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The following paper was read: 
On the Gas Wells of Ohio and Pennsylvania. 
By Dr. J. S. NEWBERRY. 
Carburetted Hydrogen escapes from the earth in innumer- 
able localities. It is evolved in the working of coal mines, and 
constitutes “fire-damp.’ It is also a constant associate of 
petroleum, and always issues in greater or less quantity, from 
oil wells. It is given off too in the decomposition of recent 
vegetable matter, and may be seen bubbling up through the 
water of all pools in which plants are decaying. When it 
escapes from the earth it may be generally traced to beds of 
bituminous matter from which it is apparently derived, such 
as coal, lignite, carbonaceous shale, asphalt, oil, &. From 
these substances it may be obtainea by artificial distillation, 
and is evolved by the spontaneous decomposition, which all 
organic tissues suffer on exposure. 
As Carburetted Hydrogen produces heat and light in 
combustion, it is largely manufactured and used for the 
illumination of cities and residences. So extensively is it 
employed for this purpose, that it may be regarded as an 
indispensable element in our modern civilization. It is not 
strange then, that efforts have been made to utilize the im- 
mense quantities of gas which flow from wells and springs in 
so many different countries. The Chinese have, for hundreds 
of years, used for lighting and heating, the gas which emanates 
from the earth, in several provinces of their country. In the 
United States, the gas which issues from the salt wells of the 
Kanawha valley, has been for many years employed as a fuel 
in the evaporation of the brine. 
The town of Fredonia, in western New York, has for more 
than forty years been fully, or partially lighted by gas, which 
issues from springs at that place. In the borings made for 
oil in the yarious oil districts of the western states, the gas 
which has been produced so abundantly, has been generally 
regarded as a useless, frequently, an inconvenient and danger- 
