Natural+Gas+--+History

**The History of Natural Gas-By Lauren **
====Natural gas has been on earth for millions of years. Humans have used natural gas for energy since 200 B.C. The ancient people of Persia, India, Greece, and China were the first groups of people ever known to use natural gas. The groups of people that found it first found out that the gas seeped from cracks in the ground and if struck by lightning it caught on fire. Sometimes these people built temples around the flames and worshiped them. The Chinese piped the gas from the ground and found out that salt would be left once all of the water evaporated. In 1626 John Clayton found a very large reservoir of natural gas under the ground in North America. In 1816, in Baltimore, Maryland, the worlds first street lamp powered by natural gas was established. The lamp had to be raised in the morning and lowered at night. In 1821 William Hart dug the U.S.'s first successful natural gas well in New York. In 1885 Robert Bunsen invented the Bunsen burner which combined natural gas and air at the right pressure to create a safe flame. It was often used for cooking and heating. In 1891 a 120 mile long pipeline that led from Indiana to Chicago, Illinois was built; however it was not very efficient at transporting natural gas. In 1947 a gas field was producing 300 million cu. feet of natural gas per day, but most of it was wasted since the oil drillers working in the field had no way to detect the gas. Today there are many uses for natural gas that were developed from things people made in the past. ====

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