 5 – Dutch naval lieutenant Jan van Speyk blows up his own gunboat in Antwerp rather than strike his colours on the demand of supporters of the Belgian Revolution. * February 7 – The Belgian Constitution of 1831 is approved by the National Congress. *February 8 - Aimé Bonpland leaves Paraguay. * February 14 – Battle of Debre Abbay: Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray, and defeats and kills the warlord Sabagadis. * February 25 – Battle of Olszynka Grochowska (Grochów): Polish rebel forces divide a Ru ...
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