
The Epic Rise of John D. Rockefeller - jl87
http://thehustle.co/the-history-of-john-d-rockefeller-standard-oil
======
dharmon
If this short bio is interesting, you may enjoy the much more in-depth
biography, _Titan_, by Ron Chernow.

In addition to an incredibly thorough (and even-handed, IMO) treatment of
Rockefeller, I found it an interesting perspective on the post-war period in
the US.

~~~
aerovistae
Cool anecdote from Titan, one of countless:

    
    
      Rockefeller was relentless in ferreting out ways to cut costs. During an inspection tour of a Standard Oil plant in New York City, for instance, he observed a machine that soldered the lids on five-gallon cans of kerosene destined for export. Upon learning that each lid was sealed with 40 drops of solder, he asked, "Have you ever tried 38?" It turned out that when 38 drops were applied, a small percentage of the cans leaked. None leaked with 39, though. "'That one drop of solder', said Rockefeller,...'saved $2,500 the first year; but the export business kept on increasing after that and doubled, quadrupled--became immensely greater than it was then; and the saving has gone steadily along, one drop on each can, and has amounted since to many hundreds of thousands of dollars"' (Chernow 1998, pp. 180-81). Over the course of his career at the helm of Standard Oil, "Rockefeller cut the unit costs of refined oil almost in half" (Ibid., p. 150).

~~~
coderholic
Version that's possible to read:

"Rockefeller was relentless in ferreting out ways to cut costs. During an
inspection tour of a Standard Oil plant in New York City, for instance, he
observed a machine that soldered the lids on five-gallon cans of kerosene
destined for export. Upon learning that each lid was sealed with 40 drops of
solder, he asked, "Have you ever tried 38?" It turned out that when 38 drops
were applied, a small percentage of the cans leaked. None leaked with 39,
though. "'That one drop of solder', said Rockefeller,...'saved $2,500 the
first year; but the export business kept on increasing after that and doubled,
quadrupled--became immensely greater than it was then; and the saving has gone
steadily along, one drop on each can, and has amounted since to many hundreds
of thousands of dollars"' (Chernow 1998, pp. 180-81). Over the course of his
career at the helm of Standard Oil, "Rockefeller cut the unit costs of refined
oil almost in half" (Ibid., p. 150).

~~~
aerovistae

      What, don't you like monospace fonts??

~~~
dredmorbius
On mobile, your version simply scrolls off the page with no option for reading
it. Worse than useless, actually.

~~~
Others
It's actually like that on my laptop to, although slightly better, since I can
actually scroll it.

------
SEJeff
[http://www.history.com/shows/men-who-built-
america](http://www.history.com/shows/men-who-built-america) Here is a really
nice historical drama that does a wonderful job of explaining the dynamics
between the vanderbilts and JD.

------
gtrubetskoy
"To this day, there is little evidence on the University of Chicago campus
that it has anything to do with Rockefeller." ...except may be for the campus
centerpiece known as the _Rockefeller_ Chapel where all the school ceremonies
take place? (depicted in the photo right above the quoted sentence)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_Chapel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_Chapel)

~~~
wutangson1
Rockefeller Chapel what with the tower that taller than any other structure on
campus? Supposedly there is even a university mandate which forbids anything
taller to ever be built on campus. Also, how about the commons area in the
student center- i.e Hutchinson Commons in the Reynolds Club. As you walk in,
along the sides on the walls are portraits of the university's presidents. But
dead center on the wall for all who enter to see is a much larger portrait of
JDR- with his name and title "Founder". The man whom the commons and outside
court is named after and who can accurately be described as the soul of the
University of Chicago- Robert Maynard Hutchins- has his portrait regaled off
to the side of the JDR centerpiece. lol @ "little evidence of philanthropy."

------
guelo
I kept thinking of Bill Gates while reading this, and not just because both of
them turned to philanthropy after building their empires. The only reason Bill
Gates is not richer than Rockefeller is because of the anti-monopoly
legislation that was invented to stop Rockefeller. Without the antitrust
lawsuit Microsoft would have been able to kill off Apple and Netscape in the
90s and kept the web bottled up within Internet Explorer in the 00s.

~~~
WalterBright
> Without the antitrust lawsuit Microsoft would have been able to kill off
> Apple and Netscape in the 90s and kept the web bottled up within Internet
> Explorer in the 00s.

I used Netscape in the 90s. It was a crummy product that crashed if you looked
at it. IE was much more stable. IE was better, much better. Opera was also
available, but there wasn't much to recommend it.

As for Apple in the 90s, Apple nearly destroyed itself all by itself. Check
any of the innumerable books on the history of Apple.

~~~
narag
Netscape was best until about version 3. It had some niceties that IE lacked,
actually IE was not even acceptable. Netscape 4.7 was "not so nice" and IE 4
was faster so, although terribly unsafe, it dominated market for years.

Oh, and by the time Netscape 4.7 and IE 4.01 were released, Microsoft had
already destroyed Netscape's business.

~~~
WalterBright
I don't remember which Netscape I used, but I started with it. It was awful in
the constant crashing. I tried IE, and it crashed too, but only about half as
often. If Netscape crashed half as often as Netscape, I would have stuck with
it.

If you produce an obviously inferior product, it's a bit unfair to blame the
competition for your own failures.

~~~
cylinder
Thanks for reminding me of how common crashes and other general frustrations
were in personal computing only as recently as the 90s.

Someone who is currently 18 years old never experienced computing when it
wasn't near seamless as it is today.

~~~
narag
Actually, no. That's not true at all. Crashes were as rare as today if you
chose the right programs and were properly conservative with what you
installed. I suffered very few crashes even with Windows 3. I won't say
Windows 95 was rock solid, but I didn't see the infamous BSoD more than a
couple of times a year... and I was a heavy user!!

Do you know what was different? A lot of people had very poor judgement about
what to install and what to trust. Also faulty drivers, but this still happens
today! No further than last night this very computer reset when starting
Firefox :-/

I'm very surprised to see this revisionist version of computer history. I
can't help thinking that there's some vested interest in this criticism. At
the time it was some sort of fad among Linux fans against Windows dominance. I
also liked Linux, but it was very annoying to see this kind of (reverse!) FUD.

Now it seems like it's some other "interest group" that's spreading it.
Depressing.

------
PhilWright
"Although Standard Oil was eventually forced to break into multiple companies
because it was ruled a monopoly, BP, Exxon, ConocoPhillips and Chevron (among
others) are all subsidiaries of Standard Oil."

This is not accurate. BP stands for British Petroleum and has never been part
of Standard Oil. BP has bought a couple of companies that used to be part of
Standard Oil.

------
jerryhuang100
_" To crush his competitors, Rockefeller would create a shortage of the
railroad tank cars that transported oil. He’d then buy up all the barrels on
the market so his competitors would have no place to store or ship their oil.
He bought up all the available chemicals that were necessary to refine oil."_

i thought it's common strategy played in AOE....

this post makes a great companion with another recent post about Uber on Lyft.

~~~
aerovistae
Hahahahaha as an avid AoE player I enjoy this observation. Indeed I do always
sell my excess food ASAP to drive down the price.

------
leoc
Probably no assessment of Rockefeller and his influence is complete without
mention of Junior and the
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre)
.

------
known
"Give me control of a nation's money supply, and I care not who makes its
laws." \--Rothschild in 1744

You can't beat it.

------
nbb
What do you think people in 1885 would think of the internet, where you can
read some random grade school student's term paper without even leaving your
desk?

~~~
yareally
I don't think it's far fetched for someone in the late 19th century to imagine
an automated, in-home telegraph system that printed out content for someone to
read. Someone might have even had their university assignments sent over
telegraph in an emergency. I believe Western Union used to deliver telegrams
(via telegraph) on demand for customers.

Stock updates were also sent automatically over telegraph starting in the
1870s for anyone that owned a ticker tape machine[1]. There were also
teleprinters that sent news stories and other information to those that owned
them.

Fax machines were also invented in the mid 19th Century and allowed for the
transmission of signatures and drawings over telegraph[2].

The basics for an asynchronous, global communication system have been around
since the 1800s, just not as cheap and user friendly as what we enjoy today.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticker_tape](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticker_tape)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantelegraph](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantelegraph)

------
barrkel
Rockefeller had a peculiar face, and it wasn't helped by his alopecia episode.
You can see where the lizard people conspiracies find fodder.

~~~
aab0
In that one photo he looks, literally, like Lord Voldemort. That can't have
helped his PR at all since I'm fairly sure newspapers were able to print
photos by this point.

~~~
aab0
Ah, yes. From the source book 'Titan':

"Coming on the eve of the muckraking era, Rockefeller’s alopecia had a
devastating effect on his image: It made him look like a hairless ogre,
stripped of all youth, warmth, and attractiveness, and this played powerfully
on people’s imaginations. For a time, he wore a black skullcap, giving him the
impressively gaunt physiognomy of a Renaissance prelate. One French writer
wrote that “under his silk skull-cap he seems like an old monk of the
inquisition such as one sees in the Spanish picture galleries.” 46"

------
neaanopri
It's shocking that they present this story as a tale of virtue. If being an
entrepreneur is a noble calling, then we should be ashamed of Rockerfeller for
his ruthless tactics, not praising him for it. If we want to praise
capitalists and capitalism, then we should be villifying Rockerfeller for his
monopolistic tactics. He was too clever by half as a CEO, since his tactics
eventually brought down the ire of the government. And he felt the need to
atone for his horrific business practices by charity, assuming that one of
them would cancel out the other. He deserves to have the ruthless, terrible
reputation the article laments him having.

~~~
WalterBright
> horrific business practices

I recommend that you read "Titan" by Chernow. Rockefeller is mostly guilty
simply of being very rich. During his career, he caused the price of kerosene
to drop 70%, and stay down. This was good for the expanding country.

During the anti-trust trial, Rockefeller was steadily losing market share to
nimbler, aggressive competitors. There was no need for the government to break
it up, it was coming apart anyway.

All businesses rise and fall over time. The popular narrative that, unchecked
by government, a business will eventually rise to absorb everything is not
borne out by practice.

~~~
curious_fella
> All businesses rise and fall over time. The popular narrative that,
> unchecked by government, a business will eventually rise to absorb
> everything is not borne out by practice.

Interesting assertion, do you have any books/data to back that up?

~~~
abtinf
The entire history of economics backs this up. The only instances of long-
lasting monopolies are the result of government coercion. The instability of
large, profitable businesses has both a solid theoretical foundation and an
unending abundance of empirical data.

If you ever think you have found a single instance of monopoly lasting any
significant length of time, look deeper - with absolute certainty there is a
government gun backing it up.

~~~
akkartik
_" If you ever think you have found a single instance of monopoly lasting any
significant length of time, look deeper - with absolute certainty there is a
government gun backing it up."_

But that caveat lets the horse out of the barn, since the gains made by
monopolies can purchase lobbyists and thence the government gun. Disney
Studios has been around 93 years at this point.

~~~
culturestate
What, precisely, does Disney have a monopoly on? Last I checked there were at
least several major movie studios, TV stations, and animation houses doing
very well for themselves independently of the mouse.

~~~
akkartik
Mickey Mouse.

Intellectual property is considered a monopoly assigned by the government.

My example aside, is it really so hard to believe that successful companies
can influence regulation? Monopolies are exceptionally successful companies.

------
minimaxir
What are the sources for the nonfiction in the article besides Titan?

~~~
jl87
The history channel show (men who built america), the book, a few podcasts
with the book's author, and a few clips from youtube from the history channel
and biography channel.

------
tomc1985
Yes, that's what the world needs. More ruthlessness...

