Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-03-25
HUMBLE GENIUS UyHOyOUED
Contribution Of a Pittsburg Druggist 10 the
Progress Of Mankind.
PUT GLOBE AROUND KEROSENE FLAME
Made NtEht work Possible ana
BriGhtened Path OF Civilization
Later Lights aud Thetr
Development.

Dr. David r. Day OF the United states
geological survey in paper on Light,
the Civnizer." in the American illustrated
Magazine, presents an interesting and
plausible claim that the humble Pittsburg
merchant who put glass globe around a
Kerosene flame. producing = steady light
for night work. contributed more toothe
spread OF civilization and education than
Watt, Stephenson, Fulton or Edison Sup
plementing the writer's claim is an nstruc-
tive review Of the development Of light. The
paper follows:
II Charles Lamb could return today to
write a sequel TO his Popular Falaces,"
he might well give the place Of honor to
the idea that the last century was an era
of phenomenal growth in the material well
fare and prosperity of mankind. 1t was
not. The statement would be equally true
or false, of the last two or the last three
centuries. The last hundred years called
forth the discoveries and inventions OF sew
eral remarkable minds, such as Faraday
and Ericsson. but many, perhaps most, Of
the ideas fundamental TO our material pros
perity belong to the preceding century, to
Watt, Lavoisler, Galvanl, Volta and their
peers. Further, It is not these ideas but
their universal application that constitutes
material welfare, and the nineteenth CEN
tury as a whole Is no more responsible for
their application than for their utterance.
The sudden increase In the speed of ma
terial progress, with which We are so ia
miliar, belongs not to the century but solely
TO its latter half, and mainly to its last
quarter. In 1850, though the great inven-
tions, the steamboat. the railway, the tele-
graph the sewing machine and so on were
in use to some extent, though most of the
fundamental ideas had been laid down and
their application had already increased the
luxury of a limited class, the comfort Of
the average citizen OF civilized nations, and
the development of the average thinking
mind, had advanced no further, since. 1890
than in previous half centuries.
The unexampled growth in comfort and
intelligence In the last half century was
chiefly due, not to the great scientists and
educators, but to the fortunate coincidence
of a chain OF intrinsically Insignificant
events. Its cradle was the unromantic vi
cinity of Pittsburg, Pa, and most Of Its
prime factors are familiar to the point Of
contempt.
About 1S47 a Scotch chemist, James
Young, began a series of experiments In
Glasgow in the dstillation of mineral oil
from bituminuus shales Later he came to
Boston, Mass, and continued his expert
ments on the shales Goals and asphalts
shipped to that point from Canada and
elsewhere. Others. following him. exploited
the still richer shales of Kentucky. and
the news Of this exploitation came TO Penn
sylvania and West Virginia, where oil al
ready distilled by nature was being found
in boring brine wells. This oil was nuts
ance to the brine prospectors A little of 1t
was bottled and sold as a medicine.
OIL as an IIIuminant.
Fortunately for the world, Pennsylvania
oil, with it's high proportion of volatile
ingredients, naphtha, gasoline and the like,
was too explosive in its natural state for a
fuel or an illuminant. Pittsburg. moved by
the success OF the shale Installations. began
trying to refine It. And this brought It TO
the notice of the greatest modern benefac-
tor of mankind. Samuel NJ. Kier Kier was
Pittsburg druggist, a humble person who
had been selling oil as a patent medicine,
"Kiers Petroleum" Like other patent
medicine dealers he had gift Of utilizing
whatever came to his hands. When he and
his fellow residents began refining oil, he
began to burn IL. Then came his step Of
progress. He surrounded the fame with a
glass chimney.
In so doing he presented to human eye
the first steady bright light, except the
sun, that 1t had ever used. Beside this
achievement the work Of Edison and all
other great illuminators is absolutely
trivial. All previous lights. fire, the torch
the candle, the open lamp, the gas fame
without It's modern adjunct, the jet, had
been iickering and unsteady, exhausting
To the eye and weak. The best OF them
.still survives in certain antquated type
OF lantern with a round. solid wick Civ
ing a wavering light of about one candle
power. Kier's lamp. with its argand burner
and chimney. was thirty fold as strong ant
perfectly steady.
Kier did not invent the chimney. Am
Argand had used it in 1854. and it's origin
like that of the steam engine and tbs
theory of evolution and most other vita
discoveries. may be traced back till it Il
lost IN obscurity. But Kier put It to III
first practical use; he burned in Il the new
liluminant which alone could make II uni
versal: It became an advertisement fol
petroleum. People saw IT, marveled, de
sired and from all around Pittsburg eam'