Energy · Recorded milestone
Gusher-era oil extraction
Recorded year1901
Spindletop in Texas starts the age of cheap, abundant petroleum that fuels cars, planes and plastics for a century.
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No connections of this kind are recorded.
Led to
- Petrol lawn mowerRecorded · 1902enables
- Motor scooterRecorded · 1915enables
- Leaded petrolRecorded · 1921enables
- Reflection seismologyRecorded · 1921enables
- Synthetic rubberRecorded · 1929enables
- PolyethyleneRecorded · 1933enables
- Catalytic crackingRecorded · 1937enables
- Offshore oil platformRecorded · 1947enables
- String trimmerRecorded · 1971enables
- Deepest boreholeRecorded · 1989enables
- Carbon capture and storageRecorded · 1996enables
- Shale fracking boomRecorded · 2005enables
Sources & evidence
Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.