Page 70 - Synthetic Fuels Handbook

58 CHAPTER TWO

TABLE 2.7 Abbreviated Timeline for the Use of Natural Gas
1620 French missionaries recorded that Indians in what is now New York state ignited gases
in the shallows of Lake Erie and in the streams flowing into the lake. It was in this same
area (Fredonia, NY) that the natural gas industry in America began.
1803 Gas lighting system patented in London by Frederick Winsor.
1812 First gas company founded in London.
1815 Metering for households, invented in 1815 by Samuel Clegg, and put into general use
during the 1840s.
1816 First US gas company (using manufactured gas) founded in Baltimore.
1817 The lighting of the first gas lamp on the corner of Market and Lemon streets in Baltimore,
MD, on February 7th marks the effective birth of the gas industry in the United States.
1821 First natural gas from the wellhead used in Fredonia, NY for house lighting.
1826 World’s first gas cooker was devised in England by James Sharp, but it was not until
1851 that such equipment came into use in America.
1840 The first industrial use of natural gas in the United States is recorded near Centerville, PA,
when gas is used to evaporate brine to make salt.
1850 Fifty or more U.S. cities were burning public utility gas.
1859 Edwin L. Drake dug the first well and hit oil and natural gas near Titusville, PA. An iron
2-in diameter gas pipeline was built, running 5 1/2 miles from the well to Titusville proving
that natural gas could be brought safely from its underground source to be used for practical
purposes.
1880 Thomas Edison postulated replacing gas lighting by electric lighting.
1885 Carl Auer von Welsbach in Germany developed a practical gas mantle.
1904 Gas is used for the first time to power central heating and to provide a large-scale supply
of hot water in London.
1915 Depleted reservoirs are used for the first time to store gas.
1938 In the United States, The Natural Gas Act of 1938 established federal authority over
interstate pipelines, including the authority to set rates.
1951 Natural gas (coalbed methane) is produced from coal, while it is still underground in the
coal seam, at a colliery at Newman Spinney, England.
1959 LNG is produced for the first time on an industrial scale in LA. It will be transported to
Britain for the first by the vessel Methane Pioneer.

After the discovery by the Chinese more than 2000 years ago that the energy in natural
gas could be harnessed and used as a heat source, the use of natural gas has grown.
As already noted above, the American natural gas industry got its beginnings in the
mid–nineteenth century and most in gas industry observers characterize the “Drake”
well (q.v., above) as beginning of the natural gas industry in America.
During most of the nineteenth century, natural gas was used almost exclusively as a
source of light. Without a pipeline infrastructure, it was difficult to transport the gas very
far, or into homes to be used for heating or cooking. Most of the natural gas produced in this
era was manufactured from coal, as opposed to transport from a well. Near the end of the
nineteenth century, with the rise of electricity, natural gas lights were converted to electric
lights. This led producers of natural gas to look for new uses for their product.
One of the first lengthy pipelines was constructed in 1891. This pipeline was 120 miles
long, and carried natural gas from wells in central Indiana to the city of Chicago. However,
this early pipeline was very rudimentary, and was not very efficient at transporting natural
gas. Without any way to transport it effectively, natural gas discovered pre–World War II
was usually just allowed to vent into the atmosphere, or burnt, when found alongside coal
and oil, or simply left in the ground when found alone. It wasn’t until the 1920s that any
significant effort was put into building a pipeline infrastructure. However, it wasn’t until