Petroleum was plentiful, but the refining process was so crude that the product was inferior, and not wholly safe.

Here was Rockefeller's chance.

Taking into partnership Samuel Andrews, the porter in a machine shop where both men had worked, he started a single barrel "still" in 1870, using an improved process discovered by his partner.

They made a superior grade of oil and prospered rapidly.

They admitted a third partner, Mr.
Flagler, but Andrews soon became dissatisfied.