The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-01-06
TORE ABOUT GAS.
Walter }. Hudson Gives Some interesting Fig
ures and Facts.

know, neither can they tell who first
people who did everything before
anyone else-have been using 1t for
centuries, getting their supply from
wells said TO be 5000 feet in depth,
piping the gas through bamboo tubes
and using 1t with clay burners Near
the Caspian sea, In Asia, are num-
Der of gas fires, the gas issuing from
The ground. In Persia gas fires have
for ages been symbols of worship.
The "Fontaine Ardente" of the GauIs
near Grenoble, France, was burning
in the time of julius Caesar and has
been flaming ever since.
In this country, springs yielding
natural gas are referred to in the rec
ords of early travels, especially in
those of the Jesuit fathers. The gas
well near the village of t'redonia. n.
Y, is believed to be the first whose
product was employed commercially;
this was about the year 1921, before
gas was found In the oil regions.
AS late as 1870 gas was conveyed in
wooden mains to Rochester, n. Y,
from well at West Bloomfield which
was drilled in 1855. The distance is
"a miles and the experiment was a
failure. Gas was used in Orlean, Pa,
about 30 years ago; shortly afterwards
at Tidioute and other oil towns.
The first manufacturers to pipe gas
for their works and use it as a fuel,
were Spang, Chalfant a. Co., of Allie
1875, the well being at Lardentown,
Butler county, Pa. They still use the
product of that well,
The first use of natural gas in iron
Rogers d Burchfield, Leech berg, Pa.
In glass making the Rochester Tumb
Ter Works, at Rochester, Pa, was
probably the pioneer; in plate glass
M. j. b. Ford at he Pittsburg Plate
Glass Works, Creighton, Pa. Salt
was boiled with natural gas as early
as 1860 at East Liverpool, Ohio, where
1t was successfully used later in burn
ing pottery. In 1874 Mr.. Peter NeT
began the manufacture of lamp-back
from it at Gambler, Ohio.
The gas well struck near Home
wood by Mr. Geo. Westinghouse, Jr,
was the first within the limits of
Pittsburg.
Pittsburg is located near the center
one of the great gas fields which
extends from the New York state line
on the north to west Virginia on the
south. The consumption OF natural
gas in Pittsburg and its suburbs
amounts to almost 200,000,000 cubic
feet per day.
Soon after the usefulness of this fuel
was discovered in the vicinity ofPitts-
burg and the pressure and quantity
were found to be very great, conse-
quently very cheap, all of the mills
and factories used it for fuel and light.
After few years the pressure declin-
ed, and many ofthe wells became SO
exhauste that mills which required
great quantities of fuel returned to
the use of coal.
While natural gas is not so plenti-
full as in former years, new fields have
been developed to take the place of
the exhausted ones, and today there
is Il goodly supply, used principally
for domestic purposes, one company
supplying more than %, 900 dwellings.
AS the wells declined in pressure, the
fields being long distance from the
point of consumption, 1t was found
necessary to establish pumping sta
tons near the wells. These stations
are generally equipped with large en-
gines and compressors to draw gas
from the wells and force il through
pipe lines at pressure of 80 to 200
pounds per square inch, depending
on the size of pipes and the distance
the gas must be forced. There are
about twenty-five of these pumping
stations within radius of 100 miles
about Pittsburg and they are from 500
to $1,000 HIP. each. The pipe lines
are from to SO seconds diameter and
from to more than 100 miles long.
They convey to Pittsburg more than
100000 cubic feet of gas per day.
The gas, rs it IS taken from the
mains, is absolutely dry, containing
no water. Its specific gravity is a lit
tie more than half that of air. Its av-
erage calorlfic value has not, as yet,
been fully determined; some expert
ments have shown that 1000 cubic
feet weigh about 80 pounds, and equal
In heating power nearly 90 bushels of
Pittsburg coal, or 10000 cubic feet of
gas equals one ton 5000 pounds) of
Pittsburg coal. Some gases run as
low as II, 800, others as high as 25,O00