146 WALKS AND TALKS. 



At sixty-four feet distant is the principal escape orifice of the 

 well. From a tube three inches in diameter, a column of 

 fire forty feet high shoots forth with a roar that fairly makes 

 the hills tremble. During a calm night the noise can be heard 

 at a distance of fifteen miles. At four miles, the sound re- 

 sembles that of a railroad train crossing a bridge near at 

 hand, and finally, as the escape orifice is reached, the roar is 

 like that of a thousand locomotives blowing off steam together. 

 At the well, in a tube of five and five-eighths inches, the pres- 

 sure is about one hundred pounds per square inch ; in a tube 

 of two inches, in which the gas is led to Freeport, fifteen 

 miles distant, the pressure is one hundred and twenty-five 

 pounds. The ascending velocity is one thousand seven hun- 

 dred feet per second, and if this be multiplied by the area of 

 the tube, 24.7 square inches, a yield of two hundred and 

 eighty-nine cubic feet per second, or about one million cubic 

 feet per hour, is determined. This is one thousand four hun- 

 dred and eight tons of gas daily. This, for heating purposes, 

 is estimated as equivalent to two thousand tons of bitumi- 

 nous coal. 



A year ago, the daily consumption of natural gas for fuel 

 purposes in the city of Pittsburgh, was fifteen to twenty mill- 

 ion cubic feet. The Consolidated Fuel Gas and Penn Fuel 

 companies were delivering from Murraysville, through four 

 lines of pipe, ten million cubic feet per day. Another line 

 then building was intended to increase the flow to fifteen or 

 seventeen million cubic feet. The Washington Gas company 

 had a pipe line twenty miles in length from the famous Mc- 

 Gingan well in Washington County. To this they were add- 

 ing an eight-inch line, which would increase their capacity to 

 five million feet. The Philadelphia company was then con- 

 structing three gigantic lines one from Murraysville, another 

 from Tarentum, and a third from the famous Westinghouse 

 wells at Homewood, within the city limits. These lines would 

 have a combined capacity of about thirty million feet per 

 day. The Carpenter company were arranging to deliver four 

 million, and the Chambers company three million cubic feet. 



