I recently came across this chronology, which I
find very interesting because it illustrates the progress of the
oil industry along with world events and the rise of the
internal-combustion engine and the automobile.
Gasoline-fueled internal combustion oil field engines did not
start appearing until the 1890s, when John Carruthers and Dr. Edwin
J. Fithian founded the Carruthers-Fithian Clutch Co. (later named
The Bessemer Gas Engine Co.), which manufactured “half-breed”
engines and the clutches needed for the conversion from steam.
This chronology is adapted from The Chronological History of
the Petroleum and Natural Gas Industries by J. Stanley Clark,
published by Clark Book Co., Houston, Texas, in 1963.
Contact the Oil Field Engine Society at: 1231 Banta’s
Creek Road, Eaton, OH 45320-9701, online at: www.oilfieldengine.com
or e-mail at: oilengine@voyager.net
