NATTJKAL GAS. 
49 
1. The volume of natural gas business for each domestic consumer 
is generally about five times as large as for manufactured gas. 
2. The peak load difficulties in a natural gas load are much more 
troublesome than in manufactured gas, due primarily to the heating 
load, which fluctuates with the atmospheric temperature. 
3. The service standards can not be limited to merely the distribut- 
ing plant limits, but would be closely related to the main pipe lines, 
back into the field to the compressing stations, and general field 
operating conditions. 
4. The natural gas company can not create the basic feature of the 
service it is selling to the public, but must depend entirely on the 
caprice of nature for this. 
5. Every foot of gas sold represents in effect the sale of a part of 
the company’s property. 
6. Since there is no regeneration, the supply can be kept continuous 
only by constant and persistent hunting for new supplies. 
7. Although the distributing end is a public utility service, the field 
or producing end is a mining proposition, and the continuous connec- 
tion of the two by the transmission line has the immediate effect of 
also connecting the mining hazards to the distributing end of the 
business. 
8. The migratory tendencies and fugitive nature of natural gas 
under the ground make its reduction to possession much more diffi- 
cult than for solid minerals. 
9. In general, the prices for natural gas service have not been ade- 
quate, and have not been made on the basis of rendering as uniform 
a condition of service, especially with regard to pressure, as can be 
maintained in a manufactured gas plant. 
10. Both the quality and quantity are entirely controlled by nature. 
DISCOUNT FOR LOWER PRESSURES STIMULATES WASTE. 
A penalty clause providing for a discount when pressures less than 
4 ounces are maintained has been suggested as a means of guar- 
anteeing good service. However, instead of guaranteeing service it 
stimulates waste for the reasons given on page 54. The penalty 
clause is inequitable and fails to recognize the well known operating 
characteristics of the mining, transmission, and distribution of 
natural gas, which, therefore, differentiate this from every other type 
of public utility service, more particularly by : 
1. Failure to recognize that the heating value of the gas does not 
decrease proportionally with the decrease in gage pressure. 
2. Failure to recognize that neither the efficiency nor the efficacy 
of gas decreases proportionally with the decrease in gage pressure. 
3. Failure to recognize that higher efficiencies may be obtained at 
pressures below 4 ounces than at 4 ounces and above. 
90682— 18— Bull. 102 1 
