252 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926 
“nature’s bonus to America”—a bonus so generous that our 1924 
production amounted to 1,142,000,000,000 cubic feet, or 2.7 times 
the output of manufactured gas in 1925. 
The intrinsic value of natural gas as an asset to the Nation, its 
unique form value as a fuel in steel works and other great industrial 
plants, its cheapness and convenience as a source of light and heat in 
more than 2,000,000 American homes, and finally its remarkable po- 
tentialities as a raw material for synthetic products would have led 
a more provident and perhaps deserving people than ourselves to or- 
ganize its development upon a basis both careful and farsighted. 
Instead, its exploitation has been characterized by a reckless and ap- 
palling waste at the wells, in transit, and in use. Even the leakage . 
after the meter has averaged 19,000 cubic feet per year, per house. 
Much of this waste may be attributed to lack of coordination between 
the gas and petroleum industries and much more to the economic and 
legal structure, which permits the first driller of a well to appropri- 
ate the gas belonging to his neighbors unless they themselves immedi- 
ately sink wells. 
The gas is held, under pressures which may exceed 1,000 pounds 
to the square inch, in the porous rock strata underlying the field. 
It varies widely in composition in different localities, but that from a 
given field is usually quite constant in character. Though it may 
contain the lighter members of the paraffin series in very different 
proportions, it usually consists chiefly of methane and carries about 
75 per cent of carbon, or 37.5 pounds per 1,000 cubic feet. Much 
carbon black for printer’s ink and other purposes is made from 
natural gas by methods of incomplete combustion which yield only — 
about 1.3 pounds of black per 1,000 cubic feet burned. The fuel 
value of the gas is usually somewhat over 1,000 B. t. u. per cubic 
foot, so that 15 cubic feet carry the heat equivalent of a pound of good 
coal. 
From the low-pressure gas associated with petroleum it is possible 
to recover, by compression or absorption in oil or charcoal, varying 
amounts of a light gasoline of especial value for blending purposes. 
The yields in some cases may be as high as 5 gallons per 1,000 cubic 
feet of gas, but are commonly much lower. The total amount so 
produced in 1925 is estimated to be about 30,000,000 barrels, or about 
11.5 per cent of our consumption. Of all the States, Oklahoma has 
contributed much the largest proportion of this natural gasoline. 
Of even greater interest for the future are the possibilities of 
producing from natural gas by synthetic methods alcohols, esters, 
glycols, and other organic compounds in great variety, as well as 
motor fuels of new types. 
