A LAMPFUL OF OIL.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 216, 1 November 1888, Page 2

A LAMPFUL OF OIL.

From Harper's Magazine. (Continued.) In the early days of the oil industry, natural gas was found to co-exist with th. oil. and its presence causes oil-wells tn flow. As early ae the aprmg of 1861 Rouse’s well wa. opened as a large producer of petroleum, with a large volume of escaping gas that filled the neighbouring valley like a fog. Coming in contact with fire somewhere in the vicinity a terrific explosion occurred, killing nineteen persons. During the last decade natural gal has been introduced into most of the town, of the oil regions, both as a fuel and iliuminant. Prominent among town, using thii natural agent are, Pittsburgh and Allegheny City, where it is extensively employed in manufactures, and next to these Oil City, Bradford, Warren, Titusville, Franklin, Butler, Beaver Falls, Bolivar, Allentown, Friendship, etc., in Pennsylvania, and Cuba, Fredonia, and Olean, in New York. There is a saving in its use over lump coal of about twenty per cent., and in labor of about teu per cent. Manufacturers consider it superior to coal, as it is easily applied and cheaply and conveniently manipulated It is probable that within a year it will almost entirely supersede coal iu Pittsburgh, where it already displaces over ten thousand tom of coal daily. Thus the charaoterof that city will be completely transformed, and it will no longer be properly described as the “ dirtiest city in America.” On the contrary, it should be the cleanest of any manufacturing centre. It is only within th. last year* that any serious attempt has been to convey the gas from the chief lources of supply at Murraysville and Tarentum, about twenty miles distant. Now there are over three hundred miles of pipe, from six to twenty-four inches in diameter. Mr Andrew Carnegie, the distinguished ironmaster, in a late add ess before the Steel and Iron Institute of London, said,: “ A walk through our rolling mills would surprise the member, of the institute. In the steel-rail mills, for instance, where before would have been seen thirty stokers stripped to the waist, firing boilers which require a supply of about 400 tons of coal in twenty-four hours, ninety firemen in all being employed, eaeh working eight hours, they would now find one man walking around lhe boiler house, simply watching the water-gu*ges, etc. Not a particle of smoke would be seen. In the iron pills the puddlers have whitewashed the coal-bunkers belonging to their furnaces.” Natural gas has given such a manifest advantage to Pittsburgh manufaotureis, where its use has already become quite general, that other cities and towns ar. moving in the same direction. A recent proposition is to convsy through pipe, to Cincinnati a large aupply of gas now escaping under a pressure of 400 lb 700 pounds to the square inch from wells located on tbs boundary between Kentucky and Virginia. It has also been proposed to bring natural gas from Pennsylvania to New York city. Drilling for gas wells has become an industry distinct from oil borings, and the use of this natural gas agent for heating and lighting purposes is becoming general in the oil regions. In northwestern Ohio, about Lima and Findlay. important strikes of natural gas have been made within a year, For house supply the natural gas companies generally estimate ths amount of coal that Would be consumed, and then furnish the gas at the cost of the coal, or less, at so much per month, though in some instances, as in Allegheny City, it is sold by the thousand feet, the present fata being fifteen cents. Its safety has been questioned in pretty much the same way that the safety of petroleum as a fuel has been ques. tioned, but the Board of Underwriters have assured themselves that in Pittsburgh it is introduced and distributed in a perfectly safe manner, under conditions prescribed by them. The thought naturally suggests itself that the supply of gas may bs soon exhausted, hq t the fact is cited that a gas well at Murrays, ville has bean blowing off gas for nine years, and notwithstanding it is now surrounded by a cordon of wells, the diminution in its pressure is scarcely perceptible. Numerous other examples confirm the opinion that within a number of years these gas wells suffer no appreciable diminution in supply, and many geologists advance tho theory that Nature is constantly evolving the gas in her laboratory. Near Baku, in Russia, the naphtha springs have been discharging for twenty-five hundred yards. Capital, which is proverbially timid, though slow in coming to the conclusion, ii now freely invested in furnishing Pittsburgh and other towns with natural gas, and there is good reason to believe that the sources of supply will not be exhausted during the present generation. (This concludes the interesting article from Harper’s Magazine, and Mr J. H. Stubbs has kindly consented to make it complete up to date by a sketch of the progress oi the oil industry from the time when the article was written up to the present day.— Ed.] .