NATURAL GAS 387 



During the year 1873 natural gas was successfully intro- 

 duced for fuel and light at numerous localities in Venango, 

 Butler, and Armstrong counties. It was also introduced at 

 Leechburg, in Armstrong county, in the same year, the supply 

 being obtained from an abandoned well drilled for oil in 1871, 

 and was successfully applied in heating and puddling furnaces. 

 Iron mills at Etna, near Pittsburg, Pa., were the first large 

 mills to be supplied by a gas line of any considerable length. 

 The supply was used for years. This line was built in 1875, 

 and extended from the iron mills to the Harvey well, near 

 Lardens mills in Butler county, a distance of 17 miles. This 

 well was one of the largest kno^vn at that time. 



By the close of 1883 several pipe lines were supplying the 

 manufacturing establishments and the domestic service in 

 Pittsburg, Pa., the supply being from the Murrysville pool, in 

 Westmoreland county, which had been developed several years 

 previously. In 1885 the Grapeville and the Speechley pools 

 were first developed. The increase in its use was remarkable, 

 and a number of pools in Washington, Butler, and Beaver 

 counties were opened up and connected by pipe lines. In 1886 

 the gas field at Findlay, Ohio, began to be prominent. After- 

 wards a large field in Indiana was developed. The develop- 

 ment of these large reserv^oirs of natural gas, hitherto unknown, 

 seemed to impress the general public and many of the operators 

 of natural gas fields with the idea that these reservoirs were 

 practically inexhaustible. The fact that the quantity of gas 

 withdrawTi from any of the large fields by one or two wells 

 decreases the volume and pressure very slowly caused a false 

 impression as to the extent of the reservoirs. As the fields 

 were developed, however, and many wells reached the gas 

 resei-voirs, the decline in the pressure became more rapid and 

 noticeable. 



In Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana immense quantities 

 of gas were consumed in wasteful and extravagant display, 

 which in numerous instances almost turned night into day. 

 This extravagance was not realized until the fields began to be 

 seriously depleted. In the mills and factories the appUcation 

 of gas as a fuel was made in a wasteful and unscientific manner; 



