Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, February 17, 1923!
Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.
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Natural gas news from a hundred years ago offers great perspective for discussing one of the cleanest sources of energy available then and still today.
I thought it might be fun and illuminating to look back 100 years ago at what was happening with natural gas. It is eye opening, given all we’ve learned over the last century. There is, indeed, little new under the sun, as our stories repeatedly demonstrate. Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, February 17, 1923. Read our 100-year old news items on the subjects of brilliant gas fire stoves, depletions, gas bill lotteries, gas well deaths and tough gumbo.
Not Just A Gas Stove, But a Brilliant One!
The aesthetics of a natural gas stove got the most attention in this advertisement:
17 Feb 1923, Sat Times Herald (Olean, New York) Newspapers.com
Notice, too, the natural gas stove was considered a “Gift of Utility,” which is a nice phrase to be sure.
The Solution to Depletion Was More Drilling (and Still Is)!
Not much has changed has changed in that regard…
17 Feb 1923, Sat The Times (Shreveport, Louisiana) Newspapers.com
…except that no one dreamed a century ago you might be able to drill a dozen or more from the same pad and drill horizontally to capture all the gas from multiple formations within five square miles from a single surface site of 5-10 acres.
Tough Gumbo?
And, I thought gumbo was a Louisiana food recipe:
17 Feb 1923, Sat Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock, Arkansas) Newspapers.com
It’s all part of that “laughable lingo,” I suppose, along with “paying sand.”
A Natural Gas Lottery?
Who knew your natural gas bill was a lottery?
17 Feb 1923, Sat The Buffalo Times (Buffalo, New York) Newspapers.com
Everyone wins with natural gas, of course, but you knew that was coming, didn’t you?
I Guess This Is About A Rate Increase?
Unlike many advertisements of the day, this one is not especially well crafted, although the headline is clever.
17 Feb 1923, Sat Tulsa World (Tulsa, Oklahoma) Newspapers.com
It would seem the Oklahoma Natural Gas Company was in a battle over natural gas rates and was attempting to put pressure on politician by ginning up support for a rate increase request but it’s too long, too obscure and too negative. Did it work? We’ll see, but it looks like this one was written by lawyers and that’s never good.
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