Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, May 26, 1923!
Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.
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Natural gas news from a hundred years ago offers great perspective for discussing one of the cleanest sources of energy available then and still today.
I thought it might be fun and illuminating to look back 100 years ago at what was happening with natural gas. It is eye opening, given all we’ve learned over the last century. There is, indeed, little new under the sun, as our stories repeatedly demonstrate.
There is, indeed, little new under the sun, as our stories repeatedly demonstrate. Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, May 26, 1923. Read our 100-year old news items on the subjects of “morons of officialdom,” stupid natural gas substitutes, doing it better with natural gas, indispensable natural gas and failed predictions.
Sad to Say, Not Much Has Changed:
Providers Provide and Politicos Do Stupid
This certainly captures the reality of energy production, doesn’t it?
26 May 1923, Sat Buffalo Truth (Buffalo, New York) Newspapers.com
The phrase “morons of officialdom” is a particular good one for today as well as yesterday. And, natural gas continues to be delivered as the morons who run states such as New York do everything they can to make it difficult.
Danger, Danger!
Speaking of stupid…
26 May 1923, Sat The Journal and Tribune (Knoxville, Tennessee) Newspapers.com
No, L.W.G., it isn’t wise to use anything but the real thing when it comes to natural gas.
Chauvinism, Anyone?
I’m not sure describing natural gas service as “an invaluable convenience to the housewife” is the bey to sell the stuff today but they did 100 years ago.
26 May 1923, Sat Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) Newspapers.com
Yet, the ad resonates in so many other ways, doesn’t it?
Natural Gas Is Indispensable!
This ad, too, proudly proclaims the advantages of natural gas.
26 May 1923, Sat Wichita Falls Times (Wichita Falls, Texas) Newspapers.com
It would have been better, though, if “cause” were spelled correctly.
No, It Wasn’t the End, Not Even Close
Natural gas is still provided in Richmond, Indiana, a century later…
26 May 1923, Sat The Journal News (Hamilton, Ohio) Newspapers.com
A very sad part of this story, unfortunately, came 45 years later, in 1968, when a freak accident accident destroyed 20 buildings and took the lives of 41 people. It was apparently caused by “a natural gas leak from a cast iron gas main that exploded outside Marting Arms. The pipe, which had become perforated as a result of corrosion, belonged to the Richmond Gas Corporation. The gas itself was ignited by a gunshot in the firing range.” The 1968 Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act was enacted a few months later.
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