TEXAS NATURAL GAS FOR FAR-OF CITIES

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6992, 19 August 1929, Page 3

TEXAS NATURAL GAS FOR FAR-OF CITIES

9,000 MILES OF LINE DALLAS. Blue flames of Texas natural gas, fed by apparently inexhaustible fields, serve homes and industries of 1,000 citibs through hundreds of miles of high-pressure pipe lines, which will be augmented by 500 miles more in the 1929 building programme. Already this !’s mileage exceeds 9,000, with many . .ore to carry the fuel beyond its borders, to distant cities. Not only cheaper and more convenient fuel, but smokeless cities, are credited to the development of this resource. In Dallas, for example, it is not'necessary to wash the exteriors of the many white stone buildings, as not a wisp of smoke comes from the countless smoke stacks, and the residents take much pride in its cleanliness.

460-Mile Gas Line Planned A single gasser is capable of producing enough gas in ono day to supply the needs of a town for a year, and Texas has 1,400, active gas wells. The big problem has been distribution, rather than production, but to-day 13,000,000,000 cubic feet a day of this one-time waste product is being harnessed for domestic and commercial uses, a product which until comparatively recently was but an annoying release in the search for oil. Eighty per cent, of the 6,000,000 population of Texas is served by this fuel, while Texas is sending a supply to cities as far away as Omana, Denver, and Kansas City, as well as to Mexico. Supremacy in the length of gas pipe lines from Texas, however, is being challenged by the adjoining State of Louisiana. From the Monroe field of that State is being built a 460mile 22in. line to St. Louis and intermediate points, at a cost of £6,000,000. Contract is also being let for a 423-mile line from the Monroe and Richmond fields to Atlanta, costing £B,600,000. With the fast-increasing industrialisation of North Texas a fourth main line of 20in. diameter is "building in Dallas from the Petrolia field in Northwest Texas, a distance of 135 miles.

Shifting River Beds. Faster development of the gas industry has followed mastery of the problem of getting the lines across the Texas rivers. These watercourses, today trickling or stagnant streams of insignificant proportions, and to-morrow a miio wide torrent, have tested the skill and resourcefulness of engineers. Continuous service has been ensured by development of the gas bridge, preventing the washout of the line in time of flood. Theso imposing structures ioom high above wide stretches of mud flats or sandy stream beds. Formerly it was a guessing contest as to where the river would change its course, and many times expensive bridges would be left high and dry on the prairies while the river cut around, washing out the gas line in unexpected places. In many cases this has been met by forming sand bars by jetties for thousands of feet on either side of the bridge. River problems are almost as numerous as the rivers. Treastle, suspension, and pony truss bridges are all in use, determined by the formation. A mile trestle bridges a salt marsh near El Paso. An Red river, near Byers, is a suspension bridge 2,522 ft. long. In building a similar structure across the Brazos, it was necessary to sink piers 45ft. to pierce the shifting sand for a clay foundation.