New-York tribune., 1886-11-14
Gas STILL HOLDS ITS OWN.
EFFECT OF ELECTRIC COMPETITION.
DESPITE THE USE or ELECTRICITY As AN iLLoMi
MAJOR THE AMOUNT or GAS CONSUMED
-uv r<CprAsR


Co.. s,rcct lighting or for house lighting, 1t was |
said gas could n~er hold its own against Its daz- |
,bng rival Yet more gas Is burned To-Day IN
New-York than ever before. Except IN hotes'
theatres cafes and public buildings generally the
incandcscent electric light is rarely seen IN use
And even on the streets where the brilliant arc
nehts show best and have been used most widely
there are over / 600 more public gas amps IN
New-Yorlx than there before electric Ighths
was perfected
There are two three reasons for TINS ra'her
,nexrected showing AGAINST so promising and
rowerft,l an Illuminating agent as electricity
The various electric systems, in the hist place
have always fallen somewhat short OF the eNPec-
Iations of their sanguine inventors. IL was louhd
impossble for instance, to store the Illuminating
force or 10 furnish tie light with any pIont except
In large and constant quantities Inc apparatus
WAS delicate in the extreme AMI costly. easily
getting out Of order and in need OF frequent "
rars And worst of all with whatever improve
ments and economies they might make, the electric
comnanies were never able TO bring their charges
down TO ANYTHING like the highest price asked or
paid for gas.
While TOO. the electric conpanics were strug
Cling along in their efforts TO chea en- thcr pro
cesscs TO unlerbid each other and thus drive out
their common rival. through this very suniulus
of competiton and the founding, too, or new
company. there was a ll4piOFNS'e"' III '''~
quality and service and sharp fall N the price
of gas
I'm 70 1880 and after, the NcwYorlI Gas com
panies had been working along, virtual monopoly
declaring each year handsome dl'ldends Ihe
price Of gas four years aGo when the electrical
compani,s were Just esablhing themcNes, was
81 IS a thouand feet. Two years afterward under
that pressure and partly too through cut Dy
the new Equitable Company, the rates feA 10
sl75 thousand The candlepower OF The gas
was increased the city service improved and the
dreaded inroals OF the electric systems were coun-
terbalanced by a steady gain in directions where
The clarinr arc lamp or the costly incandcscent
one could not follow.
THE LATEST REDUCTION IN PRICE.
Last winter another reduction this time forced
one WAS made The State Legislature, after
prolonged Investigation. put the price OF gas IN
New-York at 81 25 a thousand. The holders OF
gas stocks growled and sullIed in public but the
gas companies kept quietly charging anu I'M
urovins their different works. The electrical scare
in fact is over. For the bulk Of uses gas has now
no rival as an illuminatOr. A great chcdpenln3 OF
the electric light processes may drive it some day
from the streets hotels, cafes AMI even hat-holses
But there can be no serious shIinlage IN the gas
market for years to come Taking the figures of
,he nresidcnt of the Equitable Gas Company, the
total consumr ton of Gas for tins year IN uns Guy
Will reach the enormous figure Of five thousand
million feet And at the compulsory rate c1 - -
n thousand the electric companies have before
them a decidedly stern chase.
The two lights in fact need not displace each
ntber They are in a way Complementary. On
the street at least, the piercing white rays OF tn
one show best in the mellow, harmless flckcln-
of the other. Taken alone the arc lamp Is almos,
chastity in its brillancy: a light in which the
nall.
The yellow gas jet has a more homey. maiter-of
faat air and the pedestrian fingers in its cheerful
dngy rays and the children in the squares play
about il with no huge black dancing shadows TO
start their fears.
EFFECT OF GAS IN TIIE STREETS.
1t is wonderful. too what life and color these
modest cas- lamps give tie streets at night Inc
shoys the cafes. the hotr,s, are all ablale Win
them On the Bowery even. or on up or Bl7a'-
wav. where the electric lamps are thickest' the
GAS lets outnumber them hundred To one The
CAV yellow. biushccntred flames soften the haTsher
glare Of the Brush arcs like flmy shaded circln-
backgrounds against here and there a dazzhn1
specIz The bIilliance Of Madison Square by night
with all It's arc AMI incaniescent lamTs-ls larSey
n cas effect Half its life and sparkle would 20
with the DISAPPEARANCE Of the vivid yellow jets
which line Bruadway stores or send their rays
dan ing across from the open windows Of the
clubs. hotes and eatinghouscs.
The omniprcsence of these lamps is the clear
est Indication of the vastncs ami sohdity of TIM
gas making Industry 1t is cas- and gas lamps every
where: long files of solitary posts, which stIetcf
out as far as the eye reach in 1ickerins hna
which seem TO approach each other indefinitely
but never meet; red or black painted stocks anC
round or fat faced globes. which serve equally 10
street directory by day a shining target for th
mischieyous small boys sling or blowinS-Ilpe by
nieht One can no more escape the suggestion o
tis huge interest than he can escape the roar am
b. ste Of the city itself. E. en- tie edges OF tn
island. along the banks Of tic North and Eas
rivers one runs across more persistent reminde
Of il than eyer-the bic tanks and tall towers O
the gaswor1s themselves.
WHERE GA- Is MADE.
One would think the supply Of cas- almost illlm
table at q glance inside of these works. Gas
making never stoIs from years end TO al
other day or night. 1t is tie same old process
the same rush and hurry and eaSeIness. amid I'll
smoke and fumes and glare Of the furnaces, III
rising and falling Of the tanks. the constant I'll
tjng Of the needles round the dials Of the compile
register which never idles or stops. The rotor
room Of a cold-eas factory in fun blast must II
mind the dsbehever in future probation stronsl
of one of the sub-cellaTs in the landemOnium
which the lucAess heathen are doomed.
The long double row Of furnaces half ope
haf shut. the flames and smoke and fumes al
ashes in which the nearly naked stokcIs work u
dim lights in the background, the grimy coating {
The walls. the fury of the heat and fre-all the.
are sooty and Internal picture made right
hand. The charging and recharging of the r
torts 20 on the gas IS driy en- off and the Tefw
pulled out again. The impurities are dropped OF
by one in the condensing- house and the tai p.l
of ~scrubbeIs." Then it passes into the lin
boxes, where the last traces Of sulphur ami carbC
are lost; through the hydraulic valve pipes in
the great meter, where the register tells il of