science · 15 July 1856 · 168 years ago
birth
Born 15 Jul 1856; died 1 May 1927 at age 70.
(1st Viscount Cowdray of Midhurst) British engineer and a developer of the Mexican petroleum industry. At age 19, Pearson became a partner in his family's contracting firm, the operation of which he extended to Spain and the U.S. In Dec 1889, he went to Mexico, where he drained swamps, built railways, power lines and waterworks for the Mexican government. Realizing the need for fuel to power the locomotives, he began as early as 1901 to buy concessions and drilled for oil. When the drilling site, known as Portrero del Llano No 4 struck oil, the plume of crude oil spurted 300 feet into the air. Within a couple of years Mexico was one of the world's biggest oil producer and by 1918 Pearson was one of the richest men in the world.
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