The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-11-03

Roane county. W Va, a distance of for
ty miles"
Mr.. Oliphant further On says: Large
quantities of gas are used by companies
and individuals as fuel in the operating of
pumps on small oil lines pumping and
drilling wells, the manufacture OF lamp
black, and for domestic fires for operators
and land owners in the section where the
wells are located Natural gas needs no
preparation 10 make il marketable, a.
does petroleum. This amount has been
estimated at from - TO 90 per cent of the
amount actually sold. There is also g.
large percentage lost, owing to leaks in
lines, waste due to drilling oil wells in
the gas territory, drips, and the blowing
of of wells to exhaust the water that
often finds its way into them. This is es-
Decially true Of southwestern Pennsylva-
mia and West Virginia, where there is at
present much new work in progress. It is
estimated that the average price of natu-
raj gas furnished consumers during 1899
was y IL cents per LOCO cubic feet.
There were in use up TO the close of 1899
1S,S56.S miles of natural gas mains of va
rious sizes, from two inches up to thirty
six inches in diameter.
Referring TO the exhaustion of the gas
fields, Nj. Oliphant says
1t is unfortunately true that beth Of
they once were, are approaching exhaus-
ton. The greater portion of the Ohio di-
vision OF this field, which originally had
a rock pressure of $50 pounds to ths
square inch, has now no rock pressurS
whatever. A large area of the Indiana
division has also yielded up over one-haIf
of the volume of natural gas once stored
in its great reservoirs. The original rock
pressure in Indiana was the same all over
the field, and registered 325 pounds to the
square inch; II is now down to an aver
age of 165 pounds to the square inch, and
II 100 pounds is required to hold back the
pressure of salt water, the figures show
that Sc per cent of the products has been
taken out and consumed. The unjustih-
able waste ii all the natural gas felds,'
Mr. Oliphant says, has been enormous.
Because of the original idea that the gas
supply was inexhaustible, since one or
two wells did not show any large decline
in pressure during the first six months
of their lives and also because it seemed
to cost the owners nothing after the we'll
was drilled in. millions and millions CT
cubic feet of this valuable fuel were al
lowed to escape into the air unconSumed
"Ail the fields show loss of pressure.
The old field of Trenton rock gas in north
western Ohio is nearly exhausted. That of
Indiana is undergoing a rapid decline.
Many of the old fields have been practi-
it not for the fact that in Pennsylvania and
West Virginia the gas areas are more or
less separated by stTeaks OF unproductive
territory, they, too. would have shown the
same conditions that are observed in Ohio
and Indiana. To reach the various gas
pools of the Appalachian fields usually in
wolves complete change in the location
OF gas mains, which is a source of con-
tinual expense to the Eastern gas compa-
MES. The great, broad, and almost con-
tinuous gas-producing expanse of the
Trenton limestone inside of defined limits
have, however made it a matter of simply
frightening the gas mains to reach addi-
tional territory"
The various uses to which natural gas is
applied as fuel, in whole or in part are
described by Mr.. Oliphant as follows: For
the manufacture of glass, in the pudding
of iron, the heating of large furnaces in
the manufacture of steel roasting ores and
many metallurgical operations natural gas
is without a rival. The gaseous state Of
fuel is the final step toward combustion,
since all solid and liquid fuel must be con-
verified into gaseous condition before it is
consumed. This accounts for the extra
work accomplished with gas as a fuel. 1t
has heating value greater by one-third
than the best coal gas, is doubly as effec-
tive as carbureted water gas, three and
one-haf times as effective as uncarbureted
water gas, and seven and one-haIf times
as effective as ordinary producer gas The
proper consumption of this fuel is in the
domestic fires, however, foF which it is so
eminently fitted and to which 1t naturally
belongs. 1t supplies over $50, 000 domestic
fires, used by 1000, eco people, and fur
nishes light for 100000 human beings,