502 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



expenditure was that of purchasing the few hundred feet of lead 

 pipe, three quarters of an inch or one inch in diameter, to convey 

 the gas to the hotel and stores where it was burned. The gaso- 

 meter is said to have had a capacity of 800 cubic feet, while the 

 little shed that covered it was of rough lumber and its construc- 

 tion of the cheapest possible description. 



In the autumn of 1858, Elias Forbes bought a half interest in 

 the Barmore enterprise and a company was formed under the 

 name of the Fredonia gas light co. This company is still in 

 existence. The well on which the new business was to be estab- 

 lished is said in one account to have been 30 feet in depth, with 

 a diameter of six feet at the surface, increasing, cistern-like, to 

 20 feet at the bottom, where two vertical holes were drilled in 

 the shale, one to a depth of 100 and the other to a depth of 150 

 feet. — Hamilton Child, Chautauqua county directory, 1874-75. 



For the remainder of the year 1858 and for the next year about 

 2000 feet of gas were supplied to the village line every day. A 

 gasometer of 12,000 cubic feet capacity was constructed and the 

 introduction of gas into private residences for illumination was 

 begun. In the course of a few years from that time, three miles 

 of mains had been laid within the corporation limits, and for 

 the first time the early designation of "a village lighted by natural 

 gas 7 ' could be truly made as to Fredonia. 



The company was soon obliged, however, to introduce manu- 

 factured coal gas into its pipes to maintain an adequate supply. 

 They built retorts for themselves and found that by the intro- 

 duction of a quantity of natural gas, the service of the coal gas 

 was greatly improved. 



A third stage in the history may be said to begin in 1871, when 

 Mr Alvah Colburn drilled a deep well at his mill (the old Norton 

 and Lester site, south of the Main st. bridge) for the purpose of 

 obtaining fuel for the boiler of his milL The Colburn well was 

 drilled 1250 feet deep. A considerable supply of gas was ob- 

 tained between 130 and 300 feet below the surface, but not enough 

 for the boiler. Mr Colburn accordingly offered the gas to the 

 company that supplied the village, and its service was greatly 

 improved by the addition. This well is said to have produced 

 about 4800 feet a day for a number of years and its rock 

 pressure, the maximum of which it required 10 hours to accumu- 



