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NATURAL GAS INTEREST.
--
PRESENTED TO THE
.
.
.
I
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AMERICAN BANKERS' ASSOCIATION
BY
GEORGE B. HILL & Co.
1887.
PRINTED BY JOS, EICHBAUM & CO. ::
1
1 maroo aac,
PREFATORY. ·
P.
Reclas s. 11-29-29.
The design of our little book is to lay before the Delegates
to the Annual Convention of the American Bankers' Asso-
ciation such statements concerning Pittsburgh's interests as
will give them a more adequate idea of her importance as a
financial, industrial and commercial center. In it we shall
deal with established facts only, knowing it is upon these the
men of wide business experience and extensive financial
connections composing the body depend when making up an
opition on any subject or enterprise. Some of our state-
ments may startle even the best informed of our own people,
but it will be so simply because they have never had occasion
to investigate for themselves, and no one has done it for them
until now.
Pittsburgh has always been an eminently conservative city,
and so remains to-day. Her growth has been slow but solid,
and it is a matter of boast among our older financiers and
business men, that the city is less dependent upon alien
capital than any other center of population in the United
States outside of New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Per-
haps our growth might have been more rapid had it not been
the policy of our men of affairs to earn the dollar before
spending it; but if this has been the case, there has been
some recompense in the fact that when the periodical revul-
sions in finance and commerce which have marked the history
191622
M
of our country came, we suffered less from their effects than
any other city of equal size in the country.
But old things have passed away, and all things have be-
come new. We have entered upon an era of manufacturing
and commercial prosperity which, if it continues even for a
few years, will place us upon a level with, if not above, Chi-
cago, St. Louis, and perhaps still larger places. What has
brought this about? The answer is, Natural Gas. Its intro-
duction came at a time when the city had not wholly recov-
ered from the effects of the panic of 1873, and if we were
growing at all financially, commercially and industrially, our
growth was small and far behind the average progress of the
country in general. But the new fuel, so superior in every
way to the old, brought with it such advantages as placed our
industries in position to defeat all competitors, and gave us an
impetus in the march of progress which has been simply
wonderful. If, therefore, we devote in this brochure more
space to Natural Gas than to older and formerly the most
important of Pittsburgh's interests, let this be our excuse.
NATURAL GAS.
DISCOVERY AND FIRST USES..
The story of the discovery of natural gas has been written
80 frequently that we propose to pass over it very briefly.
The first gas well of which we have any record was struck in
1820, on the southern bank of the Ohio river, within the pres-
ent city limits. The proprietors of a salt works sunk the
well for the purpose of increasing their supply of salt water,
and tapped a vein of gas, which caught fire, and caused the
destruction of all the buildings before the flames could be
checked. The owners were rejoiced greatly when they suc-
ceeded in plugging up the well and shutting off the flow of
something which, in their ignorance of its nature, they con-
sidered as little less than satanic.
According to the well-known geologist, Prof. Charles A.
Ashburner, gas springs are to be found in considerable num-
bers in New York State, and gas was obtained from a well at
Fredonia, Chautauqua county, as early as 1821, and its pro-
duct utilized for illuminating purposes.
The first utilization of natural gas for fuel, on anything
like a commercial scale, occurred in the Pennsylvania oil
regions, where it has been used in running the steam engines
at wells for from twenty to twenty-five years, and has proved
of immense value to the owners of the wells, not only in fur-
nishing power for drilling, but in pumping the wells when com-
pleted. At East Liverpool, Ohio, early in the first oil excite-
ment, wells were drilled in the belief that oil existed there,
but only gas was found. This was used for lighting the streets
and houses, and in some few instances as fuel, and these old
wells continue to furnish sufficient gas for this purpose up to
the present day, although they have been flowing for more
than a quarter of a century.
.
A
.
.
NATURAL GAS...
INTRODUCTION INTO PITTSBURGH.
In response to a request for information as to the introduc-
tion of natural gas into Pittsburgh, Mr. W. D. Hartupee,
General Superintendent of the Chartiers Valley Gas Com-
pany, contributes the following:
There are few people who are acquainted with the history
of the first gas company that applied for and received a char-
ter from the State under the law of 1874, for the supply of
fuel gas to the citizens of Pittsburgh. This company was
called the "Fuel Gas Company of Allegheny County," and
was composed of H. Sellers McKee, Robert B. Brown, Geo.
Trautman, Wm. H. Alldred and others.
When this company was organized, it was not their inten-
tion to supply natural gas, but to manufacture a cheap fuel
gas from bituminous coal and distribute it by means of pipes
to the different customers along their lines.
The works, of which there were to be several, located within
or near the city limits, were to be situated adjacent to coal
mines, where the slack could be dumped without any band-
ling directly into the hoppers which fed the gas-generating
furnaces. The Siemens gas furnaces were to be used, and, if
necessary, the gas was to be compressed before entering the
street mains in order to keep the size of the latter within
practical limits. All the arrangements were such that the
cost of the gas was to be kept at a minimum. The gas thus
manufactured the company expected to sell to private houses
and stores for heating purposes, as well as to such manufac-
turing establishments as could not afford to put up their own
gas plant for the amount of gas they consumed.
While the company were getting out their plans and per-
fecting their arrangements, which was in the fall of 1882,
their attention was called to the old Haymaker, or burning
gas well at Murraysville, and the suggestion made that it
might be profitable to buy this well and pipe the gas to Pitts-
burgh, instead of manufacturing their own gas. After much
serious thought and speculation as to the probable durability
of the natural gas, it was decided to fully investigate the mat-
ter, which was done, and this investigation so impressed them
.
13
11
17
10
.
AY
.
.
NATURAL GAS.
with the feasibility of the plan that negotiations were at once
entered into for the purchase of the Haymaker well. These
negotiations were not successful, either as regards the price
of the well or the title to the land, and the matter was
dropped as far as this property was concerned; but the com-
pany had become impressed with the value of a gas well, and
the prospects of supplying the entire city of Pittsburgh with
gas for fuel, which they then considered they had the exclu-
sive right to do under their charter; so they bought a twelve-
acre field close to the old Haymaker well, and on Thanksgiv-
ing Day, 1882, made a contract with a drilling contractor for
the boring of a well. They immediately changed their plans
as originally laid out and proceeded to get up others for the
new system.
About this time J. N. Pew, of Olean, N. Y., came to this
city, and, being well acquainted with what was being done in
Bradford with natural gas, and also in Olean, where he was
interested in a natural gas plant, investigated the Murrays-
ville field, and, being greatly impressed with its magnitude,
immediately organized a company, called the Penn Fuel
Company, and got control of the Haymaker well, the gas
from which they proceeded at once to pipe to Pittsburgh,
and had their line, which was 5inches in diameter, finished
to the East End in January, 1883.
The Fuel Gas Company did not get their well in until
June, 1883, and as soon as they saw that it was a good one
they began to lay two 58-inch lines into the city, which were
finished to the South Side of the city in November, 1883.
Both these companies had put other wells down as soon as
they had made arrangements for the first one. By the sum-
mer of 1883 the field had been developed as far as Lyons
Run, two miles south of the town of Murraysville, and no
dry holes found.
The manufacturers were slow at first to introduce the gas,
owing to their fear that the supply would soon give out, but
in a few months both companies had more customers for gas
than they had pipe capacity to supply, and the Penn Fuel
Company had hardly got their first line finished until they
began a second, 8 inches in diameter.
8
NATURAL GAS.
Sufficient credit has never been given by the citizens of
Pittsburgh to H. Sellers McKee, Robert B. Brown and the
other incorporators of the Fuel Gas Company, or to J. N.
Pew and his associates, for their enterprise in going into this
field and risking their money to bring the gas to the doors of
the people of the city. It is true that Spang, Chalfant &
Co. had before this time piped gas from Butler county to
their mill at Etna, but their line would supply only enough
gas for their own consumption, and the advantages they de-
rived from it were so great and placed them so far ahead of
their competitors that they were very chary about giving any
information about it, rather conveying the impression that it
was an expensive luxury that they regretted going into. It
was only after natural gas had become an established fact in
Pittsburgh, and they saw that their competitors were to get
gas, that the public heard of the success that had attended
this line from its start. It is to the incorporators of the Fuel
Gas Company that credit is especially due, for J. N. Pew
knew the value of the business and took little risk; but the
others went into the venture in the face of all the discourag-
ing opinions that were ventilated, to the effect that the wells
would fail, the gas could not be piped without danger to life
and property, and so on ad infinitum. For a year the Hay-
maker well went begging for a purchaser, and was offered in
turn to almost every capitalist in the city, at what would
now be considered a ridiculously low price, and they would
not touch it. Still these men had the nerve to go into the
business, and most of them put every dollar they had into it,
and started what has proven to be the greatest enterprise of
this generation.
The history of the Acme Gas Company, which ran an
8-inch line from the Lyons Run field to supply the Bessemer
and Homestead works of Carnegie Bros. & Co., in September,
1883; the Carpenter Natural Gas Company, which also ran
an 8-inch line from the Lyons Run district along the south
bank of the Monongahela river to the South Side of the city,
and of the Washington Natural Gas Company, which ran a
.
.
::
!:
VI
*
*
.
v
.
..
..
.
.
to Painter & Co.'s mill, on the South Side, is familiar to all
I.
NATURAL GAS.
The history of the phenomenal strike of gas on the Westing-
house property, and the rapidity with which the well ex-
hausted itself, are also matters which have been presented to
the public so often that it is needless for me to repeat them
here.
RAPID INCREASE IN NATURAL GAS COMPANIES.
If Pittsburgh capitalists were slow at first to take hold of
the new industry, they made up for it by the energy shown
when they did conclude that it was a good thing. For a
time there was a rage for organizing natural gas companies,
as is shown by the fact that over five hundred of such cor-
porations secured charters. Many of them were small affairs,
intended to supply townships and boroughs, and never were
organized, it being found by their projectors that the devel-
opment and transportation of the new fuel required a larger
investment than they cared to make. Others were organized,
drilled wells and laid pipe lines, only to sell out to some
stronger company. The Philadelphia Company has absorbed
a number of such corporations, including among others the
Penn Fuel Company, the Acme and Carpenter Natural Gas
Companies, and others. In this business the theory of the
survival of the fittest has ruled, and the companies in opera-
tion to-day are all strong and prosperous.
DURATION OF THE SUPPLY.
Many facts can be adduced to demonstrate the durability
of the supply of natural gas. In a little book, issued by Hon.
Henry M. Long, of this city, ex-Speaker of the Pennsylvania
House of Representatives, on the subject, he quoted from a
work published in New York in 1856, the following in proof
that the developments in Western Pennsylvania are by no
means the first of the kind in this favored section of country,
but on the contrary, gas was used as long ago as 1826, and
that the wells or springs then in use have furnished the gas
continuously, and without interruption, up to the present
time:
:"The Lake Shore at Westfield (New York State) appears
to be the great outlet for the gas generated in the immense
.
.
10
NATURAL GAS.
coal fields of Pennsylvania. The principal flow of gas is
found in the bed of a creek which runs through a small
ravine to Lake Erie. It is located about one and a half miles
north from the village, and one mile east from the harbor,
and about three hundred yards east from the lake. * * *
The flow is perfectly uniform during summer and winter, and
the gas is equal to, if not superior to the best quality of
manufactured gas, burning with a bright, pleasant flame, free
from odor or smoke. * * * * An application to the
Government of the United States for a contract to supply the
light-house at the harbor called Barcelona with this gas was
accepted, and in 1828 or 1829 the works necessary for carry-
ing out the project were erected.
“The means used for collecting and conducting the gas to
the light-house (over one mile from the spring) were of the
rudest and most imperfect kind. The gasometer being
formed of the half of a fish barrel, inverted over a portion
of the spring, and the mains consisting of small pump logs,
running to the base of the light-house, from which the gas
was conveyed to the summit by an ordinary lead pipe-sup-
plying, without the aid of accumulation or artificial pressure,
or other mechanical means, save the force of the natural flux,
nearly double the amount of gas required for the consump-
tion of one hundred and forty-four six-feet burners, furnish-
ing a bright, steady, unfailing light for light-house purposes ;
a light pronounced by all to be the best light on Lake Erie
for a period of over twenty-six years.
"The only improvement that has ever been made in these
works has been that of substituting a lead pipe three-quar-
ters of an inch in diameter, when the logs had become so
much decayed as to be unfit for use; the gasometer remains
the same."
Mr. Lemuel Bannister, a gentleman of high scientific
attainments, who has given much study to the problems pre-
sented by natural gas, writes thus on the probable extent and
permanency of the supply:
"Naturally the first question that presented itself for both
practical and scientific investigation was the probable extent
and durability of the supply. This led up to several collat-
.
.
*
*
*
.
.
.
11
02
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.
.
W
!
.
..
..
..
..
NATURAL GAS.
eral questions as to the origin of this gas, its relations to oil
and coal, and whether, indeed, the Great Maker of the Uni-
verse who has so bountifully provided us with this extraor-
dinary fuel has not also provided for its continuous produc-
tion in Nature's laboratory to supply future ages.
“The investigation took a wide range and enlisted the
careful thought and attention of eminent geologists and
chemists and other specialists. The practical driller, as
usual, had his opinion, and he still has it, namely: that there
is an abundance of gas for all purposes, and for all time to
come, if it can only be found. On general principles it is the
belief of some that gas exists in abundance to supply all
wants, and their explanation is, simply, that Nature never
does anything by halves.
“The geologists and other scientists, however, to whom we
must look for light-since the driller's hope or the simple
belief in Nature's liberality, cannot be followed as a safe
guide-have devoted themselves with consummate energy
and ability to the consideration of both the practical and the
theoretical aspects of the problem. While their conclusions
may differ, as they do, upon some phases of the subject, it is
nevertheless a matter of congratulation that the majority of
them are able to agree upon most of what are presumed to
be the primary facts relating to the geology of natural gas,
and an examination of their reasonings cannot but prove
interesting and profitable.”
Mr. Bannister then quotes at length from the writings of
Prof. Charles A. Ashburner, Prof. McMillan, of the Ohio
Institute of Mining Engineers, Prof. Lesley, State Geologist
of Pennsylvania, and others, as to the origin and distribution
of gas, and continues :
"The researches of the leading American geologists
strongly suggest the conclusion that it is quite possible for
oil and gas to be found in greater or less quantities in rocks
of almost any geological age; that in fact the existence of oil
and gas in any locality is more dependent upon the geo-
logical conditions under which the stratified rocks are found
to occur, than upon the geological age of the rocks them-
selves. We may deduce from this that the gas-bearing rocks
NATURAL GAS.
of this country may extend under vast areas which hitherto
have not been explored.
“ This conclusion is, in fact, entitled to the fullest cre-
dence, for it has already been demonstrated by the drill, that
natural gas exists in the underlying strata, not only in var-
ious sections of Pennsylvania, where the supply is enormous,
but in Eastern, Western and Middle New York, in the
Province of Ontario, in many widely separated parts of West
Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kan-
sas, Kentucky, and the Territory of Wyoming. The devel-
opments in some of these States, notably Ohio, Illinois, Kan-
sas, West Virginia and Kentucky, indicate a very large
supply of this gas.
“ The drill of the restless prospector is constantly widen-
ing the limits of its known occurrence, and, already in sev-
eral localities, in these States, corporations have been formed
to make the product available. It must be evident, there-
fore, to the most casual observer, that Pennsylvania is not
likely to enjoy a practical monopoly of this perfect fuel for
any great length of time.
"It is clearly possible that the theory as to the origin of
this gas, which is the least supported now, namely, that it is
due to chemical action, and that the supply, therefore, will
be continuous, may prove correct. But it is also clear that
the weight of authority now is on the side of exhaustion, or
nearly so, of the natural gas supply before many years, if the
present improvident waste of it is allowed to go on, or if the
legitimate drain upon it continues to increase, as it no doubt
will.
"If this latter theory should prove to be true, there can be
no doubt in the minds of those who have given the subject
much thought, that, upon the partial exhaustion of natural
gas, an artificial gas will take its place for all manufactur-
ing and heating purposes.
"Nature has furnished the purest fuel known, and whether
it lasts in abundance for only a few years, or for many gener-
ations, or all time to come, it has already taught us many
lessons of great significance and secured to us many perma-
nent blessings. It has thoroughly demonstrated the great
"
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NATURAL GAS.
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practical utility of gas for fuel in the manufacture of iron,
steel and glass, and for generating steam. It has promoted
health, comfort and happiness, and made cleanliness possible
in the household, by supplanting coal and its smoke and dirt.
That these and other benefits might be realized it commanded
the best abilities of the inventor to devise suitable means for
its conveyance, distribution and control, and it has thus been
the direct cause of great improvements in pipe systems, and
all the appliances for safety and economy in the use of gas of
all kinds and for all purposes."
• VIEW OF PRACTICAL MEN.
Men like Captain J. J. Vandergrift, J. M. Guffey, the
Fisher Brothers, and others of their class, who have been in
the petroleum producing business from its inception, have an
abiding faith in the lasting quality of the supply of natural
gas, and in its abundance to meet all possible demands for
many years to come. They put more faith in the develop-
ments brought about by the drill in the hands of the tireless
prospector than in any and all theories advanced by scien-
tists, and give substantial reasons for the faith that is in
them. They assert that no scientific expert has ever yet
located an oil field, while lands that they declared to be bar-
ren afterwards proved to be rich in oil. Early in the his-
tory of petroleum development the scientists declared that
the supply would soon be exhausted, and they limited the
territory to a very small area in Western Pennsylvania. But
in spite of this the restless "wild-catter" always discovered
new oil-bearing lands before the old ones were exhausted,
and we appear to be as far from an oil famine as ever. We
have a surplus stock above ground of many millions of bar-
rels, while the latest discoveries of oil-bearing territory have
proven to be among the most prolific ever known.
As it was and is with petroleum, so these practical men
believe it will be with natural gas. A member of the firm
of Fisher Bros. gives it as his opinion that the area of tested
gas territory "in sight" is already ten times as large as all
the petroleum lands known, whether exhausted or still pro-
TE
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NATURAL GAS.
ducing, and that more will constantly be added. In short,
he looks upon the supply of the new fuel as practically
inexhaustible. He agrees with the estimate of Prof. Charles
A. Ashburner, 80 largely quoted already, that not to exceed
five per centum of the known gas territory has yet been
brought into requisition to supply consumers, while scarcely
a week passes that a new gas field is not added to the reserve
held for the future wants of industrial and domestic con-
sumption. Extensive drilling in any given territory, how-
ever rich, will in time exhaust it; but, thus far, gas lands
have shown longer life than oil lands under similar condi.
tions of development.
Natural gas, Mr. Frederick Fisher remarks, is being wasted
to an enormous extent, not only at many wells, but in the
present crude methods of consumption. He considers it
within bounds to estimate the waste in consumption at fully
thirty-three and one-third per centum of the entire amount
piped, and expresses the belief that better results will be
achieved when perfect combustion is secured through im-
proved burners, and one-third less gas used. The vast
majority of the furnaces now used in manufactories were
built for coal burning, hence are but poorly adapted for the
new fuel. The corporations furnishing the gas place no
restriction on the amount to be used by any customer, hence
the wastefulness with which the gas is used.
Oil producers like those above quoted are among the
largest investors in natural gas, having been of the first to
show their faith in the enterprises for developing the new
interest.
NATURAL GAS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON.
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There is a saving of 60 to 75 per cent. in the cost of fuel
used, made up as follows: about 30 per cent. over the cost
of coal, 15 per cent. in wages, 15 per cent made up of grate
bars, fire brick, stokers, hauling away ashes, oil and artificial
gas for illuminating, railroad sidings, trestles for holding
coal cars, switching charges, wear and tear of wagons, carts,
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from 10 to 80 per cent. Heavier charges can be put in the
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NATURAL GAS..
15
furnaces and brought out in very much less time than by the
old method. There is a great saying in "burned” iron.
With coal there was quite a percentage lost by burning the
iron. Different mills are making a quality of iron and steel
that they could never have produced with any other fuel.
There is scarcely a mill that has not increased its output
from the same number of furnaces at least 15 per cent.
Workmen can manipulate their furnaces so that their work
is very much lighter to them--no firing, no uneven heat, at
one time roasting them, and the next minute exerting them
to keep up the fire. Furnaces are lit up quicker; and by
maintaining a slow heat the furnace is preserved from chill-
ing when not in use, which is an advantage that can scarcely
be estimated. The labor in firing up furnaces on Sunday to
prevent freezing of pipes, etc., is all done away with. It is
a rare thing now to hear of a mill being frozen up in the
winter. Formerly, mills were compelled to stand idle for
days on account of their hydraulic machinery being frozen
lip, water pipes burst, etc. Mills paying by the product are
not required to pay for the extra gas used for this purpose.
Every "turn” made in a mill demonstrates the immense
saying of gas over coal. An honest mill man will tell you
now that he could not afford to use coal if it were given him
on the ground without cost. Park Brothers & Co., estimate
that their saving is so great that they would not be justified
in taking coal free of charge, delivered on their property.
Their loss in five months by not having a sufficient supply of
gas, and being compelled to use part gas and part coal, was
$210,000. In fine grades of steel the saving would be equal
to two or three times the cost of coal, in view of workmen
getting the exact heat necessary for the purpose without tak-
ing any chance whatever.
: NATURAL GAS IN GLASS MANUFACTURE.
Coal was supplied to glass melting furnaces in an incon-
venient and expensive manner, it being necessary to keep for
each furnace two men on day turn and two men on night
turn to throw the coal up overhead into the furnace. Melt-
ing was delayed seriously--pots chilled, coal was piled up
16
NATURAL GAS.
against the pots, burning them out in places, and altogether
it was a very expensive fuel. With gas the furnaces require
no attention at all. Frequently the valve is locked on Sun-
day and remains locked until the following Sunday, and
sometimes for weeks without attention. The pots, an im-
portant item in the glass house expense account, will last
from two to three times as long as they did with coal. The
furnace requires rebuilding very seldom indeed, probably
once to every three times with coal fuel. For "glory holes”
and lears, tempering ovens, etc., the gas is especially desir-
able. The heat can be adjusted to that fine point necessary
in making perfect glassware, chimneys, etc. A glass manu-
facturer states that the saying in breakage of glassware by
proper annealing with gas over coal, is about 50 per cent.
It is a verred that as compared with coal the gas costs nothing,
the many advantages overbalancing the cost.
TI
LIFE OF THE GAS SUPPLY.
Wells in the Murraysville field have been blowing off for
about thirteen years. Only within the past five years has
the field been extensively developed. There have been
about 100 wells drilled in and about the town of Murrays-
ville, within a radius of one mile. These wells show some
decline in pressure, evidently largely brought about by an
accummulation of sediment that interrupts the flow. The
wells are frequently cleaned out, workmen removing the
accumulation of salt and sediment, and the pressure is almost
entirely restored. If it were possible to clean out the well so
entirely as to remove all obstacles, as is usually the case in a
newly drilled well, the pressure would be wholly restored.
Recent developments in the Northern Murraysville field,
one and a half miles distant from the old drillings, show
wells of equal, if not greater pressure, than that of the first
wells drilled in the Murraysville district. A very recent
development extends the Murraysville field six miles north
of Murraysville, leaving an intermediate undeveloped field of
many thousands of acres. In the old workings wells were
drilled as close together as within sixty feet of each. The
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NATURAL GAS.
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Philadelphia Company has “anchored in ” all its wells—
i. e., shut off the flow- and finds that the pressure is ma-
terially increased, and that there is an enormous saving in
gas.
Recent developments in the Grapeville field show that a
continuation of the pipe lines leading to Murraysville, of a
distance of seven miles at the farthest, would extend the
present lines into the heart of one of the best territories ever
discovered. The wells are even larger than those of Murrays-
ville, perfectly dry and very desirable in every respect. In
the Tarentum field it is evident that the sand is very thin,
and is probably on the edge of a more extensive belt. In the
efforts of parties to secure a larger flow of gas, they have
drilled through into the water, which has permeated the
sand and destroyed the territory. This is not liable to occur
in the Murraysville, Grapeville or Washington fields, where
the sand is very thick and the desired pressure can be had
quickly without increasing the depth of drilling and the
danger of encountering water. In the Washington field the
sand is close and comparatively dry, and a very high pres-
sure is obtained without securing the quantity of gas that is
produced by the sands of either the Murraysville or Ġrape-
ville fields. It is quite probable, however, that if the same
sized holes (6-inch) were put down in the Canonsburg
field, instead of 4-inch as has been the custom, more satis-
factory results would be obtained. The Philadelphia Com-
pany is now drilling its wells in the Washington field on the
same plan as has been practised in Murraysville, and by shut-
ting in the wells there is no reason why this Washington
field should not show up to be quite as desirable as Murrays-
ville.
9
GEOLOGIC DISTRIBUTION OF NATURAL GAS.
Prof. Charles A. Ashburner, of the Pennsylvania Survey,
as geologist in charge, recently published a valuable pam.
phlet, entitled, “The Geologic Distribution of Natural Gas
in the United States, from which we quote as follows:
"The rapid development of the natural gas industry in
Western Pennsylvania, and the great economy which results
NATURAL GAS.
from its use, both for manufacturing and domestic purposes,
has led to an inquiry as to the occurrence of this gaseous
mineral in all thickly populated and large manufacturing
centers of the United States.
“Natural gas springs are to be found in almost every State
in the Union, and in many States gas has been obtained in
wells sunk either for water, oil, or gas, or in search of solid
mineral deposits. The occurrence of natural gas is, however,
not dependent upon mere chance, as is popularly supposed,
but upon the existence of special geological phenomena; this
fact is now recognized by professional men and by many
practical men concerned either in the exploration for or in
the use of this gas. * * * *
"The practical application of natural gas in various forms,
in Western Pennsylvania, has opened a new era in fuel econ-
omy, and in the development of heat and mechanical power.
The practical necessity is now forced upon every community,
where there is the slightest possibility of finding natural gas,
to make thorough and intelligent explorations for it. For all
other communities, which, from the geological conditions of
underground structure, it is impossible for the rocks to con-
tain gas in commercial quantities, it is equally important to
manufacture a fuel gas. There is no doubt that the greatest
advance to be made in the practical arts and sciences during
the next two decades, is to result (a) from a systematic search
for natural gas, (6) from a practical consideration of the ques-
tion of the manufacture and (c) utilization of both the natural
and artificial gaseous fuels, and (d) in the adaptation of plant
and machinery to the new fuel relations, which, for economy's
sake, I believe we are bound soon to establish. * * * *
"All the oil and gas-horizons in Pennsylvania are located
in sandstones and shales, from the Portage up to and including
the Coal-Measures. In Ohio the oil and gas-horizons are
included in the Palæozoic strata from the upper Coal-
Measures down into the Trenton limestone. While in New
York, where natural gas is more generally distributed, as
indicated by gas springs, than in either Pennsylvania or Ohio,
- but where much less gas has been found in commercial quan-
tities, the gas-horizons are found in the formations from the
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NATURAL GAS.
Chemung down to the Hudson river shales, inclusive, with
the possibility that some may be found in the Trenton lime-
stone.
"In Pennsylvania no oil or gas has yet been found in rocks
below the Chemung group. In the central and eastern parts
of the State no oil or gas has been found in the strata which
are petroliferous in Western Pennsylvania. Here the oil-
rocks are so folded and disturbed that their structural condi-
tions preclude the retention of any oil or gas which these
strata may have contained when occupying a nearly horizon-
tal position, prior to the great Appalachian uplift, at the end
of the Palæozoic time. In most parts of Western Pennsyl.
vania, if there is any possibility of the strata below the Che.
mung group containing gas, they lie at too great a depth to
make it practicable to drill to them.
"In Northeastern Pennsylvania, where the Chemung and
immediately underlying formations are comparatively flat,
and are not. at impracticable depths, they may be found to
contain gas, and even oil, in commercial quantities; in order
to settle the question, however, for this part of the State,
exploration holes will have to be drilled. I have no facts at
present at my command which would warrant the advice that
wells should be drilled in Northeastern Pennsylvania for
either oil or gas. * * * *
"In Ohio, as far as developed, all the natural gas horizons
are contained in Palæozoic strata, from the upper Coal-
Measures down and into the Trenton limestone. The most
prolific gas-bearing rocks are the Berea grit in the Sub-car-
boniferous period, and the Trenton limestone in the lower
Silurian period.
“Professor Orton calls the territory in which gas is
obtained in the Berea grit and Trenton limestone high-press-
ure territory, and the territory in which the gas comes from
the Ohio, Clinton, Medina and Hudson river shales, low-
pressure territory.
"According to Orton, 'the Berea grit territory occupies
thirty-six counties of Eastern Ohio, in whole or in part.
Through all of this area the Berea grit is due at a depth of
300 to 2,000 feet below the surface. It is everywhere roofed
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NATURAL GAS.
with a thin bed of black Berea shale, which in turn is cov-
ered by 200 to 500 feet of the light-colored Cuyahoga shales.
It everywhere overlies a great thickness of Bedford and Ohio
shales, the former of which is often red, and the latter of
which always carries a considerable proportion of dark or black
bituminous shales, interstratified with lighter-colored bands.
There is a wonderful uniformity in this entire series through-
out the area named, as has been shown by a large amount of
drilling. The productiveness of the Berea in oil and gas
cannot, therefore, depend on the composition of the series,
for in that case all would be productive. It must depend on
structure, and in the few places where it has been found pro-
ductive, abnormal structure has been in almost every instance,
already detected.
"The Berea grit is not the only petroliferous horizon in
this area. The Coal-Measure sandstone and the Waverly
conglomerate sometimes yield oil and high-pressure gas, but
all these must be passed before the Berea is reached.
""The Trenton limestone has been found a source of very
valuable stocks of oil and gas in three counties of the State,
viz.: Wood, Hancock and Allen, and there is much reeson to
expect that Auglaize and Hardin, and possibly Shelby, Logan
and Champaign counties, may prolong the productive belt
southward. The northwestern boundary seems already fairly
well defined; the northeastern boundary less so, by reason of
the small wells at Fremont, Carey and Oak Harbor. The
southern boundary, which has not yet passed the Allen
county line, will be looked for with great interest.
"Practically the Trenton limestone is as effectually cut
off from the Berea grit territory as the Berea grit is from the
productive district of the Trenton limestone. In the latter
case, the stratum to be sought for is a half-mile in the air;
in the former, a half-mile under ground.'
"The gas derived from the Coal-Measure, Clinton, Medina
and Hudson river shales, is less persistent in its occurrence
and very much less in quantity than that derived from the
Berea grit and the Trenton limestone. The largest gas wells
obtained from this group of strata are three at Fremont, San.
dusky county. One of these wells gets its gas from the lime-
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NATURAL GAS.
stones and shales in the Clinton formation. The horizon of
the gas from the Ohio shale has not been satisfactorily deter-
mined, but it is probable that the gas comes from sporadic
sand shales scattered in the general deposit.
“In the Maxburg oil field the oil is derived from the Berea
grit, and in the Lima field the oil is derived from the Tren-
ton limestone.
"The discovery of natural gas in Ohio, if the deposits are
sufficiently great and constant in their supply for commercial pur-
poses, is the dawn of a most important era to the manufactur-
ing and industrial interests of that State. One circumstance
is worthy of special mention in this connection. In Penn-
sylvania the finding of natural gas has been confined largely
to the region in which valuable coals were already being
mined, and were supplying a cheap and desirable fuel to
established manufacturers. In Pennsylvania, again, the
finding of natural gas will, probably, be always confined to
regions producing coal, or regions but a few miles removed
from coal mines, and in which coal can be almost as cheaply
commanded as in those gas localities immediately at the coal
mines. But in Ohio gas has been found in areas which do
not produce as good a coal for manufacturing fuel purposes
as in Pennsylvania, and in other areas many miles removed
from any coal field.
“Any comparison as to the amount of gas which Pennsyl-
vania and Ohio will be able to produce respectively, in the
future, would be invidious, and in fact we have not sufficient
evidence upon which to base any reliable conclusion. That
there is sufficient gas in Ohio, as well as in Pennsylvania, to
meet the demands of manufacturers for a number of years,
and sufficient in many localities to warrant the erection of
new plants there is no doubt; but, still, it is well to bear in
mind that our gas supply is exhaustible, and that our future
supply is now stored in buried rock reservoirs. When these
reservoirs are emptied, our supply will have gone. It is true
that on account of the intimate connection between oil and gas,
gas will probably always be produced to a very limited
extent by the evaporation of the oil contained in the
rocks. . .
:
NATURAL GAS.
“In the State of New York, as has already been stated,
gas springs are more general in their occurrence than in
either Pennsylvania or Ohio. With the exception of the
gas wells in the immediate vicinity of the Allegheny oil
district in Alleghany county, no gas wells have been
obtained which are comparable to those in either Pennsyl.
vania or Ohio.
"At Fredonia, Chautauqua county, New York, gas was
obtained from a well as early as 1821. In the Colburn well,
which was drilled at Fredonia in 1871 and 1872, all the gas
was obtained at a depth of 700 feet, or in the shales, 350 feet
above the top of the Corniferous limestone.
"In 1823, Professor Eaton measured the product of a gas
spring, immediately west of the village of Vernon, Oneida
county. Dr. P. Hayes, in the New York Medical and
Physical Journal, some time prior to 1842, gives an account
of inflammable springs in Oneida county; and in 1839, Pro-
fessor Hall, in a New York Geological report, describes the
occurrence of gas at Manchester, on the east side of Onon-
adaga Lake, the gas issuing from clefts in the rock. At
Gasport, on the Erie Canal, in Niagara county, about six
miles east of Lockport, Professor Eaton, prior to 1842, de-
scribes the occurrence of gas springs.
“Many other references have been published, of the
occurrence of gas springs for over forty years, in Duchess,
Columbia, Albany, Yates, Munroe, Cattaraugus, Wayne,
Delaware, Steuben, Ontario, and other counties.
"It is interesting to know that, as early as 1842, Professor
Beck connected the occurrence of natural gas in the State
with the presence of petroleum or bituminous matter (not
coal), which, he says, is generally diffused through the strata
(sandstone and slate) in the localities where gas is found;
and he exploded, at that early day, a notion which is still
popular among misinformed persons that the occurrence of
natural gas has something to do with the occurrence of bitu-
minous coal.
"The wells in Alleghany county derive their gas from
the Chemung strata, while the springs in the connties just
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NATURAL GAS.
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Hudson River shales, and the Corniferous and Helderberg
limestones.
"A well has recently been drilled in the vicinity of Know-
ersville, Albany county, New York, and gas has been
obtained under a pressure of 40 pounds to the square inch,
from the Hudson River shales, at a horizon about 700 feet
below the top of the shales, and below the bottom of the
Lower Helderberg limestone. Considerable gas is reported
from a well in the vicinity of Bloomfield, Ontario county.
Other occurrences in New York might be cited.
“Although it is possible to surmise in the case of any one
of these gas springs the particular geological horizon from
which the gas comes, it is impossible to make any exact
statement on the subject. The gas in these springs unques-
tionably finds its escape through cracks in the rocks. The
source of the gas depends upon the depth to which the
cracks extend beneath the surface.
“Many wells have been drilled for gas, within the last
ten years, in the State of New York, south of the Erie
Canal. As far as I am aware, but few of these wells have
been drilled under professional advice, and it is impossible
to conclude, from the evidence which has so far been col-
lected, whether gas will, or will not, be obtained in com-
mercial quantities in the vicinity of any of the numerous
New York gas springs. It must be remembered, however,
that the existence of a gas spring is no positive indication of
the existence of gas in large quantities in the rocks at any
considerable depth below the surface, in the vicinity of the
spring. The spring may be producing gas from a very small
or an almost exhausted reservoir, or the gas may come from
a reservoir containing a large amount of gas, under high
pressure, as at Findlay, Ohio.
“One or the other of the above extreme alternatives can
alone be decided by the drill. A geological examination in
the vicinity of the gas spring may, however, determine many
facts as to the advisability of drilling a well, the best loca-
tion for drilling, and the depth to be drilled to. So far as
I. am aware, the first historical mention we have of petro-
leum in the United States was the discovery of the Cuba oil
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24
NATURAL GAB.
spring, in Alleghany county. Although a number of oil
wells have been drilled in the vicinity of this oil spring, no
productive oil or gas rock has been discovered. I merely
mention this fact to show that an oil spring, as well as a
gas spring, is no positive indication of the existence of oil
or gas in commercial quantities, in strata underlying the
spring.
1.“The existence of natural gas in other States has been
incidentally referred to in many professional reports. Dr.
Newberry, many years ago, referred to the occurrence of gas
under flaggy rocks of the Hudson River group in the valley
of the Cumberland and its tributaries in the southern part of
Kentucky.
..."During the oil excitement of 1865 and 1866, a number of
wells were drilled in the northern part of Perry county,
Indiana. These wells were generally drilled to a depth of
700 feet, and a small quantity of oil and gas was found in
them.
"As early as 1833, Dr. Hildreth described gas springs
occurring in the Little and Great Kanawha Valleys, West
Virginia, and later he described those in the valley of the
Big Sandy, Kentucky. This latter region gives great prom-
ise of being an important gas district.
::" In 1879, the Litchfield Coal Company, at Litchfield,
Illinois, drilled a well from the bottom of their coal shaft,
and found, at a depth of 255 feet below the coal bed in the
shaft, a heavy, lubricating oil, associated with salt water and
gas. The gas sand has recently been drilled to in a number
of adjoining wells, and gas, both for heat and illumination,
is now being supplied to the town of Litchfield. A number
of wells have been drilled in other parts of Illinois, and
shows of gas obtained. The glacial drift, which covers for
a considerable depth large areas of New York, Illinois and
Ohio, contains, in many localities, considerable natural gas,
which has been used from one to two years for heat and
illumination in houses near by; but I believe there is not
sufficient gas in the glacial drift at any one place in the
United States, to be of much commercial value.
"Reference might be made to many other localities in the
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NATURAL GAS.
United States, where gas has been reported, but sufficient
geological facts are not known to give such a reference inter-
est or value in this place."
FUEL VALUE OF GAS.
Prof. J. P. Lesley, State Geologist of Pennsylvania, fur-
nishes the following estimate of the fuel value of gas :
One pound of coal weighs 25 cubic feet of gas.
One pound of coal has a fuel-value of 772 cubic feet of
gas.
In 1885, 300 miles of gas mains to the factories and dwell-
ings of and around Pittsburgh furnished heating power equal
to 2,000,000 bushels of coal per month-1,000,000 tons of
coal per annum.
Before the end of 1885 one gas company in Pittsburgh re-
ported 335 miles of pipe of all sizes, displacing the use of
about 10,000 tons of coal per day, or 3,650,000 tons per
annum, the consumption growing rapidly.
The waste at the wells being at first enormous, there was
no economy at the works; but of late precautions have been
taken to economize the supply.
Probably 5,000 men will be dispensed with.
The gas is odorless, because free from sulphur, etc. This
purity must be taken into account in estimating its value as
a fuel. It makes better iron, steel, and glass than can be
made with coal gas or coal.
It makes steam more regularly, because there is no open-
ing or shutting of doors, and no blank spaces left on grate
bars for the entrance of cold air. When properly arranged,
its flow regulates the steam pressure, leaving the engine
man nothing to do but watch the steam gauge.
Boilers last longer, and fewer explosions result from
unequal expansion and contraction when cold air strikes
hot plates.
The theoretical value of gas as compared with coals, is stated
in the report of S. A. Ford, chief chemist of the Edgar
Thomson steel works, as 210,069,604 heat units in 1,000 cubic
feet of gas, weighing 38 pounds avoirdupois, while the same
Weight of carbon contains 139,398,896.
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at
IND
26.
NATURAL GAS.
Therefore, 1,000 cubic feet gas=57.25 pounds carbon, or
Coke (at 90 per cent. carbon), 62.97 pounds, or
Bituminous coal, 54.4 pounds, or
Anthracite coal, 58.4 pounds.
The gas thus compared with coal by Mr. Ford was a gas
of average chemical composition. In point of fact gas from one
well differs from gas from another well; and the gas from
one and the same well varies in its chemical composition
continually.
DURABILITY OF NATURAL GAS.-LONG DISTANCE
PIPING.
IT
29
1
In response to a request from the publishers, Colonel
Thomas P. Roberts, the well-known civil engineer, furnishes
the following paper :
The durability of the natural gas is a subject of perennial
interest, not only to strangers but as well to Pittsburghers,
who have long used it. It is to be feared, however, that,
like electricity, no one will ever solve the enigma of its
origin. Of course if we knew exactly how it was produced
we might estimate with some reasonable degree of accuracy
how long the supply might be kept up; but it is all theory
in regard to its origin. One professor says it is intimately
associated in its constituency with petroleum; another says
that petroleum is intimately connected with the gas; but
which was first “brewed” is past finding out. Prof. Lesley,
of the Pennsylvania State Geological Corps, has enunciated
the opinion that the quantity of gas is fixed ; that the period
of its formation has ceased, and that at the rate we are drain-
ing the reservoirs in which it is found, it will be used up in
a comparatively brief period. Mr. Joseph D. Weeks and
others who have compiled articles upon the subject have
adopted the same belief; neverthelesss, there are others
equally well qualified who draw a different conclusion
from the assembled facts. A few years ago the geologists,
basing their belief on the circumscribed area of the then
known gas fields of Western Pennsylvania, limited the period
...
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wt
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years
NATURAL GAS.
27
of twenty-five years, but more recently the probable time of
its duration is not gauged by years; nevertheless, they still
mention it as a fixed period, and that we are squandering a
valuable but limited resource, outrageously and extrava-
gantly. The geologists assume that the gas supply can be
measured in the case of any particular field by the following
factors, viz.: the area as defined by drilling operations; the
known thickness of the rock from which it comes; the gas
pressure and the porosity, or gas space, of the rock. From
one-sixth to one-tenth porosity for the rock is generally
assumed, and the average thickness of the stratum is placed
at thirty feet in the Pittsburgh regions. The clear gas space
or strata they would therefore estimate at from three to five
feet in thickness, and as the gas is under from thirty to fifty
atmospheres of pressure, the yield of normal gas would be
thirty to fifty times the cubic contents of the gas stratum for
any assumed sized area. It was on this basis two years ago,
on the assumption that ten per cent. of the area within thirty
miles of Pittsburgh was productive territory, that Mr.
Chance, of the State geologists, asserted that the supply would
last only eight years. Almost any result can be reached
when we assume a thing and begin to multiply it by more
assumptions. The facts are, the geologists do not agree in
their theories and treatment of data. In 1880, Prof. Caril,
after mentioning the enormous depth (three to five miles) of
the stratified rocks in Western Pennsylvania, said: “The
Silurian and Devonian rocks lie at a depth which we may
reasonably suppose would subject them to a degree of
heat competent to all the requirements of spontaneous dis-
tillation of gas. * * * The great bituminous coal basin
of Western Pennsylvania and Ohio, under which the Silu-
rian rocks plunge from the east and northeast to appear
again as they come up and fold over the Cincinnati anti-
clinal on the west, seems to be, so to speak, one vast caldron
filled with deeply buried carbonaceous matter, subjected to
great heat, and, therefore, constantly generating gas."
This was gospel in 1880, and the writer believes there has
been no reason to doubt Prof. Caril's conclusions since that
time. Why should all the gas from the fossiliferons series
NATURAL GAS.
O
of rocks, extending to the depth of three to five miles, have
concentrated itself in one or two of the strata near the
top? If the gas is no longer generating but gradually wast-
ing from the topmost layers, the greatest pressure would be
near the top; but as a matter of fact the deeper our wells go
the stronger the pressure and the more durable the individual
wells.
: One thing appears to be clearly established, and that is, the
gas wells bored into the great cyncline west of the Allegheny
mountains, and parallel with that range, promise to last
longer where the cyncline is deepest, and Pittsburgh is over
the deepest part. It is not difficult to conceive that the fos-
sils of animal and vegetable life contained in a series of
strata three miles thick would certainly yield a heat-pro-
ducing capacity in gas equalling one layer of coal five feet
thick. Imagine three miles of such rocks squeezed to-
gether for its gas product, the result should equal the calorific
value of such a single coal vein. Yet the Pittsburgh vein of
coal is only that thick, but still it is properly referred to as
inexhaustible.
But as in the case of coal, so in the case of natural gas.
We may in the future have to go deeper to obtain it, but it
may be relied upon that improved methods of working for
it, the result of a gradually acquired experience, will ever
be rewarded with success. At present we are simply skim-
ming the surface for "gas nuggets" near Pittsburgh, and so
far the Murraysville and Canonsburg “placers," so to
speak, are so rich that we have no object in exploring much
beyond or deeper down. When we begin to notice a falling
off in the gas supply, which fact we will probably observe
before the geologists hear of it, we will have "crushers " and
"reducers" at work to greet them at their annual visit.
Capital is proverbially timid, so that it is strange that the
capitalists who have invested their millions in natural gas
in Pittsburgh are less fearful of a failure in the gas supply
than those at a distance who have no interest in the subject
except to wonder and shake their heads.
In a hurried glance at the subject, it would be impossible
to cover all the points pro and con on the subject of the dura-
Li .
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NATURAL GAS.
bility of the gas supply. A very admirable paper on the
general subject, embracing this question, was prepared by
the German traveler, Kurt Sorge, Esq., and delivered as a
lecture before the General Assembly of the North German
Iron and Steel Association in January of the present year.
The lecture was translated and printed by the Pittsburgh
Chamber of Commerce, where copies can be had.
Very recently Prof. Francis Phillips, of the Western Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, of this city, prepared an exhaustive
report on the chemistry of the subject, presenting tables of
analysis of the gas from various regions, accompanied by
searching comparisons of the gas from the several districts
for fuel purposes. Prof. Phillips' valuable paper was pre-
pared for the forthcoming State Geological Report, but was
printed in advance in a late number of the American Manu-
facturer. These papers should be referred to by those desir-
ing a detailed knowledge of the subject of the value of
natural gas as a fuel.
The absolute freedom from sulphur in any form of the gas
found in South-Western Pennsylvania is its most striking
characteristic, and the one of most consequence to manu-
facturers.
It would seem to be almost superfluous to speak of the
advantages of gas fuel over coal. We have only to consider
that even when we burn coal the object is to produce the gas
which is in it, and that every coal fire is nothing else but a
gas works, but no one would have a gas works in every room
of his house if it could be avoided. It is not every one who
can manage a gas works successfully. They require atten-
tion the first thing in the morning, all day long, and the
last thing at night. Soot, dust, and ashes accompany them.
Kindling wood must be looked after; in short, when a Pitts-
burgher revolves in his mind the amount of work required,
shoveling in coal and carrying it up stairs, and the annoyances
and damages caused by smoke and ashes, and then compares
that kind of a fire with natural gas which, as it is "a thing
of beauty” is, no doubt, destined to be "a joy forever," he
wonders how it is possible that he once could live without
it. He could not go back to coal-that's settled.
1
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30
NATURAL GAS.
TA
But striking as are the beauties of its domestic consump-
tion, the manufacturer has other reasons to smile at the
wonderful advantages of its use. It is impossible to get the
full truth out of Pittsburgh manufacturers regarding its
value. They are keeping quiet about it, but in the mean-
time refusing orders for "that natural gas iron which works so
nicely, so soft and pure and evenly annealed,” until they
have their works enlarged. Meantime they are busy with
their architects, and word is quietly passed around to the
masons and carpenters, and none of them will give a bit of
information as to their mysterious doings. Over 30,000
houses have been piped for natural gas in this county, and
yet when the writer asked a plumber if there was much de-
mand for his kind of work, he said, “Well, we have nothing
to complain of." Thirty thousand houses piped at $50 a
house means $1,500,000 which have gone into the pockets of
the plumbers of this county in three years' time. Hereto-
fore the plumbers have not been mentioned in the statistics,
butit appears they have not forgotten themselves.
The pipage statistics of the various natural gas companies
furnish a very interesting chapter. From about 150 wells
300,000,000 cubic feet of gas is daily supplied to Pittsburgh
and vicinity-a quantity far greater than the consumption
of artificial gas by the combined cities and towns of all
America. It means the displacement of about 12,000 tons of
coal daily. Is it any wonder that we breathe easier in Pitts-
burgh than formerly, and that our laundry bills are re-
duced ?
To the writer was referred the question whether it was
practicable to convey natural gas to the seaport cities in com-
mercial volume at reasonable cost. He believes it is, though
not by the method of transportation employed between the
wells and Pittsburgh. Here the gas issues from the wells
into the main conduits at a pressure of from 200 to 300 lbs.
per square inch. Under such circumstances the gas becomes
very much condensed and heavy, twenty cubic feet of it be-
ing packed in one cubic foot in the pipe; great friction is
encountered in consequence, and by the time the gas flows
fifteen miles it has lost most of its pressure. Such a system
11
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NATURAL GAS.
31
is allowable for only a few miles, and then the pipes have
to be of the heaviest pattern, and are very expensive. If, on
the other hand, long distance transportation of gas is desired,
a larger but lighter system of pipes, or underground conduits,
would be required, into which the gas should be admitted at
or about normal pressure. At normal pressure it will have
no tendency to leak out of the pipes, and, of course, in this
condition it would stand still. To propel it in the pipe, or
conduit, which may be five to eight or more feet in diameter,
artificial means, such as revolving fans, would be required.
The idea of this system of gas transportation is exemplified
by the exhaust fans used to ventilate coal mines, and in.
stances are on record where a fan of a few horse-power has
drawn air through mines a distance of forty miles. A twenty
horse-power fan has been known to draw 1,800,000 cubic feet
of air per hour from a coal mine. The writer is unaware of
any other practicable plan of piping gas long distances.
Being interested in this proposed method, he may be pre-
sumed to be prejudiced in its favor; nevertheless, in answer
to the request to say something on the subject of long dis-
tance transportation of gas, he speaks of it for what it is
worth.
INDIVIDUAL ENTERPRISE.
No man has done more toward the introduction and popu-
larization of natural gas, or to secure safety in the trans-
portation and use of the new fuel, than Mr. George Westing-
house, Jr. As soon as he became convinced of the abun-
dance of the supply in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, and the
feasibility of piping it for general manufacturing and com-
mercial use, he went into the enterprise with his usual energy
and liberality, and in July, 1884, organized the Philadelphia
Company, and had it ready for operations by October of the
same year. He made a number of valuable inventions for
promoting safety in handling gaseous fuel, all of which have
proved to be highly valuable for the purposes intended, and
have given his company a remarkably good record for free-
dom from accidents. He saw soon after embarking in the
32
GAS.
NATURAL 1
business that to conduct it properly a very large amount of
capital would be required, and it was furnished liberally, 80
that the company now is probably in all respects the best
equipped in the field. Mr. Westinghouse has never faltered
in his belief that the supply of natural gas is great enough for
all needs for many years to come, and, so believing, has in-
vested more money in it than any other capitalist in the coun-
try. To his wise foresight and liberality of view is largely due
the efficiency of the Philadelphia Company's system. He
has gathered about him an able staff of assistants, who give
constant attention to the affairs of the corporation, and he
has gained for it the interest and support of a very large
number of leading business men as stockholders. The com-
pany's financial condition was never more satisfactory, its
earnings so large, or its prospects so bright as at present.
In addition to his interest in the largest of our natural gas
corporations, Mr. George Westinghouse, Jr., is the moving
spirit in the Westinghouse Air-Brake Company, capital,
$3,000,000; Westinghouse Electric Company, capital,
$5,000,000; Fuel Gas and Electric Engineering Company,
capital, $5,000,000; Union Switch and Signal Company,
capital, $650,000; Standard Underground Cable Company,
capital, $3,000,000; Turtle Creek Railroad Company, cap-
ital, $1,000,000; Westinghouse Machine Company, capital,
$500,000; East End Electric Light Company, capital,
$50,000; and the Allegheny County Light Company, capital,
$1,000,000 a total capitalization of $26,700,000. He has
lately purchased 600 acres of land on the line of the Penn-
sylvania Railroad, near the city, for $900,000, which he will
utilize as sites for the plants of some of the enterprises
enumerated above, and perhaps some new ones, and for
dwelling places for the army of workmen to whom they will
give employment.
The Chartiers Valley Gas Company is also an ably and
admirably managed corporation, and one destined to win
permanent success. Among those active in its management
may be named such well and favorably known citizens as
.
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NATURAL GAS.
33
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burgh; John H. Dalzell, Vice-President of the Exchange
National Bank; A. C. -Dravo, glass manufacturer, and many
others. It has lately increased its capital stock to $4,000,000
in order to meet the expense of constructing a new and larger
pipe line from the gas field to the city, which will more than
double the amount of gas it can deliver to its customers. Its
plant is among the best in existence and notably free from
accidents of all kinds. Its financial condition is excellent,
its earnings steadily increasing, enabling it to pay operating
expenses and liberal dividends, and lay aside large contin-
gent funds.
There has been sharp rivalry between these two great cor-
porations in the competition for patronage, with the usual
result in all such struggles, a radical reduction in rates. We
are glad to know, however, that a truce has been declared,
and no further rate-cutting indulged in, and that the pros-
pect is wholly favorable for the two companies to work har-
moniously together hereafter, even if not consolidated under
one management. A pooling arrangement has been dis-
cussed, and, if carried out, the earnings of the Philadelphia
and the Chartiers Valley Gas Companies, it is estimated,
would aggregate $3,000,000 annually on a capitalization of
$11,500,000. This is a consummation devoutly to be wished
by the stockholders, and consumers would be more fairly
treated by an equalization of the rates charged.
LIST OF NATURAL GAS COMPANIES.
PHILADELPHIA COMPANY.
CAPITAL, . -
- $7,500,000
GEO. WESTINGHOUSE, JR., Pres't. JOHN CALDWELL, Treas.
JNO. R. MCGINLEY, Sec’y.
CHAS. PAINE, Vice-Pres't and Gen. Manager.
T. A. GILLESPIE, Gen. Supt.
This company is supplying now about 16,000 manufactur-
ing establishments and houses with natural gas, or fully
100,000 fires, in the following places : Pittsburgh and all its
suburbs, Allegheny City, McKeesport, Homestead, Glen-
34
NATURAL GAS.
.
.
.
wood, Knoxville, Braddock, Natrona, Tarentum, Hoboken,
Parnassus, Claremont, Creighton, Springdale, Sharpsburg,
Etna, Hulton, Verona, Wilkinsburg, Edgewood, Swissvale,
Hawkins Station, Rankin, Millvale, Pine Creek, Willow
Grove, Crafton, Ingram and Mansfield. The Philadelphia
Company has in use, including the plant of the Pennsyl-
vania Natural Gas Company, leased and operated by it,
about 516 miles of gas main. This does not include the
many miles of pipe connections from the main lines into
mills, houses, &c. It controls 68,000 acres of tested gas ter-
ritory in the Murraysville, Grapeville, Tarentum and Wash-
ington County fields, and owns territory almost completely
surrounding the city, and only a few miles away from it.
The company is constantly drilling test wells and dropping
territory found to be worthless, in order to economize in
rental. The company now has 100 wells completed, scat-
tered over the territory above described, and has from three
to six wells drilling at all times. All its wells are anchored
- e., the flow of gas shut off in order to prevent waste, and
80 arranged that the gas can be turned into the lines when
needed. Any marked change in the temperature renders
necessary the use of additional wells, and from fifty to sev-
enty are ordinarily kept flowing into the lines. A surplus
of ten to twenty per cent. of gas is always kept in reserve for
the coldest weather. The gas flowing into the lines is esti-
mated at 350,000,000 feet per day.
CHARTIERS VALLEY GAS COMPANY.
CAPITAL, . -
. $4,000,000
Jas. A. CHAMBERS, Pres't.
J. K. TENER, Sec’y.
JOHN H. DALZELL, Treas.
This corporation is supplying 6,000 mills, factories and
dwelling-houses, using 90,000,000 cubic feet of gas per day.
Its service is mainly to Pittsburgh and Allegheny, though
it furnishes gas through a branch company to a number of
the outlying boroughs. It has 95 miles of main tapping the
Murraysville field, the Hickory or Washington County field,
and the Glenfield district, in all of which it controls 20,300
.
12
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NATURAL GAS.
35
acres of the best gas territory. It has in Pittsburgh and
Allegheny City about 50 miles of mains, with the necessary
house connections. It has 42 wells completed and others
drilling, 30 of the former flowing into the lines, and 12 be-
ing held in reserve. Its territory has been lightly touched
as yet, the Hickory district, five miles long by four miles
wide, having but 60 wells in it, or an average of three wells
to each square mile. Its mains from the wells range in size
from 8 to 20 inches, and those in the cities from 6 to 24
inches. It has now near completion a new main line from
the wells which will double the delivery capacity.
PENNSYLVANIA GAS COMPANY.
CAPITAL, - - - - $1,000,000
J. W. MOFFLY, Pres't. F. H. WILLIAMS, Sec'y.
H. A. STILES, Treas. C. B. HURLEY, Gen. Manager.
This company has leased its plant to the Philadelphia
Company for a term of twenty years, that corporation guar-
anteeing to the stockholders six per cent. per annum for
eight years, and thereafter half the rate of dividend declared
by the Philadelphia Company.
PEOPLES NATURAL GAS COMPANY.
CAPITAL, : -
$1,000,000
J. N. Pew, President.
This company supplies 4,000 consumers, has 100 miles of
main, and is estimated to furnish daily 20,000,000 cubic feet
of natural gas from its 12 wells. It claims to have a system
of delivering its fuel superior to that of any other corpora-
tion, the best wrought iron pipe having been used in the con-
struction of all its lines.
MANUFACTURERS' NATURAL GAS COMPANY.
CAPITAL, - - - - $600,000
CHARLES MEYRAN, Pres't. E. H. MYERS, Treas.
RICHARD A, ROBERTS, Sec’y. B. L. WOOD, JR., Gen. Mang.
This company has 11,000 acres of gas and oil territory, 10
gas and 2 oil wells, and is supplying to consumers along its
..
NATURAL GAS.
70 miles of mains about 25,000,000 cubic feet of gas per day,
among its customers being a number of large iron and steel
works and other industries, in addition to dwellings. It has
its own telephone service, with stations along the line from
Pittsburgh to Canonsburg and Washington. It has three 8-
inch mains across the river. It has a system of double lines
side by side, with connecting switches between them, so that
if one line breaks the gas can be switched over into the
other at a moment's notice, and thus prevent any interrup-
tion of the supply.
BRIDGEWATER NATURAL GAS COMPANY.
CAPITAL - -
- $1,200,000
HENRY HICE, Pres't.
C. B. McVAY, Auditor.
HENRY FISHER, V. Pres't.
A. W. MELLON, Treas.
L. HALSEY WILLIAMS, Gen. Manager.
The Bridgewater Gas Company has 12,000 acres of good
territory, 20 wells, and 150 miles of pipe line reaching the
cities and towns of Beaver Falls, New Brighton, Rochester,
Beaver, Bridgewater, East Liverpool, O., New Cumberland
and Wellsburg, W. Va., and Youngstown, O., with a hand-
some and increasing income.
WHEELING NATURAL GAS COMPANY.
CAPITAL,
. . . $1,000,000
WM. FLINN, Pres't. :
W. J. DIEHL, Sec'y.
CHARLES B. McLEAN, Treas.
.
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2
11.
1
2
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.
The Wheeling Natural Gas Company, organized under the
laws of West Virginia with Pittsburgh capital, has its head-
quarters here. It supplies 476 customers along its lines, be-
ginning in the Hickory district of the Washington County
gas fields and extending to Wheeling, Bellaire and other
points, 1093 miles of 10 and 12-inch main line being in
use. It has 20,636 acres of gas territory, and 15 pro-
.
*
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NATURAL GAS.
37
..
WEST VIRGINIA NATURAL GAS COMPANY.
CAPITAL, - - - - $1,000,000
C. W. BATCHELOR, Pres't.
Geo. HEARD, Sec'y.
HENRY FISHER, Treas.
This company has about 75 miles of 6 and 12-inch main
line, running from the Washington County field to Wheel-
ing, which city it has the exclusive right of supplying with
natural gas. It has 18,000 acres of gas and oil territory, and
10 gas wells, besides a number of good oil wells.
ALLEGHENY HEATING COMPANY.
CAPITAL, . . . . $500,000
ADDISON LYSLE, Pres't. Thos. L. SHIELDS, Sec'y-Treas.
This corporation distributes through its mains to consum-
ers natural gas furnished by the Philadelphia Company, of
which it is a branch. It has 6 miles of main laid.
BADEN GAS COMPANY.
CAPITAL -
- - $500,000
J. J. SPECK, Pres't. S. E. GILL, Treas.
W. S. STEELE, Secy. J. SHARP McDonald, Gen. Manager.
The Baden Natural Gas Company has 5,000 acres of terri-
tory, 16 producing wells, and 150 miles of gas main connect-
ing the wells with consumers in Sewickley, Rochester,
Bridgewater, Beaver, Freedom, Baden, Leetsdale, Osborne,
Haysville, Agnew, Glenfield, Bellevue, Dixmont and
Allegheny City, where it has on its own lines a number
of mills, besides which it supplies gas to the People's
Natural Gas and Pipeage Company.
OHIO VALLEY GAS COMPANY, SEWICKLEY.
CAPITAL, - -
$100,000
W. L. STANDISH, Pres't. . E. P. YoỞNG, Secy-Treas.
This company is merely a deliverer of gas to consumers in
Sewickley, taking its supply from the Baden Gas Company,
NATURAL GAS.
It has 12 miles of mains, its earnings are $20,000 per annum,
and its dividend rate ten per cent.
WESTMORELAND AND CAMBRIA GAS COMPANY.
CAPITAL, . . . . $2,000,000
H. DARLINGTON, Pres't.
R. MCKENZIE, Secy.
A. W. MELLON, Treas.
The Westmoreland and Cambria Gas Company supplies the
city of Johnstown and the towns of Latrobe, Derry and Ligon-
ier. It has 28,000 acres of territory in the Grapeville field, the
most prolific yet discovered. It has some 65 miles of 12 and
16-inch main, connecting the points of gas delivery with its
12 producing wells. It has an income at present of $336,000
per year and steadily increasing, and pays ten per cent. in
dividends annually, in quarterly installments.
SHENANGO VALLEY NATURAL GAS COMPANY,
OF NEW CASTLE, PA.
CAPITAL, - - - - - $500,000
Jos. W. CRAIG, Pres't.
A. W. MELLON, Treas.
P. L. CRAIG, Sec'y.
H. E. PICKETT, Manager.
This company supplies the thriving city of New Castle
with natural gas, drawn from its 11 wells in the Grapeville
region, where it owns 7,000 acres of territory.
SOUTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA NATURAL GAS
COMPANY.
J. M. GUFFEY, Pres't.
W. F. McCook, Secy.
A. W. MELLON, Treas.
The Southwest Company supplies Uniontown, Connells-
ville, Mt. Pleasant, Scottdale and other towns in the coke
region. It has 7,000 acres of territory in the Grapeville
region, with 100 miles of mains and 7 good wells. An inter-
esting fact in connection with this company is that it is con-
tracting to supply gas for heating the boilers at all the coal
mines along the line of the Southwest Pennsylvania Rail-
road, the mine owners finding it a more economical fuel than
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NATURAL GAS.
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V
coal, because of the more equable heat, the saving in labor,
grate-bars, etc. This is more remarkable than the tra-
ditional “carrying coals to Newcastle."
WASHINGTON NATURAL GAS COMPANY.
CAPITAL,
.. - . $500,000
J. B. FORD, Pres't.
This company has a line from the Washington field to
Pittsburgh, where it supplies a number of mills. It has
6,000 acres of territory and 5 producing gas wells, with 30
miles of pipe.
PINE RUN NATURAL GAS COMPANY. .
CAPITAL, - - - - $275,000
E. M. HUKILL, Pres't. ? Geo. R. STEWART, Secy.
The Pine Run Natural Gas Company supplies the towns
of Leechburg, Apollo, Freeport and Natrona, including their
manufactories and mills, from its 8 wells in the north end of
the Murraysville belt, where it owns 2,500 acres of proved
gas territory. It has 25 miles of main and lateral lines, and
its business is steadily increasing. It pays its stockholders
twelve per cent. in dividends annually.
BELLEVUE NATURAL GAS COMPANY.
CAPITAL,
$50,000
COLUMBIA NATURAL GAS COMPANY,
FRANKLIN, PA.
CAPITAL, - - - - $500,000
CLARION LIGHT AND HEAT COMPANY,
CLARION, PA.
CAPITAL,
. . $100,000
CITIZENS' NATURAL GAS COMPANY,
.. BUTLER, PA.
CAPITAL; .
$100,000
GREENSBURG FUEL COMPANY.
CAPITAL,
... $120,000
Jas. ARMSTRONG, Pres't. FRIDOLIN MILLER, Secy.
John ZIMMERMAN, Treas.
NATURAL GAS.
ST
KITTANNING CALORIC COMPANY.
CAPITAL,
- $60,000
J. H. McCain, Prest.
Geo. H. Fox, Sec’y-Treas.
KITTANNING HEAT AND LIGHT COMPANY.
CAPITAL,
- $60,000
L. N. SINGLEY, Pres't. GEO. H. Fox, Sec'y-Treas.
LOW PRESSURE GAS COMPANY,
ALLEGHENY.
CAPITAL, - - - - $50,000
F.J. TENER, Pres't.
R. C. MCLEAN, Sec’y-Treas.
WM. D HATUPEE, Manager
This company delivers gas supplied by the Chartiers Val-
ley Gas Company, to consumers in several boroughs on
the south side of the river.
MIAMI NATURAL GAS COMPANY,
TOLEDO, 0.
CAPITAL, . .
- $2,000,000
CAPT.J.J. VANDERGRIFT, Pres't.
NORTH SIDE GAS COMPANY,
ALLEGHENY.
CAPITAL, .' . .. .. $100,000
AMOUNT OF NATURAL GAS CONSUMED.
As in all cases where the consumption of an article cannot
be exactly computed and we are obliged to depend upon
estimates, we find a wide variance in the figures furnished by
the various companies and authorities as to the amount of
natural gas consumed, and must accept a mean between the
extremes as most nearly approaching the truth. The tend-
ency in all such guess work is to exaggerate. There is natur-
ally a vast difference between the amount of gas delivered to
consumers and that entering the pipes at the wells, the loss
being due mainly to friction, the percentage of leakage being
comparatively insignificant. Thus, the Philadelphia Company
7
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:
.
w
.
:
14
.
2
.
DE
.
.
NATURAL GAS.
41
sumers from this source is estimated by others not to exceed
270,000,000 feet at the outside.
It is estimated that there are now 35,000 dwelling-houses
in Allegheny county alone using natural gas, with an aver-
age of five fires to the houses, and a maxium consumption,
in the coldest weather, of 50 feet of natural gas to each stove
or grate. Let us take 30,000 houses as the basis of our cal-
culation of consumption in that branch of the gas service.
These 30,000 houses represent 150,000 fires, consuming in the
aggregate 180,000,000 cubic feet of gas each twenty-four hours.
In his report to the Government on the natural gas business
for 1885, Mr. Joseph D. Weeks named twenty-nine manu-
facturing establishments in Pittsburgh in which 158,000
bushels of coal were displaced daily by natural gas. Accept-
ing 1,000 cubic feet of gas as the equivalent of a bushel of
coal, we have here a consumption of 158,000,000 cubic feet
of gas daily. This added to the domestic consumption in the
30,000 houses would give us 338,000,000 of cubic feet of the
gas consumed daily. But this does not tell the whole story.
There are many hundreds of manufactories, large and small,
not included in this estimate. One expert gives it as within
reason to say that the displacement of coal in Pittsburgh and
Allegheny alone is about 12,000. tons--300,000 bushels
daily-while the total consumption of natural gas in Alle-
gheny county is about 500,000,000 cubic feet, or the equiva-
lent of 20,000 tons of coal daily.
Prof. Charles A. Ashburner, of the United States Geolog-
ical Survey, who has charge of the division of coal statistics,
in his forthcoming report for 1886, says:
“Although natural gas in Western Pennsylvania dis-
placed over 20,000 tons of coal a day during the past year
(1886), 15,000 tons being displaced daily in Pittsburgh,
many of the mines, particulary those in the Pittsburgh and
Westmoreland districts, where the best bituminous coal in
Pennsylvania is produced, showed an increase in production.
The falling off in the demand in the coal markets has forced
this coal to more distant points, to the disadvantage of coal
fields in other States, in the vicinity of which consumers have
been found willing to give a little better price for the
NATURAL GAS.
superior Pittsburgh coal than for their local coals. Although
many mines in the State were operated at a loss to the oper-
ators, the larger part of the coal mined in Western Pennsyl-
vania was unquestionably sold at the mines for more than
the actual cost of production. Even in the face of low
values, the production of the Pennsylvania bituminous
mines was greater in 1886 than in 1885, although the aver-
age spot value was between ten and fifteen cents less. This
is to be accounted for by greater economy in the mining op-
erations and by continued improvement in transportation
facilities from Western Pennsylvania, which has enabled the
coal to be carried cheaply to more distant markets."
Admitting the displacement of coal by gas in 1886 to have
been at the rate of 20,000 tons per day, it must be conceded
that the amount being displaced now is greater, since there
has been a very large number of consumers added to the
natural gas lines of the several companies, the Philadelphia
Company alone having had a gain of 3,200 consumers since
the first of the current year. Taking the entire region sup-
plied with natural gas, therefore, it is fair, we think, to esti-
mate the aggregate displacement of coal in Western Penn-
sylvania, West Virginia and Eastern Ohio at not less than
25,000 short tons per day, or 625,000 bushels.
As near as can be ascertained, one of our large manufact-
uring establishments, such as Park Bros. & Co.'s Black
Diamond Steel Works, Jones & Laughlins' American Iron
Works, and some others, consume as much gas as would
supply 2,500 dwelling-houses, and an ordinary iron mill as
much as would be consumed in 700 dwellings.
The largest well ever struck, so far as known, flowed at
the rate of 15,000,000 cubic feet of gas per day. The largest
well found at Findlay, Ohio, said at first to produce 14,000,-
000 feet, really yielded considerably under 4,000,000 feet,
according to expert authority. The average yield of the Ohio
natural gas wells is much smaller than the average in Penn-
sylvania.
Pui
12
.
.
....
.
.
I. DUIS
LP
D
ubendy
.
.
TI
.'.
worth as much in ordinary mill use as 1,500 feet of the best
coal gas.
NATURAL GAS.
43
There are now not less than 1,800 miles of natural gas
pipe lines laid, requiring, at an average weight of 90 tons to
the mile, 162,000 tons of wrought and cast iron pipe of all
sizes.
Natural gas is being used as a fuel to heat the boilers fur-
nishing power for raising coal from the mines in the Con-
nellsville coke region.
CHARGES TO CONSUMERS.
The charges made by the Philadelphia Company, which
may be taken as the ruling prices in Pittsburgh, are as fol-
lows:
.......
Iron and Steel :
Puddling, gross ton.......
$1.00
Heating (each heat), gross ton............ 40c. to 60c.
Boilers, per month.
....$50.00 to $100.00
Total cost gas per ton iron, single heated,
gross ton............
$1.80 to $2.10
Sheet iron or steel, gross ton..
2.25 to 2.60
Hoop iron or steel "
2.25 to 2.60
Open-hearth melting"
.70
Crucible steel " “
Hammer furnaces, per day.....
1.00 to 1,60
.....croso
.50
Glass :
Flint, each 10-pot furnace, per month...
$160.00
“ large glory hole,
30.00
... $15.00 to 20.00
" lear,
· 25.00
" steam boiler, " ... 35.00 to 50.00
Average cost gas about $28 per pot per month..
Window-glass.-Average $33.33 per pot per month, blow-
ing furnaces, flattening ovens, sand furnaces and boilers in-
cluded.
Green bottle glass same as window-glass.
Boilers in general works range from $20.00 to $150.00 per
month.
.
NATURAL GAS.
Oil stills per month...... ....$35.00 to $100.00
Brick kilns and drying floors, per M...
1.00
Fire brick, per M. ................... 1.00 to 1.40
Domestic Use. This is based on a number of square feet
heated, the basis being $10.00 a year for 15 feet square. The
charge for heating stoves is $2.50 a month, for open grates
$2.00.
COST OF DRILLING A GAS WELL.
The cost of drilling a gas well is about the same as that of
an oil well under the same conditions, and the methods are
the same. The cost varies from $3,500 to $6,000, according
to the depth. In shallow wells it may be still less. A der-
rick is first erected and a wrought-iron pipe driven through
the soft earth until it reaches the rock at the depth of 60 to
100 feet. The drills weigh with the "jars" 3,000 to 4,000
lbs. These rise and fall 4 to 5 feet, turning constantly so as
to bring the bit in contact with the entire circumference of
the hole. An 8-inch hole is bored to the depth of say 500
feet, and a 56-inch casing put down to shut off the water.
The hole is continued 6 inches in diameter until the gas is
struck, when a 4-inch pipe is put down. From forty to sixty
days are required in drilling a well.
SOME EFFECTS OF GAS.
What has the introduction of natural gas done for Pitts-
burgh? A great deal more than we can estimate, or have
room to tell.
It has given a new impetus to our manufacturing indus-
tries, and enabled our manufacturers to sell a much higher
grade of goods in the line of iron, steel and glass, at prices
with which those not having the advantages conferred by the
new fuel cannot compete.
It has replaced the smoke-laden atmosphere that hung like
a pall over the city in the old coal-consuming days, with an
air clear and pure, and through which the sunlight plays
1
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1
eno
NATURAL GAS.
45
expenses, and rendering Pittsburgh one of the pleasantest
residence cities in the United States.
It has caused an increased product in all manufacturing
establishments without corresponding increase in fuel bills,
but with a positive and radical reduction therein.
It has brought hither many new branches of industry, and
helped to swell our population by the addition of thousands
of employers and skilled artisans, thus adding greatly to the
prosperity of merchants and traders of all classes.
It has caused an increase in the value of real estate in the city
and suburbs, averaging 25 per cent., and in exceptional cases
of from 50 to 100 per cent., and has brought into market and
caused to be improved outlying property that might have
lain unused for many years, if ever needed.
It has given an impetus to enterprise in all directions, and
brought hither much money and energy from other sections
of the country.
It has furnished active, safe and profitable employment for
a vast amount of capital that, but for its introduction, would
have been idle or placed at an unsatisfactory rate of interest.
IN CASE THE GAS FAILS.
But suppose there should be a failure of the supply of
natural gas; would the people of Pittsburgh and other places
now enjoying its benefits return to the use of coal with all
its drawbacks and disagreeable features ? Certainly not.
The use of such crude fuel is a thing of the past here, and
will never be resumed. In fact, present indications favor the
substitution of a better form of heat-producer in all the
larger centers of a population.
But what will take its place? Fuel gas manufactured from
any cheaply available form of coal, or even from coal waste,
of which latter substance there are millions of tons available
in the country immediately contiguous to Pittsburgh, as well
as in all the coal producing regions. By such a process of
manufacturing fuel gas where any form of coal can be used
as a base, it will be possible not only to supply fuel gas to
localities now using natural gas, in case the latter should be-
NATURAL GAS.
WT
come exhausted, but in all other communities where any
form of coal, either bituminous or anthracite, can be com-
manded.
With such an immense saving in the use of fuel of gaseous
form over coal, and the many other and great advantages
accompanying it, fuel gas will certainly be manufactured at
a very reasonable price--but little, if any, above that now
paid by consumers for natural gas. Every mile of pipe line
now used for the distribution of natural gas would be avail-
able for the delivery of the artificial fuel gas, which can be
compressed and pumped to consumers at very reasonable
cost.
That such fuel gas can be produced and distributed in any
desired quantity is in the way of early practical demonstra-
tion. For many months past Mr. George Westinghouse, Jr.,
assisted by a number of the best experts in the country, has
been experimenting on an entirely new process for the
manufacture of fuel gas from various grades of coal, both
bituminous and anthracite. This process has been perfected,
and ere long its success will be demonstrated publicly. Mr.
Westinghouse has applied for numerous patents covering his
new process in fuel gas production, and has in course of
erection and nearing completion in this city a fuel gas plant
of adequate size to give satisfactory results on a commercial
scale. Concerning this enterprise the American Manufac-
turer and Iron World, a journal which pays special and intel-
ligent attention to all fuel interests, says:
"Inquiry develops the fact that this plant is being erected
by the Fuel Gas and Electric Engineering Company, Lim-
ited, which is a Pittsburgh organization, for the purpose of
exhibiting their new gas-making process forthe manufacture
of fuel gas in localities where natural gas does not exist, and
to test coals from different sections of the country, in order
to determine their fuel gas value for metallurgical, steam
and domestic uses. This company believe that they have
completely solved not only the problem of the economic
production of fuel gas, but every question connected with the
distribution and utilization of gas under pressure. The
?
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.:11
IN
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.
.
.
-
1
NATURAL GAS.
November, and will have a capacity for making fuel gas on
a large scale-about a-million cubic feet per day. Either
bituminous or anthracite coal can be used as the basis of the
process. The gas will have a higher heating power than
what is known as water gas, will have a pungent odor, and
its cost, when made in districts where coal is abundant-say,
for example, in Cincinnati or St. Louis--will be so low that
its use cannot fail to become universal. It is also be-
lieved that manufacturing interests using this method of pro-
ducing fuel gas will be able to maintain themselves in
respect to fuel cost against the competition of other centers
where natural gas exists in abundance. There is practically
no limit to the quantity that can be manufactured at the
works erected upon the plans of this company, whether the
demand be for thousands or millions of cubic feet per day.
"This, company, which has been engaged in perfecting its
plans for some months, will be ready some time in Novem-
ber to furnish plans for the installation of a complete gas
plant in any locality, covering not only the manufacture of
gas and its safe and economic conveyance, but also its utili-
zation in the best manner. Their engineering plans have
been carefully worked out, and are so arranged as to include,
if desired, the utilization of present piping systems of illum-
inating gas plants, changing district by district from their
present use to that of distributing heating gas, while, as we
have already pointed out, they will be prepared to change the
system of illumination from gas to electric lighting."
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.
OUR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.
Pittsburgh has long been noted for having more banks
and banking houses than any city of its size in the
United States, but the aggregate capital of such institutions,
while ample, taken in connection with their other resources,
for all requirements of commerce, has never been very large.
We have in our city at present sixty-five National and State
banks, savings institutions and private banking houses. In
the number of National banks we are the third city in the
United States, having twenty-eight of these associations, all
in sound condition and having a prosperous business. We
stand, according to a late statement from the Comptroller of
the Currency, fifth in loans and deposits and legal reserve;
while tabulated returns from the Clearing House cities assign
us ordinarily to the ninth place in the list. We do not pro-
pose to go into statistics further than to present the follow-
ing figures prepared by Mr. John M. Chaplin, Manager of
the Clearing House, showing the capital stock, surplus and
undivided profits of the banks of Pittsburgh, on the 1st
of August, 1887:
Capital.......
$17,186,201.50
Surplus..........
6,622,849.83
Undivided profits.
1,449,629,18
$25,258,680.51
A similar statement for the 31st December, 1882, showed a
total of $21,725,021.46, indicating a gain in these three
'items in the four and a half years of $3,533,659.06.
The Clearing Association is made up of seventeen National
banks, one State bank and one private banking house, that
of N. Holmes & Son. Its business the present year will ex-
.
.
.
.
.
..
NU
1
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3
1
The thrift of our working population is shown in the large
deposits in our savings banks, of which we have fourteen,
.
:
.
.
.
.
.
CAPITALIZED CORPORATIONS.
49
which show a steady, healthful growth year by year. Accord-
ing to the latest figures at hand these deposits aggregate
$16,696,870. Another great aid to the poor in securing a
substantial foothold in the world is found in our large num-
ber of building and loan associations, which, with a nominal
capital exceeding $30,000,000, are aiding thousands to secure
homes.
The management of our banks has of late years been
marked by a conservatively liberal policy in dealing with
their customers. There has been a radical change for the
better since the panic of 1873. Anterior to that revulsion
a great deal of business was done in accommodation paper,
· and heavy losses were sustained by the majority of the banks on
that class of security. Now an accommodation bill is rarely
heard of, only strictly business paper or notes backed by col-
lateral being handled. Rates of discount do not vary here
as the money market is easy or close. Six and seven per
cent. have been established as the standard rates on all
classes of loans, and are not often deviated from where regu-
lar customers are concerned.
CAPITALIZED CORPORATIONS.
...
..
Pittsburgh has always taken kindly to the corporate form
of enterprise, and the result is that we have probably a
larger number of capitalized corporations than any other
city in the country, at any rate in proportion to population.
In addition to our 66 banking institutions we have 22 insur-
ance companies, 6 illuminating gas companies, 14 natural
gas companies, 4 oil companies, 4 incline plane com-
panies, 10 street railway companies, 15 railroad com-
panies, 3 coal companies, 10 bridge companies, 6 mining
companies, 3 electric light companies, and 10 miscellaneous
organizations whose shares are listed on the Stock Exchange,
170 in all, and probably as many more that are not listed,
their stock being concentrated in a few hands and rarely if
ever sold. The amount of capital invested in these corpor-
ate enterprises by classes is shown by the following list:
&
1
50
CAPITALIZED CORPORATIONS.
Banks...
$17,186,201
Insurance. ....
3,750,000
Illuminating gas .
2,750,000
Natural gas....
... .......................... 16,500,000
Oil...............
1,620,000
Incline plane.....
600,000
Street railway
3,750,000
Railroad.
25,405,000
Coal.............
1,600,000
Bridge .........
6,430,000
Mining......
8,900,000
Electric light.........
5,600,000
Miscellaneous...
14,900,000
Total capital.......................... $105,161,201
Very few of the corporations engaged in manufacturing
and they are numerous and with large vested capital, appear
in this summary.
COAL TRADE.
51
THE COAL TRADE,
Although Pittsburgh coal has fallen into disfavor at home,
it is held in high estimation abroad, and the demand for it is
constantly increasing. As stated elsewhere by Prof. Ash-
burner, the decrease in home consumption of 20,000 to
25,000 tons per day has been made up by the enlarged de-
mand in other sections, and the output has brought good
prices in spite of the general decline in coal values.
The coal interest of the Pittsburgh district is one of the
most important of our industries, the five counties of Alle-
gheny, Westmoreland, Fayette, Washington and Greene fur-
nishing more than twenty per cent. of the bituminous coal
mined in the United States. The output by counties for
1886, as furnished by Prof. Charles A. Ashburner to the
United States Coast Survey, was as below:
Tons.
Value.
Allegheny County .....
4,202,086.... $3,886,930
Westmoreland "....
5,446,480.... 4,792,901
Fayette
4,494,613.... 3,101,283
Washington “
1,612,407.... 1,426,980
Greene
.... 5,600.... 5,152
Total..................." 15,761,186 $13,213,246
: The amount of coal yet to be mined in these counties is
estimated by the same authority to be as follows:
Tons.
Allegheny County
.... 2,500,000,000
Westmoreland“
2,400,000,000
Fayette
... 4,600,000,000
Washington "
4,100,000,000
Greene
..... 2,600,000,000
...
...................
......
..........
dy VVU, W
V,VVV
Total................................ 16,100,000,000
The shipments of coal by slackwater in 1886, amounted to
4,123,945 tons. Of the coal produced in Fayette county fully
52
COKE TRADE.
seventy-five per cent. was manufactured into coke, say
3,370,959 tons, leaving 1,123,653 tons for domestic consump-
tion and shipment. A considerable proportion of the West-
moreland coal was also used for coking, probably fifty per
cent. The Pennsylvania Railroad shipped from that county
during the year 1,305,732 tons of coal, against only 981,293
tons in 1883. The same railroad carried from the Mononga-
hela River coal region 414,611 tons in 1886, and from the
Allegheny County mines 278,671 tons, while there were
shipped over the southwest branch of that road 158,185 tons,
making a total of 2,157,199 tons of Pittsburgh coal trans-
ported by it during the year.
Allegheny county coal sold for 4fc, more per ton at the
mines in 1886 than the product of the mines of any other
county in the district, because of its easy access to both river
and rail transportation.
In the district during the year there was an average of one
fatal accident to about 260,000 tons of coal mined. Number
of deaths, one to every 700 persons employed. Number of
men employed in the mines in the district, about 7,400;
number employed outside and around the mines, 1,200.
THE COKE TRADE,
No large interest in which local capital is concerned has
grown more rapidly within recent years than the manufac-
ture of Connellsville coke. Five years ago the estimated in-
vestment was about $13,500,000; to-day it is set down at
$27,000,000, and has not yet reached its maximum. More
than $20,000,000 of the capital thus placed belongs to Pitts-
burgh.
The deposits of coal suitable for coking are limited to a
narrow strip of territory about thirty miles in length, in Fay-
ette and Westmoreland counties, principally, and experts
estimate that at the present rate of depletion the supply of
this coal will be exhausted within fifteen years.
The shipments of coke out of the region by rail amount to
1,400 cars of 17tons each daily, or 24,500 tons. When cars
.
.
.
COKE TRADE
53
can be obtained in abundance the shipments run up to 1,800
or 1,900 cars per day, but the 1,400 cars is a fair average.
This would show a yearly aggregate, with work uninter-
rupted, of 7,644,000 tons, but it falls considerably short of
this. About 100,000 tons are shipped annually by river.
The coke trade has been greatly interrupted during the
current year by labor troubles, which, beginning in Febru-
ary last, have been almost continuous, resulting in idleness
at the works and great loss to the operators. The latter
claim that the 15,000 men employed in the coke industry are
better paid than any other class of unskilled workmen in the
United States. The price of coke has been advanced from
$1.35 to $2 per ton, or about 58 per cent., and of this advance
53 per cent. went to the workmen.
Mr. Joseph D. Weeks prepared for the United States Coast
Survey the statistics of coke production for the Pittsburgh
district for 1886, from which we have been permitted to take
the following figures :
Connellsville region :
Ovens operated..............
11,324
Ovens building.....................
1,895
Coal used for coking, tons......
6,305,460
Coke made, tons........
4,180,521
$5,701,087
Upper Connellsville region :
Ovens operated..
1,337
Ovens building.......
Coal used, tons.....
691,331
Coke produced, tons............
422,768
Value.........
$572,073
Pittsburgh region:
Ovens operated.........
730
Coal used, tons.......
228,874
Coke produced, tons.......
138,646
Value................
$221,617
Totals from Pittsburgh district :
Ovens operated........
13,391
Ovens building..........
1,924
Coal used, tons.......
7,225,665
Coke produced, tons......
4,741,935
Value................
$6,494,777
.
.................
Value.............
...................
29
S.............................
S.............................
54
RIVER INTEREST.
The figures for the entire country are:
Total number of ovens.......
22,597
Number building
4,154
Coal used, tons.....
..... 10,688,972
Coke produced, tons......... .......... 6,845,369
Value.......
............$11,171,856
It will thus be seen that the Pittsburgh district produces
more than two-thirds of all the coke consumed in the United
States.
THE RIVER INTEREST.
A sarcastic Congressional statesman remarked many
years ago, in opposing an appropriation for the improve-
ment of the Ohio river, that he was against voting money
for bettering a stream that was frozen up one half the year
and dried up the other half. Had he lived to see the im-
mense volume of traffic carried upon the bosom of that river
he would never have so spoken. It is not generally known,
but it is nevertheless the fact, that Pittsburgh's river ton-
nage, registered and unregistered, is larger than that of the
great commercial and financial metropolis, New York, with
her ocean and river marine, and that our tonnage is also
larger than that of the entire Mississippi Valley combined,
with all its wealthy ports. This is due to the coal trade
solely, almost the entire country tributary to the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers drawing upon Pittsburgh for its sup-
plies of fuel. To meet this demand a very large number of
flat-bottomed boats and barges are needed annually, and the
building of such craft gives employment to a large force of
skilled workmen.
Mr. Richard Barrowes, Secretary of the Coal Exchange of
Pittsburgh, has kindly furnished us with the following data
concerning the coal fleet, showing the number and capacity
of each class of boats used in the coal trade.
RIVER INTEREST.
55
. 1,000,000
Number of Craft.
Capacity, tons.
100 steamboats for towing.........
20,000
1,000 coal boats, 900 tons each.
.. 900,000
2,000 barges, 500 tons each.........
900 flats, 150 tons each............
135,000
150 other craft, 250 tons each...
37,500
Total tonnage.......
...: 2,092,000
There are about 50 other freighting steamboats here with
a tonnage of probably 15,000 tons, and freight barges enough
to bring the total tonnage of the port of Pittsburgh up to
2,150,000 tons. The towboats ply between Pittsburgh and
New Orleans. The craft known as coal boats make at least
one trip per year to the lower ports, the others from one and
a half to two and a half trips per annum. . The coal ship-
ments by river in 1883 reached the maximum, 108,487,800
bushels, or 4,172,607 tons. Since then they have averaged.
about 82,000,000 bushels per year.
Of coke the average shipments by river are about 4,000,000
bushels or 100,000 tons per year, 40 bushels being counted
as a ton.
56
IRON AND STEEL INTERESTS.
THE IRON AND STEEL INTERESTS.
While figures as to the number of iron and steel mills are
easily enough obtained all efforts to get at the aggregate
capital involved in these branches of manufacture must prove
futile so long as the present policy of reticence on the part
of their owners is maintained. The invested capital is
known to be very great, and it is certain that the working
and credit capital is much greater. One concern alone, that
of Carnegie Bros. & Co., Ltd., has an investment in plant of
$10,000,000, and there are numbers of others with from
$2,500,000 to $5,000,000 in machinery, etc. The trades have
grown rapidly in extent and prosperity since the introduc-
tion of natural gas.
Mr. Joseph D. Weeks, Secretary of the Western Iron As-
sociation, furnishes the following figures, from which a fair
idea of the extent of the business here may be obtained :
Number of iron blast furnaces........ ... 20
Annual capacity of pig iron, tons........... 900,000
Ore consumed, tons......
... 1,700,000
Coke consumed, tons...................... 1,000,000
Lime consumed, tons...................... 400,000
Total tonnage handled at furnaces......... 4,000,000
This equals the lading of a thousand of the largest steam-
ers at the port of New York, or 256,666 cars of 15 tons
capacity each for blast furnaces alone.
Number of iron rolling mills...................
Total annual production, tons................ 575,000
Number of steel works .............
Total annual production, tons................ 750,000
The manufacture of iron pipe has come into great promi-
nence of late because of the requirements of the natural gas
business, and the five pipe mills turn out annually about
400,000,000 tons of gas and water pipe, valued at $15,000,000.
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IRON AND STEEL INTERESTS.
57
The natural gas companies of Pittsburgh and vicinity have
laid probably 1,800 miles of line to connect the 260 gas wells
with consuming points; and taking 90 tons per mile as a fair
average, we'have 162,000 tons of iron buried in the ground
during the past four years. Adding mill and house con-
nections, etc., will probably increase the total to about 200,000
tons.
GLASS MANUFACTURE.
GLASS MANUFACTURE.
Glass making is, perhaps, our oldest industry, and has
grown to be of prime importance in our general industrial
account. It was established here in 1795, fint glass having
been made here for the first time in 1805. There are now in
operation in the district sixty-six glass factories of all classes,
including three plate glass, with two others in contemplation,
those now running having an annual capacity of 3,250,000
square feet of glass, valued at about $3,000,000; fifteen win-
dow glass factories, with a capacity of 900,000 boxes, valued
at over $3,000,000; eleven green or glass bottle factories, with
fifteen furnaces, producing many millions of bottles and flasks
annually, while a large proportion of the flint glass prescrip-
tion vials in the country are produced here. Pittsburgh also
supplies most of the lamp chimneys needed in the United
States, making 50,000,000 of them annually. There are in
the district forty factories devoted to the manufacture of
pressed table glassware, of which the output is immense.
This finds a ready market in our own country, and a fine ex-
port trade has been built up in this specialty, 80 that the
American travelling in Europe is likely to find specimens of
Pittsburgh glass production in almost any country he may
visit. The amount of capital invested in glass manufacture
here is given approximately as $25,000,000, and the annual
product is estimated at about $10,000,000. About 9,000 men
and boys are employed in the industry. I
The substitution of natural gas for coal as fuel in all the
processes of glass making has had a beneficial effect which it
is hard to estimate. Because of its purity and freedom from
sulphur the glass produced with it is better in every way, and
Pittsburgh can now furnish both window glass and table ware
superior in all respects to those imported from Europe. The
window glass is perfectly free from flaw or speck, and as good
for all ordinary purposes as plate glass. The metal in the
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GLASS MANUFACTURE.
pressed ware is peculiarly brilliant and beautiful, and adds to
the attractiveness of the table whereon it is used.
The economy due to the gas in cost of manufacture is very
considerable, but difficult to itemize. The melting pots last
much longer with it than with coal; the wages of coal hand-
lers and furnace men are saved; there is far less breakage
from inequable heat in annealing, and the saying in other
ways is very appreciable, while the improvement in quality
materially aids in marketing the product.
With natural gas the finest plate glass in the world is pro-
duced, and that of Pittsburgh is rapidly superseding all others
in our American markets. Formerly it was difficult to sell
plate glass as of American manufacture, and it was necessary
to counterfeit the marks or stamps of foreign manufacturers in
order to secure customers for it. But all this prejudice against
it has disappeared, and the superiority of the home-made plate
glass is now acknowledged, and our factories are unable to
keep up with the demand, though kept running to their full
capacity. Twelve years ago plate glass of the larger sizes
sold for $2.25 per square foot; to-day the price is about 70
cents per square foot, thanks to the development of its manu-
facture in Pittsburgh, and to natural gas, which caused that
development.
60
A FREIGHT PRODUCER.
PITTSBURGH AS A FREIGHT PRODUCER.
To persons not familiar with the subject the figures show-
ing Pittsburgh's standing among the freight-producing cen-
ters of the country will appear startling. Our coal, iron, steel,
glass and other great industries give a vast amount of work
to the carrying companies by land, while over our waterways
we send out a fleet of boats and barges aggregating a greater
tonnage than that possessed by New York. It is difficult to
get at statistics of rail transportation, but, adding together
the freightage of raw material brought into Pittsburgh and
the manufactured produots sent out, we will have a total ton-
nage by river and rail certainly greater than that of the
metropolis.
It is susceptible of proof that two manufacturing establish-
ments here, the Edgar Thomson steel works and the Home-
stead steel works of Carnegie Bros. & Co., Ltd., furnish more
tonnage of freight each year than the entire cotton crop of
6,500,000 bales of the Southern States. These two works turn
out 34,000 tons per month, or 408,000 tons per year, of finished
rails. Each ton of rails requires for its manufacture 7,680
pounds of raw material. This gives an aggregate annual
movement on the steel rail item, from two of Pittsburgh's
mills, of 1,770,720 tons. The cotton crop, by latest estimates,
is 6,500,000 bales, which, at an average of 500 pounds to the
bale, gives an annual movement of 1,625,000 tons, or 145,720
tons less than the freightage of the two mills in question.
This very small proportion of Pittsburgh's freight requires
annually 2,951 trains, of twenty cars each, to move it, or eight
of such trains every day in the year.
:
RAPID TRANSIT.
ELECTRIC INTERESTS.
One of the most recent additions to Pittsburgh's industries
is the manufacture of electric lamps and electric light
appliances generally, carried on by the Westinghouse Elec-
tric Company, of which Mr. George Westinghouse, Jr., is the
founder and head. It has a share capital of $5,000,000, a
very large and complete plant, and a business which is
increasing with wonderful rapidity. It recently absorbed by
consolidation the Thompson-Houston Electric Light Com-
pany of Boston, with which it was in litigation concern-
ing certain patents, and the united corporations will have
headquarters in this city, with much enlarged works and
facilities, giving employment to 3,000 men. This will give
Pittsburgh the largest establishment of its class in the world,
and add greatly to her population and prosperity.
RAPID TRANSIT.
Pittsburgh's conservatism has been well shown in her
tardiness in adopting improved methods of transit between
the different sections of the city, and we are still mainly de-
pendent upon the slow-going street cars for this class of
travel. But better days are in store for us. A beginning
has been made, and capital secured for transforming two of
our principal street railways into cable lines at an estimated
cost of $7,500,000. In addition to this an electric railway
is about completed and another in course of construction, and
within the next year we will have at least four lines of road
affording speedy transit. The others will be compelled to
adopt some better plan for moving their cars, as the popula-
tion of this city is growing rapidly, the suburbs being built
up in all directions, and the demand for a reform in this par-
ticular daily growing more urgent.
11
ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
NOT A GREAT SPECULATIVE CENTER.
Speculation has never flourished here to any extent, the
people as a rule being content with the accumulations from
legitimate business, and not seeking sudden wealth through
other channels. Oil is dealt in on margins to a limited
extent, and there is some trading of the same kind done in
the New York stock market, but in comparison with the bulk
of legitimate transactions the aggregate is insignificant. We
have a stock department in connection with the Petroleum
Exchange, but it is yet in its infancy, and the trading is almost
wholly on orders for investment, temporary or permanent.
The creation of the natural gas industry, with the numerous
stock companies incident thereto, has given local brokers a
large and more profitable business than they ever enjoyed
before, and in time we may have a successful Stock Ex-
change.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND APOLOGY,
We desire in closing to return our thanks to the gentle-
men who so kindly aided us in preparing this little work, by
furnishing information about the different interests of Pitts-
burgh. Messrs. M. W. Watson, Joseph D. Weeks, John R.
McGinley, Charles Meyran, Prof. Charles A. Ashburner,
Richard A. Roberts, W. D. Hartupee, Lemuel Bannister,
Colonel Thomas P. Roberts, George Heard, Wm. J. Diehl,
A. W. Mellon, E. M. Hukill, Gilbert Follansbee, and others,
rendered us services in this, for which our gratitude is due.
The material for the work was all collected and the matter
written or collated within the space of ten days, and this
fact must plead in excuse for any shortcomings in style or ar.
rangement. Much better use could have been made of the same
matter had there been ample time for its digestion. But we
submit it in the belief that it embodies more facts concerning
the natural gas interest than have ever before been submitted
to the public in such brief space, and that a careful consid-
eration of its contents will go far to convince unbelievers
that natural gas has "come to stay."
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