The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-01-16

etc, in Pennsylvania, and Cuba, Ere
donia and Olean in New York.
SAVING -rvz-v,sv,, ss.,IiIs
II On aoDut twenty per cent. Sand in
labor of about ten per cent. Manu-
facturers consider it superior to coal,
as it is easily applied and cheaply and
conveniently manipulated. 1t is prob
able t!iat within year it will almost
entirely supersede coal in Pittsburgh,
where it already displaces over ten
thousand tons of coal daily. Thus the
character of that city will be completely
transformed, and it will no longer be
properly described as ''the dirtiest city
in America" On the contrary, it
should be the clea nest of any manu-
featuring center. 1t is only within the
last two years that any serious attempt
has been made to convey the gas from
the chief sources Of supply at Murrays-
vile and Tarentum, about twenty miles
distant. Now there are over three
hundred miles of pipe. from six to
twenty-four inches in diameter. Mr.
Andrew Carnegie the distinguished
iron-master, in late address before the
Steel and Iron Institute of London,
said: "a walk through our rolling-mills
would surprise the members of the In
stitute. In the steel rail mills, for in
stance, where before would have been
seen thirty stokers stripped to the waist,
firing boilers which require a supply Of
about four hundred tons of coal in
twenty-four hours, ninety tiremen in all
being employed. each working eight
hours, they would now find one man
walking around the boiler-houSe. sim
ply watching the waterguages, etc. Not
a particle of smoke would be seen. In
the iron mills the puddlers have white
washed the coal bunkers belonging to
their furnaces. "
Natural gas has given such manifest
advantage to Pittsburgh manufacturers,
where its use has already become quite
general, that other cities and towns are
moving in the same direction. A recent
proposition is to convey through pipes
, 70 Cincinnati g large e sInplyg of gas now
escaping under pressure of four hun
dred to seven hundred pounds to the
square inch from wells located on the
boundary between Kentucky and Vir-
ginia. 1t has also been proposed to
bring natural gas from Pennsylvania to
New York City. Drilling for gas wells
mas become an industry distinct from
oil borings, and the use of this natural
gas agent for heating and lighting pur-
poses is becoming general in the oil
| regions. In northwestern Ohio, about
Lima and Findlay, important strikes
of natural gas have been made
| within Il year. For house sup
ply the natural gas companies
generally estimate the amount of
coal that would be consumed, and
then furnish the gas at the cost of the
coal, or less, at so much per month,
though in some instances, as i'll Allie
gheny City, it is sold by the thousand
feet, the present rate being fifteen
cents. Its safety has been questioned
in pretty much the same way that the
safety of petroleum as fuel has been
questioned, but the Board of Under
writer's have assured themselves that in
Pittsburgh it is introduced and distrib-
uted in a perfectly safe manner, under
conditions prescribed by them.
The thought naturally suggests itself
that the supply of gas may be soon eX.
hausted, but the fact is cited that gas
well at Murraysville has been blowing
off gas for nine years, and notwith.
standing it is now surrounded by q
Gordon of wells, the diminution in it,
pressure is scarcely perceptible. MI
merous other examples confirm the
opinion that within a number of years
these gas wells suffer no appreciablt
diminution in supply, and many geolo
gists advance the theory that Nature il
constantly evolving the gas in her lab
oratory.
; Near Baku, in Russia, the naphtf
. springs have been discharging ft
twenty-five hundred years. Capita
: which is proverbially timid, thong
slow in coming to a conclusion, is no
D freely invested in furnishing Pitts6urg
and other towns with natural gas, al
there is good reason to believe that Il
A., sources of supply will not exhau
during the present generation. 49, Geor!
! r. Gibson, IN Horpey'S Magazine.