Los Angeles daily herald., 1885-12-17
Natural Gas and Les Angeles
as q Manufacturing Center.

ar. d. N. Rowe is the Santa Ana agent OF
he HERALD.
Natural Gas and Les Angeles
as a Manufacturing Center.
IL Is high time that Los Angeles
county should be tn roughly explored
for natural gas. The existence OF this
valuable fuel hereabouts il no longer
a matter Of speculation. In many
places Immediately adjoining the city
and in quite a number of places in the
country this gas bubbles up to the
surface and is frequently set on fire
by the gamins Of the neighborhood.
IL is found in the Pico Canon and
towards the South. II II exists in
large quantities in this county 1t
solves at once the question OF whether
or no Los Angeles can ever be made
a manufacturing city. Its use in
Pittsburg has given that place the
biggest boom ever known in its his
tory. There are two companies there
with capital OF 81, 0O0, 900 and $4,000
900 respectively to distribute the gas
to the furnaces, rolling mills, foun-
dries and factories OF Pittsburg. 1t is
already used by over two thousand
private families for all domestic pur-
poses. Its conveniences are said TO
be very great. The Westinghouse
natural gas company have Land twenty
miles of thirty-six inch pipe to supply
the Smoky City with this fuel fresh
from the laboratory OF nature. Gas
territory is now more valuable than
oil territory, and the extensive sdop-
ton Of gas for fuel has reduced the
value Of coal lands more than fifty per
cent. Its availability as a fuel for
manufacturing purposes has given
Pittsburg such a signal advantage
over st. Louis and other western
cities in iron and glass staples that
many of the iron and glass men OF
those places are pulling up their
stakes and hieing them to Pennsyl-
yania. Natural gas is not only the
cheapest fuel in the world, but it is
the best. BY its employment a uni
form heat can be secured at all times.
II can be turned on in the precise de-
gree and at the exact points needed.
This fact is Of the greatest Importance
in manipulating iron, and more par
ticularly in the delicate stages OF glass
manufacture. From every point OF
view il il most desirable that Los
Angeles should be exploited in earnest
for natural gas. In Pennsylvania it
is obtained at depths of from two
thousand to five thousand feet. AT
Marysville, twenty miles from Pitts
burg, it pours out OF the earth in the
principal well with pressure of one
hundred and twenty pounds to the
square inch, and il is generally charac-
terized by an energy and volume which
make its conveyance to considerable
distances very easy matter. MIR.
Russell. a Pittsburger who has had
considerable experience in such mat
tsrs. informed the editor of the HER
AID TINT he has no doubt, from the
general geological features OF the
country, that natural gas may he had
here, in any quantities desired, for
the mere seeking. lie vent out to
inspect the well OF Mr.. Ivar A. Weld,
which has been sunk to depth Of
some eight hundred feet, and which
ia only a few miles from the Court
House. From his observations he
had no doubt that il Mr.. Weld would
continue his well to depth cores
ponding to that in which the great
reservoirs Of natural gas are reached
in Pennsylvania the experiment
would be attended by very gratiiy-
ing success. He is astonished at the
inertness OF our local capitalists as to
a matter so pregnant with possibili-
ties of wealth, and on his return to
Pittsburg he intends to lay the facts
before the Messrs. Westinghouse,
Vandeprift and others, and he has no
doubt that Pennsylvania capital will
be found to embark in the enterprise.
He added that he had noticed that
mountains of the finest silica quartz
in the world existed around Lang's
Station. Ravena and other places in
the immediate neiehborhood of Los
Angeles. which could be crushed into
glass sand nj an OUTLAY OF dollar a
ton. and which would make up into
very superior glassware. With nat
ural gas for fuel and this fine silica
for n triIe. as AGAINST the nine or ten
dollars ton the Pittsburg glass
manuf.cturer has 10 nav for an infe-
r.or article Mr. Russell sees no res-
SON for 1nnbtinp that Los Angeles
would, in a short time, become very
important center OF glass manuiactnr-
ing.
Do our people ever stop to think about