During the 19th century, some types of lamps ran on natural gas, usually along city streets. In 1885 Robert Bunsen invented the Bunsen burner, which mixes gas with air to produce a steady flame for heat or cooking.
Widespread household use of natural gas waited until the mid-twentieth century, when thousands of miles of natural gas pipelines were built across the country.
Today, natural gas is a popular fuel for heating homes, cooking, and powering clothes dryers, as well as for power plants and industries. Some vehicles are powered by natural gas as well. Like petroleum, natural gas is a starting material for many other goods like plastics, chemicals, and even hydrogen.
Natural gas is an especially efficient fuel when burned in combined-cycle power plants, where electricity is produced in two stages. The combusted natural gas itself runs gas turbines, and then the leftover heat is used to heat water for steam-turbines.
In recent years, geologists have revised upwards their ideas of how much natural gas we can recover, increasing estimates by 11 percent between 2008 and 2009 alone, though there has been some contention that these estimates are inflated.