A postcard view (ca. 1900) of an oil well being "torpedoed" in the Oil City area of western
Pennsylvania. In wells that did not blow out naturally, charges of nitroglycerine were placed
in slender metal tubes called Otorpedoes¹; these were dropped down the well to fracture the
rock and stimulate production. A plume of resulting oil flow can be seen spreading across
the forested countryside in this picture. Civic pride in such environmentally destructive
events was remarkably widespread and postcards noting them can be found from
many hundreds of U.S. towns, providing a real insight into the environmental
mentality of that era.

© Peter A. Scholle, 1999

 

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