fishtail bit

But mostly, when he had time, he tried to improve on the fishtail bit, which was most commonly used for drilling.

That year, Hughes, Sr. and Sharp developed the first two-cone drill bit, designed to enable rotary drilling in harder, deeper formations than was possible with earlier fishtail bits.

It was there, at the age of 20, that Herman C. Smith became the right man in the right place at the right time: oil was discovered nearby and the local drilling operators needed their fishtail bits sharpened.