The Butler Weekly Times Newspaper, October 19, 1887, Page 2

SS APkOPUS FOR PUTLER AT THIS TIME. Historical Facts Concerning the Invisi- ble Fuel. Human culture has been said to have begun with fire, of which the uses increased in the same ratio as culture itself. Civilization has cer- tainly advanced with the subjection of the destructive forces of nature. The wind and the flood that scatter- ed the materials of man’s rude habi- tation, or swept it into the sea, were made to grind his corn, waft his ships to distant lands, or bear his commerce upon the wave; steam has been harnessed to his chariot on land and sea; the lightning was first used as his messenger, but is rapid ly becoming his maid-of all-work. And now, even the dreaded fire-damp of the mine has been tamed and made to light and heat his dwellings, and to supply the best of fuel for manofactares. For the natural gas of Pittsburg and Ohio is no recently discovered force of nature, but is al- inost identical in its composition with the deadly explosive vapor of the English coal-pit, the marsh gas of our swamps, or Le Feu Fternel of of Baku, on the Caspion Sea. The last named fires, the most fa- mous in the world, are fed by the oldest natural gas wells of which history has preserved any record. Strabo and Plutarch allude to them, and the very earliest extant refer ence to the Magi of Asia records those people as worshiping the eter- nal fires which then blazed and still burn there from the fissures of the rocks. Those records take us back to a period at least 600 years before Christ; but the Magi lived and wor- shiped long before that time. At Surakhani, India, priests, until very recently, worshiped these per- petual fires. Now they are utilized in the manufacture of lime and re- fining the petroleum oil found in the same The Chiiiese were more practical the Persians. Instead of mak- ing'their natural gas wells objects of superstitious worship, they “piped” them with bambco tubes to the fur- naces in which they made salt by ar- tificial evaporation, attached terra- cotta burners and used the gas for fuel. When they began to use it in this way is not known, but these Chinese salt works are very ancient, and they may be seen to-day equip- ped with the same simple devices that have been employed probably for several thousand ycars. Some of the wells are said to be three thousand feet deep. Allthrough the scientific history of England we find reference to this inflamable air. In 1765. proposi- tion was made to convey this gas to the'town of Whitehaven, to be used for illuminating purposes; but €he idea was considered chimerical, and was soon abandoned. Reference to burning springs are to be found scattered through books of travel in Europe and Asia for the last 600 or 600 years, beginning, in deed, with Marco Polo, the famous traveler of the 13th century. Natural gas began to make itself known in this country almost as soon as the Western pioneers plant ed their first homes beyond the Alle- gheny Mountains. The gas well in Fredonia, New York, in the extreme northwestern corner of the state, is the best. known of these early ones, and is probably the oldest. People who were children in the public schools a third uf a century ago will reference to it, as a great curiosity, in the school geographies of that day. Gas from this well was light- ed on the occasion of General La- fayette’s visit, in 1824, and about that time, or soon after, a shaft 20 feet in depth was sunk. the gas col- lected in a gasometer and thence distributed to the consumers in the town, who used it for illumination. It gave a clear, steady, bright light, burned without odor, and, according to a local historian writing in 1846, “the public houses, stores and offices lighted with it presented a nove. a;- pearance, the brilliancy of wh ch ¢annot be equalled.” Subsequently "Several other wells were bored there, Be m none of | but the flow of gas fro | them has ever been very great. | Gas was found by the early set- | tlers of Chautauqua county, N. Y., | | elsewhere than at Fredonia. At nu- | merous points along the shores of | lake Erie bubbles of natural gas came up through the water, and at Barce- | Jona the lamp in the lighthouse was | fed with it as long as fifty years ago. In fact, there isa strip of territory, | about fifteen or twenty miles wide, extending along the south shore of Lake Erie from Buffalo almost to Sandusky, Ohio, and then, turning southward across Ohio, to the Ohio river, in many parts of which natur- al gas had been found in the rock known as the Ohio shale at a depth generally not exceeding five hundred feet. But this gas, like that of Fre- donia, issues from the ground un- der a very low pressure, so that the amount discharged in a day is very small. The largest well in this re- gion probably does not yield 100,000 cubic feet of gas in 24 hours. In many places the flow from these low-pressure wells has been utilized. Farm-houses and gentlemen’s coun- try-seats have been lighted and even heated by it, and it has been used in a small way in manufacturing. But, while it was a desirable luxury to those who were able to avail them- selves of it, the supply has always been too limited to make it of great eco- nomical value. Some of the wells when first bored discharged the gas with considerable force and in large quantities; but after a few hours or days the: pressure diminished, and subsequently the gas merely continu- ed to ooze out, much as smoke es- capes from the chimney of a dwell- ing house. Flowing slowly in this way the supply of gas from these shallow, low pressure wells seems to be inexhaustible. Some of them opened fifty years ago discharge about as much to-day as they ever did. Throughout the Ohio gas belt salt water has greatly troubled the natur- gas supply, but the wells are nearly all low pressure wells and are only used in small industries and in a private way, especially in East Liver pool it has been used for potteries. Pennsylvania takes the cake in all the phenomena of natural gas. During the last three years and a half the increase in the use of natur- al gas in Pittsburgh has been won- derful. It is like a fairy tale. The capital of the companies that supply the city with gas from Westmoreland, Washing and Butler counties is about $15,000,000, and the daily supply is estimated at more than 250,000,000 cubic feet. Thirty thousand families use it exclusively for cooking and heating. Pittsburgh is the great center of the United States for all manufactures of iron, steel and glass. The iron is melted and tempered and the pottery is all burned by natural gas, which is now the only fuel used there under steam boilers in all kinds of manufacturing. Natural gas is a subtle agent, and from its careless handling at first it was considered a very dangerous element to husband about one’s prem ises. But new methods and new in- ventions rapidly came to the front to prevent accidents. A device has been invented by Mr. George Westinghouse, by which a leak in the pipes is not only detect- ed and its location accurately deter- mined, but the waste gas from it is conveyed to the nearest lamp-post, and there safely consumed until the damage is repaired. ~All the main lines are provided with escape pipes and safety devices of the most ap- proved form. Another invention is & most ingenious pressure regulator, that determines the pressure at which gas is supplied to the burners regardless of that in the mains. Furthermore, inthe event of the Pressure in the mains dropping to zero, this regulator automatically shuts off all gas-from the house; nor is it possible to turn the gas on again, without violence to the regu- lator. until every source of escape of gas larger than a pin-hole leak has first been corrected. Thus the use of natural gas has been made as safe as that of any domestic fuel. The cost of natural gas for fuel in dwelling-houses is less than that of price of the former is higher, and the latter lower thanelsewhere. The companies do not measure the gas, but make a contract tosupply a faz ily for a given sum a year. In Pitts- burgh the price for heating and lighting every apartment of a twelve- room house, and of furnishing all the fuel for cooking purposes, is from $70 to $90 per annum. Economy is not the only thing that makes the domestic use of nat- ural gas popular. It is an ideal fu- el; it requires no special or expen- sive fixtures for its use. If a house was previously heated by a furnace, or by steam, the natural gus adapts itself to the existing apparatus. stoves or open fireplaces were used, they do their work better, with nat- ural gas than with wood or coal. The gas is conducted to the heat ing apparatus through pipes similar to those use for artificial iliuminating gas. The fire-box of the furnace or stove may be partially filled with pebbles about as large as the coal formerls used, in order to distribute the flame. In the bottom, just be- low where the gas is discharged in the fire box, the pipe passes through an iron sphere about as large as a man’s fist and pierced with a number of holes, each half an inch in diame- ter. As the gas passes through this it is thus mixed with the air, the proportion being regulated by the number of holes that are left open. The amount necessary to secure per- fect combustion and the greatest degree of heat is generally one-fifth gas and four fifths air. At the point of discharge the pipe may be made to branch and throw off several small jets. When lighted, the flames fill all the spaces between the pebbles. and the whole looks like a brisk, free- burning coal fire. The fire in an open grate or kitchen cooking-stove is arranged in the same way. If wood was formerly used upon the hearth in the fireplace, artificial sticks made of clay or porce- lain are substituted, the aerated gas is conducted underneath them and there lighted. The flames surround and blaze above the artificial sticks with beautiful effect, and send forth a genial heat throughout the room. The natural gas burns absolutely without smoke, dust or odor. Beau- tifully decorated tiles used in the construction of a fire-place are not stained or soiled after a whole year, although they may have been in con- tact with the flames of the gas for months. The most delicate furniture and fabrics are not injured by being kept in a room heated by it. In fact, they retain their original fresh- ness and beauty as though they had been carefully protected by covering. The natural gas needs no attention. Lighted at the beginning of the season in a furnace, stove, grate or fireplace, and the proper amount turned on to give it the required degree of heat, the latter will not vary so much as two degrees in months. But, since with the varying temperature of the outer atmosphere, varying degrees of artificial heat are required to preserve uniformity in an apartment or house, artificial regulators are supplied by which the amount of heat of each room can be governed so accurately that the vari- ations of temperature will never be greater than two degrees, except during the heat of summer. For culinary purposes natural gas surpasses every other kind of fuel. There is no waiting for the slow kindling of coal, no uncertainty caus- ed-by changes in wind and weather. By simply turning a stop-cock, just the amount of heat requred for any given purpose may be secured the cook. Ifa fierce fire and a hot oven is desired, the cook can have it in two or three minutes and may rely upon its continuance with abso- lutely no change. Ifa slow, gentle fire is needed, that is as easily se- cured. And, finally, if the day is oppressively hot, the fire may be put out the instant it isno longer need- ed. There is no troublesome kind- ling of fires; no raking, poking. or replenishing; no coals to receive or stow away, often filling the house with black dust; no ashes to take up and remove. So great a luxury is the use of natural gas that a family once enjoying it would not return to coal, even in Pittsburgh, where the | common fuels even if the cost of the | gas was much greater. Ti | by | removed from the buildings much of From actual figures it is shown | ' that at least 50 per cent is saved in fuel at Pittsburg by the use of natu- | ral gus, to say nothing of the other | Ms peti | great savings. | The enormous heating power of | natural gas is accounted for by the | excess of hydrogen which it contains, and the great quantity of air conse- | | quently absorbed in its perfect com- |bustion. For example, a pound of ; hydrogen in burning consumes or | unites with eight pounds of oxygen; while a pound or carbon unites with only two and two-third pounds of | oxygen, A given weight of hydro- | gen will produce, therefore, three | times as much heat as the same weight of carbon, the consumption of oxygen being the measure of heat. It is difficult to estimate with ac- curacy the amount of natural gas used in Pittsburg and vicinity. The demand for it from new customers has, until recently, exceeded the ability of the companies to provide the means of furnishing it, although there has been no scarcity of gas at the wells. The system of charging for the gas by the month or yearalso encourages great wastefulness, not only in domestic use, but in manu- facturing. The most satisfactory way of stat- ing the amount of natural gas used is to ascertain the amount of other fuel that has been displaced, remem- bering always that with economical use the same volume of gas would have done a much larger amount of work. Such an investigation has been made by Mr. Jos. D. Weeks, who states the amount of coal dis- placed in Pennsylvania at 6,000,000 short tons in 1886, valued at $9,000,- 000. Of this 4,000,000 short tons was displaced in Allegheny county, embracing the city of Pittsburg, and this was worth $5,000,000. It would be supposed that such a revolution in the short period of four years would have affected the mining and cooking industries injuriously, but the prices of coal and coke are now higher than they were three years ago, and the amount used has in the meantimeincreased. Thiscan only be explained by the wonderfully rapid growth of those industries which use coal and coke in places where natural gas is not accessible. The gas, therefore, instead of dis- placing other fuel, has added to the volume of all fuel used, and has thus increased in like proportion the wealth-producing power of the coun- try. Itis like the subject of wild lands and their conversion into pro- ductive farms, or the opening of new mines. Those who have known Pittsburg in the past, associate with the city as inseparable the dense cloud of black smoke that hung over it like a pall, depositing finely reduced particles of carbon upon everything exposed. It covered every building, even in the suburbs, with a dingy coat; it found its way through the most closely fitted casement tothe interior of dwellings, destroying fine furni- ture and decorations, and ruining delicate fabrics and costly bric-a- brac. It was taken into the lungs of every person who went upon the streets, and covered his clothing with lamp-black. In short, it made Pittsburg one of the most disagree- able cities to reside in upon the con- tinent. This cloud of smoke issued from iron furnaces and glass-works and from innumerable other manu- factories which use bituminous coal. _A magical change has “come over: the Iron City. The black cloud has disappeared. The winds and the|! rains of the past three seasons have the accumulated grime of years, and their original color have begun to reappear. Where iron has been used in the architecture of business structures, it has, in many instances, latterly been painted white, and the light-colored building stones are now coming into popular use. There is no longer any danger of disfigure- ment by smoke. This wonderful revolution has been wrought by naturalgas. The people of Pittsburg only hope that their new-found source of wealth and luxury may indeed prove to be “Le Feu Eternel.” There is a short honey crop this fall but not the least abatement in the supply of gall. | ARE SCARCE & WANTEDM I WILL PAY THE HIGHEST MARKET PRICE FOR ALL THE Tallow, Feathers, Beeswax and Rags offered, in LEWIS HOFFMANE NORTH MAIN STREET, BUTLER, MO. WHY NOT BUY YOUR Dry Goods | BOOTS Ait:D SHOES NTS FURNISHING 6000 Where you can get them asrepresented. A large stock a to select from. Good quality, low prices, a call will convince you of the fact. RESPEC'TFULLY, J. M. McKIBBEN. 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