SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



45 



NATURAL GAS IN SUSSEX. 

 By Charles Dawson, F.G.S., F.S.A. 



T N introducing my subject (i) I do not think it 

 necessary to make any elaborate references 

 to instances of discoveries of natural gas in 

 England and abroad. Suffice it to say that mani- 

 festations of natural inflammable gases have 

 occurred in almost every country and geological 

 formation throughout the world, and have fre- 

 quently been put to practical use. 



I will, however, mention what seems to have 

 been one instance of its appearance in London, 

 quaintly recorded by one Mathew Paris, about the 

 year 1256. Under the head of "A Sudden Sub- 

 terranean Explosion," the chronicler says: "About 

 this time, as some workmen were digging out the 

 bed of an aqueduct in London, to clear the bed of 

 mud (for the water had ceased to flow) a sudden 

 explosion burst forth from the ground, accom- 

 panied by a flame similar to the fire of Hell, 

 which, in the twinkling of an eye, suffocated 

 several of the workmen, killing one of them on the 

 spot, and so burning, maiming and disfiguring 

 others that they were entirely useless to themselves 

 ever afterwards. There were some who said that 

 this explosion occurred as by a miracle, because 

 those men were engaged in servile work at an 

 improper hour in the evening." It quite sounds 

 as if the Factory Acts had been anticipated in 

 those days ! 



This interesting record has a somewhat similar 

 parallel in the County of Sussex, and I may quote 

 it for the benefit of well-sinkers personally and 

 master well-sinkers generally who may come within 

 the provisions of the Employers' Liability Acts. I 

 am indebted for the account to Mr. Henry Nicholls, 

 of Deal, an owner of property at Hawkhurst in 

 Sussex. He states that between the years 1836 

 and 1840, at Hawkhurst, a well was there sunk to 

 a depth of 98 feet. After passing through a certain 

 amount of heavy sand, a blue clay of very oily 

 flaky nature was met with, mixed with yellow and 

 red streaky clay. This continued to the bottom 

 of the ninety-eight feet. An artesian boring was 

 then commenced, the workmen working by candle 

 hght. Having bored some fifty feet more, or 148 

 feet from the surface, the augur struck a rock and 

 fell into a cavity. An inflammable gas immediately 

 ascended, which got ignited by the lights the 

 workmen were using. Two men were immediately 

 killed, and as an eye-witness says, the gas burned 

 slowly up the well till it came near the top, when, 

 coming in contact with the outer air, it burst out 

 into a sheet of flame some twenty feet high. It 



(1) Read at the Conference of the South-Eastern Union of 

 Scientific Societies, Town Hall, Croydon, June 3rd, 1898. 



then slowly burned itself out. The water in the 

 well was useless, and Mr. Nicholls had the well 

 filled up. This seems to have been an instance of 

 an inflammable gas occurring in association with 

 strata containing a rock oil— the gas itself accumu- 

 lating in a cavity, or what is called by the 

 Americans, a "pocket." It serves to show that 

 it is unwise for well-sinkers to use artificial lights 

 at the bottom of a well when boring for water — 

 except, perhaps, in properly constructed mining 

 lamps. 



Another somewhat interesting occurrence took 

 place near Ticehurst Road, Sussex, about six or 

 seven years ago. There is a certain low-lying 

 field close to the Ticehurst Road (S.E.R.) station, 

 called the " Bogs Brook." It is a marshy spot, 

 and sometimes large bubbles of inflammable gas 

 continuously rise and break on the surface of the 

 pools. One Sunday in a particularly dry summer, 

 when the bog was dried up, some boys were about 

 to enjoy a clandestine smoke of tobacco, when a 

 match thrown down suddenly ignited something 

 believed to be inflammable gas. The boys ran 

 away, and the whole field was soon a mass of 

 flame ; the peat of the bog also took fire. I am 

 told the spot, which is in view of the railway, was 

 visited by thousands of people at the time, and it 

 burned for a week or more, when some heavy rains 

 soaked the land and put out the fire. 



These subjects, although interesting, have per- 

 haps only a relative interest to the more important 

 one of the occurrence of inflammable gas coming 

 from artesian borings, having a continuous flow 

 during months and years, and existing under a 

 high degree of pressure. The occurrence of 

 inflammable gas is mentioned by Mr. Henry 

 Willett, F.G.S., in the famous Sub-Wealden bor- 

 ing at Netherfield, 1875, occurring in the Purbeck 

 strata and at a short distance above certain strata 

 in the upper " Kimmeridge clays," recorded to be 

 very rich in petroleum. This seems to be the 

 first record we have of a class of gas which 

 has now again been met with in East Sussex. 

 Of course I do not now speak of gases emanating 

 from petroleum at high temperatures, but of 

 certain gases usually found in a free state in 

 association with petroleum, and perhaps, there- 

 fore. Owing their origin to some common causes 

 and conditions. 



An inflammable gas was met with in a boring, 

 made by Messrs. Le Grand and Sutcliffe, the 

 celebrated hydraulic engineers, at the Heathfield 

 Hotel, in rocks the horizon of which is very little 

 higher from that discovered by Mr. Willett. The 



