Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-02-21
NATURAL GAS.
win it be Replaced by the MAnufac
tured Article?

An intelligent correspondent of tn,
I Dayton Journal, and one who has quit,
thoroughly Investigated the gas ques
ton, furnishes valuable information on
the subject. He Is not believer in thu
durability of natural gas as q fuel sup
ply. On this point he says:
~ know but little about schedules o
prices and care less, but the fact re
mains, as / have stated il that in al
cities whose source of supply is more
than thirty miles distance, natural ga:
costs more than coal, at the beginning
and rapidly increases in cost. And
this is not always done by changing the
schedule, for 1t is geneally fixed for q
term of years; sometimes the pressure
mysteriously diminishes and q larger
mixer" becomes necessary to afford
the required heat, and from one cause
or another the cost soon increases and
the consumer soon learns that natural
gas is not an article of unaduIterated
loveliness. Ifit Is not the cost that dis
gusts him, he finds the supply unsteady
and unreliable, often failing i'm the
coldest weather. There seems to be q
tendency to moisture in the pipes, and
the frost retards the flow just when the
supply should be the greatest. OnIy
last week was at Findlay and was told
by manufacturer who used gas from
the great Karg well that il was becom-
ing unreliable. 1 went to the boiler
room where found the fireman using
shaviDgs and sawdust to help keep up
steam. He had pile of coal at hand
which he said at about O'clock he
would have to resort to, for every
evening this winter the gas we'll gave
out at about that hour, and several
times had no gas for day or so, while
they were blowing the salt water out of
the wells"
In reply to those who claim that Day.
ton must have gas at once or drop be-
hind rival cities, he says:
my dear impatient, must-have-gas-
at-any-price friend, wish to call your
attention to the fact that Dayton in the
last two years has added more to its
population and twice or three times as
much to its manufacturing facilities as
Toledo, which has enjoyed natural gas
all that time, and it is to-day except in
the matter of its streets, the most pro-
gressive city in Ohio"
He thinks manufactured gas will
soon take the place of natural gas. On
this point he says:
"Why, my dear gassy alarmist, the
Globe iron works at Cincinnati is man
ufacturing fuel gas for all its uses at
saving of fifty per cent. on the old way
of burning coal. y burn gas
for cooking, costing me over dollar per
thousand, and it is cheap as coal for
that purpose. Chicago and PhiladeI-
phia are furnished fuel gas at so cents
per thousand feet. Comment is un-
necessary.
What do you think of an immense
central gas plant at Lima to send man.
ufactured gas through pipes now used
for natural gas, to all towns they have
gobbled up? Nothing slow about that.
But my natual gassy friend will say
that the oil is as likely to give out as
the gas. Not so. Experience says that
it is good for fifteen years, and by that
time the Standard will buy several coal
mines, build great coal road, or buy
up those now built, and continue right
on making the fuel of the future at an
immense profit" E