MANUFACTURED GAS IN THE HOME. 
By Samuel S. Wyer. 
Associate in Mineral Technology, United States National Museum. 
PART I. 
PUBLIC’S INTEREST IN MANUFACTURED GAS . 1 
MAGNITUDE. 
Manufactured gas is now used by more than 9 million domestic 
consumers in over 4,600 towns and serves about 46 million of our 
population. In 1921 over 326 billion cubic feet were sold to the 
public by gas companies in the United States. 
GROWTH. 
The earliest available United States Geological Survey data are 
for 1898. While the growth has been continuous since 1898, the an- 
nual growth has been especially rapid since 1915, as shown in Figure 
1. The slowing down of growth, beginning about 1908, was due, in 
a large measure, to the then rapid increase in natural-gas use. The 
demands for hot-water and incidental heating in the home have been 
rapidly increasing, yet, at the present time, only about one-sixth of 
the domestic consumers have hot-water heaters and the hot-water 
heater growth in the future will be much larger. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
The geographical distribution of manufactured-gas consumers by 
States is shown in Figure 2, where the figures indicate the number 
in even thousands of consumers in each State. 
EFFECT OF DECLINING NATURAL-GAS SUPPLY. 
The demand for natural gas is now greater than the available sup- 
ply and less will be available each year. This now rapid decline 
will make necessary that the present natural-gas-using towns ulti- 
mately use manufactured gas if they are large enough to maintain 
a manufactured-gas plant. Many of the appliances now in use for 
1 The terms “ artificial ” and “ illuminating ” have been frequently used for this. 
Typical methods of manufacture and delivery to the home are shown on, the folding 
plate at the front. 
1 
