According to a GEO ExPro Magazine, in 1857, a man named Preston Barmore lowered gunpowder into a well at Canadaway Creek, NY, and dropped a red-hot iron down a tube, resulting in an explosion that fractured the rock and increased the flow of gas from the well. This is widely regarded as the first attempt at hydraulic fracturing, and, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s almost comical in its blunt force.