GASEOUS SUNLIGHT. 143 



here was sufficient to illuminate a large city. Ten years after- 

 ward, personal information from Mr. Neff, under whose direc- 

 tion the work had been done, assured me that these wells 

 continued to "blow," and he was then manufacturing from 

 the gas a refined quality of lampblack. 



In Michigan, certain parts of Wayne, Oakland, and Ma- 

 comb counties appear to be underlaid by considerable reser- 

 voirs of gas. In 1875, a gas well was struck three miles west 

 of Royal Oak, at the depth of a hundred feet. In 1877, a 

 well eight miles southeast of the village, at the depth of one 

 hundred and fifty feet, reached confined gas which threw the 

 tools into the air. It is said that much sand escaped, and a 

 stone weighing "several" pounds was thrown over a barn 

 " forty rods distant." The well was subsequently filled evi- 

 dently after the high pressure of the gas had subsided. In 

 1879, at a place five miles northeast of the same village, a 

 well bored one hundred feet secured a supply of gas which 

 has since been used for illuminating purposes. Three miles 

 south of the village, a powerful explosion revealed the uncov- 

 ering of a gas reservoir in 1880. After burning two years, 

 two other gas wells were bored, and the united illumination 

 rendered newspaper print legible at night, at the distance of 

 one hundred yards. In 1883, a gas vein was reached at 

 ninety-eight feet, which furnished a flame twenty feet high. 

 In 1884, on deepening this well, water was found, and addi- 

 tional gas which threw the water to the height of twenty feet. 

 Many other occurrences of a similar nature have been known 

 in this part of Michigan. 



At West Bloomfield, New York, a well bored five hun- 

 dred feet emitted gas with great force. At Erie, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Conneaut, Painesville, Cleveland, and Fremont in 

 Ohio, a number of wells have been successfully bored. At 

 Buffalo, New York, gas with a pressure of one hundred and 

 thirty-one pounds to the square inch issued from a well six 

 hundred and forty feet deep. At Cumberland, Maryland, a 

 gas well burned for two years. Some six miles east of Crab 

 Orchard, Kentucky, is a burning spring, the water in which 



