Kansas Academy of Science. 



HELIUM IN KANSAS NATURAL GAS. 



By H. P. Cady and D. F. McFakland. 



SUMMARY. 



FORTY-FOUR gases have been analyzed. Three are from other 

 gas-fields than the Kansas field, the remainder from Kansas 

 and the parts of Missouri and the Indian Territory that are really 

 continuations of the Kansas field. 



Helium has been found in every gas examined, in quantities 

 ranging from less than a hundredth of one per cent, to nearly two 

 per cent. 



The average quantity of helium in the gases from other fields, 

 which included samples from Indiana, West Virginia, and Ohio 

 (0.135 per cent.), was much less than the average for gases from 

 the Kansas field (0.335 per cent.). 



Kansas gases exhibit the widest variation in the quantity of 

 helium. The highest amount found was 1.84 per cent., in the gas 

 from Dexter, in Cowley county, while the lowest was from Paola, 

 in Miami county. 



An examination of the geographical location of the various sam- 

 ple shows a remarkable regularity in the distribution of the helium. 



If the points which show equal quantities of helium be joined to- 

 gether on the map, it will be seen that the lines follow a general 

 direction of northeast to southwest, and that the lines are roughly 

 parallel. By tliis means it may be seen that on the eastern side of 

 the field th« helium content is very small, nearly all being below 

 0.10 per cent., the single exception being Olathe gas, which shows 

 OAO per cent. 



Helium content rises as we go west, reaching a maximum along 

 a line connecting Dexter and Eureka. Then the few samples which 

 could be obtained from the extreme western edge of the field, as at 

 present developed, show a sudden falling-ofp in the amount of he- 

 lium. At Arkansas City, only about twenty miles from Dexter, the 

 quantity is only 0.16 per cent. There is a rise from here to the 

 western edge of the field of nearly half a percent., the sample from 

 Elmdale, the furthest west of all, giving 0.56 per cent. 



It is further to be noted that the quantity of nitrogen in the 

 gases rises or falls generally with the quantity of helium, although 

 a strict proportionality has not been found; also, in general, the 

 quantity of combustible constituents in the gas varies inversely 



