The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-05-18

Tnet NdIuTAl IhS A1ssOSaetsS@ y
America meets today in Columbus,
Ohio. 1t will be addressed by Cover
nor Harmon. and win take up some
interesting matters In connection with
the outstanding of the natural gas
supply OF the country. Like all other
great national resources. the supply
was once regarded as inexhaustible.
but many miles OF empty gas mains,
and many exhausted gushers tell
mute story of the first national re-
source to approach exhaustion through
the prodigaiity Of the people rather
than through its use. The day was
in Indiana when 1t was cheaper TO
leave gas jet burning than to strike
match the next time II was desired
to light It. But in the very capital
city of that state itself great gas
company went to pieces because 1T no
longer had gas to flow through It's
hundres of miles of mains and its
thousands of house connections. As II
to emphasize the irony of fate a new
company has acquired the idle proper
ty and will attempt to give that city
sixty cent artificial gas. The big gas
manufacturers Of the country claim
that they cannot do It. The gas trade
journals are in an II told you So
mood Of expectation over It. But the
public vii hope and pray that II can
make good. as 1t is admitted that IL
II does. sixty cent. gas Is, possibility
In every city Of hundred thousand
Inhabitants. E
But with al the untold millions of
feet of natural gas that have ben used,
and the other untold millions that
have been wasted. there is still more
than double as much natural gas used
In the United States as there Is arti-
flcial gas. The Geological Survey
places the annual amount of the
natural product used at over four
billion cubic feet Add to this the two
hundred billion cubic feet Of artificial
gas used, and it would take a gigantic
gas tank two miles in diameter and
more than a mile high to hold 1t.
1t is estimated that even today.
after the note of alarm over the pros
pective depletion of the natural gas
supply has been sounded. the annual
waste of natural gas in the United
States amounts to- the enormous total
of billion cubic feet. One well lin
Kentucky Is. said to have wasted. at
current prices, 100000 worth of
natural gas year for twenty con-
secutive years. Some wells have a
feet day. The heating capacity OF
that amount Of gas Is equivalent to
that of 100000 bushels OF coal or
$4,000 barrels Of oil. With the pro-
duction of natural gas amounting to
over a billion feet per day, 1t will be
seen that the daily output is equivai-
ent to more than a million bushels OF
coal
Natural gas Is the most perfect fuel
and lighting agent known to man. ana
yet even II cannot show the economi-
cal operation that is shown by COM
mon insect When Solomon bade the
sluggard to go to the ant, consider
her ways and be wise, he little thought
that the scientists some thirty CEN
turtles later would be called Upon to
bid the lighting experts of the world
to go the freely and the glow-worm
possess secrets of light making that
make mans feeble effort at producing
cheap light look like a tallow candle
in the MONDAY sun. If man could pro-
duce light with as little expenditure
of heat as the freely does, the gas
bill that is now tour, dollars would be
one cent.
The first great thinker to invests
gate the freely and the glow-worn
in an endeavor to learn their light
producing secrets, was Professor
Young. He came to the early con-
clusion that the freely was in a class
all by itself. His Investigations Ut
tracted the attention 9of that great
student Of deep things, Professor Lang
ley. for so long secretary' Of Athec Smith
sonian Institution. He brought into
play his bolometer-an instrument
which will measure the heat from the
farthest star with the accuracy that .
registered thermometer will measure
the heart of a room. 1t showed him
that the freely can produce a given
amount of light four hundred times as
economically as man can.
The freely has the gift OF iumines-
tt.
produce light only by incandescence---
light with heat. 1t is said that for
tune awaits the man who will give the
world a practicable luminescent lamp.
1t Is true that such lamp may be
made by the use of radium but that
article Is so rare that the interest on
the money required to buy enough
radium to make light OF one candle
power would convert 1t into most
costly lighting agent. 1t is said that
90 per cent of the energy men use In
generating light Is mere waste.
It is said that in the manufacture
of artificial gas the public pays just
three times the cost of the raw mater
ial from which 1t Is made. There has
been much talk about the harmful eff
feet of water gas, and the dangers at
tendant upon its use. but the Geolog-
teal Survey figures show that nearly
two-thirds of the artificial gas used
In the United States is water gas.
The latest idea in gas production is
liquid gas. A process has been dis
covered whereby gas can be liquefied
under pressure, and 1t Will lend itself
admirably to the needs of the isolated
home or place Of business. 1t can be
sold more cheaply than oil. and is
said to give all the advantages OF gas
without the use of mains and pipes.
1t is hardly probable that the new gas
will come into general use in this
country or in Canada. but 1t Is meet
ing favor in Germany.
Opinion is sharply divided over the
prepaid meter system of gas using.
ii has been found to result in a greater
number of installations, but when a
man buys 1t a quarter at q time he
becomes more careful about his gas
bill, with the result that his new econ
omy almost, or quite, counterbalances
the added sales from new installations.
Recently Atlanta was infested with
gas meter robbers. In a single month
more than 200 meters were robbed Of
the deposited coins. The loss fell on
the users and not on the company
which furnished the gas. Steps have
been taken to prevent future rob-
berries.
The public has always claimed that
the meters run too fast. Some light
was recently thrown on that subject
A. Nav XnrIr Tho VoafAra