ANOTHER FIRST: Clyde Johnson of Port Allegany tells us of a
Bradford invention that has relevance to today’s oil crisis and is
an interesting tidbit that fits in with the proposed Oil 150
celebration:
“Our governor spent billions on ethanol plans in Pennsylvania to
make our state non-foreign-oil dependent,” he writes.
“He could have spent millions instead of billions by building
plants to make gasoline from natural gas. We could supply a lot of
the gasoline for most of the country this way. Gasoline would be
cheaper and burn cleaner.
“Shell Oil Co. already buys millions of cubic feet of natural
gas and sells it as gasoline. Other companies do. Gasoline could be
sold at the pumps for about ,1.
“This process was discovered in 1907 by Dr. August J. Paris Jr.
of Bradford. The process was simple, and his cracking process was
simple. The machine looked like a compressor on a refrigerator and
worked similar to it. They were trying to decide which way to make
gasoline, by this process of refining oil. I guess oil won because
there were more by-products.
“This was another of Bradford’s first in the inventor
field.”
While we’ve written about the local oilfields for many years, we
had not heard of this discovery until we got Clyde’s note.
LOCAL HISTORY: Clyde also shares some interesting history from
other parts of the county:
“Port Allegany was first called Canoe Pass, then Canoe Place.
For a while, Roulette was Ducksville before Roulette. Many towns
changed their names as Bradford did,” he writes.
“Port Allegany was the center hub for most businesses before the
railroads came in, as it was located on the Allegany River. This
town was self-sustaining with almost all products manufactured for
the town’s existence. Many surrounding towns came to Port Allegany
for supplies. Among them were Crosby, Austin, Mina, Coudersport,
Eldred, Larabee, Colgrove, Smethport and many other small
communities.
“A trip to Smethport from Port Allegany took a full day, if by
train or horse and buggy. The train went to Larabee, where you
waited for the train to Smethport. This took around three hours,
then the same coming home.
“The coming of the trains made it possible to travel to
relatives’ and friends’ houses across the USA. Eventually, the cars
and roads became dependable enough to travel long distances,” he
concludes.
