Ear on Chicago; Peoples Gaslight & Coke

This is the sound of blowing a gas well, one of many hundreds in the Texas gas fields. It is a periodic cleaning out operation. This is natural gas. This is the gas which is used in homes, in businesses and in industries. And this is Hugh Hill speaking, bringing you the story of gas and how it reaches the consumer. We start our story in Joliet, Illinois. Joliet is the terminal point of natural gas pipelines from where gas is sent to utilities throughout the Chicago area. More than 3 ,000 miles of pipelines end here. The pipelines come from Texas, the Gulf Coast area, and from Oklahoma. We are going to talk now to Morris Lannigan, who is a superintendent of measurement here in Joliet. Morris, over here to my right, first of all, is a series of pipes and they are down underground. I wonder if we could get down in there and take a look at it so that that will be our first point of departure here to talk about. Yes, we can uncover the pit there and look in and even get down into that pit. I might mention

in Illinois it's safe to do that. If we were in Texas, we wouldn't want to crawl into a pit that way. It might have rattlesnakes in. Would you sure there's none down here? I'm quite sure of it or I wouldn't be getting down into it. I wouldn't either. All right, you pull the lid off here and... Morris is just taking a heavy lid off of the hole in the ground and that's actually what it is. Now, Morris, I'll climb down in there first and then you come on down with me. Somebody's holding the mic for me. All right, down we go. Okay, can you come on down with us then? I think probably they could hear a change in the sound quality here. It's a little bit hollow in here. Morris and I are down in this hole in the ground as he said and that's exactly what it is. And he's setting on top of a pipe. Well, what's the size of that pipe? Is that the 30 -inch? This is the 30 -inch pipe from Texas Illinois, which interconnects with natural gas pipeline company at

this point. In other words, there are two companies involved here. Both of them subsidiaries of people's gas. Is that right? That is right. Now, Morris, tell me what happens here. I looked over here a little while ago and saw a beautiful little clearing and you told me that that was the location where the three pipelines come in. The 30 -inch line, the 24 -inch line, and the 26 -inch line. So you have three pipelines coming in there. That is right. The three pipelines converge here at Juliet in preparation for measurement of the gas. Let's climb back out of here, Morris, because I want to talk to you a little bit more about the grounds. We're moving out of here. Now, I'll have to have somebody hold the mic just a minute. Okay. Now, Morris, and I have come back out of here on the surface and back into fresh air. And once again, we're looking over to the west and see that little clearing cleared

area. Now, Morris, down at the end of it, it's not cleared. And I assume that it's not cleared from there on into Texas. Is that right? That is right. The ground is in its natural state from there on into Texas. What do you do in the wilderness? And it certainly looks like wilderness back there. If you were running into trouble with the pipe, you have to go out and look for it. Well, we know the location of the pipe very well. We have it well -potted on maps. And there would be no difficulty to us in locating the pipe. All right. Now, we have the gas coming in here in the three pipelines. And you and I were just underground, but looking over to our left, there's an above ground pipe. And looking over to the right, there are two more. Here is a termination point I assume for the 30 -inch line to our left. Now, the metering station is directly behind us. Is that right? That is right to the east of us. That handsome brick building there. Correct. Speaking of a handsome brick building, I mentioned that this is landscaped out here, and it certainly is.

What's the area here? How large is it? Within the chain length fence, we have 12 acres. Actually, we own 30 acres in this area. There are other premises or facilities outside of the chain length fence. All right. Well, we're going to move on now to the measuring system back here in the building. So why don't you and I move over here? I see some men working over here too. All right. What are they doing over there? Just cleaning up? Those men are just cleaning up and trimming the shrub beds near the building there. All right. Fine. Let's walk over there. That hissing sound you're hearing is going to be described here by Morris. He's going to tell us all about it. But first of all, let me say that we walk over here near the building. And Morris and I are standing between number two and three pipe in a series of six pipes. Six pipes on the south end of the building and six pipes on the north end of the building. So that you divide the gas that we saw in the 30 -inch line into 12 lines here. Is that right, Morris? That is right. We

divided into these smaller pipes in order that we can measure it. And thereby handled the quantities we want. Well, now, Morris, tell us what that hissing sound is. What's happening up there? Well, involved in our measurement are a number of tests on the gas, physical tests which we make throughout the 24 -hour period of the day, even at night. The men on shift regularly make these tests. And in order to be testing the gas as it is at the particular minute that they're running the test, they purge out the old gas in the little side end of the pipe and thereby obtain a fresh sample. That is what is being done at the present time. We are hearing the purging of the old gas and that's what's causing the hissing sound. That is correct. Now, where is the actual measurement taking place inside of the building? The measurement is taking place inside of the building just to our east, about 10 to 15

feet. We better go in there than handling. All right. That's the sound of the meter operating and we are in the metering room. Somewhat hollow sound once again, but it's certainly no hole in the ground. We are looking at one, two, three, four, five, six meters. Morris, what do these meters do? These are the orifice meters which you account or directly measure the gas passing through this particular system. What's that ticking sound that I hear? That is a clock, just an ordinary clock, except instead of driving the conventional clock hands, it drives that chart which makes the record of the gas. Now, Morris, let me ask you why you meter the gas flow at this point. Do you want to know how much to charge certain customers

or what? This particular point is a terminus of our system. We meter the gas here in order that we can account and charge the company which we deliver to. Now, what's your big customer coming out of here then? Well, actually, we turn the gas to Chicago District Pipeline Company, who in turn are a subsidiary of peoples. They then transport the gas and sell it to northern Illinois gas company, northern Indiana gas company, and to peoples. Well, Morris as much as I hate to say it, we're almost completing our stay at Joliet. We are just about, we are just about finished telling the story here, but before we go, you have some figures and statistics which are very interesting, and I'd like for you to tell us about them now. The normal maximum day would amount to 850 or

more million cubic feet of gas. Actually, a cubic foot of gas doesn't mean too much to every individual. In tons of gas per day, which passed through Joliet, that would amount to 22 ,000 tons. When you consider that gas weighs barely more than half as the amount that air does, that is quite a large figure. Well, Morris, let me get just a very brief background on you. How long have you been in the gas business? I have been nearly 23 years with this company. Where are you originally from? I'm from Oklahoma originally. You got into the business down there? Yes, so I went directly from college from the University of Oklahoma to employment with natural gas pipeline company in 1935. Well, you're an old hand in the gas business. Yes, I've been around it quite a while. Before we leave, I'd like to ask you this one question. As we drove out here, there was that familiar odor of gas. But I

understand that natural gas is odorless. You can't smell it, but here we are smelling it. What do you do? Add something to it? Actually, the odor you detected is not from our property. The gas is odorized just east of us here. And there's a very faint breeze today, and that drifted the odor back to the roadway where you came in. Why do you put the odor in the gas, Mars? That is entirely a safety factor in order that the homeowner would be aware of any leak which might occur in his facilities. Mars, it's time for us to depart this lovely surrounding out here. You certainly have been very cooperative and helpful to us and allowing us to come out here and take a tour of this property. We want to thank you very much. Now let's move on into Chicago, which is actually the next stop because the gas moves from here into the Chicago area. And we want to find out what happens to it. We have now come downtown Chicago to the famous

People's Gas Building, which is located on Michigan Avenue at the corner of Adams. We have brought our tape recorder to the office of Mr. EA Manlove. Mr. Manlove is vice president and charge of operations for People's Gas, and also heads up the Chicago District Pipeline Company. Now, that name may not be too familiar with you since it's only been mentioned, I think, once or twice in the early portion of our program. But the Chicago District Pipeline Company is a distribution firm, which sends the gas to various customers of People's Gas. And I think I probably said that wrong. Mr. Manlove, maybe you better straighten me out. Well, I think it might need a little straightening out. Actually, Chicago District Pipeline Company is a transportation company which makes deliveries of pipeline gas from the Texas gas fields to three major utilities in the Chicago area. People's Gas being one of them. Now, when we'd left off out of Joliette, we had the gas up as far as the point where that company picks up the gas. Now, it's going

to deliver it to what three major companies? Well, actually, Chicago District delivers gas to the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, to the Northern Illinois Gas Company and to the People's Gas Light and Co Company. Now, how does that happen? You pick it up out of Joliette? Well, Chicago District has three principal pipeline systems. It has two pipelines running easterly from Joliette, which supplies our People's Gas Calumet station, as well as the Northern Indiana Public Service Company. Also, it has a line running on the northern part of the city, which supplies People's Gas in the north side of Chicago, as well as Northern Illinois Gas Company. And it has three pipelines running into our Crawford Avenue station, which is in the southwest part of the city. Mr. Mandler, one of the things that people see around the city of Chicago are the huge storage tanks, which people's gas has. What's

the purpose for those big storage tanks? Is it actually to store the gas over a period for periods when you need it? Yes, those tanks are actually low -pressure storage holders. In the former years, when the gas sendout loads were considerably smaller than they are today, we used those holders to meet daily demands. Anymore, the sendouts and the consumption of gas in the city has gone to the point where the holders are largely used to meet changes and fluctuations in hourly demands. Is there a change over in those storage tanks every 24 hours? To some degree, although not totally so. Actually, we pump gas into the holders generally during the night and during the peak hours of the day, generally are withdrawing from the holders. How many of those do you have around the city? Sixteen. Sixteen of them. I don't want to put you on the spot here for remembering statistics, but how much do they hold? Well, they vary in capacity from 5 million cubic feet up to a maximum of 15 million cubic feet.

Well, now we have, as far as we're concerned in the program, in getting the gas from the Texas gas wells to the housewife here in the Chicago area, we have brought our gas up to the company which distributes it to the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, Northern Illinois Gas and People's Gas. Now, our next step is to find out how it gets from those three companies to the housewife. I suppose that's right. That is correct, yes. So we'll move on then and we want to thank you, Mr. Manlove, for discussing the part that the pipeline company plays in this movement of gas from the Texas fields all the way up here to the home of the Chicago housewife. I want to thank you very much for allowing us to come into your office and take part of your busy day to discuss it with us. Thank you very much, sir. I've enjoyed it. We have come out of the office of Mr. Al Link, who is the superintendent of gas dispatching. Mr. Link has just been showing us a map of the

city of Chicago, and as you'll recall a moment ago when we were talking with Mr. Manlove, he was telling us about the pipeline company, which brought the gas from Joliet into Crawford Avenue and South Chicago to locations where people's gas then picks it up to distribute it around the city of Chicago. Now, Mr. Link, I would like for you to go over this map in a similar way that you did a moment ago and tell us about how the gas is distributed from these points to people throughout the city. So I'll just listen while you talk. As you stated, the natural gas comes into the two principal points for receiving natural gas, the one in South Chicago and the other on the 35th Street at the Crawford Avenue plant. The volume of this gas must be controlled. We have to decide how much to take at each location. That gas is then passed

into the so -called medium pressure system, which in turn supplies approximately 200 district regulators which maintain the proper pressure at which the customers can utilize the gas. Are those district regulators indicated by the black spots? Those district regulators are indicated by the black spots. What are the purple spots? The one here at Crawford Avenue? That indicates a production station and a distribution station. All right. Now, we have the gas, finally, to the point where I assume it's ready to go into the home and the housewife. Correct. All right. Now, how does it happen from the black spots and the purple spots getting into the home? It's a dispatcher's job to regulate the rate of flow through the medium pressure system. The supply of gas comes in at a fairly uniform hourly rate throughout the 24 hours. During

the day period, the customers require more gas than is available. During that period, the holders are put into use. Mr. Link, let me interpose a question here. It must be a rather difficult problem, is it not to keep the same pressure on the housewife's gas jets on her stove constantly every day at the time when she wants to cook? That is done automatically by these 200 district regulators. So, she gets the same pressure every day? She gets the uniform pressure every day, yes. Well, now, let's get into the problem of weather and temperatures. For example, in the cold weather, obviously, you're going to need a lot more gas in the home than you are in warm weather. That's correct. The temperature, wind velocity, sky cover, very, very markedly affect the requirements for gas. So, therefore, do you watch the weather conditions? We maintain as close to watch on

weather conditions as possible. How do you do that? We have a tail -type machine connected directly to the weather bureau which gives us all the current weather information. In addition, we hire a firm of meteorologists, commercial meteorologists, who also keep us up to date on weather conditions and expected weather conditions. What's your peak need during the day, Mr. Link, in the evening? The peak need is about between 9 and 10 o 'clock in the morning. 9 and 10 o 'clock in the morning. Why is that, I wonder? I think that's influenced principally by house heating. The house heating plants keep going at a pretty lively rate to get the temperature back to normal after in some cases having been slowed shut down during the night period. Don't you get a peak at all in the evening hours when the wife is cooking? No, that's a change that's been brought about by the increase in house heating in

previous years the peak did come between 5 and 6 o 'clock at night due to the cooking load. But now the house heating load has taken over and has influenced the requirements more than the cooking load. Mr. Link, I can see from what you said that the dispatcher must have to have a lot of information right at his fingertips at all times. We want to thank you very much for describing how the gas gets into finally the home and that's the story that we're trying to tell. We've actually brought it from the Texas fields into the household now and the wife is ready to use it. So that's the next story we're going to tell. We want to thank you very much for taking time out to explain your part of the story. It's been a pleasure. That sweet sound is the sound of hamburger being fried. You know we have told the story of how gas is brought from the Texas field into the home. But as yet we haven't

mentioned how the gas is used and that's what we plan to do right now. We're in the home service department and we're going to talk to Martha Holmes who is home service director of People's Gas. Martha, the hamburgers here frying are one method of using gas in the home. What are some others? Oh well there are many others. Although of course cooking is the principal and the easiest way of using gas or rather I should say the easiest way of cooking is to do it by gas. But we also have automatic hot water which is important for dish washing and laundry. We have a gas dryer which is wonderful because it makes any day a wash day. No worry about rain or sutt. There's also house heating and refrigeration. What's the recipe for your hamburgers here Martha? Well this is we think rather special because everybody likes a hamburger. A little bit of grated onion, chillis sauce, cheddar cheese and pickle relish and

actually what we've done is make a sandwich out of two layers of hamburger and put the cheese and the pickle relish in the center. Sounds very delicious. Martha tell us briefly about your classes. Well we start classes October 1st. We have three a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesdays and Thursday are evening classes. All classes last one hour and each is a complete lesson in itself. In other words if you miss this week, become next week, you still get everything out of that class. And you teach them how to cook everything with gas. Oh indeed we do because that's the best way to cook you know. Martha we want to thank you so much for telling us about the home service department here at people's gas and also for frying those hamburgers for us. They not only sound good, they smell good and they look good. I know that time to test one. Well perhaps we will. Thank you very much for talking to us. Okay. To conclude our program we have come to the office of Mr. Eskoy Bjork, chairman of

people's gas light and coke company. Mr. Bjork what can you tell us about the market for gas in the Chicago area? Since the end of World War II, the markets for gas in the Chicago area have been in excess of the available gas supply. To meet the market demands, people's gas system has increased the daily quantity of pipeline flow gas from 279 million cubic feet to 1 billion, 60 million cubic feet. In addition, people's gas system has developed a Hersher Underground storage project, which has a maximum day capacity of 430 million cubic feet. This overall expansion has not fully met the demands for gas in the market area. Well do you have any current or future expansion plans? Yes, in February of last year we filed with the Federal Power Commission an application for approval of a pipeline expansion program which would bring 485 million cubic feet of gas per day to the Chicago market. In April of this year we filed an additional

application which would provide another 185 million total 607 million cubic feet per day. This represents an increase in pipeline flow capacity of about 67%. And how long will this expansion program take? It takes a long time to fulfill an expansion program. We must prove in public hearings that our projects are feasible not only with respect to markets but also with respect to gas reserves and financing. We fervently hope that Federal Power Commission approval of the first phase of our expansion involving 485 million cubic feet a day may be had in time to permit us to complete the program on schedule, namely by the end of 1958. And will this program ease the house heating situation here? Yes, these projects when completed will go a long way to help meet the present unfilled space heating markets in the Chicago area. Other expansion programs are in the planning stage.

Do you think the public in the Chicago area is fully aware of the steps you're taking to meet the market demand? Yes, I think so. We have utilized all means of communication to keep them advised. People may well wonder why it takes so long to complete an expansion program after the plans are announced. But that matter is out of our control to a large extent. Under regulation, our plans must be approved by the Federal authorities before they can be implemented. I'm sure that no one is more concerned over the time lag than we are. I know that regulatory authorities are also concerned, but they have a tremendous volume of work to process. We want to thank you very much, Mr. Bjork, for allowing us to tour the People's Gas Light and Co company. And that's the story of People's Gas. This is Hugh Hill speaking. Bye.