Pittsburg. The largest of these for the latter part of the distance is 12
inches in diameter. Several are of 8 inches throughout. The lines
originally laid are 6 inches in diameter. Many of the mills have as yet
no appliances for using the gas, and much of it is still wasted. It is
estimated that the iron and steel mills of the city proper require fuel
equal to 166,000 bushels of coal per day; and though it is only two years
since gas was first used in Pittsburg, it has already displaced about
40,000 bushels of coal per day in these mills. Sixty odd glass works,
which required about 20,000 bushels of coal per day, mostly now use the
natural gas. In the work around Pittsburg beyond the city limits, the
amount of coal superseded by gas is about equal to that displaced in the
city. The estimated number of men whose labor will be dispensed with in
Pittsburg when gas is generally used is 5,000. It is only a question of a
few months when all the manufacturing carried on in the district will be
operated with the new fuel. As will be seen from the analyses appended to
this paper, it is a much purer fuel than coal; and this is a quality
which has proved of great advantage in the manufacture of steel, glass,
and several other products. With the exception of one, and perhaps two
concerns, no effort has been made to economize in the use of the new
fuel. In our Union Iron Mills we have attached to each puddling furnace a
small regenerative appliance, by the aid of which we save a large
percentage of fuel. The gas companies will no doubt soon require
manufacturers to adopt some such appliance. At present, owing to the
fact that there is a large surplus constantly going to waste, they allow
the gas to be used to any extent desired. Contracts are now made to
supply houses with gas for all purposes at a cost equal to that of the
coal bill for the preceding year. In the residences of several of our
partners no fuel other than this gas is now used, and everybody who has
applied it to domestic purposes is delighted with the change from the
smoky and dirty bituminous coal. Some, indeed, go so far as to say that