Historically when there were no uses for natural gas and no one to sell it to, it was burned off. Some of the most visible areas in the night sky were those burning off natural gas. They were seen in satellite images that were taken at night. Now the natural gas is mostly put back in the earth for later use.



In the past the Chinese used natural gas to help make salt from the brine or salt water that was available to them. They did this in gas-fired evaporators. According to history this was done around 200 B.C.

Around the early 1800’s natural gas was used to light the street lamps that would light up the streets of Baltimore the past. Also in the 19th century, North America used natural gas for lighting the dark streets at night. In the past most of the natural gas that was produced was manufactured from coal only and was not taken out of the earth like it may be done today. A man named William Hart was one the first people to dig a deep enough well intended to produce natural gas. His well was about 27 feet deep and helped to bring a bigger flow of gas to the earth’s surface.

The first commercial well was believed to have been dug around 1859. This well was about 69 feet below the earth’s surface. It had a pipeline that was about two inches in diameter and ran about 5 to 6 miles. This was believed to be far enough to bring natural gas to a nearby town named Titusville. Titusville is located in Pennsylvania. Historically this may be considered the beginning of the natural gas industry in the United States.

In the late1800’s Robert Bunsen invented the Bunsen burner. It was able to produce a flame that would be able to be used for cooking and heating. Mixing the right amount of natural gas and air would make it safe for use. Once the thermostat was invented the temperature of the flame was believed to be able to be controlled.

Around the 1890’s one of the first lengthy pipelines was believed to be constructed. It was about 120 miles long and ran from wells in Indiana to Chicago. Unfortunately it is believed that it was not very efficient. In Louisiana in the 1920’s one of the fist all welded pipelines was built and it reached Texas.

Mercaptan has a smell know as a rotten egg odor. This was added to natural gas around 1937 to give the odorless gas a distinctive smell.

About 40 years ago natural gas consumption was growing faster than we could produce it. New drilling technology has made off shore sites more important. Over the past twenty years about one-fifth of all United States production comes from off shore locations. Companies like Triple Diamond Energy make it possible to get oil to the consumer.