484 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



famous applications, in the direct use of heat, in the manufacture 

 of glass and cement, in the burning of pottery, tile, and brick, it 

 is, as before said, the perfect fuel. It effects important econo- 

 mies and greatly improves the quality of production at the same 

 time. But superlatives in describing its advantages and value 

 ought to be reserved for its use as a household fuel. It is here 

 that it does the greatest good to the greatest number. It light- 

 ens and simplifies the labors of housekeeping to a surprising ex- 

 tent. 



The truth is that natural gas ought to be exclusively confined 

 to domestic use. It is too good for any other line of service, too 

 fine a product for the coarse applications already named. It is 

 a profanation of the good gifts of nature to use gas in burning 

 bricks and tile, in calcining limestone, in generating steam, in 

 the manufacture of glass or cement. There is not enough of it 

 anywhere for manufacturing purposes. The most prolific dis- 

 tricts for its supply thus far known in the world, have been two 

 areas, each of which can be described with a radius of 30 or 40 

 miles; one, around Pittsburg, Pa., as a center, and the other 

 around Fairmont, Ind. Though less than 20 years have passed 

 since the first field was opened, and less than 10 years since the 

 second entered on its course, we are already obliged to use the 

 past tense in giving the history of both fields. Gas was applied 

 in Pittsburg to manufacturing uses in every way that ingenuity 

 could devise, but the life of the field could not be maintained un- 

 der the draft imposed for more than a single decade. In other 

 great gas fields like Findlay, O., the application to manufactures 

 has run even a shorter race. 



The amount of gas required in manufacturing necessitates the 

 speedy decline and failure of every gas field, even the greatest. 

 There is not a process to which it is turned, unless it be steam 

 production, in which hundreds of thousands of feet, if not mil- 

 lions, are demanded every day. For steam production, 50 feet 

 an hour for each horse power is probably enough, under careful 

 and skilful use of the gas. This would make the consumption 

 of a 50 horse power engine working 10 hours a day, 25,000 feet. 



For glass manufacture, a 10 pot window glass factory would 

 be found to require about 600,000 cubic feet a day. A 10 pot 

 Hint glass factory will use about 400,000 cubic feet a day. 



