514 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



bank of Westfield, and the Westfield gas co. (by Dr S. B. 

 Brewer, president). It is now owned by the Phoenix gas and 

 improvement co. of Philadelphia, having been recently purchased 

 from the executors of Dr Brewer's estate. In October 1866, the 

 village corporation gave the right to the gas company to lay 

 mains through the streets for the purpose of supplying public 

 lamps. A two inch iron pipe was laid from the village to the 

 spring about that time and the use of the gas was at once begun. 

 The supply, however, was found inadequate and it soon became 

 necessary for the company to enter on the manufacture of coal 

 gas. This has been continued to the present day, the supply 

 being helped out by the small quantity of natural gas furnished 

 by the well. 



About 1865 the Barcelona petroleum co. drilled a well in the 

 neighborhood already described to the depth of a few hundred 

 feet. No oil was found in it, but it yielded a moderate supply 

 of gas. The well was drilled wet and was soon overrun with 

 water, but the gas supply has not entirely ceased even jet Two 

 or three years since, a measurement of its quantity was made and 

 it was found to be still giving off about 1800 cubic feet a day. 



Dr Brewer also drilled a well near the gas works for the pur- 

 pose of turning the supply into the village line. He struck two 

 gas veins, one at a depth of 500 feet, and the other at 1100 feet, 

 but the production of both was so small that no account was 

 taken of it. 



In recent years wells have been drilled in the village to obtain 

 household supplies of light and heat and a number of them have 

 been successful. One of the best instances is found in the ex- 

 perience of Mr Keuben G. Wright, who resides one half mile east 

 of the village center. Mr Wright had seen the result of much of 

 the drilling previously recorded and had concluded that the 

 weak supplies of gas belonging in the shales were permanently 

 discouraged by the heavy body of water that was allowed to lie 

 on them in the process of drilling. In a well that he began 14 

 years ago, on his own village lot, he cased the water off at 120 

 feet. He found a small volume of gas at 200 feet and an addi- 

 tional supply at 500 feet. The well was drilled to a depth of 

 900 feet. The amount of gas was small and the rock pressure 

 feeble, the latter not exceeding three or four pounds. But, after 



