As I learned more about natural gas, I started to be curious about where it all started. How did we even find natural gas? How did we know what it could be used for? Natural gas is essential and used daily for things such as heating, stove tops, water heaters, etc. I thought it would be essential and fun to learn about how it started and how far we have come. After all, the U.S. relies about 67% of its total electricity on fossil fuels, with natural gas making up 27%. So, I don’t know about you, but I would say natural gas is pretty useful…so why not learn some fun facts?
THE FIRST DISCOVERY
In 1000 B.C., a goat herdsman in ancient Greece came across a burning flame from a crack in a rock on Mount Parnassus. It was unable to be explained where the flames were coming from. When the Greeks saw this flame, it was something they had never seen before, so they believed it was of divine origin and built a temple over it. The Oracle of Delphi, a priestess that lived in this temple, gave out prophecies that she claimed to be inspired by the flame. As more flames were found seeping from the ground, they continued to be viewed as divine or even supernatural by religions worldwide, such as in India, Greece, and Persia.
THE FIRST USE AND FIRST PIPELINE
For the first time, in 500 B.C., the Chinese found that there was potential to use these flames for good. So, when the Chinese found places where gas was seeping from the ground, they would transport the gas by building pipelines made from bamboo shoots. They would use the flames or gas to boil seawater to separate the salt to make the water drinkable.
Now let’s fast forward a little bit…In 1626, natural gas in America was discovered! French explorers had found natives lighting gases on fire that were seeping into and around Lake Erie. Even though it was discovered in America during this time, it wasn’t until 1816 that it was commercially used. Baltimore, Maryland, was the first city in America to light streetlamps with this gas, now known as natural gas, that was produced from coal. However, the first-time gas was commercialized in Britain was in 1785, when they used natural gas that was produced from coal to light streetlamps and houses.
In 1821, a man named William Hart in Fredonia, New York noticed gas bubbles in a creek and dug down 27 feet with shovels, creating a well allowing a more significant flow of gas. Side note: Today, wells are about 30,000 feet deep. Wow… a big difference! Pipelines used to transport this gas were made from hollowed-out logs and connected by tar and rags. Hart eventually was the root of forming the first American natural gas company known as the Fredonia Gas Light Company in 1858. Today, William Hart is known as the “father of natural gas.”
THE FIRST WELL
In 1859, the official first well was dug in Pennsylvania by a former railroad conductor named Colonel Edwin Drake, hitting oil and natural gas at 69 feet down. Drake had invented a drive pipe to help drive through the rock to start the drill. Even though many before him had tried, Drake was the first to hit oil in America, but methods hindered them from going deep enough. A pipeline was built 5 ½ miles long to reach the well site in the village of Titusville, Pennsylvania. The making of this pipeline showed that natural gas could safely and efficiently be transferred from an underground well to a village for valuable purposes. Many consider this well as the beginning career of the natural gas and oil industry.
Due to the lack of pipeline infrastructure, natural gas was difficult to transfer at this time, so that it couldn’t be transferred too far. During the majority of the 1800s, natural gas was mainly used for generating light. However, in the late 1900s, electricity was invented and beginning to take flight, so natural gas producers were forced to search for alternative uses for gas since it wasn’t in high demand anymore as a light source.
I find it incredibly interesting to learn about how natural gas came about. From seeing a random flame burning from the ground and thinking it was supernatural to all the uses, we have for it today is so cool! Natural gas is so essential that many of us wouldn’t want to imagine a world without it. If natural gas producers weren’t forced to look for alternative uses after the invention of electricity, who knows where we would be today? We have come a long way since that first mystery flame was found!
Today, the natural gas industry has many more parts than just digging with your shovels and using gas in the next town over. There is exploration, extraction, production, processing, transport, etc. CROFT Production Systems is there to provide the best equipment for the processing sector to help bring the gas to the market. Check out our product line to find out more information.
http://www.apga.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3329
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredonia_Gas_Light_Company
http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/DrakeOilWell.html
