The greatest thing since sliced bread.

This week marks the 150th anniversary of the discovery of oil. In 1959 Edwin Drake invented the process of drilling steel pipes into the ground to extract that black gold. Previously oil was only available by finding those rare places where it seeped on the ground from underground reservoirs.

It is hard for us in the 21st century to imagine what life was like before this cheap, plentiful and easy to transport energy source was brought to market. 19th, and previous centuries cities were filthy places with manure clogging the streets. This manure from horses and oxen brought with it countless rats and other diseases which made life difficult at best. Rarely did anyone venture more than 100 miles from their place of birth and international travel was practically unheard of. Because there were no mechanical tractors spreading fertilizer crop yields were much lower, peoples diets were restricted to what grew in their local areas and life expectancies were much lower. The discovery and widespread use of oil opened up the world. Cheap transportation has enabled us to travel the world and allowed untold industries and jobs to sprout up. Our cities are no longer dark at night largely due to oil and fossil fuels. Once the anniversary of oil was a cause for celebration, now it is somehow been demonized. We ask you to read this outstanding editorial from Investor's Business Daily:

In previous generations, the birth of the oil industry was celebrated, and deservedly so. Oil has sustained and enhanced billions of lives for more than 150 years by providing superior, affordable, ultraconvenient energy — and is as vital today as ever. The oil industry began its ascent by dominating the fast-growing illumination energy market of the 1860s. Producers of oil-based kerosene won out due to superior quality and price. Where whale oil was lighting homes for $3 a gallon in 1860, kerosene was lighting homes for 9 cents a gallon by 1880 — giving millions of Americans the gift of illumination at night. In the early 20th century, as the electric light bulb outcompeted kerosene, oil producers focused on producing automotive fuel — and beat out steam, ethanol and — the front-runner at the time — electric batteries, through a combination of affordability, safety and convenience. The availability of cheap, personalized transport is something oil makes possible, and something we should never take for granted. As a gasoline marketer told a group of gas station attendants in 1928: "My friends, it is the juice of the fountain of eternal youth that you are selling. It is health. It is comfort. It is success. . . . You must put yourself in the place of the man and woman in whose lives your gasoline has worked miracles." Oil also worked miracles for America's military in World Wars I and II. Vehicles powered by ample quantities of the most portable, highest-energy-density fuel gave them the enormous advantage of superior speed and mobility. Read the rest here.