Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, February 5, 1922!

Natural Gas

Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Natural gas, not now, but a hundred years ago, offers great perspective for discussing current issues with the cleanest of the fossil fuels still serving us.

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 and, of course, there is little new under the sun. Consider these news items (emphasis added):

natural gas

Pittsburgh Press, February 5, 1922
Nobody Yet Understood Supply Expands to Meet Demand!

How to meet the declining natural gas situation and continue the service of this valuable fuel in the future, is discussed in a. pamphlet called the “Pennsylvania Gas Primer,” which is being distributed now to all schools throughout Pennsylvania for use by the pupils. The pamphlet, prepared especially for use in the schools of this state, is approved by Dr. George H. Ashley, state geologist, and bas an introduction by Charles D. Wolcott, secretary of the Smithsonian institute at Washington.
There are more than 500 natural and 200 manufactured gas using towns in Pennsylvania, according to the pamphlet, which states there are 481,000 natural and 710,000 manufactured gas consumers in this state. Dr. Walcott in his statement declares Pennsylvania natural gas is worth twice any gas which can be made and that since natural gas is becoming scarce, the demand is greater than tho available supply and it is of public interest to prolong the service of this fuel as long as possible.
The average annual production of natural gas per well declined from 12,000,000 cubic feet in 1906 to 6,500,000 cubic feet in 1921, according to statements made in the pamphlet.
It is also shown that while this decline in well production was taking place the number of consumers increased from 270,000 in 1906 to 481,000 in 1921. It is said the first step in the solution of the smoke problem of Pittsburgh is to educate the public to use natural gas correctly for cooking, hot water heating and incidental house heating purposes and eliminate all soft coal for cooking and hot water heating purposes.

Louisville Courier-Journal, February 5, 1922
More Fear of A “Gas Famine,” This Time in Kentucky

Dr. Willard R, Jillson, Djrector of the Kentucky Geological Survey, has published a private edition on the Conservation of Natural Gas in Kentucky, discussIng the gas sand, stuctures and production, and expressing the view that Kentucky using 400 per cent more gas than it produces, soon will face In company with adjoining States a serious gas famine, unless recognized methods of preventing waste of the resource are adopted.

Wichita falls Times, February 5, 1922
Non-Flammable Helium Would Have Saved the Hindenburg

The recent trial of a helium-filled “blimp” by the Government Air Service was a great success, but the practice usefulness of this non-flammable gas for aerial navigation is dependent upon its cost, which hitherto has been prohibitive.
So far has experimental work been carried, however, that the Government experts expect to be able within a twelvemonth to produce helium in unlimited quantities at a cost of two or three cents a cubic foot. At that price it will be no more expensive than hydrogen…
Helium is obtained from natural gas. The latter consists of nitrogen mixed with a number of hydrocarbons—methane, ethane, etc.—and sometimes helium…All natural gas does not contain helium, but many wells, especially in parts of Texas, do yield it in sufficient quantity to pay…
Undoubtedly the use of hydrogen for balloons will be a wholly abandoned before long, and very soon all lighter-than-air machines for our army and navy will be supplied with helium. It will thus be necessary to keep large quantities of helium always on hand, not merely to meet the possible demands of sudden war. One filling of our huge new dirigible, the Roma, calls for 1,200,000 cubic feet of the gas.

Sadly, only 17 days later, the Roma, not yet using helium suffered a fate similar to the Hindenburg:

The first flight test with the Roma’s new engines took place on Feb. 21, 1922. With 45 officers, enlisted men and civilians onboard, the Roma flew across Hampton Roads at about 55 mph. While about 600 feet over Norfolk, Va., the control box at the rear of the airship broke and forced the Roma downward. The nose buckled, the disabled airship hit some high-voltage wires, and its hydrogen gas exploded. Thirty-four men died in the crash. Investigators could not determine the cause of the accident, but it was generally thought that the Liberty engines had been too powerful for the Roma.