NATURAL GAS.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 215, 17 September 1901, Page 3

NATURAL GAS.

From a paper read from the Mutual Improvement Society’s Journal last night.

Fob more than twenty-five years it ha been well known that natural gas has bee: present in the district, and yet cotnpara lively little has been done towards deve loping it or testing its value. For som time past I have been convinced that i has a commercial significance to thi: district of which few people are aware With the object of ascertaining whethe; or not it .had any commercial value ] placed myself in communication with thoso who might know something of the matter. I was fortunate enough to be referred to the manager of a large gas company in Pittsburg. Pennsylvania. I had mentioned incidentally the fact that natural gas was being used here, and asked how it might be further utilised. He replied : “ L»id I know more about the quantity of gas your well supplies I could advise you better. Does your supply of gas come from shale or from gravel rock, sand or limestone, and in what geological formation is it found ? If from the :arboniferous rock and not from shale, he supply might be sufficient to warrant ome expense being incurred in making j irrangc-ments for its use; but if from shale he supply is not likely to be permanent, n using natural gas for lighting, the Vels'oach incandescent burner and auntie, or some similar process, must be sod, as the illuminants in the gas are not real, while the heating effects are great, fatural gas is used in this section, and pproximates in chemical composition ith marsh gas, and has heating capacity about 1000 British thermal heat units I • the cubic foot. It is used in this vici- I ty in large quantities, chiefly fur fuel irposes.” I am not a geologist, and so n unable to answer the question as to c formation, but we know from practical perience that t.he supply is permanent,

as it has been used at Makaraka for many years, and as far as I am aware lias only given out at any time through stoppage in the pipe. At the Koseland Hotel natural gas is used, and the outside lamp, which is fitted with an incandescent burner, is, I believe, never extinguished, and so bright is the light that it can be seen for many miles. Mr Bryant, too, at Wuikanae brought the gas into practical use both for lighting and fuel purposes. Again Mr Tombleson, at Makaraka, has erected a gasometer and uses the gas for lighting as well as for cooking. I do not know that any special means are taken to purify the gas in any way. In the face of such practical experience, [ think I am right in | saying wo aro well past the testing stage, and it is tirno that steps were taken to put it into goneral use. The gas has been discovered all over the Poverty Bay flat, and even in the heart of tho town, and it seems a pity that when the well was sunk at the Fire Brigade “Station and gas discovered there, that some means were not taken to conserve it in .some way, so that it might bo used for fuel to feed the firo engine and also in conjunction with the gas engine for stone crushing purposes. It may be well now to enquire into somo of the facts that can be elicited with regard to natural gas. There is no special work that 1 have been able to discover, on the subject, but from various sources something may be learnt. I have already spoken in an earlier part of ibis paper of Pittsburg. That placo lias the distinction of using more natural gas than any city in tho world. Its daily consumption on a cold day is one hundred million cubic feet. The Carnegie Steol Company has its own wells situated on a tract of land five miles square, and pipes to its mills between 50 and 50 million cubic feet per day. Tho Philadelphia Company has piped gas from one of its wells one hundred miles. It has thirty-seven miles of f!ti-inch main. The monthly report of tho Company for September, 1899, showed one billion three hundred and thirty-three million cubic feet of gas sold, of which one hundred and seventy million were for domestic purposes. In Pittsburg, as early as 1880, tho natural gas replaced daily ten thousand tons of coal, and in tho early Nineties the gas had almost entirely taken the placo of coal in somo parts of Pennsylvania, New York, and West Virginia. The great advantage of the gas over coal is that it is more convenient, cloaner, and uses less time and labor than coal. A firo can bo started or extinguished in an instant, and thcro is no handling of fuel or ashes. Tho great intensity of heat can he obtained in a comparatively short time and then shut off in a few minutes. Ten feet of natural gas gives as much heat as one pound of soft coal ; and 1000 cubic foot of natural gas contains 1,000.000 heat units, and eight pounds of hard coal 1,200,000 heat units, but on burning gas for domestic purposes you realise about 50 per cent more of the heat from natural gas than from burning coal, so that amount of gas would be equal to 100 pounds of hard coal. In some places where it was used for manufacturing purposes it has now been conserved for domestic use only in case it should give out. Tho average life of a well in the U nited States is ton years, and one well drilled by the Philadelphia Company produced 25,000,000 cubic feet daily for several months. Whenever natural gas is discovered in the United States it .is looked upon as a great event. Last November Californians nearly went mad over the discovery of oil in their State, and the newspapers speaking of it mentioned the fact of the natural gas that was with it as being as great a discovery as the oil itself. As late as June 22nd last natural gas was discovered in the Mendecino County, and the papers say “ it is generally believed that a new and valuable addition to tho resources of Mendecino County has been discovered, and a new industry is about to be inaugurated.” I might here give the instance of a littlo town in New York State. About 1821 a gas well was discovered at Fredonia. Fight years later tho gas was used to light the village inn. These were the first gas works in the United States. Later, in ISSS, a company was formed and gas supplied to the homes in the village three miles away. Now, natural gas supplies a large proportion of the domestic consumption of nearly all the cities and towns in Western New Y'ork, Western Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and the majority of those in North-western Virginia and North-eastern and Northwestern Kentucky, Northern Indiana, and South-eastern Kansas. It is also utilised in a smaller degree for domestic purposes in California, Utah. Colorado, Illinois, Missouri and Texas. A great amount of natural gas is also produced and used in Canada, and some, I believe, in Great Britain

I think I have said sufficient to show that natural gas in this district has a great future before it. and this apart entirely from the significant fact that in the States the regions in which natural gas is found are almost in every case identical with those known for their oil product's. The price of coal is so dear here that it is almost impossible to conceive the immense saving it would make to this district if natural gas for lighting and fuel purposes were adopted even for domestic purposes alone ; and if it is possible and prudent, as it ought to be for many years to come, to also utilise it for manufacturing purposes it should be the means of inaugurating many industries in this district which are now barred by the expense of fuel. There is no doubt the district has a valuable assent, and the question now arises how shall it best be developed ? Having fulfilled the duty of drawing attention to the facts, I leave the answer to the question for wiser heads than mine.