CURIOSITIES OF NATURAL GAS. 



CURIOSITIES OF NATURAL GAS. 



By Peof. JOSEPH F. JAMES, M. S. 



IT is but little more than four years since there appeared, among 

 the economical products of Ohio and Indiana, a new force, 

 which has worked a sort of revolution among manufactures. 

 The geographies used to say Ohio was noted for wheat, corn, and 

 pork ; now they must add petroleum and natural gas. 



Rock-oil, or petroleum, has long been known to the world at 

 large. So, too, has natural gas. The former was the early pio- 

 neer's panacea. So precious was it that it was soaked up from the 

 ground by blankets, and was then wrung out and preserved for 

 times of need. The latter was and is still dreaded by miners as 

 the deadly "fire-damp." It was known to the Chinese long years 

 ago, and wells three thousand feet deep, giving off great volumes 

 of the material, were not uncommon. Burning springs had been 

 found in Virginia in 1775, and were well known in the valley of 

 the Kanawha River in the early part of this century. Fredonia, 

 in New York State, was lighted by natural gas in 1824; while 

 immense quantities of the precious fuel were at a later period, 

 and before its great value had become recognized, wasted in the 

 oil regions of Pennsylvania. 



Notwithstanding these facts, no one suspected that there lay, 

 concealed a thousand feet deep in the soil of Ohio and Indiana, 

 such a wonderful source of power as has been discovered. Those 

 who first sought for it were designated by the usual and familiar 

 appellations of fools and cranks, just as the originators of the 

 telephone, the telegraph, the locomotive, and the steam-engine 

 had been before them. Recent events have proved the wisdom 

 of the pioneers in the new field, and now portions of Ohio and 

 Indiana are famous the world over as reservoirs of that wonderful 

 product of Nature's laboratory, natural gas. 



The excitement which followed the announcement of the dis- 

 covery of natural gas at Findlay, Ohio, was like that following 

 the discovery of gold in California— with this exception, that 

 whereas the gold-fields were to be sought for in a far-away coun- 

 try, the gas was to be had at our very doors. The earth had but 

 to be penetrated a few hundred or a thousand feet, and there was 

 the equivalent of a gold-mine ; at least, so it was imagined, and, 

 with this idea firmly implanted, every little town within a radius 

 of a hundred miles of Findlay, and even further away, determined 

 to have some of the precious fuel. Experience has demonstrated 

 that the thing can not be had for the asking in every locality. 

 It has been shown that only where certain conditions of the rocky 



