Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, March 19, 1922!

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 and, of course, there is little new under the sun. Consider these 100-year old news items (emphasis added):

• “Gasser” or “Duster” Is the Question
• Hey, Let’s Get in on That, Too!
• Count on Government to Ruin It!
• How to Sell Gas in NYC!

The first piece of old news exhibits the excitement that surrounds any natural gas exploration and development. Will it be a “gasser”or a “duster” was the question. Today, seismography and geology expertise serves to provide much better clues was to where the sweet spots are, but there are still surprises, of course, and most of them have been positive because where there’s gas there’s also a way.

19 Mar 1922, Sun Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com

The excitement is also revealed in this story from Utah, where the Commercial Club, obviously hearing about the success in other states, decided it ought to investigate further itself as the potential rewards were so great.

19 Mar 1922, Sun Salt Lake Telegram (Salt Lake City, Utah) Newspapers.com

As usual, though, governments, in this case Kentucky, had to get in the act and attempt to throttle back development for the “common good,”.which was the excuse every sort of bad thing in the 1900s.

19 Mar 1922, Sun The Lexington Herald (Lexington, Kentucky) Newspapers.com

But, there was still time for fun and natural gas suppliers found a unique way to promote their product via what was, in effect, a lottery!

19 Mar 1922, Sun The Buffalo Times (Buffalo, New York) Newspapers.com

Maybe this should be tried again in places such as New York City where ignorance abounds on the subject of natural gas but interest in gambling remains high!