9. John D. Rockefeller created the oil monopoly despite little market for gasoline
During the Gilded Age the oil boom in the United States began, and it was driven by one man whose name remains synonymous with wealth and business monopoly, John D. Rockefeller. While many associated his name and the oil business in general with the automobile, he grew to dominate the industry before there were enough automobiles to make the refining of gasoline profitable. During the days of its early growth the oil industry typically burned off gasoline as a waste byproduct when refining crude oil. The product which went to market and which built Rockefeller’s fortune was kerosene, for which demand grew until electrification provided another source of light.
Kerosene lamps were the main source of illumination in homes, businesses, and streetlamps, until the electrification began to dominate the market during the latter portion of the Gilded Age. It was Rockefeller’s extraordinary good fortune that just as the demand for kerosene began to recede late in the century, the automobile industry grew to provide a market for gasoline, and his companies were in place to produce and market it, though it was some time before the availability of gasoline was commonplace. Early motorists, as they came to be called, often had to resort to a dry cleaner or a pharmacist to obtain fuel for their horseless carriages, an inconvenience which led to the creation of gasoline stations beginning in 1905.