CURIOSITIES OF NATURAL GAS. 825 



nished free of cost to the citizens {vide circular of the Chamber 

 of Commerce). 



No sooner had Findlay added natural gas to her attractive 

 features than every town in the vicinity determined to seek for 

 the fuel. The soil of Ohio and Indiana has been bored full of 

 holes in this search. Many places have been successful, more 

 have failed ; for, as Dr. Orton says : * " Every county in the west- 

 ern half of Ohio, without exception, has already drilled one or 

 more wells to the Trenton limestone, or at least has made a vigor- 

 ous and determined effort to reach the new source of light and 

 heat. Many counties outside this limit have spent and are still 

 spending money lavishly in the same search. Even small villages, 

 that have heretofore counted themselves too poor to provide such 

 fundamental requirements of comfortable living as sidewalks, 

 street-lamps, and graveled roadways, find no trouble in raising 

 money enough to drill two thousand feet, or more, into the under- 

 lying rocks, in search for natural gas. When such towns attain 

 any pronounced success in their drilling, they are sometimes tem- 

 porarily embarrassed thereby, as there are, in many cases, no 

 industries established in them to which a large flow of gas can be 

 profitably applied." 



The amount of gas given off from the numerous successful 

 wells in the new fields in Ohio and Indiana is incredible. Findlay 

 itself is estimated to possess a supply of 60,000,000 cubic feet per 

 day. Bowling Green has several wells which yield over 900,000 

 cubic feet per day. Muncie, Indiana, with seven wells, is calcu- 

 lated to have 6,000,000 cubic feet a day. Noblesville has one well 

 yielding about 2,000,000 cubic feet, and so on for a long list. 

 Probably at least 100,000,000 cubic feet a day would be the yield 

 of the wells which are now productive in this territory. 



Where all this is occurring, it is a matter of vital importance 

 to ascertain whether the supply will be a lasting one. There is 

 little doubt but that it is a stored force, and, when once exhausted, 

 as it must rapidly be, there will be no new supply. Yet the waste 

 which goes on is simply appalling. Some of the wells burned for 

 ]pionths before they were controlled or utilized. Almost every 

 new well, wherever found, is lighted and allowed to burn at the 

 rate of from 200,000 to 2,000,000 cubic feet per day, often for 

 weeks. It is stated \ that for several months of 1886 no less than 

 18,000,000 cubic feet of gas were burned in or about Findlay every 

 day. The Karg well alone, it is estimated, caused a loss to the 

 field of 150,000,000 cubic feet of this precious fuel. Now, it is 

 true, there is less of this wanton waste going on. Owners of wells 

 and others who are interested have come to see the importance 



* " Ohio Geology," vol. vi, p. 117. f Ibid., p. 133. 



