Finding Oil and Waging World War 1

Importance of early 20th century

cars suddenly become an important part of the US landscape

What does the expansion of cars lead to

Spike in demand for petroleum products

2 main eras of early 20th century highway development

good roads movement

development of US highway system

Good roads movement period

1920s

Development of US highway system period

1950s

Good roads movement

call for better traveling surfaces

what was the good roads movement a part of

progressive era for civic improvement

Federal Highway Act year

1921

Federal Highway act of 1921

created federal road-building program for over 1 million miles of road

Federal Interstate and Defense Highways Act year

1956

Federal Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956

created Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of interstate and defense highways

How vast are the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways

one third of all miles driven in the US are on federal interstates

Fossil fuels and public transit

GM launches plan to buy urban transit systems running on electrical lines and replace them with gas-powered buses

National City Lines

group of companies took controls of 40 transit companies in 14 states

What happened to National City Lines

indicted by grand jury for violating Sherman Antitrust Act

Difficulty with oil

finding conventional deposits of oil is hard, many dry holes

what does difficulty with oil foreshadow

hydrolic fracturing, shale oil and gas are hard to extract but easy to find

doodlebugs, oil smellers, and oil dowsers

pre-scientific methods people used to try to locate oil underground, guesswork

where would doodlebugs etc. look

salt somes where oil would be trapped under

characterization of doodlebugs

people who knew a local landscape well operating our of good gut sense of conditions

period of beginning of scientific oil finding

1900s to 1920s

AAPG 1907

American Association of Petroleum Geologists

Petroleum geology consulting firm founding

1914

What does the petroleum geology consulting firm do

torsion balance survey and reflection seismology

land-grant universities act and oil

educating individuals from these institutions created college-educated earth scientists

what was critical for demand and search for oil

automobiles

new skill for petroleum geologists in early 1900s

fixing cars

Major prospecting methods used for oil

seismic

gravity

magnetic

What group displays early educational efforts in this field

Society of Exploration Geophysicists