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["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

To continue at least a marginally more complete story of economic crashes.

The oil story is misses almost all the story, look at his dates to see a
problem.  The Industrial Revolution was just taking off in the early years
of the century.  Oliver Evans' development of the high pressure steam engine
made this power source even more useful. But the major peoblem was in
lubrication of the mot metal parts.  Whale and vegetable oils worked but not
all that well.  What did work was tallow or animal fat.  It was thick enough
to stay in place, mostly.  Whole herds of cattle were slaughtered for only
the animal fat and hides for machine belts.  Read Dana for a description of
the rendering process on the beaches of San Diego, California.

As more powerful engines were developed a much better lubricant was needed.
The refining process made a cheap kerosene for lighting but also made much
higher quality lubricating greases and oils.  The demand for lub oils drove
the price up until Drake found a way to extract crude oils from beneath
Pennsylvania.  The industrial Revolution is its current heights would not
have been possible without a cheap source of lubricants and later fuels and
will not be possible to continue without that a cheap source.

Don Bowen  KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html