The Iola register., 1891-07-24
GAS FOR Is CENTS A r1ousAND.
Big Claims for 7. z. Hall's lnvsnttsn-Ez
periments In Chicago.

Big Claims for T. z. Halls lnvsntfsn-Ix.
periments In Chicago.
"What do you say to gas at Is cents
per 1000 feet? Doesn't that beat your
gas trust prices? Well. that Is just the
figure at which a gas company has con:
tracted to furnish gas in Waukegan. II
is gas of eighteen candle power too, and
the concern that has agreed to make II
thinks it has secured a mighty good
thing"
The speaker was James Winters at
the fremont, natural gas expert from
Pittsburg, whose visit to Chicago was
to investigate new process of gas man.
ufacture. He came here at the instance
OF Pittsburg manufacturers. He will
report favorably and they will build
plants for private use.
In the course of his investigation into
the new process he met Prof. r. III.
Smith, for nine years gas inspector OF
the state of Pennsylvania Prof. Smith
has been in Chicago for a month, and
shortly after his arrival closed q contract
with the gas company to furnish him
with gas in unlimited quantities at 15
cents per 1000 feet at Waukegan. Prof.
Smith controls the gas franchise at
Waukegan, and last week returned to
Pittsburg to make the final arrange
ments to put in the new gas machines at
Waukegan.
''Prof Smith, l think, has made the
greatest bargain he ever struck" said
Mr.. Winters yesterday. ''Smith told
me that he had been looking around for
years for cheaper process for making
gas when he was referred to a chemist
named Thurston z. Hall, who, believe
lives in Milwaukee. Hall claimed to
have machine that would make gas
from garbage il there was nothing else
TO make it from. One evening Hal
dragged Smith out to place at the end
of the Clybourn avenue car line, near
the. ..Deering harvester works which will
be supplied by this plant, have been
out TO see it too, and the thing can be
heard making gas two blocks away, and
out of two, six and four-inch pipes the
gas blows just as | have seen 1t in the
natural gas fields of Pennsylvania. The
gas was lighted and illuminated the
prairie for squares around"
prof Smith made thorough inves-
tigation of the method of manufacture,
and then closed contract with Hall.
He told me the machine would be on the
ground in three months, and that Wau-
kegan would soon be supplied with the
cheapest artificial gas in the world.
when | saw the machine last even
ing it was shooting off gas at the rate OF
500 cubic feet of gas a minute, and
making a noise like a thresbing ma
chine. The machine is q squarely built
furnace, made OF fire-brick and iron. At
the top is an iron door, into which the
coal is thrown. On the coal Is dropped
afve-hundred pound weight crushing
the coal down TO solid mass. Run
ming into the coal from the bottom is a
pipe which blows air at heavy pressure.
This creates an enormous draft, and is
what makes the roaring sound. The
draft forces a fire through the coal,
making an intense heat, and the gasses
from it are forced into a receptacle con-
tanning electrodes. Here occurs q
chemical process, and after this the gas
goes into the pipe pure and clean. Hall
has demonstrated to me that his ma
chine makes gas for next to nothing.
While was out there he made 500, 900
feet of eighteen-candle power gas out OF
one-half ton of coal, and smoke and
everything was consumed. All that
was left was about twenty pounds OF
stone and iron from the coal. Chicago
Tribune.