s of their investment, have been extremely
watchful of their property. In West Virginia the gas companies buy the
gas which has been obtained in the drilling of oil wells, thus providing
a market for the waste gas and making it possible to continue the oil
business and at the same time to furnish cheap gas.

Another hopeful sign is the pumping of all of the product of a well.
Formerly as soon as a well dropped greatly in production it was
abandoned, but now it is pumped until dry.

One method by which the gas from oil wells may be utilized consists in
compressing it in steel cylinders for shipping. This in a small way has
been found to be successful.

Experiments are being tried on a large scale in Ohio to prove that gas
may be returned to reservoirs within the earth which are tight enough to
hold it under heavy pressure.

Fuel gas made from low-grade coal is a satisfactory substitute for
natural gas. Like the natural product it may be piped for long
distances. Some natural gas companies have bought up the culm banks and
heaps of refuse coal, so that if the natural gas becomes exhausted they
can manufacture cheap gas at the mines and pipe it to the cities they
now serve.

PETROLEUM

Petroleum, or rock oil, is a dark greenish brown liquid which when
refined yields gasolene, naphtha, benzine, kerosene, lubricating oils,
and paraffin. The name petroleum applies only to the crude petroleum as
it comes from the ground, and the word oil is applied to the products
obtained by refining.

The early history of the petroleum industry in this country is
interesting as showing what great results spring from small beginnings.
From salt wells in Pennsylvania there was an occasional flow of
petroleum, but it had had no commercial value. Samuel Kier, of
Pittsburg, had salt wells at Tarantum from which he had accumulated so
much petroleum (fifty barrels) that he decided to try to dispose of it,
but there was no market. No one knew what to do with it. He then partly
refined it, making a poor quality of kerosene, and introduced a lamp
with a chimney. This proved so popular that A. C. Ferris, also of
Pittsburg, undertook to sell this in other cities, and these two men
not only sold the fifty barrels and the other petroleum that accumulated
from the salt wells, but they had created such a demand for the new
light that they could not supply enough oil, and in 1859 Colonel Drake
drilled at Titusville the first well solely for petrol