The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-08-26
Gas or EIeetrieity.

Gas or Electricity.
When, within the memory Of living
men, the g~as-burner took the place of
the time honored oil-lamp. the improve
ment, both as regards the brilliancy of
the light and the convenience of the
user was SO great that the ultimate
condition of perfection appeared to have
been reached. Nothing. apparently re-
manned for the engineer to effect but
improvements in the details of the
works and apparatus, SO that this great
boon of modern times might be utilized
TO the largest extent. IL is only in re-
cent years that much attention has
been bestowed upon the utilization of
by-products, with a view to cheapening
the cost of the. production Of gas, and
that the consumer has become alive to
the Importance of having a gas Of high
Illuminating power and free from nause-
Gus constituents, such as bi-sulphide of
carbon. thus proyidinga gentle stimu-
liant for steady progress on the part Of
the gas-works manager. This condition
Of steadiness and comfort has been
somewhat rudely shaken by the intro
duction within the last year or two of
the electric light. which. owing to its
greater brilliancy and cheapness, threat
ems to do for gas what gas did for oil
half a century before. The lighting Of
the city of London, and of many public
halls and works. furnishes indisputable
proof that the electric light is not an
imaginary, but a real and formidable
competitor to gas as an illuminant. and
and it is indeed time for gas engineers
and managers to look seriously to their
position with regard to this new rival;
to decide whether to meet 1t as a foe,
and contest its progress inch by inch,
or to accept at once the new condition
of things, ~conceding the ground that
cannot reasonably be maintained, and
to look about in search Of such COM
pensating fields as may be discovered
for q continuation or extension OF their
labors. For my own part, / present
myself before you both as a rival and
as a friend; as a rival, because / am one
Of the promoters of electric illumin-
alton, and as a friend, because l have
advocated and extended the use of gas
for heating purposes during the last
twenty years, and am by no means dis
posed to relinqulsh my advocacy of gas
both as an Illuminating and as a heat
ing agent. Speaking as a gas engineer,
l should be rather disposed to regard
the electric light as a welcome incen-
tive to fresh exertion, confidently an
ticipating achievements by the use Of
gas which would probably have been
long postponed under the continued re-
gime OF q monopoly. Already we OBJ
serve, both in our thoroughfares and in
our apartments, Ras-burners producing
a brighter and more powerful light than
was to be seen previously; and although
gas will have to yield to the electric
light the illumination of our light
houses, halls, and great thoroughfares,
it will be in a position, / believe. to
hold its own as a domestic illuminant,
owing to its great convenience Of usage
and to the faculty with which 1t a be
subdivided and regulated. The loss
which it is likely to sustain in large ap-
pliances as an illuminant would be more
than compensated by its use as heat
ing agent, to which the attention Of
both the producer and the consumer
has latterly been largely directed.-C.
W. Sie,nens, in Nature.