[1] The total output
of oil in the Pennsylvania regions, between 1859 and 1883, is estimated
at about 234,800,000 barrels--enough oil to fill a tank about 10,000
feet square, nearly two miles to a side, to a depth of over 131/2 feet.
[Footnote 1: The total number of wells in the Pennsylvania oil regions
cannot be given. In the years 1876-1884, inclusive, 28,619 wells were
sunk; this is an average of 3,179 per year. During the same period 2,507
dry holes were drilled at an average cost of $1,500 each.]
As long as oil could be sold at the wells at from $4.00 to $10.00
a barrel, the cost of transportation was an item hardly worthy of
consideration, and railroad companies multiplied and waged a bitter
war with each other in their scramble after the traffic. But as the
production increased with rapid strides, the market price of oil fell
with a corresponding rapidity, until the quotations for 1884 show
figures as low as 50 to 60 cents per barrel for the crude product at Oil
City.
In December, 1865, the freight charge per barrel for a carload of oil
from Titusville to New York, and the return of the empty barrels,
was $3.50.[1] To this figure was added the cost of transportation by
pipe-line from Pithole to Titusville, $1.
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