The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-04-12
WHAT IT MEANS IN ELECTRICITY
AND GAS TO TURN ON LIGHTS Nv
4 GREAT CITY LIKE NEW YORK

out Borne diearrangement Of the pre-
Wous state OF affairs. 1t goes with
out saying that when many thousands
Of people. In the middle Of the day.
begin TO consume gas and electricity,
the makers OF gas and electricity
must fee. the strain And some idea
Of that strain may be conveyed by
tho fact that inside of five minutes,
one morning during the winter. the
New York Edison company jumped
it's energy 10000 horsepower. an In
crease which would have sufficed to
provide the city Of Chicago for six
ty-five minutes.
Gauging the Demand.
Roth the New York Edison COM
pany and the Consolidated Gas com
pany have their own individual means
IF telling when 1t is necessary to In
crease their supplies OF flluninants
The gas company has a mechanical
system which regulates itself auto
rnaticaliy; the electric company re-
lies upon men, upon the human ele-
ment.
Scattered over the city In apart
ment houses, stores and buildings Of
every description, the gas company
has little instruments of Il special de-
sign, gauges that register the exact
pressure in the mains at that par
ticular point. nv law, pressure at
the street level should be from one
to two and half inches. When. by
any contingency. this pressure is low
cred the gauge communicates the
tact automatically to another gauge
hanging on the wall Of one of the
engine houses. and rings a bell. warn
ing Il valve man, who Is supposed to
have his eye constantly on the needle.
Immediately the valve man throws
over Il lever which raises the pres
sure in the pipes by admitting gas
from the storage tanks The entire
time consumed, from the registration
the moment when the fresh supply Of
gas begins to flow into the mains, Is
generally not more than fifteen sec
onds In other words, before the
pressure in any main has been low
cred sufficiently to cause the slight
est trouble, 1t has been raised; once
the gas engireers know that some
part Of the city is beginning 10 draw
excessively upon them, they are able
to meet the denad.
This holds true. no matter wheth
err the affected area is limited in size
or includes the entire population of
the metropolitan district. 1T is sim
ply question Of drawing on more
gas tanks AS often as not, too. when
a call for extra gas is caused by Il
storm, the men in the engine rooms
have seen the storm coming and are
prepared for ii in advance.
Trouble a Storm Can Make.
The amount of trouble a compare
lively short storm can cause is all
but unbelievable. a single halfhou
of clouds will call for 100000 ad-
ditional feet OF gas. II is an ordi
nary thing for one unexpected storm
to cause the consumption or 5000
600 feet at a time of day when the
gas company was warranted in rely
ing upon plenty Of sunlight. Clerks
at their desks, people sitting In their
libraries. servants in kitchens, all
at the same moment find themselves
plunged In mi-darkness. And all,
with one accord make a dash for he
nearest light The city that has been
getting along comfortably on its us
uai scant daytime allowance. in sud
denly illuminated as ii is at night.
An odd difficulty. by the way. that
has always to be faced by the men
who watch the pressure indicators.
liz that for them to shut off the pres
sure In districts where it is very low
would be highly dangerous. One en-
gfnrer grifniy characterized 1t as
"helping out the coroners- II must