GAS, NATURAL. 



367 



to the town. In East Liverpool the first well, 

 450 feet deep, was opened in 1859, and at latest 

 accounts was flowing as copiously as at first, 



reduction of pressure have so diminished the 

 danger that no accidents have occurred recently. 

 What will be the result of multiplying outlets 



although many other wells have been driven for such enormous interior pressures, remains 



in the immediate neighborhood and flow with 

 equal freedom. The light is brilliant and the 

 combustion so perfect as to be absolutely free 

 from smoke. It is practically the only fuel 

 used for manufacturing purposes in the town. 

 This does not exhaust the list of localities iu 

 the United States where natural gas has been 

 in daily use for a number of years ; but recent 

 discoveries in Pennsylvania have well-nigh 

 caused the earlier ones to be forgotten. The 



to be seen, and alarmists predict that when the 

 subterranean reservoirs are emptied of gas the 

 vacuum must of necessity be filled by the super- 

 incumbent earth. Such a contingency is so re- 

 mote, however, that few residents are disturbed 

 by the suggestion. 



As yet no way has been devised of limiting 

 the flow of the gas, and all that can not be used 

 goes to waste. At Murraysville the largest well 

 yields about 30,000.000 cubic feet in twenty- 



great coal-measures and oil-fields of Pennsylva- four hours, and of this only a small proportion 

 nia apparently offer all the conditions of an can be utilized. The surplus escapes through 

 abundant yield of natural gas, and for many a six-inch pipe, which is carried up to a height 



years it has casually served as fuel for some 

 of the pumping-engines 

 of oil-wells. The gas 

 question, however, was 

 so overshadowed by the 

 larger interests of coal 

 and oil production that 

 it did not attract gen- 

 eral attention until, in 

 1878, it refused to be 

 longer ignored. A well 

 was being driven for oil 

 at Murraysville, eighteen 

 miles east from Pitts- 

 burg, and had reached 

 a depth of 1,320 feet, 

 when, without a mo- 

 ment's warning, the en- 

 tire works at the mouth 

 of the well were blown 

 into the air, and the roar 

 of the escaping gas was 

 heard at a distance of 

 five miles. Four two- 

 inch pipes were laid 

 from the mouth of the 

 well, and the gas burned 

 with wonderful brillian- 

 cy. For five years the 

 valuable product was 

 wasted ; but experiment 

 showed that it could be 

 conducted through pipes, and it was success- 

 fully introduced in steel-works near Pitts- 

 burg. Other wells were driven in the Mur- 

 raysville district, and in 1884 the gas was 

 piped to Pittsburg, where it is now so largely 

 used for all purposes of light and heat that 

 it promises altogether to supersede coal. When 

 it was first introduced in the city, such was 

 the anxiety of the people to secure it for 



of about twenty feet from the ground. The 



MAP OF THE NATURAL GAS REGION. 



initial velocity is such that it does not ignite 

 within several feet of the end of the pipe. Mr. 

 Andrew Carnegie thus describes its appearance 

 by daylight: "Looking up into the clear blue 

 sky, you see before you a dancing golden fiend, 

 without visible connection with the earth, 

 swayed by the wind into fantastic shapes, and 

 whirling in every direction. As the gas from 

 the well strikes the center of the flame and 



mass curls inward, giving rise to the most 

 beautiful effects, gathered into graceful folds at 

 the bottom a veritable pillar of fire. There 



domestic and manufacturing purposes that in passes partly through it, the lower part of the 



many instances the plumbing and pipe-laying - 1 " *-* ~ ^ ^ +^ m ^. 



were imperfectly done, and several terrible ex- 

 plosions occurred. These were mainly due to 



the high pressure at which the gas was passed is not a particle of smoke from it. The gas 



through the pipes, for, unlike artificial gas, it from the wells at Washington (about twenty 



is odorless and gives no notice of its presence miles southwest from Pittsburg) was allowed 



until it is ignited. ' Careful workmanship and to escape through pipes that lay upon the 



