The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-05-20
GAS is COMING.
And 1t win Cost Only % Cents
Says Mr.. Mcdowell.
Natural Gas Expert Gives Com
mercial Club Information.
BRANCH FROM OTTAWA
win Be Separate From the
Kansas City Line.
Mr.. Tucker Makes a Hit in His
Talk.
Flags the Standard and Natural
Gas Scheme.
BRANCH FROM OTTAWA
Mr.. Tucker Makes a Hit in His
Talk.

Those who attended the meeting of
the Topeka Commercial club on Friday
night found out two things concerning
the providing this city with gas and
Oil
J. C. Mcdowell, general manager of
the Kansas Natural Gas company,
whose home is at Pittsburg, Pa, stated
that this city would have natural gas
by August l. A pipe line is now in
building. he said, parallel to the one
that is practically completed to carry
to Kansas City. He announced that
fuel gas would cost 121a cents per thou
sand cubic feet and illuminating gas
25 cents per thousand cubic feet.
H. H. Tucker, secretary of the Uncle
Sam Refinery company. of Cherryvale,
Kan, said that circumstances have
arisen which indicate that Topeka will
not be on the main line or the pipe
which the company is now laying. 1t
was originally thought that the line
would approach within six miles of To-
peka and that refinery would be
erected here AS 1t now seems neceS-
sary to do the nearest point on the
line to Topeka will be Is miles from
this city and an arm viii have to be
laid from that point into Topeka to
supply it With Oil But both Mr. IuCk-
er and Vice President Ritchey of the
company who made addresses, said
that they viii have proposition to
make later on to the city of Topeka,
and that they We're not yet ready at
this time. Judge Rightmire of Topeka
also spoke for the Uncle Sam company
He said that the right of way had
about been decided upon and that within
a short time the company would know
just exactly the course which it would
pursue
]. c. Mcdowell was introduced i'm
mediately after the meeting opened by
President G. X. Holiday, as the man
who knows more about gas than any
other person in the world" Mr.. Nc
Doweu said in part;
Mr. AIcDOWelIs Promises.
Natural gas and petroleum are very
closely allied, belonging to the class we
know as DitumenS, or hydrocarbons
knowledge of its use goes back of his
tory. It's probable that the paint on
the basket which held Moses was pitch
from petroleum The peoples of the
Orient used it in their fire worship. We
know of its use in China.
In 1924 the village inn in FredOnia, N.
T.. was lighted up in honor OF La
fayette with natural gas. This is our
first record of it in this country In
1889 about New York and Pennsylvania
mines the workers lighted their cabins
with it. In 1877 and 1879 the first lines
were laid in Pennsylvania. They were
two and four inch lines of a short dis
tance- In 1881 I built a line 80 miles
long from Wilcoxville to Bradford in
Pennsylvania and 1884 the line was ex-
tended to Pittsburg.
The development of gas really belongs
to our own times. If you begin at Buff
falo, draw a line to Elmira to Charles
ton, w. Va. to RUshville, Ind. to Day
ton, o.. to Toledo, to Hamilton, Canada
and back to Buffalo, you have encircled
a territory in which 100000 people live
and scarcely a hamlet which is not
lighted with gas. 1t encircles the cheap
est coal territory in the United States,
yet natural gas is universally used.
Wasted in Early Days.
In the early days the gas was wasted.
Even as shrewd a man as George West
fnghouse let the gas blow out instead of
checking and saving it. They began
to use the meter, and now it is the gen
eral custom rather than fiat rate.
In the last five years the investment
in gas was more than all time before.
There is at least $4,000 600 invested in
natural gas today.
Naturd gas is found in every rock
that is porous enough to contain it.
I'll is found wherever there is any de-
cay. especially IN sandstone gravel
and limestone, imbedded between lay
ers of shale. No gas field is of any
value that has not good cap rock.
In pennsylvania, virginia, New
York and Ohio we find the gas much
lower than in Kansas. that is below
your rock here. We know these as
ferent character.
in Ohio and Indiana the gas is in
the oldest rock formation, the Trenton
rock. All agree that it is the source
OF supply and the reservoir. This
field covers a very large field. The
gas is found right at the top of the
one Of the best advised gas men in
Indiana said to me that Indiana had
produced $300,00O,00O worth of gas in
fifteen years. They could have had
gas for 25 or 30 years if they had used
it decently. But Indiana wanted cheap
gas and it was wasted in every way
Imaginable
In California gas is found in the
tertiary formation. Tt escapes con
tinually and the result is that it does
not gather in pockets.
Tones Of literature have been
written on the origin OF natural gas
one is a theory Of distillatiOn, a chem
ical process. The other is that decayed
matter has produced it. Both agree
however, that practically all which is
now found has been there for thou
sands of years-a fixed product
Cheapest Fuel Known.
Natural gas is the most convenient
and cheapest fuel and light known. 1t
carries itself for one thing 1t is easily
lighted and shut off, leaving no SCOT
residue or ashes
Its chief value lies in its heat
producing qualities. No matter how
good your artificial gas is, the natural
contains twice as many heat units.
The Kansas gas sand is the finest in
the United States with the exception Of
the sand found in Elk county Pa. AT
Chanute there is an Oil sand of excellent
quality without a particle of gas. I
have watched the Kansas fields for ten
years. Our company has been a work
for four years getting 250,000 acres of
territory We have $50 wells completed