32 BULLETIN 102, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
(c) Make the consumers — especially the domestic — subordinate to 
occasional producers; that is, to men who have no intention of fol- 
lowing the business of hunting for gas for future service, but would 
be interested only in finding a good market, at the expense of others, 
for such gas as might be found as a result of an occasional accidental 
venture. 
(d) In all cases, where tried, impair and usually destroy the cook- 
ing, heating, and lighting service of the domestic consumer. 
(e) Greatly increase the amount of gas used for manufacturing 
purposes, thus hastening the day when natural gas will be merely the 
memory of a wasted and unappreciated resource. 
3. The attempt to convert natural gas transmission lines into mere 
common carrier transportation agencies, like railroads, presents 
many features that are impossible and none that are feasible or ex- 
pedient, because: 
(a) Natural gas companies in general are not chartered to act, 
and do not offer to act merely as transportation agencies. 
(h) Natural gas service to the public is so unlike the service 
rendered the public by railroads that no comparison can be made be- 
tween them. 
(c) The distinction between handling a commodity and rendering 
a service is an important one, as explained on page 34. 
(d) Even though natural gas is a mineral it requires constant 
attention from the time it is reduced to possession at the well, and 
embodies an unbroken chain of service features until it is burned at 
the consumer’s fixtures. A railroad may operate its line in many 
small units, rendering service to many different localities and to 
many different people with unrelated, isolated service units. 
(e) Natural gas service must be instantaneous. There can be no 
delays in rendering service, as is possible (and universally practiced) 
in transportation agencies such as railroads and traction lines. For 
instance, a railroad can very easily start service one hour late in 
case of congested traffic, but a natural gas service that delivers gas 
for cooking breakfast one hour after the consumer needed it would 
not only be valueless to the consumer, but would not be tolerated in 
any community. This instantaneous feature differentiates natural 
gas service from all transportation agencies. 
(/) The gas is never at rest, but is a constantly seething, moving 
mass between the gas in the field and the consumers’ fixtures in the 
cities. The gas travels at enormous velocities in the mains at a 
speed many times exceeding that of the fastest trains. 
■(g) The gas can go in only one direction. 
(7i) Storage facilities are not feasible for the gas either in the 
field or in transit. 
