Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-05-22
TIL e Fuel of the Future.


Though the natural conbusti5le gases
are destined to speedy exhaustion, their
effect on the economic methods of our
civilization are certain to be enduring.
The use Of this new fuel has accustomed
the public to better method of bringing
burnable material to the factories and
dwellings than has been pursued since the
dawn OF civilization. It will certainly be
a matter of surprise to the future historian
OF the economic science of our day that we
have so long persisted in the practice of
bringing crude fuel to our furnaces and
fireplaces, and have patiently endured the
trials which smoke, dust, and ashes have
imposed upon US. 1t is not to be expected
that any of the thrifty cities which have
enjoyed the advantages of rock gas will
be willing to return to the ruder processes
of firing which they have so long abandon
ed. Nor is it likely that other rival towns
will be content to accept the deprivation of
this good which their geologic conditions
impose upon them, provided any economic
method whereby artificial gas may be
furnished them can be devised.
The invention of water gas seems to pro-
vide an art by which we may hope to sup
ply vaporous fuel at a cost which will
little exceed the average tax laid upon con-
sumers by the companies which pipe the
rock gas to many of the western towns.
This form of fuel is produced by passing
steam through large vessels containing in
candescent carbon in the form of coke or
anthracite coal. the result is mixture
principally composed of one atom of car
bon and one of oxegin, known as carbonic
oxide, together with hydrogen. The water
of the steam is, in fact decomposed. the
oxygen combining with the carbon and the
hydrogen remaining uncOmblned. When
burnt at point Of the carbonic oxide (CO)
takes up from the air another atom
of oxygen, forming carbonic dyoxide
(COa) and the hydrogen also combines
cesses give rise to the evolution of a great
heat. By enriching the gas with the
vapor of petroleum or other hydrocarbons,
the material may be made to afford an ex-
cellent light. Although only one-fourteenth
of the weight of water gas is hydrogen
this element is extremely valuable in Civ
ing heat to the fame, for it yields caloric
in burning in larger share than any other
known substance.
A Tough Indian.
To show what an Indian can stand when
he has to | may tell of an incident which
Them says writer in the Detroit Free
Press. toward evening ON very cold
winter day, when it was showing a little
to the log house with jug half full of
whiskey and width his rife. | imagine
that the Jug had been entirely full when he
started, and by the time he got to the
house he was in a rather jolly condition.
The jug and the rife were taken away
from him and he was ordered to get to his
wigwam as quick as he could before dark
ness came on. He left, and was sup
posed to have gone to the camp. but
early next morning his squaw appeared at
the house and said he had not come home
that night. and as the night was very cold
she had been anxious about him. Then the
search for the lost Indian began. He was
found in one of the sheds near the barn, |
under a heap of drifted snow. and the
chances are that the snow that
was above him had helped to save his life
The searchers for the Indian had gone in
different directions, and it was his own
squaw who, with true Indian instinct, had
tracked him out, and she was alone when |
she found him. Apparently the Indian
was frozen corpse. She tumbled him out |
of his snow-bank, pulled off his blankets, |
and dragged him down to the creek, where |
deep hole was cut in the ice for the pur-
pose of watering the cattle. Laying the
Indian out on the snow she took the pan |
that was beside the ice-hole, and, filling it |
repeatedly, dashed pailful after pailfuI of
ice-water over the body of the Indian. By
the time the other unsuccessful searchers
had returnued she had her old man thawed
out and seated by the fire wrapped up in
blankets. There is no question that if he
had been found by the others, and had
been taken into the house frozen IS he was,
he would have died.
An Insane Woman's Act.
CHICAGO, May 16.-Mrs. Ida Ekstrom,
the wife of a mechanic, went suddenly in