Bessemer Gas Engine

Bessemer Gas Engine. . With the drilling of the first commercially successful oil well by Edwin Drake in 1859, a new industry was born - one that demanded new technologies for oil extraction. Initially, steam engines were used for drilling wells and were kept in-place to lift the oil to the surface. As a well's production dropped off, the economic feasibility of firing a boiler and maintaining a steam operation at each individual well fell far short of the income from the well's production, which was often a fraction of a barrel per day. Installing a gas engine at each well or converting the existing steam engine to gas eliminated the large quantity of fuel and labor required to steam a boiler for a few hours of production. The high initial cost of gas engines prevented this in most cases, so it became more economical to convert the steam engine used to drill the well to gas. Engine conversion is commonly credited to Dr. Edwin J. Fithian, a Pennsylvania physician with a great interest in mechanics. His 1897 prototype for a 10-horsepower conversion cylinder was rejected by Oil Well Supply Company of Oil City, PA, so in 1898 Dr. Fithian partnered with John Carruthers forming the Carruthers-Fithian Clutch Company, headquartered in Grove City, PA. The "half-breed", as these converted engines were called, was an immediate success. An oil producer could convert his steam engine to a 10 HP gas engine for $120.00. Many companies soon capitalized on the market for conversion kits. Most produced a two-stroke gas cylinder to bolt onto a steam engine's bed, avoiding patent infringement from Carruthers-Fithian, which by 1899 had become the Bessemer Gas Engine Company. Other companies produced engines that were purely internal combustion design and examples of both exist to this day. The company still exists today as Cooper International Corporation, a division of Schlumberger Corporation.