Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-26
GAS ON THE JUMP.
The Producers of PittSburg's Supply
Say the Price Nay Go Up to so
Cents Thousand Feet.
CONSUMERS MUST USE ECONOMY.
Too Much of the Precious Fuel Now Allowed
to Escape Into the Air Through
the Chimney Flues.
SEVERAL WAYS TO PREVENT WASTE.
SEVERAL WAYS TO PREVENT WASTE.
TIE Increase in Price to be Gradual but Evidently None
the Less Certain

The price of natural gas has not reached
the limit of its ambition, and before year
has rolled around consumers will be looking
back and longing for the good old DAYS
when the biueish fame cost only Is cents q
thousand feet
Interest in the question of gas or no gas is
not tagging, by any means, as was evidenced
by the talks DISPATCH reporters had with
producers and consumers yesterday. 1t
leaves no doubt that the price will
advance, and very soon, but the ex-
act date is to be regulated by the
gas furnaces beneath and the cost to corral
and hold it while match is set to it. That
was the burden of the statements made by
producers Yesterday, while consumers threw
up both hands at the idea of the price going
beyond Is cents, which is generally consid-
cred fully equal to the occasion.
Secretary Uptergratf, of the Philadelphia
Company, upon being interrogated on the
voluminous gas question, said: II don't be-
lieve the people can afford to pay even Is
cents thousand feet if they use the old
fashioned open CRATES which have been in
operation for the past five years. Too much
gas goes up the fues and is otherwise
wasted.
THE PRICE BOUND To GO UP.
Economical appliances must be adopted
y gas will go out of use. If these econom-
5%al measures are adopted gas will continue
o be Pittsburg's beacon light The price
will be raised, of course, but the expense to
consumers will not be greatly advanced.
When our company is forced to pipe the gas
from other fields it will be compelled to
raise the price because the cost of produc-
tion will be more. But that should not
greatly affect the people. The price, be-
lieve, will 60 as high as so cents in the
course of time. 1t is % and 80 cents a
thousand feet at Erie and Buffalo, and the
latter CITY is as favorably situated as Pitts
burg. In Cincinnati 81 is the price of fuel
gas, and there are 1000 consumers at that
price, whereas We have only $4,000 at Is
cents thousand feet. With gas-saTing ap-
pliances the price will not be felt, but with
rhe old fashioned burners the cost would be
too much. "
Tie secretary of the Equitable Gas Com
panv can also see prospects of an increase
in price OF natural gas. THE price per
1000 feet will increase with the increased
difficulties to obtain il, said he. II can't
see any limit to it. If it goes too high for
the people TO pay for it. that ends the gas
business in places like this, where it is
necessary to pipe it in. Of course, in smaller
places gas will be plentiful for you can't
tell how long. But the companies will GER
tainly not pipe and furnish it except at
profit"
GETTING BACK TO OLD RATES.
Secretary D. T. Shields, OF the Allegheny
Heating Company, says their supply OF gas
is good at present, and they have not had
any complaints recently. Speaking of a
probable further increase in the price, he
said: Il can't see that it is an increase, but
rather getting back to the old price. About
five years ago We sold gas at 80 cents a thou
sand, and it Is now gradually getting back to
that price. l don't why it shouldn't. OF
course 1t IS proper to give cheap gas as long as
it can be produced cheaply, but, as
The prlce OF production increases, the
price paId by consumers will ad-
vance with it. With proper appliances
and economic usage. the price in the long run
viii not be greatly increased. We have not
haL our quarterly collections since the latest
economic measures were adopted and there
fore can't say how they work. Consumers
sometimes talk about it themselves. but do not
mention it TO US. and the only way we will be
able to learn Is by the amounts used"
President Charles Meyran, of the Manu-
facturers' Natural Gas Company, thinks his
company has hit on the right thing to cheaper
2 fOr consumers, even when it becomes neces-
s.-ry 10 advance tue price. The company has
adopted, to large extent, what is called the
mixer" and works the Ohio plan. These
they rent out by the month. They are regu-
lated so that only certain amount OF the gas
can pass through, and a man can take any size
he like. the price being regulated by the size
OF the hole in the mixer. A large-siZed burner,
such as is used in a cookstove, comes at about
s. q month, and the smaller ones are cheaper.
ONE WAY TO MAKE GAS CHEAP
ave find the burner much preferable to the
old system" said Nj. Meyran, because it saves
gas and still gives out plenty of heat. Our con-
sumers like il better than the meter. because it
costs them nothing 10 have it put IN, and does
better work. You know gas meter sometimes
goes wrong If it registers too much the con-
sumer objects, and if 1t doesn't register enough
we kick. So we find the mixer more satisfact-
ory to all concerned"
While gas producers have been thinking of
the increased comforts OF their customers lat
an increased DriCe) the latter were doubtless
attending strictly to business happily ignorant
Of the impending rise in the price. One con-
sumer met ON the street by a DISPATCH
reporter. who Queried:
DO you know that the price of gas is going
upY"
i hope and trust that it won't" was the re-
ply hut you know the tendency of gas is to
reach out for high places and there's no telling
how high / will 90