VALUABLE PRODUCT FROM EARTH

Southland Times, Issue 24574, 24 October 1941, Page 6

VALUABLE PRODUCT FROM EARTH

USE OF NATURAL GAS IN AMERICA “In America natural gas, which is obtained from oil wells, is so valuable and useful that it is piped all the way from New Orleans to Chicago,” said Miss C. McHaffie, M.Sc., in the course of an illustrated addx’ess at a meeting of the Southland branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand last night. The title of the address was “Petrol and Natural Gas.” Miss McHaffie said that at one time this natural gas was wasted, but now it was used for fuel and illumination and also to drive machinery in the oil fields. Natural gas was splendid for heating and was an improvement on coal gas. It gave gx’eater heat, was cheaper and much less dangerous. It had been found that it was cheaper fox’ Chicago to get natural gas all the way from New Orleans rather than manufacture gas from coal. At some wells the natural gas was burned to obtain carbon black used in the manufacture of printer’s ink. Another interesting fact mentioned by Miss McHaffie was that kerosene was much safer than it was 30 years ago. This was because kerosene was now much purer than it used to be. Many serious accidents had been caused by kerosene, but it was now almost perfectly safe. The deepest bores that had been put down for oil were just over 13,000 feet, ox- two and a-half miles. It had been found that at a greater depth the metal in the boring machinery could not stand the excessive heat.

“Gushing wells are now out of fashion,” Miss McHaffie said. “One well in America gushed 300 feet into the air at the rate of 60,000,000 gallons a day. That sort of thing does not happen today because steps are taken to control the flow.” Miss McHaffie also mentioned that all oil wells did not produce the same products. There was one oil well in Sumatra that produced pure petrol that could be used without any refining. The art of boring for oil or watei’ is not so modern as most people probably think. Miss McHaffie said that the Chinese used boring 2000 years ago and reached depths of 3000 feet. Some of the tools they used were surprisingly like those used today. 1