STATE GEOLOGIST. om 
be seen from this that the plant was successful, even though at times the 
fuel was wasted or sold at absurdly low figures. The letter is from the 
Prosecuting Attorney of the county: 
FINDLAY, OHIo, January 16, 1908. 
My Dear Srp: 
In reply to your leter of recent date, asking for information regarding 
Findlay’s gas plant, I herewith submit the following, the amounts and dates 
having been given me by Mr. Ray, the City Clerk: 
The first bonds issued for the construction and maintenance of the gas plant 
at Findlay amounted to forty thousand dollars and were sold September 1, 
1886. Other issues followed as money was needed for the construction of the 
plant, being ten thousand dollars October 5, 1887; eight thousand dollars issued 
February 11, 1888; forty thousand dollars September 4, 1888; twenty thousand 
dollars September 24, 1888; seventy-five thousand dollars June 1, 1889, and fifty 
thousand dollars October 1, 1889, the entire issue of bonds being two hundred 
_and forty-three thousand dollars. 
These bonds were redeemed upon the following dates as they became due. 
Of the first issue twenty thousand dollars was paid in 1896; ten thousand dollars 
in 1901; ten thousand dollars being unpaid, not being due until 1906. Ten 
thousand dollars sold October 5, 1887, was paid in full in 1897. The issue of 
eight thousand dollars was taken up in 1901. Of the forty thousand dollars 
sold September 4, 1888, thirty thousand dollars was paid in 1902, the remaining 
ten thousand dollars not being due until 1903. The twenty thousand dollars 
sold September 4, 1888, was paid in full in 1898. Of the seventy-five thousand 
dollars issued June 1, 1889, ten thousand dollars was paid in 1894; ten thousand 
dollars in 1895, ten thousand dollars in 1898 and ten thousand dollars in 1899, 
thirty-five thousand dollars still remaining unpaid and not yet due. The issue 
of fifty thousand dollars on October 1, 1889, was paid in full in 1899. 
That this plant was a money-maker and a good investment for the city of 
Findlay is shown by the fact that, in addition to maintaining itself and redeem- 
ing its bonds, the Gas Trustees had at the time the plant was sold, an excess 
of seventy-five thousand dollars, which was used for the purpose of purchasing 
city of Findlay refunding bonds or paying special improvements and for general 
running expenses of the city of Findlay. 
In 1896 it was decided by the Gas Trustees that the gas supply was insuf- 
ficient to supply all the glass factories and other industrial plants, and thereupon 
the gas supply was cut off from these institutions. The meter system was 
adopted and the gas plant was practically devoted to supplying private citizens, 
who were charged twenty cents per thousand feet, which departure brought 
about general dissatisfaction for a time and a more economic use of the gas. 
This step induced the managers of the numerous factories who had located 
here on account of cheap fuel to move on to new gas fields, or to.some location 
where they could readily get a coal supply, and out of some dozen glass factories, 
we have but one left with us at this time, which is a large institution and has 
doubled its capacity since 1896. While the factory uses coal for its principal 
fuel, yet at certain seasons of the year when the private consumers use less gas, 
there is an ample supply for this purpose. While one or two of these old glass 
factories still stand sentinel at the outskirts of our city, most of them burned 
at the time of the exodus. 
On February 20, 1899, this gas plant was sold by the City Council of Findlay 
for the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars cash. The only reason 
