Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-09-15
Eancastcr fnteIIi9e1lcer.
FRIDAY EVENING. SEPT. Is. 1852.
SCIENCE AND ARR,

FRIDAY EVENING, SEPT. Is. 1861.
SCIENCE AND ART.
Early History Of Gas Lighting.
The city of Chaumont has taken the in
itiativc in the erection of statue in
honor of Philippe Lebon, . native Of
Brachay (Haute. Marne), France, who, 50
the French claim, was tho inventor OF gas
lighting.
Many managers and directors of gas
works, and q number of scientific men
throughout France, have promised the
town of Chaumont their support. A
provisOry committee has been formed,
with tho mayor Of Chaumont as an hon
orary president, and NJ. .Foucart, presi-
dent Of the Technical Society of Gas In
dustry in France, as the active presi-
dent.
In order to place before our readers the
correct idea of Lebon's relations with this
wonderful invention, We give the following
brief sketch of the early history OF gas
making
As early as 1726 Stephen HaIes, in his
"Vegetable Statistics states that he
obtained 1855 cubic inches of an infamma-
BILE gas from tho distillati0n of 1913 grains
of Newcastle coal. Bishop Watson, in
his /" Chemical Essays," describes expert
ments made on coal gas, and says that 1t
does not lose its illuminating power when
passed through water. Lord DundOnald,
Of Scotland, took out q patent in 1857 for
making coal tar, and erected ovens for
this purpose. He obtained, besides the
coal tar, quantity of coal gas, which
was burnt in Cu!crOss Abbey, and cOrsid-
cred great curiosity.
Scotchman, living in Redruth, Cornwall.
began making experiments, and found
that when coal was heated in an iron re-
tort an inflammable was given off, and
with this gas he lighted his residence.
Murdoch, possessing tho characteristic
s!Owness of his people, made no further
use of the gas than burning it for the
amusement of his friends, and it was
nearly ten years before his invention was
published abroad. In the meantime
PHILIPPE LebOn, mentioned at the begin.
ming OF this article, who was then engi-
neer of bridges and roads, began making
experiments by heating wood, peat, ETC.,
in retOrts, and found that those bodies,
by the action of heat, yielded an inflam-
IU6Ul0 k66s WulCu COulu UO uoCu uOt Ouiy
for illumination, but also for the prOduc-
tion of heat and power. Hisapparatus he
called thermOlamp.
According to French authors he lighted
his residence in Paris in 1876. In 179S,
he read a paper before the French acad-
emy describing his thermOlamp, and this
German by Winsor. In 1899 he obtained
:., Co ,,r<,I,,ns,,n
from peat, and applying it to purposes OF
illumination and heating.
Two years later the brother of James
Watt, being in Paris, wrote to England,
saying that if anything were to be done
at Oncc, as there was = Frenchman in
to illuminate that city by these means. "
Even after receiving this broad hirt, ~.
Murdoch took no steve toward securing
his invention ~ a patent, little realizing
that this simple invention, in less than a
century, would be developed into one OF
the greatest industries in the world.
Lebon had received a theoretical educa-
tiOn, and although his theories were good,
there were practical diff iculties ia the way
which he Was unable to overcome, while,
VI tuC VtBlCl hduus NAuluOCu Woo sAOAV vi
q practical man, and, therefore, was not
Lindcred no much with practical difficult
ties, aud for this reason Inc is considered
for, previous TO his experiments, illuminat-
ing gas only curiosity, and by rendering
its manufacturing practical he made it an
everyday necessity.
In 1892 Murdoch lighted his workshop
in Redruth with gas. The first moro ex-
tensive gas work was established by him
in 1902, at the Soho foundry, near Birm-
ingham, and in 1904 a spinning mill in
Manchester was lighted with gas.
1t was first introduced in this country In
Baltimore in 1921. in Boston in 1929 and
New York in 1927.
The reason way wood-gas made by
Lebon was inferior to cOal-Sas, was after
DIS explained by Dumas, who proved
Wa. s, der the conditions of the distilla
-! .na' ". employed by Lebon, the gas
consisted larger, ' e'O ''' ~'''
bOnic oxide. !, tho. ,r,,o,, tho
DR.. Pcttenkofer fOyll,.. ',s,,t;a ~.
vapors of tar and empyre> :,av ,SooJ ~ 20; .;
given off by the carbonization o, ,rs
a comparatively low temperature, :
farther heated by passing through ret.
lot retOrt, very largo quantity OF heavy
hydrocarbon gas remains among tho pro-
ducts. thereby greatly increasing its illu-
minating power.
One OF tho largo gas companies in New
York is at present engaged in tho manu-
facture of gas from wood. All the other
gas companies in that city, except two, are
manufacturing gas from coal very similar
to the manner pursued by Murdoch. Tho
principal improvements which have been
made have been in respect to its purifica-
tiOn.
had severe attacks OF gravel anu kidney
trouble; was unable to get any medicine or
doctor to cure me until / used Hop Biftcrs,
and they cured me in a short time.-A DiStin-
guishcd Larger in Wdyne County. N: Y:
sl5-2wd&w
*%*"By asking too much we may lose the
little that we had before" Kidney Wort asks
nothing but a fair trial: This given. i: fears
no loss OF faith in its virtues. A lady writes
from Oregon :: - For thirty years l have been
afflicted with kidney complaints. Two pack