What in the world gave that first man an idea that he could get "gasoline" out of oil in the first place? What would have given him that idea?
IIRC, gasoline and other items that are now valuable to us were actually waste products for years as crude oil that was easily accessible was heated to produce tar and pitch. Granted, the amount that was discarded then was miniscule compared to what we burn in a day now, but there was a time when perfectly good gasoline was considered useless.
About 1895, a hard drinking man in the Texas hill country got saved by Christ, and changed his carousing ways. He became a model citizen, and used to lead his Sunday school class to a nearby hill, where he would amuse the students by sticking a reed in the ground, and igniting the gas released from the top end. He surmised that the hill contained a huge pool of oil, and he enticed investors and engineers to the area to drill. The oil deposits of Pennsylvania, were at that time, a fair success, but beginning to decline in production. Gasoline was scarce, and only sold in drug stores. After a few false starts, they struck it big with a huge gusher. The huge amounts of oil, emboldened investors to build refineries, and you know the rest of the story.