54 BULLETIN 102, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
leakage in the consumer’s house piping beyond the meter is very 
much larger than ordinarily appreciated. In a number of houses 
where the leakage has been checked it has been found that in their 
instances the leakage averaged 19 M cubic feet of gas a year for .each 
house. 
2. Measuring devices curtail leakage . — The leakage problem is very 
much greater than ordinarily appreciated, due to the fact that in so 
many instances measuring appliances are not used for measuring 
the gas either into the line or out of the line. The more extensive 
use of measuring devices, if properly installed and the results prop- 
erly interpreted, would reveal an enormous waste in many lines that 
are now supposed to be tight. 
3. Blowing drips . — If the gasoline vapors and water vapor are not 
removed by drying the gas, considerable gas must be wasted where 
these vapors, after they have been precipitated in liquid form, must 
be blown out along the transmission system. The installation of gas 
drying plants will therefore practically eliminate this form of waste 
in addition to conserving the gasoline. 
UTILIZATION WASTES. 
1. Flat rate . — Much natural gas is still sold at a flat rate of so 
much per consumer, or so much for each fire or other fixture. This 
puts a premium on waste and results in the destruction of an enor- 
mous amount of gas that might be conserved for more intelligent and 
appreciated future use. 
2. Cheap gas for manufacturing. — When natural gas is sold at low 
prices for industrial use, there is no incentive to use the gas in an 
efficient manner, and it is therefore quite frequently used without 
regard to efficiency or conservation. This is probably the largest 
form of waste in connection with utilization of natural gas. 
3. Free gas. — In many cases boom towns in the gas fields have 
held out the inducement of supplying either free gas or the gas has 
been sold at ridiculously low prices for industries that would locate 
there. This feature has been especially troublesome in West Vir- 
ginia and has resulted in depriving many domestic consumers of an 
adequate supply of the best fuel available for household use. 
In an extensive investigation the- amount of gas consumed by 
domestic consumers in West Virginia having free gas service privi- 
leges, on account of having gas wells or gas lines on their farms, it 
was found that the average consumption per free consumer a year 
was 480 M cubic feet. This is a. waste of at least 350 M cubic feet 
for each free consumer a year. There are at least 4,400 free con- 
sumers in West Virginia, and at this rate of waste this item alone 
amounts to 1,540,000 M cubic feet a year. This is more than half the 
amount of gas used in Louisville. The following further emphasizes 
this form of waste: 
