Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 June 1892 — The First Natural Gas. [ARTICLE]

The First Natural Gas.

The first natural gas discovered In the United States was at Fredonia, N. Y., in 1821. In that year a woman went to a spring to draw water, and as the night was dark she took a lantern. On setting the lantern down on the bank the rising gas took fire, to her great alarm. The gas was collected for use by inverting large pots above the spring, but after a time it was carried to a .small tank made of copper, and was supplied from that to several houses, including a tavern, that was lighted by it when Lafayette passed through the village in 1824.