Other Predicaments

An even earlier inconvenience happened to Samuel Kier whose early refining enterprise in Pittsburgh was kicked out of town due to fear of explosions by the people along the river front. Kier had to pack up his minuscule refining still and take it to a site in a suburb. And let's not forget the temporary setback experienced by the chemist Silliman, when his analytical device blew up in the Yale lab during the course of his important analysis of the seep oil.

None of these mishaps and events were to amount to anything but aggravation compared to the forthcoming problems that would mark the path of the exploration and exploitation of this volatile liquid.