The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-01-22
WE WANT CHEAPER LIGHT.

When some inventor, after years Of stud
AID labor, discovers the means of renderin
gas for burning portable in safe, conve
nient and cheap form, the assignee for tn
patent will certainly make an enormous fol
tune out of it and be able to allow the discov
erer small pittance, IS usually happens. A
civilization increases, the demand for substi
tutes for sunlight increases with it. In ODE
dience to this ever growing demand the cos
Of artificial light should constantly decrease
from year to year. 1t is almost reproach tt
! the great American inventive faculty, whlct
surpasses in power activity, perseverance
and fertility that of all the rest to the world,
that gas is no better or cheaper than 1t was
half century ago, and that no improvement
whatsoever has been made in the mode OF
conveying it from the mandatory to the
millions Of places whore it is bought and used.
Our late townsman, the lamented EMILE
LAMM, found means of manufacturing steam
power in one place and using as propeller
at long distances from the boiler, SO that we
have steam cars propelled along one of our
magnificent avenues at good rate of speed,
by engines which a child may control, work
ing without fuel, fire or smoke. Cannot some
other noble and enlightened inventor do for
gas what he did for steam? Must we be
always dependent on monopolies, which are
such only because of the vast expense of con-
veying gas by means Of tubes running for
thousands of miles under streets and side
walks? Must we and our descendants, for
all time, be obliged to suffer the
nuisance of gas escaping through pipes
in our houses, in public places, or along
our streets? Are We to be always COM
PEELED to take just such gag, at such just
prices, as exacting corporations may see fit
to furnish, and to take it at their own arbi-
trary and incorrect measurement?
With the exception of that which comes
from the fixed stare, We get all our light from
the sun, the source of heat and motion, as
we'll as Of light. In coal mines there are vast
deposited by the suns action on the earth,
storehouses of solar influence. the legacy o.
The central power Of our system bequeathed to
the inhabitants of this planet very long time
ago. Ingenuity and labor have brought the
treasured elements to the surface, and other
ingenuity and labor have reconverted the
mineral gif: of the sun into light and heat
md made them necessary to the comforts of
L. Wa 81
,ictuals and drive our machinery by heat
which has been buried in solidfied form |
lnder the vast weight of mountains for count
ess centuries, and We read our newspapers
y the sunlight originally cast upon the earth
t period SO long ago that the Imagination
J weary with the attempt to conceive of its
But the heat and light which We
bus develop anew from the earth's store
ouse are but poor and costly substitutes for
be living, present and always new light and
eat of the sun.
Even when animals are slain and their fat
mployed to give us light by lamps and
andes, it is, after all, only sunlight in a
lodifed form. When the hardy mariner
bases the ponderous mammal of the Arctic
cas-, robs its carcase Of its oil, and carries it
ONE to be converted into spermeceti can
les, it is nothing more than capture Of the
ght and heat Of the sun in order to repro
uce them in form rendered useful conve.
lent and portable
Every day of every year since the dawn of
cation the earth has been the recipient of
measurable volumes of these vital ele
ents. The gas from millions Of tons Of ]
'Al would not produce as much light as falls
pom our city in the shortest and darkest day |
the year. The fires which warm New Or ,
ans all winter do not send forth as much
'at as falls upon our streets and roofs in
ngle meridian hour of summers day. Can I
ventors find no means to capture and retain a
om this bountiful supply the antidotes for |
9 nights gloom and the winters chill? I
What is wanted is light, better, cheaper,
ore convenient and more abundant. If i
neral oils we're suffi ,ient in quantity. they +
3 not pure enough, nor secure enough, nor il
cap enough to supply the want. Means of b
animation are wanted which can be made c
central places in great quantities and at f
' rates, and which can be easily and secure G
transporter to any distance. Better and r.
eaper burning gas fed to our stores, Offices, a
Dps and dwellings, would satisfy those of o
who live in ci.ios but the four-fifths Of tt
I countrymen who live beyond the range Of 81
} iron web Of the gas tubes of cities need a
nething more. Where is the great inventor I
o is to supply this want? p
THE CITY ASSESSMENT BILL. Il