Daily Kennebec journal., 1912-04-22
New ENGLAND Building.
tpiled by tile f. w. Dodge Company |
rarla nApardnd In
NEW LIGHTING FLUID FOUND.
Young Chemists Discovery Of Liquid
Gas May Revolutionize Present
System.

Through a discovery made by DR..
Walter o. Smelling, the young con
sulting chemist of the bureau of
MINES and the Panama canal com
mission. stationed at the Allegheny
arsenal in Pittsburg, when You get
the bungalow in the country you
have been after or when you next
put in Il few weeks camping out where
there is not a great deal of civiliza-
ton, you will have things easier. be-
cause you will be able to carry your
own lighting plant along with merely
the trouble of an additional suit case.
DR. Smelling has developed n liquid
gas with the result that little steel
bottle will carry enough TO light an
ordinary house for three weeks or
month His work has passed beyond
the theory stage; in fact. the product
already is available commercially.
plants have been established and
prepare lions made to supply the
farmer and the country home with
out delay.
The liquifyng of gas has been tried
for many years by many men, but
not until this young chemist effected
his invention has there been any sue
cess. the pressure required being so
great as to prevent the process from
being practical.
He has found ii possible to extract
the elements of natural gas, which
gives it its greatest heat and energy
while leaving out all the inert gases
and the methane. which have less
heating value than the other constit-
uents.
Into AN ordinary steel bottle. four
feet high and six inches in diameter
can be put two thousand cubic feet
OF gas-enough to run the ordinary
house for a month This bottle can
be easily handled by one man.
There are many advantages in the
new gas, but the one that will appeal
most to the consumer is that 1t will
give five times the light that coal
gas gives and eight times as much
as natural gas. 1t has a heating value
a cubic foot of about three thousand
h. T. II. (Britieh thermal units),
while the value of ordinary natural
gas is one thousand B. II. u, Of
Pntsch gas, 1900, of coal gas 630, and
of manufactured coal gas 635. The
new gas is much less expensive than
coal gas. Ordinary piping and burn
ers are used. but much smaller man
tie gives with the new gas much
brighter and steadier light than the
ordinary sized mantle furnishes with
either natural or coal gas.
The same properties that make 1t
So much brighter also give it the ad-
vantage of superior heat power,
with the result that -Lhe kitchen stove
will be robbed of its terrors and the
back to- the farm movement will have
another reason.
The new gas moi only is safer than
any other in the matter of explo-
sion, but it is not affected by cold
except il be of the extreme sort. The |
pressure is never over five hundred |
pounds, whereas heretofore all efforts |
to Iiquify gas have been fruitloss be- |
cause of the great pressure found nee
essary. Should there be an accident |
there is the added feature of less lia- |
bility of asphyxiation because this |
new gas. although more powerful. is |
less deadly, and the only effect would |
be a sort of dream, pleasant while 1t |
lasts and leaving nothing worse than
a rather bad headache.
There is another thing about this
new gas which shows that in the con-
servation of resources DR. Smelling is
somewhat of factor. He has cap
tured what heretofore has gone to
waste. The gas that he liquifies is
the gas which escapes wherever
gas well or an oil well exists. For
every gallon of petroleum taken from