The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-11-25
CORRESPONDENCE.
From the "Garden City"
CHICAGO, Nov. 18th,

some time ago spoke about pipes being
laid from the State of Indiana, some lis
miles from Chicago, which was to give
the citizens of this great city natural gas
for fuel purposes. This great and won
dorful enterprise is a last accomplished.
! This company now defy the anthaclte
trust, and have no ashes to carry out in
the morning. The invisible fuel from
the State OF Indiana has at last entered
this great metropolis. Chicago can revel
in one great victory if she has lost in
another, and | think within the next
four years it will be Is profitable to the
community as any Democratic admins
tratiOn from Grover Cleveland The
| good hOusekeeper will find something to
her benefit coming from the good old
| H0osier State that will be of more valua-
BILE service than any device or Free Trade
scheme that may come from any South
ern Democrat or Northern Southern SYM
pathizer with Southern rebels. Her hus-
band can arise in the morning, to clean
out the stove of ashes-No! no! He bids
adieu to wood and kindlings and dirty
coal. All he has to do is to turn valve
and, 10! there beams ruddy, open fire.
The coal scuttle and tongs may be dump
ed into the cellar and the cOal-oil lamps
consigned to the junk dealer, for natural
| gas will superSede both coal and kero-
sene as fuel from and after to-day. This
company completed its connections at
Fortieth street during the last week and
within few minutes the product of the
Indiana gas fields had filled 100 miles of
mains and 10000 service pipes, grid-iron-
ing the southern and northern divisions
of the city, from Fortieth street on the
south to Lincoln Park on the north.
| Nearly every street in the business heart
of the city is covered, as well as the
north side between the Lake and the
north branch of tie river as far out as
North avenue. The 10000 service mains
are capable of supplying 35O,OOO meters,
and Manager Judson of the Economic
company says they can supply $4,000, 900
cubic feet of natural gas every twenty
four hours Some idea of this amount
can be had when it is known that the
present total supply of manufactured
gas in Chicago does not exceed 20,000,-
700 cubic feet day. And then when the
natural gas pipes are laid in the west di-
vision of the city the supply can be
doubled by laying additional pipes to the
gas fields. The turning in of the gas
was not attended by any formal demon
stration Il think the city has had enough
of this, OF late, especially the last) The
| two eight-inch pipe lines leading from
| GreentOwn, Ind, to this city, distance
| of 1861 miles, connect with the system
of city mains at Fortieth street. When
the connections had been completed the
valves were opened under the supervision
of MANAGER Judson. There was u pres
sure in tie main pipes of 500 pounds to
the square foot, which speedily filled the
city mains At Monroe and Michigan
avenue the workmen had not quite fin
ished making connections. Steel caps
we've placed on the ends of the pipes, but
the odOr of she escaping gas could be
| detected hall block away. 1t required
the services of half dozen watchmen
and a couple of policemen to prevent an
accident. The order came, "throw away
your cigavs," yelled the watchman when
there was a cigar smoker in sight.
"Never wore cigars disposed of SO sud
denly" AMI never was there command
quicker obeyed than this. Some thought
the millgnnium had come. The people
gave the excavation a wide and sudden
berth. A large force of clerks of the
Economic Gas and Fuel company have
been overwhelmed for several days by
people making applications for cOnnec-
tions and thousands of houses in the
southern and northern divisions of the
city began taking the gas Immediate
ly. 1t is expected that within a few
weeks the new fuel gas will come into
general use not only in the homes of
residents bat in many of the large semi
public buildings, that were supplied
with natural gas when erected. As soon
as the system is in good working order
in the north and south divisions of the
city Manager Judson says the company
will begin Erying mains on the west of
the city. This great supply comes from
Howard and adjoining counties in cen
tral-northeEn Indiana, where the com
pany ownsG0, 900 acres of land. What
think you Of Chicago enterprise; They
have forty flowing wells in operation,
which are connected with central res
ervoir at Gfeentown, near Kokomo. At
this place large pumping plant has been
constructed which forces the gas through
the parallel mains to Fortieth street, this
CITY, ThewOrk of pipe laying from the
gas fields to Chicago has been in progress
for nearly two years, being impeded a
number OF times, as all such enterprises
are, by injunctions, legislation, damage
cases, etc. but all were disposed of and
this wonderful enterprise has outreached
the expectations of the people. 1t is now
a we'll known fact that this enterprise is
in the haHls of the Standard Oil COM
pany, butas the terms of its franchise
compel it 10 supply gas to consumers at
rate not Exceeding fifty cents per 1000
cubic feetthe public is quite safe from
extortion. The company claims that it
has gas Ough to supply all demands
that may be made upon it in Chicago. 1t
is claimed by outsiders that besides the
forty welB now in use the company has
sunk and capped more than 100 others
that can 10 drawn upon if necessary.
Upon thii matter the company officials
are dumb and any employee who gives
| out information does SO at the peril of
his job. The natural gas IN its crude
state is MT fit for Illuminating purposes,
but loc.l company claims to possess a
device Which, when attached to natural
gas burnG, gives better light than the
manufactured article does. They manu-
facture flbur to-day over so many times
till thellie is gone, so with oil. How
can the consumer tell what the test is,
whether i is 200 or 500-he has no way
of knowing? Here the retail dealer is
selling kerosene at eight and ten cents
per galloi, and in all probability it is all
out of orB barrel. We get no such oil as
we did y,ars ago, it is now bleached and
there is lut little gravity in it. 1t has
been so br years. With the article of
white leal bleached, bleached, till the
genuine bad is all gone.
Corr w. E. SHELDON.