Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1873-12-11
From the Scientific Americana
GAS AS FUEL.

Two Of the three primo necessaries
of civilized housekeeping. water and
light. are now provided in u city
homes. without carrisge. The third,
fuel, is still subject to many trouble
some and expensive landings. Con-
slider the cost of q poor mans fire.
after the coal is paid for at the re
tail coal yard. The retailers profit
and the cartman's pay for delivering
the coal in small lots being included
in the purchase price, we will leave
them out of the account-though the
cost of distributing a years supply of
coal throughout q city like this is
something enormous--snd take up
our dirty fuel from the pavement at
the consumers door If there is q
hole in the side walk through which
the coal can be pitched to its place
in the cellar. its conveyance thither
is a matter of small moment: but the
chances are that there is no such con-
venience. In this more common case,
the coal must be shoveled into pals,
buckets or baskets, and toilsomely
carried to its receiving bin, perhaps
through a preliminary alley way Of
considerable length. This cannot be
done without an expenditure of time
and strength, having q measurable
money value, which increases by so
much the original cost of the coal.
The fire is wanted on the third. fourth
or fifth floor. Some one must de-
scend to the cellar, shovel up the
coal, and bear it by hand up the in
tervenIng flights Of stairs, putting
forth, it may lie more human effort
than was required to lift the coal
from its native bed in mine. At the
mine, coal lifts and carries coal; in
our houses, the work is done by hui
man muscles. In the process of feed
ing the fire the coal is handled again;
a small matter when we think
only of one bucketful; but multi
ply it by the number of bucketsful
handled every day in the city, and
the product is an amount of labor
not at all to be despised. While
burning the fire calls for constant at
tentiop; it must be watched, regu
lated and renewed, each step costing
still more time and labor, the grand
aggregate of which, for all the coal
consumed, is very crest Then the
ashes must he taken up, sifted and
carried away, involving yet more
cost of time and strength; and Goals
and ashes soil the hands, clothes and
furniture, which must he male clean
aesin by additional labor. The bur
den of all this labor falls heaviest on
the pnnr, for by them the coal is
most t equenily handled, but the
rich re far from exempt Could
we SUN up the cost OF service EN-
ployed in caring for our household
CRATES and furnaces, the aggregate
swell immensely our yearly
bills for fuel.
Further, the burning of coal in
small quantities, as in cooking stoves
and small heaters, is wasteful in the
extreme. The combustion is imper
feet; but a fraction of the possible
heat is cooled; and much of that is
wasted in c%avernOus chimneys. Then
a large percentage of the coal is con-
sumed when no heat is required,
when it is Objectionable even, to
keep The fire in readiness for the
time of need In short, there are a
thousand ways in which the original
cost of coal is augmented and its eff
fciency diminished in the common
crude and unscientific use of it for
household purposes; ways v sus
by those who have never
used a fuel which has none of the
drawbacks of coal; which burns
quickly, perfectly and re-
no carriage, namely, gas. 1t
is more than probable that our chill
1ren will live TO look back upon old
lime tallow dips and the fetching of
n buckets from the town pump.
Already the use of gas as fuel, es
Decially for cooking, has been proved
o be not merely convenient but
economical; in spite of the fact that
he gas used has been extensively
md, for fuel, needlessly refined. and
paid for at an exorbitant rate even
or illuminating gas A cruder
product would answer just as well.
Don't neve prophesy unless you
is the sound advice Of one of
,ur humorists. In the face of the
however, n may safely pre-
lict that the fuel of the future will
itself, and will leave no SCOT
n ashes. Further, the combustion
will be perfect, and under perfect
control: and however small the GUAM
burned in any case, its full heat
og power will be developed.
For several months a friend of ours
as been testing the availability of gas
OF these purposes. He has used a
ange having two separate burners for
or frying, and a third burner
at once a roasting chamber ION
he principal of a Dutch oven) and an
rdinarv closed oven for baking.
is done in the roasting cham
er under a sheet of flame which Gov
RS uniformly the top of the chamber.
he range has ample capacity for a
amily of six or eight persons, though |
4 the present case the cooking was
arely for more than two, living mod -,
silly yet fully up to the average of
eople in moderate circumstances. and !,
aving two meals always. generally f;
hrce meals. a day. Biscuits were .
aked occasionally but not bread, +,
'hich. however, was almost always ,
pasted in The roasting chamber under /,
full sheet of flame During The three
lonths just passed the gas consumed
leasured by a standard meter official
sealed-smounted to a trife short of !
thousand feet, costing. aver at the /.
n