Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-27
PittSburg Manufacturers Not at All
Anxious to Return 10 the Use
Of Coal as Long as
THERE'S no NECESSITY FOR 1T.
ALI Fuel Companies Declare They Can Sup
ply All the Demands Made on
Them for Natural Gas.
SOME SHORTAGES EASILY EXPLAINED.
Plants Being Enlarged. and Plenty Of the Precisus
Find Promised.

ing the scarcity of gas, and consequent dis
position of manufacturers to return to the
use of coal, are SO widely divergent from the
actual facts and so palpably misleading as
to call for correction. So far from mills
contemplating return to coal, manufact-
urers are exhibiting a greater desire than
formerly for full supply of gas; and gas
owners, in their turn, are aware of this de-
sire, and are taking measures to comply
with it.
The decrease in pressure, which some
Southside mills have experienced latteriy,
is very easily explained by the fact that the
companies supplying them were enlarging
the capacities of their lines, and as matter
of exigency, were unable to continue a
uniform pressure while the alterations were
in progress. This is notably the case with
the Philadelphia and Monongahela COM
panies, which, between them, supply very
nearly the whole of the factories in the dis
trict affected by the temporary decrease In
pressure.
As manufacturer said yesterday: "Such
are calculated to create a scare where no
reason for it exists. If, In place of printing
such an absurd tale, the trouble. had been
taken to verify the statements. it would have
been found that the gas supply was all right,
and manufacturers just as eager to secure
supply as formerly"
Where the matter was mentioned yester-
day this was the general expression of opin-
ion.
WHERE THEY GET THEIR SUPPLY.
II will be in season to mention here the
companies which supply mills and factories
in this district with the statement of some
Of the officials regarding the scares which
have been circulated at home and abroad.
The Philadelphia Company supplies the en-
tire of the Southside mills. with the excep-
tion of the OIivers'. Dilworth & Porter, and
the Republic Iron Works. These mills are
supplied by the Monongahela Company,
which, this year, has sold portion of its
surplus gas to some eight or nine glass
houses, as stated in The DISPATCH on
Saturday last. The former company has
lately completed a 36-inch line from the
Murraysville field, and has laid down an
other 36-inch line half way to the Believer
non district The rest of the distance was
covered by a 16-iuch pipe, and another
16-inch pipe is now being put down. 1t is
not surprising that the supply should be
temporarily cut off while these changes were
being effected. With the exception of Howe,
Brown & Co., Carnegie's mills out Penn
avenue way, and its domestic business
throughout the city, the Philadelphia Com
pany's business is confined to the Southside.
In connection with the probability or neces-
sity of manufacturers returning to the use of
coal, an official of the above named company
said yesterday that so long as they were sup
piled with gas fuel as satisfactorily as they
were at present manufacturers would not
give the question OF coal thought.
CONGRATULATED ON THE PRESSURE.
He added that, so far from there being
shortage, he had been congratul ated, within
day or two, by manufacturers on the steady
supply Of gas. He,said that the statements
sent broadcast over the country regarding a
deficiency of gas were misleading and with
out foundation.
If proof were wanting in support of this
view, it is found in the action of the Monon-
gahela Company, which has found the pres
sure from its wells SO strong as to enable it
to contract with several glass houses in addi-
tion to the mills already mentioned. Asked
yesterday for a statement regarding the re-
port that his mill was short of gas and was
Obliged to return to coal to supply the def
cheney, Mr.. David Oliver said:
"There is no cause at all for scare about
going back to coal or with regard to a short
age in gas. If you will glance out of the
window you will see smoke rising from the
stacks of one of our batteries of boilers;
you can see the same thing at one OF our
other mills. 1t is a fact that we are using
some coal under these boilers, but there is
no occasion for a scare, u Mess you take the
inference without an explanation. Such
reports will hurt Pittsburg's reputation
abroad and have a very dampening effect on
manufacturers who think of locating here.
''0ur firm, with some others, organized
the Monougahela Gas Company, and we are
now supplied by our own lines. We at first
retained one line OF the Philadelphia Com
panys, but our pressure became so strong
that we shut it of, and, still having such an
ample supply, brought in four additional
wells. we concluded to furnish some of the
glasshouses with gas. We now have a num-
Der of wells being drilled, and expected
them in by the time the glasshouses will
need additional pressure, but the tools be-
came lost in some of the wells, and work
was delayed.
WHY THEY USED COAL.
lowing to this state of affairs, and the fact
that we were supplying so many outside
firms, the pressure at our mills became a
lttle low. We did not wish to cut of our
customers, and so, as a temporary arrange
ment, we decided to use slack coal under
some of the boilers. We expect the wells a
inside of week, and will then have plenty.
The pressure at our wells has not decreased"
The Equitable Gas Company operates
along Penn avenue, and supplies tie mills
of that district, excepting those mentioned.
The President of that company, Mr. Robert
B. Brown, deprecated the reports OF q short
age of gas as calculated to iDjure the city by
keeping manufacturers away from it.
''The publication of such statements is apt
to endanger a distrustfulness in the supply
of gas and interfere with the development of
the city and district" said be. ';They
further give our rivals in outside cities an
opportunity of repeating the well known
phrase, L told you so.' THE DISPATCH
was at infinite pains, in a series of articles,
to show that the supply of gas was not solely
thing of to-day, and that it might be de-
pended upon for long time to come. The
deduction arrived at in this searching inves-
tgation-which thought settled the mat
ter-was still further supplemented and es-
tabiished by the report of an eminent geolo-
gist, whose eport on the future of the supply
also appeared in the columns of The DIS
PATCH. can say, for myself and my COM
pany, that we have no fear of the supply
becoming lessened, and that at present we are
giving our customers complete satisfaction.
L have not heard of auv mill owners cOntem-