786 REPORT— 1903. 



above tlie siib-Wealden boring' at Netherfield, which was started in the Piirbeck 

 bed. This Hastings bed is composed principally of sandstones and iron bands 

 which make it a ' cap ' admirably adapted for acting as a natnral holder for 

 gaseous volumes. 



Heathfield is built on the well-known ]\Iid-Sussex anti-clinal. The sub- 

 Wealdeu boring, started in the Purbeck bed, situated some nine miles east, is on 

 the same anti-clinal. This fact conclusively jiroves the relative identity of the two 

 discoveries. 



The Purbeck is well known to be bituminous throughout. The Kimmeridge 

 clay, which lies some 200 /eet below the Purbeck, has been proved to be the 

 thickest bed of Kimmeridge in England, and 250 feet of this bed is known to be 

 of a very bituminous nature. Again, the Oxford, lying below the Kimmeridge, is 

 known to be also bituminous. 



In searching for natural gas in the United States, three things are kept in 

 view: — 



Firstly. Have the rocks been disturbed? (If so, no further time need be 

 wasted looking for gas.) 



Secondlt/. Is it an anticlinal formation ? 



Thirdly. Are theif, any Ijnown bituminous beds below? 



Holding these points in view, I may say that : — 



1. In this part of Susse.'^ we have the iron formation of the Hastings sands, 

 practically undisturbed. 



2. It is well known to geologists that the North and South Downs are simply 

 the outliers of an enormous anti-clinal. 



3. There are three successive bituminous beds proved to lie immediately under 

 the sandstones. 



At Mayfield, about five miles from Heathfield, we have commenced boring in 

 two positions on the Tunbridge Wells sands. 



We are now boring over some 200 square miles in the county of Sussex. At 

 Heathfield we are already supplying between seventy and eighty houees with 

 natural gas. We have obtained facilities from the L. 13. & S. C. Railway Com- 

 pany to lay our conduit ])ipes along their lines. 



The Composition «f Ih'alhfwld Natural Gas. — The Sussex gas in its natural 

 state gives, in an ordinary ' Argand' burner, a light of about 12-candk' power. 



I'rofessor Dixon, who I believe analysed Heathfield gas for the Royal Coal 

 Commission, has put on record figures which account for the high illuminant 

 value it has been proved to possess. 



He gives as its constituents : — 



Methane 934 per cent. 



Ethane 3-0 „ 



Nitrogen 2'7 „ 



Carbonic oxide 0'9 „ 



The great point in the future of Heathfield gas will be its value as used to 

 provide machine power. 



The engines in use at Heathfield consume about 1.3 cubic feet to lo per horse 

 power. 



The heating power that is to be obtained from a gas containing 93 per cent, 

 of methane is obvious. 



In an estimate made last year, it transpired that in America one million house- 

 holds and four million peopL; wei'e furnished with this ideal fuel and light. 



The ironworks of the Wealden area employed some fifty thousand men in 1750, 

 when the coal in the North took the iron-working away from the South. To-day 

 not an ounce of iron is smelted. 



The fuel is the cheapest in the world, the cost of carriage will be obviated, 



