FOREWORD. 
Natural gas is the least appreciated, consequently the most abused, 
of the mineral resources in popular use. The issues involved are 
of direct concern to some ten millions of the inhabitants of the 
United States, and their range of influence does not stop even here ; 
for they form a prominent feature in the nation-wide problem of 
fuel supply which may be solved effectually only through coor- 
dinated attention to the component parts. This problem science and 
technology, working together, can take the initiative in simplifying, 
by pointing the way and devising means for its solution, but of their 
own initiative, they are powerless to go further. The responsibility 
of initiative in carrying forward the actual process of solution rests 
with the public, and resting with the public is contingent, as a first 
requisite, upon public opinion genuinely alive to the situation. This 
condition of affairs, naturally, is most pronounced in industrial con- 
nections of the public service order to which the activities comprising 
the natural gas industry belong; and this particular situation, bad 
enough from environment, is further aggravated by characteristics 
inherent in the resource. 
The public must look to remedying the situation or within a very 
few years lose the services of the resource already seriously im- 
paired. The stimulus to action contributed in the form of technical 
discussions is inadequate and equally so that afforded in appeals 
to sentiment and sensationalism. The United States National 
Museum has undertaken the preparation of an exhibit designed to 
visualize the situation in its true bearing, and the normal order of 
precedence would be to follow this with publications drawing upon 
the exhibit. In view of the present emergency, however, with its 
effect on the question of fuel supply, it is deemed best not to wait 
upon ceremony but to publish the present paper by Mr. S. S. Wyer, 
without the delay which would otherwise occur. 
The situation is too complex for any simple formula of remedy. 
It is not only complex but acutely critical as well, and needs all the 
light that can be thrown on it from all sides. This particular discus- 
sion sets forth the technical issues as viewed by a practical engineer 
who alone is responsible for it in a concise, readable presentation 
which makes it a distinct contribution toward clarifying the situation. 
C. G. Gilbert, 
Curator , Division of Mineral Technology , 
United States National Museum. 
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