Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1888 — CHICAGO’S LUCK. [ARTICLE]

CHICAGO’S LUCK.

She Has a Sufficient Natural Gas Supply for Practical Domestic Purposes. [Chicago special.] It is now conceded that Chicago has a sufficient natural gas supply for practical domestic purposes. Low-pressure gas exists here, either in the shale or the Niagara rock, in sufficient volume so that the supply from a six-inch well, when freed from water, will be quite large enough to furnish fuel and light for the largest establishments in the city. The pressure, of course, is not strong enough to admit of the use of mains from which to distribute the gas at points distant from the mouth of the well, but the flow is held to be large enough from a single well to supply light and fuel to the extent of from $560 to SI,OOO a month, or about $10;000 a year. This calculation is based upon a test jointly made by C. H. Dabney and J. H. Ralston, the result of which is decidedly interesting. Both of these gentlemen hold that the gas supply, found so far, comes from the Trenton limestone, and that it rises through fissures in the shale and other formations. But this signifies nothing in the present instance, except that if correct it shows that Chicago will shortly have high-pressure gas. They have hit upon a way of separating the water from the gas at the bottom of the wells, or, in other words, of converting the water well into a dry one, admitting of a gas flow only. The process by which this end is achieved is by the use of pipes aid rubber packing. The Leland gas has now been burning twenty-two days continuously. The pressure or volume of supply has steadily increased from the start, and is more than four times greater than it was when discovered. The greatest natural gas flows yet discovered, although neither of the wells has been burning long, are at the Chicago Rawhide Works on East Ohio street, and at the brewery of Wacker & Birk on North Desplaines street. The pressure at the latter point already indicates a volume of 800 cubic feet a day, and it is believed that when the water is removed from the well it will increase to 8,000 cubic feet per day. A small gasometer has been put in at the rawhide works, and a natural gas flame is burning there from 10 to 15 inches high, from the end of a 2-inch pipe, upon which an improvised burner has been placed. The pressure is about equal to that at YVacker & Birk’s. Experiments mada by Drs. Wahl and Henius show that the gas is found, in all cases, in the Niagara limestone, within forty feet of its upper surface, or fiX)m 90 to 130 feet below the surface, which is, on an average, about 550 feet above sea level.