Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1888 — GAS GALORE. [ARTICLE]

GAS GALORE.

It Is Discovered in a Half Dozen Places in the City of Chicago. The Fluid Burns with an Intense Heat—Pittsburg Capitalists Interested. • [Chicago special.! There seems little doubt that natural gas exists under Chicago. Since the first discovery was made at a brewery on the South Side, three or four weeks ago, several artesian wells in different parts of the city have shown an inclination to spout gas instead of water. In the Leland Hotel artesian well the aqueous has been wholly supplanted by the illuminating fluid, and hundreds of curious people daily visit the hostelry for the purpose of viewing the brilliant flame which shoots from the mouth of the bore. Gas has also been discovered in Marshall Field’s and Mandel Brothers’ large dry goods stores on State street, and in the National Tube Works, on Clinton and Fulton streets, West Side. At the Leland Hotel the flow of gas is greater than at any previous time. The volume seems to increase from day to day, and it is now passing through the pipe at the rate of twenty cubic feet an hour. Only a portion of the supply is allowed to pass through. The quality is also improved. The heat of the jet is remarkable. A coil of copper wire was melted in less than a minute, something that cannot be done very easily without the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe. With ordinary gas or gasoline, even when a Bunsen burner and the common blow-pipe are used, it is impossible to fuse copper. The unusual heating powers of this gas will make it of great value for manufacturing and heating puri poses. Pittsburg gas men are taking a very active interest in the development of natural gas for Chicago, but are working very quietly. Their agents are scattered all along the line between here and the end of the Indiana gas belt at Kokomo. They are leasing thousands of acres of land wherever they find any indications of gas. Last week a tract of 2,000 acres was secured near Valparaiso. I The Pittsburghers were on the ground very soon after the discovery of the Cooke brewery gas, and carq£ully inspected the region about Chicago. For some reason or other, they place their faith in the theory that there is no gas under Chicago, but that there are oceans of it near by. They believe the field is in Indiana. The prospects are favorable near Valparaiso, whence gas could be easily piped into Chicago, a distance of but forty-seven miles.