The Irish standard., 1886-05-29
NATURAL GAS.
a Cosby Letter From Allegheny

vi course everybody KNOWS hHaC w ISL
ern. Pennsylvania is oyerflowing with
natura! gas, and that it is being utilized
for fuel as well as for light, which latter
is not yet q success, but the widest inn
agination could not conceive the state Of
disorder and nntidiness into which the
city is thrown. Our streets are all torn
up from one end to the other with pipe
laying by the nayvies, and our houses are
turned topsy-turvy from attic to cellar, by
the plumbers putting in pipes and adjust
ing CRATES and stoves for naturaf gas.
The trouble is they stay 50 long with us;
it takes them from two to four weeks
according to the size of the house and
nu1aber Of fires used. Now with about
twenty nayvies at one's door and half as
many plumbers i'll ones house imagine
the scene if you can. But wait-they are
through at last. Now comes the Gas In
spector; then the Fire Marshal, and after
examining things pronounce them all
safe. Then all hands fall to work mailing
down the boards on the floors and tacking
down the carpets and trying to bring order
out OF chaos as speedily AS possible When
all that is through with we sweep down
the SCOT from the back walls of the CRATES
and whitewash them, then put a lighted
with crucibles, such as are used for smelt-
ing purposes, and with a little brass key
turn on the gas III just about five
tongues of blue flames leaping up through,
and it is one of the prettiest fires that you
could wish to see, giving out more
intense heat than O. coal fire, and 1t can be
regulated just as it is desired. In the
ici ir,Hrc Iva
One can moderate it to exactly the right
heat; then we do not have TO rake down
ashes, to make dust all over our dishes on
the wrong time And in our CRATES we have
no ashes to take out and ne ed wash up TIE
hearths but once week, instead Of once
day. ALI these benefits we have, aside
from the labor of carrying coal from the
cellar OF coal house All that slavish
work Is thing Of the past; and really
think housekeepers in Pittsburgh and
Allegheny City appreciate it more than
anywhere else. Housekeepers living in
clean cities, or, better st1ll, in the country
and villages, have not the renaotest idea
what it is like to be buried shve in dirt,
with no way out but to dig out with
scr,abblng brush and broom, for the SCOT
and smoke of this place il of a gassy,
greasy nature, that will not wash off very
readily, but has to be scrubbed with hot
water, soap and brush. With natural gas
that hard labor will be done away with.
The gas is said to cost the consumer less
than coal, but, rs we are new In the bust.
ness yet, that remains to be seen.
while possessing all the virtues and
good qualities that we have tried 10 show,
natural gas has, also, its little vices, as
there is NO rose without a thorn. Some
times Oh cold morning we cannot get
enough force to get the breakfast. Then
we have to skirmish around and hunt up
an oil stove or something of that sort to
make our morning coffee on. Then again,
if we dc not go about the lighting OF it
very carefully, it will flash out into our
faces. 1T will be nc unusual thing to see,
tho wife going about one week with one
side burned off of hex frizZes and the
husband the next with whiskers OR
nlustache singed eff. Then another draw
back, which is literally 81 drawback. 1t
warps and draws our furniture and cracks
picture frames until they fall apart and
are useless We are obliged to keep
vessels filled with water in every room. to
absorb in Il measure tI1s Cry, hot air. OF
course we can have the vessels as
ornamental as we desire. And last but
least, it is explosive and not always in the
house of those who are using it, for 1t it
runs past your house and the pipes leak
you are just as liable to get it into your
cellar as not. and it being odorless cannot
be detected until going into the cellar with
8 light. The moment it comes i'll contact
with flame it explodes, sometimes kill
ing the person carrying the light, sEatte1~
ing the building and tearing things
up at q terrible rate. We are fort4
tying ourselves with q safety lamp.
but whether it proves any safer than q
common one we will be better able to tell
after the catastrophe. 1t is certainly
calculated TO make one feel a little shaky,
SIS if they were living above powder
mine. not knowing what minute some one
will drop q spark or hammer and blow
us UP; but then, we are willing to take all
these risks in order to have the natural gas.
R7npr,,H