ABSTRACT
The Chinese are reputed to have been the first to use natural gas commercially, some 2400 years ago. The gas was obtained from shallow wells, transported in bamboo pipes, and used to produce salt from brine in gas-fired evaporators. Manufactured, or town gas (gas manufactured from coal) was used in both Britain and the United States in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries for streetlights and house lighting. The next recorded commercial use of natural gas occurred in 1821. William Hart drilled a shallow 30-ft (9 m) well in Fredonia, New York, and, by use of wooden pipes, transported the gas to local houses and stores (Natural Gas Suppliers Association, 2004).
