Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, November 18, 1922!
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. Natural Gas – 100 Years Ago Today, October 21, 1922. Read our 100-year old news items on the subjects of chats with the gas man, tires, gas service and gas thefts.
Chats with Your Gas Man About Your Hygiene?
Folks in Greenville, Pennsylvania a century ago, got this advertisement promoting natural gas as the best way to heat the water in their “glorious dishpan” or bathtub.
18 Nov 1922, Sat The Record-Argus (Greenville, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com
Yes, there’s little natural gas couldn’t do then, or now. Regular hot baths —a giant step forward for mankind—brought to us by the gas man.
Natural Gas Puts Tires on Your New Automobile!
Who knew? Once again, natural gas was proving it could do anything:
18 Nov 1922, Sat Altoona Tribune (Altoona, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com
This is still true today, of course, natural gas is the foundation of everything plastic and so much else that makes modern life even possible.
Some Things Never to Change:
New Yorkers Disappointed at No Gas then and Now!
Western New York was the birthplace of natural gas but some communities there were still desperate to get access to the stuff 100 years ago:
18 Nov 1922, Sat The Buffalo Times (Buffalo, New York) Newspapers.com
Perry is a place I’ve done some work and I’m pleased to say the town did eventually get natural gas, but here’s the thing:
Residential electricity prices in Perry, NY in July 2022 averaged approximately 21.88 cents per kilowatthour (¢/kWh), which was about 42% more than the national average rate of 15.46 ¢/kWh (July 2022).
Yes, politically corrupt New York has made natural gas more expensive; that’s what happens when you starve the supply and do everything you can to obliterate an industry on which you depend, which is how the Empire State operates these days.
Natural Gas So Valuable They’re Stealing the Stuff!
Was J.R. Frittle stealing natural gas? We don’t know from this clip but, apparently, prosecutors thought he was “diverting” so that would seem to be what the case was all about.
18 Nov 1922, Sat Wichita Falls Times (Wichita Falls, Texas) Newspapers.com
This story caused us to search “J.R. Frittle” and what we found was this from a few weeks earlier:
24 Oct 1922, Tue Wichita Falls Times (Wichita Falls, Texas) Newspapers.com
How the case was resolved, we can’t say, because there is nothing in the papers about it. What it does prove, though, is that natural gas was as valuable then as now when fuel was needed. There have been a lot of folks taking it for granted today, sadly, but that’s changing as temperatures drop and supplies tighten.
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