The Mineral argus., 1884-09-11
A Town Run by Natural Gas.

n 1oWu 1Gun py atura Gas.
"Our glass factory and our residences
are heated and lighted with natural
gas" said Captain James B. Ford, the
veteran plate glass manufacturer, a few
days ago, to your correspondent at the
Monongahela House, Pittsburg.
do you mean that the furnaces of
your foundry and the CRATES of your
houses consume only gasp"
Yes. Not a pound of coal or wood
is consumed at Creighton, where the
Pittsburg Plate Glass Company have
their plant. Come out and I'll show
you"
So to Creighton, 20 miles north OF
Pittsburg, on the Allegh eny river, and
on the "West Penn Road" as people
style it, went your correspondent. And
what saw he there? Answer, the model
community of the age!
Captain Ford, whose round form was
so familiar years ago in the cities about
the falls, met me, and, without cere-
mony, escorted me through the town Of
Creighton. I will use his explanation
without quotation marks. Three years
ago, believing that a natural flow of
gas could be obtained in the valley of
the Allegheny north of Pittsburg suf-
fclent to serve the purposes of fuel and
light for any mandatory, two hundred
acres were purchased and a well was
sunk. A we'll defined coal vein was on
the property, but coal was not wanted;
gas was, and gas was struck at 1900
feet, in a fve-inch bore. A stream. a
torrent of pure hydrogen gas, burst out
with a force of $50 pounds to the square
inch, and the establishment of plate
glass works on an economical basis be-
came a fixed fact. Last November the
Pittsburg Plate Glass Company was
organized.
What 1 saw is what 1 wish to speak
about. No coal, no wood, no cinders,
NJ. ashes, no smoke (think of that, no
DEBRIS of a factory to be seen anywhere.
In the furnaces a lurid, steady heat,
regulates like clock work. Overhead,
In the vast works, were gas burners
ablaze in the broad day, because, as
Captain Ford said, cit was not worth
while to turn the burners off and ON,
as there was plenty of gas, and to spare
All through this vast establishment,
with its great whirling tables loaded
with plate glass undergoing the several
processes of polishing. was observable
the supreme power of the five-inch pipe
of natural gas. The great engine
throbbed and moved in perfect regular
ity all the mechanism of the establish
ment, actuated by the same simple,
natural power. No coal, no ashes, no
cinders, no smoked
"Come to the house and I'll show
you how we get along without COAL"
said Captain Ford.
Wonderingly 1 followed.
In a charming cottage residence of
large capacity, with CRATE and gaslights
in every room and hall, and in the
kitchen stove, even, were nothing but
of gas jets.
Last winter, us cold as the winter
was we didn't know what cold was"
said a lady in this delightful home.
Why should they? A thumbscrew on
a gas pipe regulated the temperature
TO ABSOLUTE perfection. We live In a
age. To primitive people, depend
ent upon coal and wood for heating
purposes, whether we get it through
cheap stoves, CRATES, or costly furna.
ces, what a revelation this ma
gas company is. 1 am in
clined to have a mighty poor opinion o
our local gas companies with their mil
lions of capital, when I think of Cap
tain Ford's five-inch pipe stuck in the
hills, Just beyond the town of Creighton,
on the Allegheny river. Nature has
been pressed into the most prac-
teal and utillitarian methods for mans
profit and luxury. The only cloud that
from this community is formed
rom steam.
1--WE don't need to use this steam at
al" said Captain Ford. "The natural
pressure of the gas, $50 pounds to the
square inch, will drive our engines, and
can use the escaping gas just as well
ior fuel and light. They are doing it
below us, and we will soon adopt the
same method. "-Pittsburg, Pa, Cor
dependence ofLouisville Courier Jour
lal.