, 1888-09-13
NATURAL GAS SUPPLY.
FACTS ABOUT THE NEW SOURCE
OF COMFORT AND WEALTH.

rcst3r-A catastrophe In China-An In
oident-OmciaI Reports
Where in the United States are the chief
sources of supply for natural gasl This is a
question that countless people have been try
ing to answer, and it is said that the people
of every state in the Union except the New
England states and the four most southerly
Atlantic seaboard states have quite lost their
equilibrium in attempting to show that the
chief supply is right under the crust of real
estate which they themselves happen to oc-
cupy. East of the Appalachian range of
mountains, measuring the Green mountains
OF Vermont as their most northern extern
sion, or spur, the natives have not bored for
natural gas except, perhaps, furtively, and
in the dark. A similar want of enterprise
has manifested itself in North and South
Carolina, Georgia and Florida, the people of
those states possibly thinking themselves too
near the earthquake center to take any
chances at penetrating the crust of this i'm
perfectly baked globe. But everywhere else
between the Hudson river and the Pacific
coast the drills have been working inces-
sanity, lighted at night, it is to be pre-
sumed, not infrequently, by the electric
light.
Such a spectacle would be somewhat ludi-
rous were it not that the electric illuminant
in the present status of scientific knowledge
is obliged to confess that dull gas is one of
the elementary forces to which it owe its
own being. But the search has been gener-
ally futile Except In Kansas gas has been
found in paying quantities only in that por-
ton of the Mississippi valley which lies east
of the great river and along the borders of
the mysterious geological formation known
as the drift. The main sources of supply are
found in the western part Of the state Of
D,,n~-1-N-4. --%.nl.-- --4-- -
southwestern New York, and southwark into
West Virginia; in northwestern Ohio and the
contiguous eastern part of central Indiana,
and in one part of Michigan.
The considerable supply found in Kansas
is sofar west of the main source that it sug-
gests escaping gas caused by some fissure or
fault in the drift formations. Yet the search
goes forward, though possibly with relaxing
interest. 1t is felt that the cavernous west
and south may furnish still other natural
pipe lines to convey gas for general distribu-
ton over half the continent
Natural gas has been long known. The vii
age of Fredonia, in this state, near the lower
end of Lake Erie, has been lighted by it
nearly, if not quite, fifty years, and the
Father of his Country is found to nave been
the first Spectator in natural gas. He came
in possession a very long time ago of what
were then known as the burning springs in
the Kanawha valley, Virginia. These SO
called springs were only the result of a
natural gas freak, though to the people Of
those early days, before the discovery or in
vention of a process for making coal gas,
they must ave furnished a mysterious phe-
nomenon.
The idea of Washington, however. In OBJ
tanning possession of the property was not a
speculation in light or fuel, but a speculation
in salt, as more properly became the savior
of his country. In China, too, a country to
which we must always go when we think
ourselves exclusively entitled to the credit of
some new discovery, the people have known
all about natural gas many hundred years.
1t rs even reported that a great catastrophe
once happened in China as a consequence OF
the reckless use of this illuminant, the catas-
trophe having been nothing less than the
explosion of an immense subterranean gas
ometer which underran a country large
enough for several kingdoms. The precise
of people who persisted at the time is
not recorded, but, considering the population
of the country, it must have been large. So
natural gas, it will be seen, has played a very
tragic part in the worlds history, if an in
animated substance can be said to play
tragedy.
This Chinese story lacks but one element
to give it n horrible interest, and that is the
eleHntHb VI posSlUluIy. NO ar can go where
gas holds possession; and you could not have
combustion and a consequent explosion with
out air. Some information in relation to
the natural gas wells of China has been given
recently to the state department by Mr..
Charles DENLY, the American minister to
that country. Mr.. DENLY describes a terri
tory about nine miles in iameter, where
brine, suitable for the production of salt, is
found at a depth of 700 to LOCO feet below
the surface. Below these salt reservoirs
again. at a depth of 1,S00 or 2 900 feet from the
surface, gas is found. 1t is reached by means of
rude iron drills fastened to a rope and oper-
ated in bamboo pipes, which are gradually
forced into the ground as the earth below is
displaced by the action of the sharp iron
point. 1t is bamboo everywhere. After the
gas is reached and brought TO the surface it
is led off to the evaporating pans by more
bamboo pipes, and made to do duty in turn
ing the brine into salt crystals. But, Cor its
bearing on this question of danger to come
from the practice of tapping natural gas
reservoirs, here is the chief point of interest
in Mr.. Denby's report.
During the TAPPING rebellion, years ago,
the rebels held possession of the country
where these gas wells are situated, and they
took off the cap that held the gas in confine-
ment from one of the wells and set the col
umn aflame. 1t has been burning ever since,
and there is not talent enough among the
Chinese engineers to extinguish the fire. But
it is TO be presumed that even the bamboo
piping in the well remains uninjured, or the
orifce must long since have been closed.
We need not go all the way to China, how
ever, for examples. We have seen oil and gas
wells enough afame in the United States to
nave blown Off the ends of both New York
and Pennsylvania had it been possible for
the flame to penetrate below the surface.
The Chinese incident, however, is not with
out interest from another point of view.
There has been a theory that the gas wells
must be soon exhausted; but here is a well
that has been running with such force that
the fame is i nextinguishable during many
years, and there is no evidence Of decreasing
pressure.
Official reports on the natural gas pro