Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1888-05-25
NATURAL GAS.

Natural gasis no new product. Ihree
thousand years ago the Chinese found
gas 8. 900 feet below the earth's sur
face. while drilling salt wells, and
have been piping it through bamboo
pipes just as We do through iron ones
and burning it in clay burners just as
we burn it in lava tips, or brass.
Cesar warmed his shivering hands at
the glowing flame of the Fontaine
Ardente, in Gaul. with the same salts
faction and comfort that many SOW
ereign of this western republic expert
enced in warming his at his gas fire
the cold mornings last winter
Nor has natural gas neglected 10
give mankind frequent limitations OF
its awful power in these years of the
past. The deadly fire. damp, that tells
in the dread rumble and the culver
ing earth that death and destruction
are abroad in the mine, is the same
natural gas that we take into our
workshops and homes, and which,
like willing giants serving, not ruling,
does willing, useful work.
When natural gas first made its
presence known in this country can
not be stated The Indians and
mound builders before them must
have had knowledge of some of the
many surface indications, of the leaks
from the gas reservoirs that are so
common in the valleys of the Upper
Ohio. and which for centuries have
told of the existence of this gas. I'm
like its twin brother, petroleum, it was
not born TO this upper world but 10
pass away at its birth. 1t took no rec
ognizable part in those striking and
mysterious scenes. the petroleum
burning at weird midnight over the
waters of Oil Creek, which so i'm
pressed the early French missionaries
as they journeyed down the Alleghe-
ney to the Ohio.
However, there are records OF its
presence here, going back more than
a hundred years. The burning spring
in Kanawha Valley of West Virginia,
which once belonged To Washington,
is one Of the earliest known recorded
sources of gas in this country. In
1921 the little village OF Fredonia, y.
Y, was ignited with gas froma a shallow
well, and little after the lighthouse
at Barcelona harbor on Lake Erie
Twenty wears after Fredonia's first
use, a salt manufacturer of the Kama
wha Valley burned it under his salt
blocks As early as 1888 il was used
in a dwelling house in Findlay, o.
From all early date in the history OF
the development OF the oil region OF
PENNSYLVANIA, the gas which generally
accompanies the oil has been used in
drilling wells, pumping oil, and for
light and heat in the towns and vii
lagos near the wells. Indeed, until
1888, few wells had been bored for
gas. Nearly all gas wells had been
struck while boring for petroleum.
Notwithstanding these earlier uses,
it was not until the Introduction OF
gas from the Murraysville well into
Pittsburg, but three years ago, that
natural gas began to assume the inn
portance as a fuel which it now pos
sesses. At that time its future was
not dreamed OF. Two or three rolling
mills. glass works here and there,
possibly n score OF industrial estab-
lishments all told, and a few dwelling
houses used the gas for fuel. To-day
it cooks the food of 10000 families,
and warns as many homes; il pud-
dies the iron and rolls the steel; IL
melts the glass; it burns the pottery:
it drills the wells and pumps the oil
and refines it; furnishes carbon for
ink, for paint and for electric lamps;
it raises the steam in many thousand
industrial works.
In a word, it is the fuel for domestic
ever it can be obtained, and so much
superior is it TO coal that cities with
coal at their very doors pipe the gas
sixty or seventy miles for use in their
homes and workshops.
And what is this natural gas? There
is most remarkable series Of com
pounds Of ofhydrogena and carbon known
as parafIines. Some Of these are solid
at ordinary temperatures, a parafiine
wax, others are liquid, while still 9th
ers are gaseous. Our American pc
troleup is composed almost entirely
OF liquid paraflines, holding solid par
afiine in solution, while natural gas,
which is so intimately associated with
petroleum a. TO be scarcely, IL ever,
absent when that is present, is chiefly
the first OF the series Of gaseous par
affines, methane (CH. }. the marsh gas
Of the stagnant pool, the light carbu
retted hydrogen Of the chemist, the
explosive fire, damp Of the miner With
this marsh gas is mixed quite mum
ber OF other gases, chiefly ethane, an
other of the parafiines, considerable
hydrogen and at times nitrogen, lit.
tie defiant gas, the Illuminating gas
Of our cities, with small amounts Of
earbonic oxide, carbonic acid and OK
ygen.
Analyses given ssom 20 show that
the proportions Of the several gases
vary most remarkably. This is one Of
the most interesting and inexplicable
facts in connection with natural gas.
The gas FROM the same well, coming
from the same storehouse, will in two
different days show the most marked
changesin composition. -Four samples
-