Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, January 27, 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, January 27, 1923. Read our 100-year old news items on the subjects of wells needed to cook, throwing open the valves, natural gas etiquette, a regulator that pays for itself and the Devil Boy.
One Well Won’t Be Enough!
True enough, but New York State was developing lots of new wells back then, before the current crop of head-in-the-sand ideologues and corporatist shills ran the state:
27 Jan 1923, Sat Buffalo Morning Express (Buffalo, New York) Newspapers.com
And, yes, there is a Roanoke, New York a few miles to the southeast of Batavia. Nice country, in fact. Indeed, you’d never know how many gas wells have been drilled in that area.
Every Valve Is Thrown Wide Open for You!
The advertising back in the day was very explanatory, educational, if you will:
27 Jan 1923, Sat The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, Ohio) Newspapers.com
And, notice, too, the emphasis on service, which has greatly evaporated today if you ever tried to reach some actually in charge at any major institution. Phone numbers are often not provided and seldom is there anyone to speak with anyway. And, if you reach someone, he or she is probably a heavily accented individual from the other side of the globe who only knows what the script says to say in response to your query.
Enough with the Nagging!
If you though the “Karen” (what we used to call a nagging busybody) was a recent phenomena or that bureaucracies might have once served a purpose, read this:
27 Jan 1923, Sat The Morning News (Wilmington, Delaware) Newspapers.com
We often blame the Great Depression for stingy attitudes but the evidence is clear, it’s just human nature and probably not the worst sin.
Pays for Itself! Such A Deal!
Don’t you bold ads that promise you complete refunds over time if you’ll just now?
27 Jan 1923, Sat The Kingston Daily Freeman (Kingston, New York) Newspapers.com
As a fellow named Archie McCollum (Sid Tyler picture of the old gent here) from Galilee, Pennsylvania once said; “Great! Send it along as soon as it’s done paying for itself, will you?
It’s the Devil Boy! Don’t Blame Natural Gas!
Somehow this story brings back memories of Josh Fox:
27 Jan 1923, Sat The News-Journal (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com
Josh Fox wouldn’t believe the “natural” part of natural gas, of course, or the fact it often bubbles to the surface with no help from and and he tried to label the industry as a bunch of devil boys. Anybody heard anything from him lately? He never fully recovered after Phelim’s takedown did he?
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