The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1897-06-25
BIG GAS EXPOSITION.
ILLUSTRATING RECENT PROGRESS IN
MAKING AND USING iT.

Wonderful Tower-How Far This Coun-
try Is Behind England and Germany In
the Employment OF This Illuminant.
An exposition will be held in Madison
Square Garden. in New York, opening
on Jan. 27-an exposition Of gas. Al.
though similar exhibitions have been
held OH the other side of the water-not-
ably 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 fine electrical ex-
hibition in New York city last spring
did for the electrical interests, to illus
trate the present progress and the won-
derful variety of uses to which gas 10
now put.
In this country, at least, We are only
beginning to realize the possibilities OF
gas as an industrial agent. Apparently,
too, not only in this country, but every
where, its possibilities 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 exposition, aside
from showing everything that is new in
the way of improvements for the manu-
facture of gas and means Of burning it,
will also have on view q great variety
Of gas engines and appliances for its use.
in drying paper molds after type impress
sions in printing offices, melting zinc
and other metals and making baskets in
electrical work, drying and pressing felt
hats. ironing leather In glove factories,
brazing in bicycle factories, heating tar
in breweries. heating laundry irons and
finishing 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 Photographic work.
in incubators, and no end Of similar
things.
Considered merely as a spectacle and
. show, the exposition will be brilliant
in the extreme. Its piece de resistance,
as its managing director would say,
will be a wonderful tower of gas and
glass and iron, which will stand in the
center of the hall. 1t will be 60 feet in
height, with o diameter of 20 feet at its
base. Over 5000 open jets will glow
and glisten from its countless prisms,
| and, spaced here and there. row after
row Of incandescent gas lamps will add
, to the brilliancy of the effect. The cost
Of the tower will probably exceed $685.
900, and it is designed not merely for
exhibition at this time, but as the con-
tribution Of the American gas interests
to the Paris worlds fair Of 1900.
Chiefly, the exposition will tell the
story of progress in gas, as it could not
be told in figures and type. A few years
ago, when electricity seemed likely to
sweep everything before it in its rapid
and victorious advance, there was many
a prediction that at q not distant day
gas would cease to be made. It is q
rather remarkable commentary that in
Just this period gas making and using
has undergone almost as great a revolu-
tion 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 prog
ress than acetylene has now. Further
more, the consumption Of gas has stead
| lily increased, and in his late address be.
| fore the st. Louis convention President
! Humphreys Of the Gaslight association
estimated this increase at something
like 80 per cent in the last five years.
But even now we are far behind, pop
ulation considered, the countries Of Eu-
rope. London alone, with population
of s, 200, 900, consumes more than half
as much gas as the whole United States.
| Comparing English towns with those in
this country, the average consumption
in Britain is three and four times as
much per capita as over here. 1t is
true that generally the rate per thou
sand is less than with us, but the differ
2or the difference in consumption.
But it is in the use of gas for power
purposes that the most striking contrast
between Europe and America is seen.
Over here the gas engine is almost q
stranger. 1t is looked upon with suspi
cion and sometimes with contempt.
There are more gas engines in London
alone than in all this country. The total
number in use in Great Britain is above
5000.
In Germany, which shows within re-
cent years, perhaps, the greatest me.
chanical and industrial advance, and
now ranks as probably the first indus
trial nation in the world, there are So,
900 gas engines in use.
Remarkably ingenious improvements
have been made in the mode of manu-.
featuring gas, by which. in many points
of England and on the continent, the
price Of delivered gas has fallen to 7C
and 60 and even as low as 40 or &C
! cents per 1000 feet The possibilities o!
fuel gas under new methods OF genera
tion are hardly less than those which