Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-07-14

as natural gas, piped here from the
Indiana district, is very generally used
AS fuel in this city. But, great as
would be the loss and inconvenience to
Chicago it would scarcely be baga-
telle as compared to the aggregate of
loss in the wide range of territory
where natural gas is used as fuel and
illuninant. This territory embraces
quite a strip of western New York, a
large section of western Pennsylvania,
much of Ohio and Indiana, portions of
West Virginia and Kentucky and a
strip of Illinois, including this city.
In the states named there are thou
sands Of cities and villages where nat
ural gas is used almost exclusively for
fuel and light and tens of thousands
of industrial plants which depend sole
ly upon it.
If the conclusions of Biologists Orton
and Blatchley are correct, it can be
readily seen that the communities
where natural Sas is used will be sub
jected to no small loss and inconven-
ience Besides the vast sums invested in
territory, wells and pipe lines, there
will be the expense of changing fur
naces, ranges and stoves, to say moth
ing of the cost OF coal in excess of what
is ordinarily paid for natural gas.
It is impossible to tell how much gas
there is in any given section except by
the pressure, and it is the constant de-
crease in. this pressure that gives Gre
dence to the theory that the supply will
be exhausted in a short term of years,
the time, of course, varying in differ
ent fields and depending measurably
upon the amount of gas used. For in
stance. in the Indiana district the rock
pressure was 325 pounds nine years
ago. Now it is $50 pounds. The aver
age decrease has been is pounds year.
and as the salt water overcomes the
gas pressure at 130 pounds, the con-
clusion is reached by the experts that
within three years the wells in the In
diana gas belt will be dead.
The prospective natural gas famine
brings to mind by way of contrast the
earlier days when there were woeful
waste of this valuable fuel and illumi-
nant and reckless prodigality in its
use. In the early development of the
Pennsylvania oilields, and later in the
Ohio and Indiana fields, little value was
attached to the gas, which is found in
connection with petroleum, and it was
allowed to freely exhaust itself People
in the oil districts seemed to think that
they had perpetual fountain of fuel,
sufficient for all time and all purposes,
and scoffed at the warnings of scien-
tific experts who protested against its
waste. Hundreds of wells were allowed
to elbow off, day and night, some of
them being lighted and the columns of
fame reaching up hundred feet and
lighting the country for miles around
Notable among these was the famous
Karg WELL which was allowed to burn
ID, 600, 600 cubic feet each day for six
months, when it had practically spent
its force and become valueless. Prop
erly restrained, the flow would have
continued for years, furnishing a vast
amount of fuel. This is one of hun
dreds of cases of similar wastefulness.
1t is fairly estimated that in all the
oilfields fully one-half of the natural
gas product has been wasted, being
either dissipated in air or burned in
useless illuminations.