The Forrest City times., 1890-11-01
NATURAL GAS CUT OPP
Pittsburg Puddlers Will Have
 to Depene on Goal.
NATURE GIFTS WITHHELD
The Philadelphia Company Determine to Furnish Private Consumers Only It win Stimulate tho Coal
 Industry-A surprise.

PiTTsBuRG, Pa, October 25--The publi
 cation of the announcement tomorrow
 morning of the secrets of the meeting of the directors of the Philadelphia Gas Com
 pany will create a sensation in the iron and steel world here such as has not been experienced since the discovery of natural
 gas. At meeting of the officers of this
 company this afternoon 1t was decided that hereafter no pudding furnaces in
 the city or vicinity should receive natural
 gas as fuel No date was mentioned, but 1t Is said the order will take effect very
 soon.
 There arc 900 pudding furnaces in the city and half of them will be shut of as
 the result of the order This will neccssi- tate an enormous expense in the changing of the construction of the furnaces back to
 the use Of coal. In addition to this there will be a heavy added cost owing to the higher price of coal, as most of the fur
 naces held contracts with the company for
 gas at price marvcllously low. In addition to this 1t is feared something in prestige
 will be lost by his'sudden and backward
 move, as Pittsb urg has long been known
 as tho head and centre of tho greatest
  lecturers prefer this as fuel above all others, owing to it's intense heat peculiar
 ly adapted to the use of pudding furnaces, and this has given Pittsburg an immense
 stride forward in the iron and steel busi-
 ness.
 At the office Of tho company, however, 1t
 was stated that the move was not made ou account of any scarcity of gas, but be-
 cause the gas could be used to greater ad
 vantage In private houses, as the
 price paid there is many times
 greater for tho same quantity of
 gas than when used in the furnaces, as In
 the latter 1t has been found impossible 10 place metros of any description, and as a
 result there is an enormous waste The Philadelphia Gas Company at pres
 cut furnishes natural gus to 7so different
 manufacturing establishments, including furnaces, glass houses, etc. Also to s4.0oo houses, as DOT tho seere,arys report on January l, rsso This number has grown immensely since that time, as tho company
 has becn steadily extending its lines. but
 even at those figures, the consumption was .0o, ,ooo,o 900 cubic feet per day This is equal 10 25 ooo tons of coal per day Tho consumption now is far greater, as the company claim they have moro gas than eser but that the demand from that val uable source of income, tho private resi- dencc, is also far greater.
 The company at tho meeting today also decided 10 go into the Illuminating gas business. This will he done on scale never before attempted hero as tho Phila- detpha company has capital of ti5. .ooo 900 with George Westinghouse at its head, and will push into this new industry n, once. The shutting on of gas from the furnaces especially will give an almost incredible impetus to the coal business of this vicinity, which has lain dormant since the finding of natural gas. Many mines have beon aban- doncd, others are working on but half time, and altogether tho trade has been in bad way.
 The new move, however, will stimulate operations at once, and the only fear is a scarcity of miners, as tho poor prospects
 have driven So many away that even now
 men can not be secured to work what mines arc running.