The Geology of Natural Gas

The existence of natural gas-springs in Pennsylvania and the adjoiningStates west of the crest of the Allegheny Mountains was known to the earliestsettlers. Possibly the first gas obtained from a well was at Fredonia, Chautauqua County, N.Y., where a well was sunk on the bank of Canadaway Creek, near the Main Street bridge, in 1821, and sufficient gas obtained for 30 burners, the inn having been illuminated by the gas when General Lafayettepassed through the village about 1824. In 1858 another well was drilled, whichsupplied 200 burners. A still larger one was drilled to a depth of 1200 feet in1871. According to Mr. E. J. Crissey, Secretary of the Fredonia Natural GasLight Company, the average monthly supply of these wells in 1880 was 110,000 cubic feet. Since 1859, when the drilling of oil-wells in Western Pennsylvania wascommenced, natural gas has been obtained either in conjunction with oil or inwells which produced only a trace of oil. In most of the flowing oil-wells, thepressure which forces the oil up the well results from the gas contained in theoil-sand in the immediate vicinity of the well or at a considerable distanceaway. In the former case, gas is frequently mixed up with the oil as itintermittingly flows from the well-mouth, the gas coming from the wellcontinuously between the oil-flows; while in the latter case, no perceptiblequantity of gas is obtained from the well. I believe that, by specialexamination, all the oil coming from the Pennsylvania and New York wells may beproved to contain some gas. The product of gas-wells has been utilized in various ways, particularly forlight and fuel at the towns and villages in the immediate vicinity of thewells, and also to a limited extent for the manufacture of lampblack sometimescalled "diamond black" by the deposition of the carbon resulting from theimperfect combustion of the gas. A comparatively small proportion of all thegas produced in the region, however, was ever made use of until within twoyears, when the introduction of gas into the industrial establishmentsprincipally iron, steel, and glass-works-in the vicinity of Pittsburgh havemade its use as a fuel an important consideration in the manufacturingindustries of Western Pennsylvania. The geology of the oil-regions of Pennsylvania has been carefully studiedduring the past ten years by the geologists of the Pennsylvania survey, butmore particularly by Mr. John F. Carl, who, since the commencement of theSurvey in 1874, has been in charge of the special examination of thatdistrict. AIME 014–49