(c) Make the consumers-especially the domestic-subordinate to occasional producers; that is, to men who have no intention of following the business of hunting for gas for future service, but would be interested only in finding a good market, at the expense of others, for such gas as might be found as a result of an occasional accidental

venture.

(d) In all cases, where tried, impair and usually destroy the cooking, heating, and lighting service of the domestic consumer.

(e) Greatly increase the amount of gas used for manufacturing purposes, thus hastening the day when natural gas will be merely the memory of a wasted and unappreciated resource.

3. The attempt to convert natural gas transmission lines into mere common carrier transportation agencies, like railroads, presents many features that are impossible and none that are feasible or expedient, because:

(a) Natural gas companies in general are not chartered to act, and do not offer to act merely as transportation agencies.

(b) Natural gas service to the public is so unlike the service rendered the public by railroads that no comparison can be made between them.

(c) The distinction between handling a commodity and rendering a service is an important one, as explained on page 34.

(d) Even though natural gas is a mineral it requires constant attention from the time it is reduced to possession at the well, and embodies an unbroken chain of service features until it is burned at the consumer's fixtures. A railroad may operate its line in many small units, rendering service to many different localities and to many different people with unrelated, isolated service units.

(e) Natural gas service must be instantaneous. There can be no delays in rendering service, as is possible (and universally practiced) in transportation agencies such as railroads and traction lines. For instance, a railroad can very easily start service one hour late in case of congested traffic, but a natural gas service that delivers gas for cooking breakfast one hour after the consumer needed it would not only be valueless to the consumer, but would not be tolerated in any community. This instantaneous feature differentiates natural gas service from all transportation agencies.

(f) The gas is never at rest, but is a constantly seething, moving mass between the gas in the field and the consumers' fixtures in the cities. The gas travels at enormous velocities in the mains at a speed many times exceeding that of the fastest trains.

(g) The gas can go in only one direction.

(h) Storage facilities are not feasible for the gas either in the field or in transit.

(2) The gas pressures must be varied to suit the operating conditions of the line; that is, at the intake of the line the pressure must be large and at the discharge end of the line the pressure must be relatively low as shown on page 27.

(j) There is no delivery until the gas has not only passed through the consumer's meter, but is burned at the consumer's fixtures.

(k) In considering the gas that goes through the line there can be no "identity of property," no "segregation of ownership," and no "original package containers," but all of the gas obtained from various sources passes through the line thoroughly intermixed with absolutely no possibility for identification.

(7) The capacity of the transmission lines is rigidly fixed and will not stand any overload. This has a marked effect in taking care of peak loads, in contradistinction to railroads, which may run extra trains to carry extra traffic.

(m) A natural gas line can handle only one commodity, whereas railroads can handle every known commodity.

(n) Railroads have vehicles of transportation. Natural gas lines have none. The pipe line is merely a continuous conduit between the field and the consumer's fixtures.

(0) A natural gas line can not have extensive interconnecting service with other lines, whereas every railroad can handle commodities from every other railroad.

(p) The transmission of natural gas is naturally centralized relatively near the fields of production, the deliveries being made near the fields, and not throughout the whole United States, as are commodities handled by railroads.

(g) The domestic gas consumers will not contract for, or agree to use, a fixed amount of gas each day, but take gas as they need it, in all cases insisting and requiring that the service be made and maintained continuous.

(r) The company can not create the commodity upon which it is performing its service as is possible with manufactured gas, electricity, or any of the transportation agencies; neither is there the constant replacement by nature of the commodity it is serving, as is the case in waterworks plants.

(8) The system must be operated as one unit, without regard to state lines.

4. Gas companies discharging their legal duty to their domestic consumers can not depend upon the initiative of the occasional producer for a supply of gas, but must depend upon their own initiative in order to maintain proper field operating conditions and an adequate reserve acreage for future development to insure a good serv906820-18-Bull. 102--3

ice to their patrons. In West Virginia the total production is delivered as follows:

Experience has many times shown that satisfactory continuous service to the consumer can be rendered only when the production, transmission, and distributing features are properly coordinated. To subordinate the transmission side of the business to either the producer's or the larger industrial consumer's interest is indefensible.

NATURAL GAS DISTRIBUTION.

NATURAL GAS IS A SERVICE, NOT A COMMODITY.

The furnishing of a service, rather than the delivering of a commodity or product, is the dominating feature of the natural gas business. To consider the gas merely as a commodity is fundamentally wrong. When a natural gas utility prospects for, finds, and reduces the fugitive, wandering and uncontrolled natural gas to possession, and then converts this crude natural gas-made up of a mechanical mixture of permanent gases and condensible vapors-into a controlled and usable service delivered to the consumer's fixtures, usually many miles from the gas field, the service features pertaining to the method and manner of delivery, and standing ready to serve are of much more importance than the product or commodity.

The difference between rendering a service and marketing a commodity is an important one. The commodity may be manufactured at a uniform rate of production and then placed in storage until it can be sold to advantage, while a service must be used at the moment it is offered or it will become forever useless. The load factor data on page 35 emphasized, first, the erratic nature of natural gas loads and, secondly, the potential opportunities for rendering service that can never be used.

WHY GAS CONSUMERS USE MORE NATURAL GAS THAN MANUFACTURED GAS.

The average consumption in M cubic feet of natural gas for all the domestic natural gas consumers in the United States is 100 M cubic feet by each domestic consumer annually. The consumption data for Charleston, Huntington, and Louisville, Kentucky, is shown in graphical form on pages 35 and 36.

The average of 682 manufactured gas companies, as reported in Brown's Gas Directory, was 22 M cubic feet of manufactured gas to each domestic consumer a year. The actual average annual con

sumption of manufactured gas at Louisville, Kentucky, prior to the introduction of natural gas was 24 M cubic feet.

The reasons for this large increase in domestic natural gas consumption are as follows:

1. Natural gas prices have been so low as not to make the gas worth saving.

2. The efficiencies of most natural gas using appliances are generally less than for manufactured gas using appliances. See page 40.

--CHARLESTON, WEST VA.

09070443 ~ 10

-1917

-1918

FIG. 12.-MONTHLY AVERAGE NATURAL GAS CONSUMPTION PER DOMESTIC CONSUMER.

3. Manufactured gas is used primarily for cooking, hot water heating, and lighting only. The largest part of the natural gas business results from its extensive use for house-heating services, where the volume required is very much greater.

PEAK LOAD SERVICE.

Abnormal peaks of very short duration are characteristic of all natural gas loads for domestic consumers. This necessitates a large

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