APPENDIX. 



THE "ANTICLINAL THEORY" OF NATURAL GAS.* 



BY I.C. WHITE, OF THE U. S. GEOLOGK \L SURVEY. 



At the request of the editor of this paper the writer has consented to arrange 

 an article f'<>r publication on the above subject. As many of the readers will 

 perceive, it consists principally of what lias already been published by me in other 

 journals, but here brought together and condensed into one paper for the con- 

 venience of those interested in the subject. 



The " anticlinal theory " of gas is not entirely new, since both Dr. Newberry and 

 Dr. Stevenson long ago recognized disturbanct in tin rocks as a factor in the occur- 

 rence of oil (and consequently of gas). 



Also, Mr. F. W. Minshall, an oil operator of many years 1 experience, had, it 

 seems (from a recent letter in The Petroleum Agi I, several years since, recognized 

 the connection between anticlinal structures and large deposits of natural gas, and 

 it is quite probable that the same conclusion has been formulated in the minds of 

 many other oil operators from the results of their practical experience in drilling; 

 hut so far as the writer knows. Mr. William A. Earseman was the first person who 

 proposed to test the theory practically by locating trial borings for gas on the 

 crests of anticlinal folds. 



The subject was first brought prominently to the attention of geologists and 

 others interested in natural gas by a short paper from the writer published in 

 Science of June 26, 1885, and as the statements therein contained embrace the 

 "anticlinal theory " as held by its friends and promulgators, it is here republished 

 in full, in order that its claims may not be misrepresented. The paper in question 

 read as follows : 



m 



"The recent introduction of natural gas into general use as a source of heat for 

 industrial and domestic purposes has raised it from the rank of a mere curiosity 

 to one of the earth's most valuable treasures. 



"To the reader unacquainted with- the great change natural gas has effected in 

 all industries where it can lie obtained, the following quotation from an article in 

 Macmillan's Magazim for January, written by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, the chief iron 

 master of Pittsburg, will be a revelation : ' In the manufacture of glass, of which 

 there is an immense quantity made in Pittsburg, I am informed that gas is worth 

 much more than the cost of coal and its handling, because it improves the 

 quality of the product. One firm in Pittsburg is already making plate glass of the 

 largest sizes, equal to the best imported French -lass, and is enabled to do so by 

 this fuel. In the manufacture of iron, ami especially in that of steel, the quality 

 is also improved by the pure new fuel. In our steel rail mills we have not used a 

 pound of coal for more than a year, nor in our iron mills for nearly the same 

 period. The change is a startling one. Where we formerly had 90 firemen at 

 work in one boiler-house, and were using 4(H) tons of coal per day, a visitor now 



* Reprinted from the "Natural Gas Supplement" to the 1 Manufacture; for April, 188G, pp. 



11-13. 



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