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cleanliness, absence of sulfur, freedom from ash, and ease in handling. Control of Industry
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off. However, it soon became evident that the supply waq not unlimited and rate structures made their appearance. These became increasingly complex in the following order: (1) The flat rate, at so much per day, regardless of amount; ( 2 ) the straight meter rate-at so much per thousand cubic feet; (3) the block rate which places a higher charge on the first thousand; and (4) the modified block rate, in general use today, which is (3) amended so as to give consideration to the cost of service. The average price paid by domestic consumers has increased slowly but steadily for a number of years, a reflection of the increased cost of production and transportation. The average price paid by domestic consumers in 1928 was 62.0 cents per thousand cubic feet; the range was between 33.0 cents, the average for West Virginia, to $1.50 for Michigan. The low figure of 33.0 cents does not represent the lowest rates charged, for in some cases the fight for franchises between rival companies has resulted in prices as low as 10 cents per thousand cubic feet. The average price paid by industrial consumers in 1928 was 23.2 cents as compared with 22.0 cents the previous year and 21.3 cents ten years ago.
This is an era of mergers and the natural-gas industry has not been overlooked in this respect, Thus, while the total mileage of our natural-gas pipe-line system is steadily increasing, its control is passing into fewer hands. R e therefore have a comparatively small number of large companies, which, through themselves or subsidiaries, do a large percentage of the business. Such companies are the Columbia Gas and Electric Corporation of the Appalachian district, the Arkansas Yatural Gas Corporation in Louisiana and Arkansas, the Oklahoma Natural Gas Corporation and the Cities Service Gas Company in Oklahoma and Kansas, the Lone Star Gas Company in north Texas and southern Oklahoma, the Magnolia Gas Company in north and south Texas, the United Gas Company in south Texas and Louisiana, the Houston Pipe Line Company in south Texas, and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the Southern California Gas Company in California. The combined gas interests of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey probably Conservation represent the largest holding under one management. The rapid grolvth in natural-gas distribution facilities in Because of its coniparatively low value and the hazards recent years and the comparative absence of failures in the attending its discovery, natural gas when found in the drilling industry have had a tendency to instil a feeling of infallibility for oil has often been regarded as a nuisance. This contempt in the public mind and has inspired an unusual number of has led to the wastage of immense quantities of gas into proposed lines. Some of the pipe-line projects now con- the air. I n connection with the drafting of the California templated appear economically unsound because (1) reserves gas law, it was brought out that the waste of gas in that state haye been overestimated, (2) superiority of natural gas over was approximately equal to the utilization. Such waste coal and oil has been overrated, (3) assumption has been made is not confined to California alone, but it is found in all that all domestic business could be secured, (4) domestic states which have flush production. Relief in the form of consumption data based on northern cities have been applied natural-gasoline plants, natural-gas pipe lines, back pressures, to the South and West, (5) “unaccounted-for” gas has been and repressuring has often arrived after the rock pressure underestimated. I n further explanation of (3), it may be has been reduced to a fraction of its maximum. Fortunately, cited that a considerable number of people rent their homes the conservation commissions of most of the important gasand do not have the say as to the piping of gas into them, producing states have awakened to the necessity of conserving also that the cost of a gas stove and the reluctance to make a natural gas and have enacted laws covering such factors as change often outweigh any potential advantage that might well spacing; allowable withdrawals; metering; gas-oil ratios; and methods by which wells shall be drilled, cased, be secured by conversion to natural gas. and brought in. Such laws, while irksome to a degree, Gas Rates foster an orderly development and thus conserve this irreAt one time natural gas was considered to be inexhaustible placeable resource for the greatest number and for the longest and was so cheap that fires once started were never turned time.
Ultra-Microscopic Study of Linseed Oil Containing Metallic Driers‘ J. M. Purdy, W. G . France, and W. L. Evans THEOHIO STATEUNIVERSITY, COLVMSUS, OHIO
T IS well known that in the process of aging some varnishes and oils containing driers frequently undergo important changes, such as the precipitation of insoluble metallic soaps and variations in both the acid value and iodine number. It was found in some cases that oils that had been aging for several weeks dried faster than when they were first prepared, even though some of the drier had precipitated. The driers had evidently undergone some important change, probably of a physical nature, which inrolved its dispersion into a finer state of division. It seems reasonable to assume that the finer the division of the drier particles the more effective they will be. I n order to determine whether
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or not such a change occurs in oil-drier systems, a series of such systems was prepared and examined ultra-microscopically. Experimental Procedure
I n preparing the solution used in this work, c. P. lead acetate and cobalt acetate were used together with refined raw linseed oil of the following constants: iodine number, 180.0; acid value, 2.2; saponification number, 190.0. It is essential in experiments of this kind that the solutions of the oils containing the different concentrations of drier be made under identical conditions. The following conditions were carefully controlled: ( a ) the temperature to which the
