Show NATURAL GAS WELLS I I Just at present in the western half of Pennsylvania natural gas is enjoying anew a-new boom and all the papers in a radius of One hundred miles are filled with praises of the gas and its benefits to the people That this is the direct result of paid advertising there can be no doubt in the minds oft those who are conversant with the subject and who have been on the ground as the whole business from first to last was arrayed against the in teresta of consumers by being bought in II j and controlled by monopolies In a circuit cir-cuit of thirty miles around Pitts burg j there arc as many wells or gushers I as they are called throwing up gas at I the well in vast quantities and at a = = < 1 pressure of 2000 pounds to the square I inch Mechanism has been devised wherewith this gas is piped into the city of Pittsburg and the great mills and manufactories which consume it in just the same manner as ordinary artificial gas is piped only that the mains I must be of strong wrought iron or steel i and the consumer has but to turn a valve and his fires are alight In Pitts burg alone the local consumption of coal ran into millions annually and required thousands of men to dig it and handle it iu the mills These men as well as the owners of the mines are hurt by the use of gas and no man but the owner of the well and the mill where the gas is used is benefitted Wages are lower if anything any-thing than when coal was used and for their mutual interests the manufacturers I and owners of wells have combined I to control gas and between them freeze labor and the capital invested in coalmines coal-mines The use of the gas is universal every house in the city the owner of which elects being furnished with it at a small cost and the smokecharged atmosphere of the city has been changed by its use to one comparatively clean and healthy These two points are in its favor but the great and growing dangers of explosions and the long list of fatal accidents of which it has been the cause combined with its ruinous effects on labor and the production of coal are all against it Pennsylvania has a commission commis-sion of men for the investigation of the gas problem all of whom agree that they do not understand the phenomenon but think the gas comes from a strata of vegetable matter similar to that which forms coal and that it is inexhaustible while the opposition theoiy believes it is only in pockets and that sooner or later the whole territory confining it will cave in and bury everything every-thing on it This view is not cheering to thousands of weaknerved people and has had the effect of driving many from that end of the State Some idea of the force and volume of the gas can be formed from the following A well was being bored and at a depth of 2250 feet and in a teninch hole the gas was struck suddenly and it blew that length of cable with the boring machine attached out of the ground as a shot from a gun wrecking the great derrick der-rick connected with it and showed a pressure of 5000 pounds to the square inch The volume was ten times sufficient to supply all of Pittsburg and increases with time At the well mechanism regulates the flow into the mains and at certain stations along the pipe line and in the city the excess is allowed to emerge when the pressure is more than 70 pounds to the square inch but with all these contrivances contriv-ances whole streets have been blown up by the gas and many killed and wounded The roar of the escaping gas in all parts of the city is deafening and no means has been devised to lessen it successfully Taken altogether the gas wells are a huge elephant and from all now recorded of them anything but a Godsend to the people who live in their neighborhood |