Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, June 16, 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.

There is, indeed, little new under the sun, as our stories repeatedly demonstrate. Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, June 16, 1923. Read our 100-year old news items on the subjects of 40 quarts of nitro, the Gladys Belle of oil, keeping natural gas and electricity at home and an auditorium vs. natural gas.

Will 40 Quarts of Nitroglycerine Give Dorsey Jones Natural Gas?

An interesting question, huh? But, only 15 feet down?

16 Jun 1923, Sat The Evansville Journal (Evansville, Indiana) Newspapers.com

Let’s hope Dorsey Jones wasn’t standing near the well!

The Gladys Belle Oil & Refining of Montana

Not sure what the name meant, but such a deal!

16 Jun 1923, Sat Montana Oil Journal (Billings, Montana) Newspapers.com

For more on the company go here.

You Can’t Have Our Gas! (Or, Electricity!)

It’s hard to imagine, today, how West Virginia imagined then that keeping natural gas to themselves made any sense.

16 Jun 1923, Sat The Franklin Repository (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com

Yet, many today want to keep U.S. natural gas here and export none of it. Another lesson is provided by Maine’s governor at the time who wanted to keep electricity home as well.

16 Jun 1923, Sat Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine) Newspapers.com The benefit of hindsight is great, of course, but now that we know, why are we still so worried about exporting?