553.28 100 



III 



Natural Gas in Sussex 1 



IN introducing my subject, I do not think it necessary to make 

 any elaborate references to instances of discoveries of Natural 

 Gas in England and abroad. Suffice it to say, that manifestations 

 of natural inflammable gas have occurred in almost every country 

 and geological formation throughout the world, and have frequently 

 been put to practical use. 



I will, however, mention what seems to have been one instance 

 of its appearance in London, quaintly recorded by one, Mathew 

 Paris, about the year 1256. Under the head of 'A Sudden 

 Subterranean Explosion,' the chronicler says, " About this time, 

 as some workmen were digging out the bed of an aqueduct in 

 London, to clear the bed of mud (for the water had ceased to 

 flow) a sudden explosion burst forth from the ground accompanied 

 by a flame similar to the fire of hell, which, in the twinkling of 

 an eye suffocated several of the workmen, killing one of them 

 on the spot, and so burning, maiming and disfiguring others that 

 they were entirely useless to themselves ever afterwards. There 

 were some who said that this explosion occurred as by a miracle, 

 because those men were engaged in servile work at an improper 

 hour in the evening." (It quite sounds as if the Factory Acts had 

 been anticipated in these days.) 



This interesting record has a somewhat similar parallel in the 

 County of Sussex, and I may quote it for the benefit of well-sinkers 

 personally, and master well-sinkers who may come within the pro- 

 visions of the Employers' Liability Acts. 



I am indebted for the account to Mr Henry Nicholls of Deal, an 

 owner of property at Hawkhurst in West Sussex. He states that 

 between the years 1836 and 1840 a well was sunk at Hawkhurst 

 to a depth of 98 feet. After passing through a certain amount of 

 heavy sand, a blue clay of a very oily flaky nature was met with, 

 mixed with yellow and red streaky clay. This continued to the 

 bottom of the 98 feet. An artesian boring was then commenced, 

 the workmen working by candle-light. Having bored some 50 feet 

 more, or 148 feet from the surface, the augur struck a rock and fell 



1 A paper read at the Conference of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies, 

 Town Hall, Croydon, June 3, 1898. 



