Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-04-11
GAS
The Two Descriptions OF Gas and ReIa-
tive Value.

EDITORS APPEAL-The Columbus,
Ohio, Gas Works Company used
Gale & Rand's Gas Patent ex-
perimentalIy for some time, but refusing
TO pay the amount demanded by the ven
dee of Gale & Rand they have again re-
sorted to the use of coal. So in Saratoga,
Gale & Rand, the patentees, have no
gas pipes or other appliances of gas man
ufacture than those supplied by the coal
gas company. The patent for New
York State having passed out of Gale q
Rand's hands the patent owners termi-
mated the contract with the old gas COM
pany and there, too, coal gas instead of
naphtha gas is supplied | advert to
these facts because it has been said that
the naphtha gas was a failure. On the
contrary, no one accustomed to the
use Of naphtha gas will voluntarily use
coal gas. 1t might as well be
to sperm candles or excellent
lamplights would descend to the use of
Confederate lard oil dips. The eve ac-
quires habits as well as the ear or taste,
and therefore the insuperable difficulty
to be encountered in this city by the
managers of the new gas company. The
AIA6AAOAAo Vi lAAE lMO keNo COn4 JdEAACS III
this city show that we were not mis-
taken, and that the opinions expressed
by the APPEAL as to the relative value
of the products of the two companies,
were well founded. Wherever coal gas
has been substituted for naphtha gas the
order of creation has been reversed, and
darkness has supplanted light. The
change is as palpable as in the aspect Of
the milky-way, which at night is bril-
liant and beautiful, but loses its spIen-
dors with the day-dawn. We are told
that persons accustomed to the use of
naphtha gas now use two burners in
stead of one. Their eyes are edu-
Gated and demand a degree of bril-
iancy in light which coal gas
does not and cannot supply. Ifany one
question the accuracy of these statements
he need only pass from the billiard hall
into the dining room of the Peabody;
the first lighted by naphtha and the lat
ter by coal gas. Progress is the watch
word of the age, and the adoption of the
naphtha gas patent in this city was a
progressive movement which the AP-
PEAL approved, and facts now developed
demonstrate the wisdom of the AP-
PEAL's declarations. For Colonel John
Donovan especially; for his pluck and
heroism, l have ever entertained
and expressed profound respect.
Personally, l would have him win
wealth that he deserves and honors
that are his due; but as gas con-
sumers, and consumers whose necessi-
ties and habits force US to become adopts
in the art of determining the value Of gas.
the old as compared with the new pro-
cess, is failure. The new eompany's
gas is the best of its kind
but the kind is intolerable. These facts
are stated in all frankness and kindness,
and the more kindly because the public,
at least while competition exists, is vast
ly indebted TO the genius, energy and per-
sistent toll of the President of the new
company for the reduction in the price
of gas. Light, it should never be for
gotten, is not only necessity, but luXu-
ry. That light is cheapest to those who
would preserve their powers of vision,
which is best. Therefore coal gas, at the
same cost per thousand feet, can never
compete with that made from naphtha.
And since the density of gases is directly
propOrtioned to their Illuminating
power, the thicker and heavier gas
possesses the greatest light-giying
capacity, and the thinner gases are
proportionally deficient in candle power
1t thus happens that the consumer has
more light who consumes the heavier
gas, and consumes a less volume of gas.
The heavier the gas certainly the
slower its progress through pipes and
burners, and therefore the unprofitable-
ness to the company of the new process of
naptha gas manufacture, If naphtha
become very costly. But with this last
inquiry the public has nothing to do. 1t
only concerns us to know that the naph-
tina gas. to consumers is cheapest and
best, NJ. ], G,