The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-09-18
TIE NEW, CIR OXYGEN, LIGHT.

The proprietors in America or the great chemical
discovery OF France, and which in very brief Pc
rod or time Is destined TO revolutionZe our present
mode OF artificial lighting by oils and carburetted
hydrogen extracted from coal, tar and other vege-
table substances, are making transformations but
rapid progress toward meeting in their funess all
the eXlgent demands that the light once introduced
will be made upon them.
Having by the repeated experiments OF Professor
Doremus, to whom the practical questions which
enter into the use OF the oxygen in combination with
street gas were submitted, and from whom none
but the most favorable reports have been received
the gentlemen Interested have organized themselves
into company, and without opening stock, sub
scrbed sufficient capital to warrant them in erecting
u iarse laboratory, two hundred fe-t In length
Dy one hundred in breadth, between Tenth and
E ,s,e,n avenues In Forty-hrsC street. rms
structure Is being prepared under the direction
OF Mr. kenneday, OF the firm OF Hoy, Kenneday
CO., Liberty street, President OF the company for
the manufacture OF oXygen-a gentleman whose eX-
perlence III all that pertains to the preparation OF the
ordinary street gas Is well known throughout the
country ne having for nearly quarter OF century
devoted Ills energies to the building of houses and
drogen
ior the conducton OF the oxygen for some time even
Ii the company were authorized, but they do pro-
pose conveying IL in portable vessels to the build
lnSs, pubic or private, IN which 1t may be desired
lot Humlnative purposes. Mr.. Booth Is placing
throughout his new theatre on Sixth avenue dupi
cate pipes, that when the oxygen Is manufactured
In quantities sufficient it be introduced without
delay, and many gentlemen Of fortune who have
seen the light AT the office Of the company In Nassau
street are also anxious to have 1t In their houses
About the middle OF November, it IL thought, the
new light, which Is nearly two hundred times more
brilliant than that emitted by wax candle and four
teen times more powerful than the illuminatiye
power OF carburetted hydrogen nineteen and q half
times that of the gas made by the Manhattan COM
pany as shown by actual measurement In the lab0-
be formally and permanently introduced. 1t Ii not
only more powerful, as has been demonstrated, in
brliancy, but, compared with the ordinary gasght,
many per cent cheaper. thousand cubic feet OF
oxygen will cost the consumer, 1t Is estimated $685.
and thousand feet OF street gas 3d. or $2S for two
waco mx a
equal In their Iuminative quantities to not
less than twenty-eght thousand feet Of the
OF seventyfour dollars or forty-six dollars more
than, apart from its great steadiness, purity and
beauty, the oxygen light is now believed Will cost
This will certainly, IN the course OF year, aggre
gate to the people Of city 50 large IL New ork
an enormous saving.
1t is a curious fact that although carburetted hy-
drogen gas, as an artificial light, has been IN use
sixty years-t being introduced in factory in Eng
land In 1S08-no improvements have been made upon
1t. The principle of its manufacture Is the same
now as when 1t was first used and yet there s no field
in which the chemist could benefit his fellow creatures
so largely as In this. The time will doubtless arrive
when we shall be enabled to burn gases that viii be
wholly innOcuOus. Even now the discoveries OF the
oxygen gas as potent element in artificial light,
have demonstrated that pure hydrogen In large
volumes be Obtained from the dstillation OF lime
and coal. From mixing one ton OF quicklime with
like quantity OF coal dust forty thousand feet of
unadulterated hydrogen have been obtained. What,
then all other things being equal, Is to prevent the
Introduction OF hydrogen into dwellings, SC, for
heating as well as for purposes OF illumination
None whatever, we repeat; and the day Is not far
distant when, in the great questions OF cheap light
and cheap heat two gigantic steps shall have been
taken In the path of scientific progress.