582 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



was never completed. The first utilization of natural gas of which 

 we have record was at Fredonia, in New York, in 1821. This first 

 well was an inch and a half in diameter and only twenty-seven 

 feet deep. The gas was used solely for illumination, and when 

 Lafayette visited the town, in 1824, the inn where he stopped was 

 thus lighted. The Fredonia well excited an immense interest on 

 both sides of the Atlantic, and so great a man as Humboldt is said 

 to have declared it the eighth wonder of the world. Yet there 

 seems to have been little effort to duplicate the wonder. Even at 

 Fredonia a second well was not sunk until 1850. The first use of 

 the gas for manufacturing purposes was probably in 1841, when 

 William Tompkins burned it to evaporate brine in the Kanawha 

 Valley. From this time onward the natural gas came slowly to 

 be used under boilers to drill salt and petroleum wells, and occa- 

 sionally to heat and light the houses in neighboring villages, but 

 on the whole the gas was regarded as a danger and a nuisance. 

 It was not until April, 1873, that gas was used in iron-making. In 

 the fall of 1875 it was introduced into a large rolling mill near 

 Pittsburg. 



About this time the new fuel was also introduced into glass- 

 houses. It is believed that the Rochester Tumbler Company, at 

 Rochester, Pa., was the first to utilize the gas in the processes 

 of glass-making. At the present day it seems odd that so emi- 

 nently convenient and economical a fuel should have been so 

 slow in coming into use. The Government reports on the Min- 

 eral Resources of the United States make no mention of natural 

 gas until 1883 and 1884. In the volume for those years it appears 

 for the first time as an economic product of sufficient impor- 

 tance to be noticed. Eight years have passed, and now the capi- 

 tal invested in natural gas is probably not far from one hun- 

 dred million dollars. In the latter part of 1883 the gas began 

 to be introduced into Pittsburg glass-houses. Mr. John B. 

 Ford took an active interest in this development. During this 

 and the following year he exploited the now celebrated Taren- 

 tum district in order to obtain a supply of gas for the plate-glass 

 works which he had just built at Creighton. 



The transition from solid to gaseous fuel took place with aston- 

 ishing rapidity. By 1885 all the glass-houses in Pittsburg and the 

 neighborhood which could obtain gas cheaply were using it for 

 all purposes of melting, blowing, manufacturing, and annealing. 

 It was possible to make the substitution so suddenly both be- 

 cause of the rapid exploitation and development of the gas terri- 

 tory, and because of the comparatively small changes needed to 

 adapt coal-burning furnaces to the gas. Where the gas was 

 burned for power, under boilers, the old grates were in many 

 places retained and the gas-burners so arranged that, in case of 



