The inspiration of constructing a pipe-line which would obviate teaming, and by which oil could be made to flow direct to the shipping point or the refinery, is credited to a Jerseyman named Hutchings, who laid a short pipe line from some wells in which he was interested. The first test of conveying crude oil in pipes was through a two-inch iron pipe in process of being laid February 19, 1863 from the Tarr Farm to the Humboldt Refinery at Plumer, Pa., about six miles northeast of Oil City, Pa. The distance was two and a half miles. The teamsters, forseeing that their earnings would be diminished and perhaps disappear, if the system were generally adopted, destroyed the line and warned other producers against similar attempts. Hutchings was obstinate and built a second line. Again the teamsters completely destroyed his work. Undaunted, he tried again, with no better luck, and in the end died a broken and penniless man. But his idea did not die with him. In 1865 one Henry Harley commenced to lay a pipe line to the terminus of the Oil Creek railroad but the teamsters not only cut his pipes but burned his collection tanks. The State authorities, however, gave him armed protection and his line was completed. It was of two-inch diameter, with a rated daily capacity of 800 barrels. [Illustration: A big yield well in Mexico flowing into a temporary storage pond] [Illustration: Laying a pipe line through a Louisiana forest] J. D. Henry, one of the most eminent historians of petroleum, asserts that the first commercially successful pipe line was constructed in the summer of 1865 by Samuel Van Syckel of Titusville, from the mushroom city of Pithole, Pa., to the nearest railway station, Miller Farm, a distance of four miles. Van Syckel had the backing of New York capital, and the basis of his success, after similar projects had been abandoned as visionary, was due to better mechanical arrangements. Van Syckel’s line does not appear to have suffered from the lawlessness of teamsters. On the completion of Harley’s second line in the same neighbourhood, both proved so commercially successful that capitalists bought and amalgamated the two. Teamsters continued to give trouble and effect damage but protective measures were successful in securing the performance of the enterprise. From that time onward the mileage of pipe-lines has steadily multiplied, and by means of them the crude petroleum collected at a “tank farm” on the prairies is conveyed to refineries many hundreds of miles away. The first pipe-line of considerable length was laid in 1880 from Butler County, Penn. to Cleveland, Ohio, a distance of over 100 miles. Almost immediately after trunk lines from Bradford, Pa. to the Atlantic seaboard were commenced. By 1893 there were 3,000 miles of pipe lines in the Eastern states with storage facilities for 35,000,000 barrels of oil.