1919 - Energy

Energy

Oregon imposes the first state gasoline tax February 25. The idea of taxing gasoline to support highways has come from Oregon Voter editor-publisher C. C. Chapman, 43.

Amerada Petroleum Co. is founded by Dallas petroleum geologist Everett Lee De Golyer, 32.

Skelly Oil Co. is founded by Pennsylvania-born Oklahoma wildcatter William G. (Grove) Skelly, 41 (see Phillips, 1917). Skelly hopped a freight train to Oil City, Pennsylvania, at age 16, moved west, and settled in 1912 at Tulsa, where he will soon build a 24-room mansion (see Oklahoma City Field, 1928).

Halliburton Corp. has its beginnings in the Better Method Oil Well Cementing Co. founded by Tennessee-born engineer Erle P. (Palmer) Halliburton, 29, who has devised a way to line oil wells with steel pipes held in place by cement as a means of strengthening the well walls, reducing the risk of explosions, and preventing contamination of water tables. Halliburton has left his job at Perkins Cementing Co. in California because that company did not want to move its cementing services to Oklahoma. He has moved to Burkburnette, Texas, but he finds no buyers and next year will start a one-man firm with a borrowed wagon and mule team, steam pump, and mixing boxes; he will obtain his first patent in 1921, earn his first profit (50ยข) that year after moving to the Hewitt Field at Wilson, Oklahoma, patent a jet mixer in 1924, and go on to build a company that by the time Halliburton dies in 1957 will have 201 offices in 22 states and 20 foreign countries (see Schlumberger, 1927).

Brown and Root Inc. is founded by Texas-born engineer Herman Brown, 26, with working capital advanced by his brother-in-law Dan Root, a prosperous cotton farmer; the contractor who has employed Brown at his native Belton has gone bankrupt, and Brown has accepted 18 mules in lieu of back wages. His brother George R. (Rufus), now 20, will join the engineering and construction company in 1922, Root will die in 1929, and after paving dirt roads and building steel bridges the company will grow to specialize in offshore drilling platforms. Halliburton will absorb Brown and Root in 1962.