The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-06-26
EARLY DAYS OF GAS,
Experiments Made Forty Years Ago at
the City Of Washington.

Experiments Mad Forty Years Age ct
the City OF Washington.
A venerable-looking gentleman with
an intelligent face, full beard, very
white, and a bundle of papers under
his arm, has been q dilIgent attendant
upon the Gas Investigating Committee
of the Senate. This old gentleman is
MI. James Crutchett, who first intro
duced gas in Washington as an illu-
minating power. Forty years ago he
resided in the cottage which stands on
the top of the embankment at the cor
ner of C and North Capitol streets. In
the course of experiments entered into
to please himself and CRAFTY an active
mind, he constructed works on his
premises for the manufacture of gas
after a method of his own invention.
He proposed to Congress to light the
capitol building with gas instead of
wax candles, then in use, and permits
sion to do so was finally given him.
He ran pipes from his works into the
capitol, and illuminated the hall Of the
House and Senate chamber by a single
light in each. A large burner, or
group of burners, giving a light of
from $500 to 1000 candle power, was
located in the center of the sky-light
overhead, and it afforded all the illu-
mination needed.
Mr.. Crutchett exhibited to a reporter
a photograph of the capitol as it APP
peared just after he had raised a huge
lantern above the dome for the pur-
pose of lighting the grounds. The
building looked small and insignificant
in comparison with its present proper
tons, and almost a dense thicket of
forest trees then surrounded it. The
columns were encircled with bands Of
mourning, as, at the time the picture
was taken, the body Of John Quincy
Adams was lying in state in the ro-
tunda. The photograph is a copy from
an old daguerreotype, as the art of pho
Biography was not then known. The
inside of the capitol had been illumi-
mated with gas for about a year when
the contrivance forlighting the grounds
was hoisted.
The Saturday Evening News of Au'
gust Il, 1S47, contained an article an
nouncing that the ''great lantern con-
structed under the direction of Mr..
Crutchctt, the inventor of solar gas, by
Bucklngham,' Ga w%ell-known black
smith), would be lighted the following
week. The lantern was hoisted on a
mast towering about n hundred and
fifty feet above the dome. This mast
was secured by heavy iron braces.
The lantern was surmounted by a
bali and weather vane. With the glass
in the lantern, it weighed about eight
hundred pounds. 1t contained large
burners, and Crutchett says that when
lighted it illuminated not only the en-
tire capitol grounds, but all the higher
portions of the city.
''The capitol police" he added,
FUSED to 60 up to the roof early every
morning for the purpose of getting the
game which, attracted and blinded by
the powerful light, would fly against
the lantern and fall helpless. They
would find there wild geese, pigeons,
ducks and other species of wild fowl
The old lantern is now among the
curiositics collected in the National
Museum. The copper ball, which wa:
ten or fifteen feet above il, is also pre-
served there, and it shows the marks
of the lightning's wrath expended up
on it. There are five holes in it made
by the lightning's heat.
A joint resolution authorized the
Clerk of the House and Secretary o.
the Senate to contract with Mr.
Crutchett for lighting the capitol and
grounds and appropriated $4,000 te
defray the expense.
Meantime, as stated, Mr.. Crutchet1
had been lighting the inside of the
capitol with gas carried from his
works, without compensation, for the
purpose of demonstrating the superior.
ity of gas over candles. With this ap,
preparation gas works, exclusively fol-
the capitol. were constructed neal the
northwestern corner of the building.
These works supplied the capitol with
gas for some years until the Washing
ton Gas Company prevailed upon Con-
gress to purchase its product.
After lighting the halls Of Congress,
Mr.. Crutchett obtained permission
from the President to light the White
House. He extended pipes from the
capitol to the Executive mansion, and
carried the first gas into that building.
He made his gas from grease or oil and
oxygen. In order to cheaper its cost,
he made an oil from the refuse of pine
trees. Mr.. Crutchett is very confident
of the future of water gas, and claims
that it can be made of a quality and
power far superior to coal gas at a
trifing cost. Washington Star.
---S 49,
MRS. GEORGE BANCROFT.