Before the automobile, what was the main use of petroleum?
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Petroleum products include transportation fuels, fuel oils for heating and electricity generation, asphalt and road oil, and feedstocks for making the chemicals, plastics, and synthetic materials that are in nearly everything we use.

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also

In addition, the Chinese were the first to use petroleum as fuel as early as the fourth century BC. The earliest known oil wells were drilled in China in AD 347 or earlier. They had depths of up to about 800 feet (240 m) and were drilled using bits attached to bamboo poles.