NEW USES FOR NATURAL GAS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16921, 30 December 1925, Page 7

NEW USES FOR NATURAL GAS.

STEAM REPLACED IN OPERATOR OF OIL FIELD MACHINERY.

SNYDER, Tex., Oct. 31.—A vast/reservoir of "cold," hon-inflammable gas lias been' discovered in the oil fields of this section and is being used to operate machinery and pumps. For a time it j mystified oil men and chemists, but it finally has been analysed as an air containing about 93 per cent nitrogen. One of the strange sights here is to see boilers producing pressure without fire. The gas is run into the boilers, and in two minutes a pressure of 125 pounds is attained. Prom the boiler the "air' is carried under pressure through tiie usual steam lines to pump-: and machinery. The air lias been used to drill three 1 different, wells within a radius of tinemiles. Additional producers have all struck, this gas in sufficient qminli'tirc! lo finish I heir we'.ls. I Men in the field use the air for anything steam would accomplish. All the/ r.eod do is to turn the air into the boi'ler, | which merely ads :;.s a reservoir to equalise pressure. It is used to in-| tbife automobile tyres and for refrigeration. Watermelons, milk, water, or nn.Ihing Ihe men wish to cool is place.] under the exhaust of an engine, which is covered with ire instead of bein<* hot with steam. A watermelon left under the exhaust for two hours will freeze solid. The air itself is not actually cold, but the release of pressure produces the effect of cold, similar to the process of manufacturing ice with ammonia under pressure. I