Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-11-11
How Gnsr. made in Paris.

tury, that is to say, in the wear VII of the
French Republic, one Philippe LIE Bon, an
nounced to the institute that he had dis
covered mode of lighting streets and
houses by gas made from coal. His first
experiment was tried in the apartments
and garden of the Hotel Seignelay, in the
Rue Saint Dominique, and resulted in a
great crowd. many exclamations.- very
little light, and prodigious quantity of
smoke. LIE Bon never got over it, and
he died, ruined and heart broken, in
1902.
His idea survived him. and between the
year of his death and 1929, at least half
dozen companies. started with the object
of carrying 1t out, ended in insolvency. In
1929, however, NJ. de Belleyne Obtained
permission tn light by gas the public lamps
in the Place Vendome. and his success as
sured that of the invention. Rival COM
-panies forthwith began to form in every
direction. and to dispute about the area
which they should be severally allowed to
light; and, finally, limits were assigned by
the Prefect of the Seine to the existing
companies, in 1865, which at that time were
five in number.
On the first of January. 1856, these five
companies were anal gamated under the
title of the "Parisian Company for Light
ing and Heating by Cas-" and received
concession for fifty years. This Company
llSutS Gn6 WHOie OI Tie STedG pdTI
of the communes or townships of the De-
partment of the Seine, and some of those
of the Seine-et- Its capital exceeds
one hundred and ten millions of francs, is
sued in five hundred franc shares, the
present value of which is somewhere about
sixteen hundred francs. ~
The gas is sold to the town at the rate of
fifteen centimes the cubic metre. and at the
rate of thirty centimes to private persons.
This gas must be of certain brilliancy, and
one hundred and five litres of it must give
as much light as that which is given by a
carcel lamp burning forty-two grammes of
oil i'm an hour. Trials of the gas are made
every evening at the time that the streets
are lighted up by officers appointed by the
town, who by means OF peculiarly sensi-
tive apparatus test it in each one of the
eleven offices dispersed throughout the
metropolitan district, and secure to the
public gas OF the purity and illuminating
power contracted for.
If the conditions above named are COM
piled with. the cubic metre Of gas, at the
price of 80 centimes. equals 400 grammes of
oil, which cost Go centimes, and 700
grammes of candle, which cost 1fr. 96 :.
M. Il. SERVER, the Company's engineer,
has drawn up table showing the aggre-
gate annual consumption and the annual
consumption per head of gas in Paris and
the great towns of Europe in 1S65. Lon
don figures first, with a consumption of
over 226 600 600 of cubic metres, being at
the rate of so metres per head of the whole
population. Tncn comes Berlin. with a
consumption of 35,000000 OF cubic metres.
which gives 20 per head. Paris, with a
consumption OF 116 600 600 of cubic metres,
or 63 per head, follows, and Brussels a
long way behind, with Florence and Mad
rid, darker than ever, bring up the rear.
The length of piping in Paris is 1.l50
kilometres. greater than the distance from
Paris to Vienna. The number of public
burners exceeds 10000, and private ones
$50 600
Gas in Paris is, in fact, usad not only as a
necessary commodity, but as luxury, I'd
for the enhancement OF display in public
places, cafes, shops and theaters. These
latter places of amusement would seem to
burn all enormous quantity. The Grand
Opera has 3 Al burners, and the Lyrique
du Chatelet and la Gate, which are lighted
from tue roof through colored and orna-
mented glass, have over 5000.
The circuses burn more than 1000 lights
apiece, and the Opera Comque and Odeon
about the same.
To supply this enormous consumption
the company possesses ten manufactures,
and the land on which they are situated, in
various points of Paris, is over two hum
dred acres in area. There are fifty gaso-
meters, containing three hundred aid fifty
thousand cubic metres of gas; the largest
those which have been recently built. have
capacity of twenty-five thousand metres
Both the process by means of retorts
and that known as cooking" are made use
of. The retorts produce coke, which is fiji
for domestic purposes. and the cooking
process gives excellent fuel for Locomotives
and for the use of foundries. The French
have always been first-rate chemists.
Their gas manufacture is probably the
best conducted in the world, and they
employ pressure largely as means OF ex-
traction.
In the great gas works at Vilette is ar
experimental mandatory and labratory
where take place analyses of coal and the
proceeds of the manufacture. Elsewhere
the company possesses auxiliary factories
in which the sub-products of its various
processes, such as tar and ammoniaca
liquids are dealt with; brick-yard
whence are furnished its rptorts and refrac
tory heaters; a yard for building the nu-
merous carriages which carry about th
coke to its customers in winter time; 8
workshop for the repair Of machinery anc
forges for the purpose of renovating tools
and, lastly, central warehouse tor tn
storage of gas-pipes, and whatever is user
in the outdoor management of the con
Germ.
Fourteen offices are scattered over tht
wide district within the company's limits
where the reque is and complaints OF c)n
sumers are dealt with eXpeditiously AM
fairly enough. These Off les serve as post
| also for the lamp-lighter.