RESEARCHES UPON THE CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF GASES. 229 



were not repeated at still higher pressures, in order to ascertain whether these same 

 constituents of the evolved gases diminish progressively with increased pressure. 



Engler was the first to show clearly that the problem of the origin of oil and 

 gas must be studied from the chemical rather than the geological standpoint. The 

 hypothesis advanced by this author has been very generally accepted. 



IS^evertheless, my examinations of natural gas have led me to doubt some of his 

 conclusions, well founded as they seem. The most careful tests, carried on during a 

 period of six years, have failed to show the presence of either olefines or carbon 

 monoxide in the natural gas of Western Pennsylvania. 



Some of the constituents of gas are soluble in water. This is notably the case 

 with carbon dioxide, butane, hexane, etc. If ethylene and carbon monoxide have 

 been produced even in much smaller proportion in the rocks than Engler finds in 

 menhaden oil gas, these substances would now occur in the natural gas of Pennsyl- 

 vania. Ethylene would give to the gas such illuminating power that there would be 

 no occasion for the use of coal gas in any town in the Western Pennsylvania gas 

 region. As a matter of fact, natural gas is almost useless as an illuminant, its light 

 being equal to 5 to 11 candles per five feet of gas consumed per hour. 



Mr. Robert McKinney, formerly gas inspector of Allegheny county, found as a 

 mean of forty trials of natural gas supplied to Pittsburgh an illuminating power of 

 (5.5 candles. 



Mr. J. W. Patterson, the present gas inspector of the county, states that the 

 illuminating power of natural gas as supplied to Pittsburgh in !N^ovember, 1892, is a 

 little less than 11 candles per five feet per hour. The reason for this is that natural 

 gas, as found in Pennsylvania, does not contain olefines. If carbon monoxide 

 occurred in gas, there would have been innumerable cases of poisoning among 

 workmen at gas wells. It is common to find such leaks of gas about the majority 

 of gas wells that no one could strike fire at a well without risk of fatal consequences. 

 Although inhaling the escaping gas for much of a lifetime, a gas- well driller will 

 usually maintain that no bad effects to health come from exposure to the gas. Air 

 containing 0.2 per cent, of CO is known to produce dangerous effects upon health. 



According to Wyss {Zeit Ang. Ghem., 1888, p. 165), air containing 0.1 per 

 cent, of water gas is poisonous to breathe. 



It is hardly probable, moreover, that CO or C2H4 occurring in gas could have 

 been absorbed or removed at low temperatures by any natural process in the rocks. 

 Unlike carbon dioxide and ammonia, their slight solubility in water would preclude 

 the supposition that they had been dissolved away. Muck (Grwidziige uiid Ziele der 

 SteiTikolilenchemie, 1881) cites analyses of fifty-seven samples of gas from coal mines 



A. p. S. VOL, XVII. 2d. 



