The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-13

A remarkable exposition will be held
in Madison Square garden in New
York. opening on January 81, an ex-
position of gas. Although similar eX-
hibitions have been held on the other
side of the water, notably in Berlin, for
several years, this Will be the first of
its kind ever held in this country. 1t
is designed TO do for gas interests what
the electoral exhibition in New York
City last spring did for the electrical
interests, to illustrate the present prog
ress and the wonderful variety of uses
TO which gas is now put.
In this country, at least, we are only
beginning realize the possibilities of
gas as an industrial agent. Apparently
too, not only in this country, but every
where, its posi- bilitieS as an illuminant
are just beginning to be appreciated.
What improved burners have done to
enhance the value of gas for lighting
purposes, hundreds of other inventions
and improvements are doing to extend
its usefulness in almost every branch
of manufacture.
The Madison Square exhibition, aside
from showing everything thar is new in
the way of improvements for the man.
ufacture of gas and means of burning
it, viii also have in view great va
1lGl- VI SstS cilSlllGS anu appliances 1OI
its use; in drying paper moulds after
type impressions in printing offices;
melting zinc and other metals and
making gaSketS in electrical work; dry
ing and pressing felt hats; ironing
leather in glove factories; brazing in
bicycle factories; heating tar in brew
cries; heating laundry irons and fin
ishing rolls: japanning and soldering
shrinking tires on locomotives and
other wheels; heating rolls for finishing
silk and plush, for enameling, hair
drying ripening bananas, in photo
graphic work. in incubatOrs, and no
end OF similar things
Considered merely as a spectacle and
a show, the exposition viii be brilliant
in the extreme Its piece de resistance,
as its managing director would say,
viii be wonderful tower of gas and
glass and iron, which will stand in the
center of the hall. designed and built
by Louis Tiffany of New York, the
Greater of the celebrated Tiffany chapel
shown at the Worlds fair. As a show
piece the tower viii far surpass the
chapel in brilliancy, as in size. 1t will
be go feet in height, with a diameter
of 20 feet at its base. The design of the
tower is after the eXquisitely beautiful
cathedral affairs. so MANY and such
superb specimens of which were built
IN the days when church art cOnsti-
tuted the highest expression of artistic
genius. Superimposed, one upon the
other, its graceful and multi-colored
columns viii rise to a pinnacle capped
by a ball Of fire. over 5000 open Jets
Will giisten and glow from its count
less prisms, and spaced here and there |
row after row of incandescent lamps |
viii add to the brilliancy OF the effect. !
The tower VIII be made of pieces of J
glass Of every conceivable color. blend I
ing and shading. from base to pinnacle, /
IN all the hues OF the rainbow. Just 1
short of the apex a fountain of water !
viii be playing. TO be caught in basin 1
ana disappear TO reissue again several /
sections below. The effect of the hun
dreds of gas jets struggling through 1
the sheet of falling water may be more
easily imagined than described To still
farther accentuate the color effect. col
umns OF steam will be driven no
through the tower, cooling and con-
densing as they rise and forming thou
sands Of water prisms on their sides.
The cost of the tower viii probably ex-
coed S35. 600, ard it is designed not mere
~ for exhibition at this time, but as the
contribution of the American gas inter
ests to the Paris Worlds fair OF 1900 1t
VIII IN itself constitute a powerful at
traction and. coming, as il does, from
almost the single artistic genius who.
in the world of contemporary art, has
made a distinct name and place for
America. il viii possess unique and
exceptional interest.
Aside from the tower it is expected
that 4 number of individual displays
that the exposition viii be very far
from dryly material display of in
yentions and machinery, but thing
of light and color.
This, however, is the show side
Chiefly the exposition will tell the story
IN. i
told in figures and type. a few years
ago, when electricity seemed like TO
sweep everything before ii in its rapid
and victorious advance, there was
many prediction that at a not dis
tant day gas would cease to be made
1t is a rather remarkable commentary
that in just this period gas making and
using has undergone almost as great a
revolution as electricity itself.
At the present time something like |
IS per cent. of all the gas made in this
country is water gas In 1880 the new {
process had hardly made greater pro-
grsss than acetvline has now Fur 5
thermOre. the consumption of gas has
steadily increased. and in his late adj I
dress before the ST Louis convention. {
President Humphreys of the Gas Light 9
association estimated this increase at G
like 80 per cent. in the last j
five years. c
DUt even lON we are lar DenllQ,
considered. the countries of /
Europe. London alone, with a popu- /
alton of 100000. consumes more than G
half as much gas as the whole United e
States. Comparing English towns with a
hose in this country, the average, con- I
sumption in Britain is three and four o
lines as much, per capita, as over )
lere. 1t is true that generally the rate o
Der thousand is less than with US, but y
he difference in price is not so great 4
Is to account for the difference in con- +
sumption. S
But it is in the use Of gas for power o