been bored for salt so natural gas was often found in wells that had been bored for petroleum. Sometimes all of these products were found in the same well. Natural gas and petroleum are, however, allied products. The existence of natural gas west of the Alleghenies has long been known. Its presence in the Kanawha valley is mentioned by Jefferson in his Notes on Virginia. Soon after 1840 gas was found in many salt wells in this valley and it was used for both heating and illuminating purposes. As early as 1821 natural gas was used at Fredonia, New York, to light houses and other buildings. But natural gas was not brought into general use anywhere in this country until many years after Colonel Drake's success. in boring for petroleum at Titusville in 1859. At first, when found in boring for oil, it was usually allowed to escape into the atmosphere, but subsequently its great value caused it to be directed into pipes. The first gas well in the celebrated Murrysville district in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, was bored in 1878 expressly for gas, but for five years the immense product of this well was allowed to go to waste because it could not be controlled. In the decade between 1870 and 1880 natural gas began to be freely used in Western Pennsylvania and adjoining States for heating residences and for lighting streets, but it was not until after 1880 that it received much attention as a fuel in manufacturing establishments. Soon after this year its use for this purpose was greatly extended. Pittsburgh did not begin the general use of natural gas in its iron and steel works until 1883, when the Murrysville gas was first used. In November, 1907, the whole number of rolling mills and steel works in the United States which used natural gas was 137, of which 53 were in Allegheny county and 37 were in other parts of Western Pennsylvania.

At the Siberian rolling mill of Rogers & Burchfield, at Leechburg, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, natural gas, taken from a well 1,200 feet deep, was first used as fuel in the manufacture of iron. In the fall of 1874 it was stated that during the preceding six months this gas had furnished all the fuel required for puddling, heating, and

making steam at these works. Soon after 1874 the firm of Spang, Chalfant & Co., owners of the Etna rolling mill, in Allegheny county, introduced natural gas in its works.

In Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, written in 1781-82, we find the following interesting account of a burning spring, which was without doubt supplied with natural gas: "In the low grounds of the Great Kanhaway, 7 miles above the mouth of Elk river, and 67 above that of the Kanhaway itself, is a hole in the earth of the capacity of 30 or 40 gallons, from which issues constantly a bituminous vapor in so strong a current as to give the sand above the orifice the motion which it has in a boiling spring. On presenting a lighted candle or torch within 18 inches of the hole it flames up in a column of 18 inches in diameter and four or five feet height, which sometimes burns out in 20 minutes, and at other times has been known to continue three days and then has been still left burning. The flame is unsteady, of the density of that of burning spirits, and smells like burning pit coal. Water sometimes collects in the basin, which is remarkably cold, and is kept in ebullition by the vapor issuing through it. . . This, with the circumjacent lands, is the property of his Excellency General Washington and of General Lewis; there is a similar one on Sandy river." In Washington's will, written in 1799, he refers to the burning spring in an inventory of his lands on the Great Kanawha as follows: "Burning Spring, 125 acres. The tract of which the 125 acres is a moiety was taken up by General Andrew Lewis and myself on account of a bituminous spring which it contains, of so inflammable a nature as to burn as freely as spirits, and is as nearly difficult to extinguish."

Pennsylvania is to-day and has always been the largest consumer of natural gas of all the States, the most of which it has itself produced. In 1906 the whole country produced natural gas of the estimated value of $46,873,932, of which the product of Pennsylvania was valued at $18,558,245, West Virginia coming next with $13,735,343. A large part of the annual product of West Virginia is consumed in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania has lost its supremacy in the production. of petroleum, as has been shown in the chapter relating to the great industries of Pennsylvania. It has also lost its early prominence in the manufacture of salt, also an industry of Western Pennsylvania. Major S. S. Jamison, of Saltsburg, Indiana county, who died in 1887 in his 80th year, says in his reminiscences: "In the early days, say from 1800 up to 1812, all the iron, salt, etc., to supply the wants of the people of this county was brought from the East on pack-horses. In the fall of the year they would start east, each man with three horses and pack-saddles loaded with linen, cloth, flax, etc., and return with iron and salt. The latter was purchased at McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania, and Hagerstown, Maryland, and the former at different places."

Egle's History of Pennsylvania contains the following account of the discovery of salt in Western Pennsylvania: "About the year 1812 or 1813 an old lady named Deemer discovered an oozing of salt water at low-water mark on the Indiana side of the Conemaugh river, about two miles above the present site of Saltsburg. Prompted by curiosity she gathered some of the water to use for cooking purposes, and with a portion of it made mush, which she found to be quite palatable. About the year 1813 William Johnson, an enterprising young man from Franklin county, commenced boring a well at the spot where Mrs. Deemer made the discovery, and at the depth. of 287 feet found an abundance of salt water. The salt sold at $5 per bushel, retail, but as the wells multiplied the price came down to $4. Seven wells along the river on the Westmoreland side were all put down prior to 1820 and 1822; and from that date till 1830 the group of hills on both sides of the river was like a great beehive."

In the sketch from which the above extract is taken 21 salt works, embracing 24 wells, are enumerated as having once been in operation on the Conemaugh river, in Westmoreland and Indiana counties, all of which works, except three, had been abandoned in 1876. The manufacture of salt was actively carried on in Westmoreland, Indiana, Armstrong, and Erie counties in 1820. In 1826

there were 35 salt works on the Conemaugh and Kiskiminitas rivers, 3 on the Allegheny, and others in progress elsewhere. In 1840 Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, and McKean counties manufactured salt in addition to the counties named above, except Erie, which had then dropped out of the business. The salt industry in Pennsylvania reached its culmination in 1860. Since 1889 it has been confined to one works in Allegheny City. It may be classed among the lost industries of Pennsylvania.

In 1811 salt works were erected on Sinnemahoning creek, probably in the present county of Cameron. A handbill announced in 1811 that "considerable quantities of salt have been already manufactured." In 1820 John Mitchell, of Bellefonte, bored a salt well in Karthaus. township, Clearfield county, and made considerable quantities of salt for several years. Salt has been found in Susquehanna, Tioga, Cambria, and a few other counties.

Prior to 1796 all the salt used in Western Pennsylvania was imported and packed or hauled from eastern cities. In that year General James O'Hara, of Pittsburgh, opened communication with the Onondaga salt works in New York, and he continued to supply Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania with salt down to the discovery of salt in the Conemaugh valley. But until Western Pennsylvania began to make its own salt much of the salt used by the pioneers was obtained in eastern markets. The charter for at least one of the early turnpikes leading to Pittsburgh stipulated that west-bound wagons hauling salt should not be subject to the payment of toll.

In the first half of the nineteenth century Juniata iron, Pittsburgh coal, iron, and glass, Conemaugh salt, and Allegheny lumber were important factors in the development of Western Pennsylvania, aided by favorable transportation facilities, but in the second half of that century Juniata iron and Conemaugh salt virtually disappeared from the markets and in their place there was developed the petroleum trade, the widespread use of natural gas, and the general substitution of steel for iron. To-day Western Pennsylvania is noted for its immense production of pig iron and steel, bituminous coal, and coke.

CHAPTER XXIV.

INDUSTRIES CREATED BY PENNSYLVANIANS.

ALTHOUGH Successful experiments in the manufacture of tinplates had been made in this country before 1890 most of them had been abandoned because tariff duties were too low. The manufacture of tinplates and terne plates was not established until the tariff of 1890 increased the duty on both these products from one cent to two and two-tenths cents per pound. The new duty did not take effect, however, until July 1, 1891, but our manufacturers a year before confidently looked for only favorable results. Pennsylvania early took advantage of the new tariff legislation in supplying the country's general market with tinplates and terne plates; indeed this legislation could not have been secured at the time it was enacted, if ever, but for the work of Pennsylvanians in creating a public sentiment in its favor. The United States Iron and Tin Plate Company, of Allegheny county, was the first to engage in the manufacture of tinplates in 1890. Early in that year, anticipating the passage of the bill enacting the new duty, this company, led by one of its members, Mr. W. C. Cronemeyer, who had been active in advocating the new duty, commenced the manufacture of tinplates of the best quality from sheets of its own make, and before the year closed the company had manufactured and sold about fifty tons of tinplates. This company continued to manufacture tinplates of a superior quality as a regular product. In the same year and in the following year other companies in Pennsylvania actively engaged in the manufacture of tinplates and terne plates. In the census year 1904 the whole country produced 387,289 tons of tinplates, valued at $28,429,971, of which Pennsylvania produced 234,333 tons, valued at $16,547,120, and in the same year the country produced 70,919 tons of terne plates, valued at $6,119,572, of which Pennsylvania produced 26,202 tons, valued at $2,381,277. No later census