A chance gas explosion led to the discovery of oil in Czechoslovakia

The first oil deposit in what would later become Czechoslovakia was discovered in Gbely, in the Skalica district, on 10 January 1914 during an exploration prompted by a gas explosion. Local inventor Ján Medlen had been using the gas to heat his cottage. Subsequent expert investigations first confirmed a gas deposit at the site, and further drilling brought a surprising result: the discovery of very high-quality oil. It was the first time oil had been found in the so-called Vienna Basin, where the resource is still extracted today.

Medlen had already attracted the attention of his neighbours with various inventions before the explosion, which completely destroyed his farm at the beginning of 1913. He tried, for example, to build a perpetual motion machine, and probably shocked his neighbours most when he sold the land he had inherited and exchanged it for marshland outside the village. While digging a drainage ditch, he discovered gas, which he collected in a shaft and piped to his house through simple brick ducts. Although he tried to seal the basic installation and also provided ventilation, he was unable to prevent the accumulated gas from exploding.