<P> In 1879, Karl Benz was granted the first patent on a reliable gasoline - powered engine in Germany . In 1885, he produced the first true gasoline automobile, the Benz Patent Motorwagen . The new invention was quickly refined and gained popularity in Germany and France, and interest grew in the United Kingdom and the United States . In 1902, Ransom Olds created the production line concept for mass - producing lower - cost automobiles . Henry Ford soon refined the concept so that by 1914, middle - class laborers could afford automobiles built by Ford Motor Company . </P> <P> Automobile production exploded in the U.S. and in other nations during the 1920s . This, and the increasing use of petroleum derivatives to power factories and industrial equipment, substantially increased worldwide demand for oil . </P> <P> After years of failed attempts to extract oil from the salt domes near Beaumont, a small enterprise known as the Gladys City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing Company was joined in 1899 by Croatian / Austrian mechanical engineer Anthony F. Lucas, an expert in salt domes . Lucas joined the company in response to the numerous ads the company's founder Pattillo Higgins placed in industrial magazines and trade journals . Lucas and his colleagues struggled for two years to find oil at a location known as Spindletop Hill before making a strike in 1901 . The new well produced approximately 100,000 barrels of oil per day, an unprecedented level of production at the time . The 1902 total annual production at Spindletop exceeded 17 million barrels . The state's total production in 1900 had been only 836,000 barrels . The overabundance of supply led oil prices in the U.S. to drop to a record low of 3 cents per barrel, less than the price of water in some areas . </P> <P> Beaumont almost instantly became a boomtown with investors from around the state and the nation participating in land speculation . Investment in Texas speculation in 1901 reached approximately $235 million US (approximately $6.91 billion in present - day terms). The level of oil speculation in Pennsylvania and other areas of the United States was quickly surpassed by the speculation in Texas . The Lucas gusher itself was short - lived; production fell to 10,000 barrels per day by 1904 . The strike, however, was only the beginning of a much larger trend . </P>

What is the name of the place where oil was first discovered in texas