Evening journal., 1915-09-25
TO Show advances
IN LIGHTING BY Gas
City Company's Demonstra-
ton Next Week viii Turn
Night Into Day
MODERN DEVICES
IN THE EXHIBITION

Next week will be National Gas
Lighting Week From Monday, Sep
tember q. to Saturday. October 2.
Wilmington is due for a lesson in the
possibilities of modern gas ilmmina-
tion. Gas companies the country over
are planning to turn these six nights
into six days. and Wilmington will
have an appropriate share in the
splendor
For months the gas people have
been getting ready for lighting week.
It is felt by the leaders of the indus
try that enough really big. revolution
izing things have happened in their
world In the past few years to war
rant the setting apart of week for
telling the public about them. Prac-
tically unknown even to many who
have used gas all their lives, there
are yet wonderful new ways, of light
ing. new types of lights, new meth
eds of contrOl--all of them the result
of the recent work of the man in
the laboratory, and all Of them full
OF interest to the man on the street.
II you should happen into the Of
fees Of the local company next week,
you would get a glimpse of some of
the devices which get such transform
ing effects from the ordinary gas you
are wont 20 see burning In an open
flame from an ordinary tip; mantles
not much larger than the tip of your
thumb. giving out a light that reaches
10 every corner of the room; the
great. luminous bowls of the semi-in-
direct system of difusing their soft
and very perfect light; exact and
easy systems Of control. masterpieces
Of their kind and everywhere you
would notice the elimination of Chin
neys, gauzes and stacks-the triumph
OF simplicity.
This was a triumph won only after
long and almost heartbreaking strug.
giles. In little New Jersey labora-
tory, Howard Lyon, one of the lead
ing experimenters In gas. set TO work
TO devise a better gas light than any
then known He worked for several
years. and at the end of that time he
had "a tube. not so long as a pencil
and tapering curiously in the middle,
| and a mantle the size OF thimble.
/ That doesn't sound impressive. but
DR. Lyon had what he went after, and
This case Ga typical of the labors Of
his fellow scientists of the gas indus
try all over the country. They work
ed TO cut down. to eliminate, to sim
lplify and they made a tremendous
scrap heap. But they got what they
were after.
There was a long period In the
history of gas lighting when the sci
entists believed that for purposes OF
Illumination the art was we'll might
perfected. That was the time wher
open flame burners were regarded as
next to miraculous. and elaborate fix
lures were devised TO set of the gar
ish yellow blaze.
This was just after gas began real
~ TO be used for lighting. IL had
been known 20 exist as early as the
ikeyenteenth century. when the Bel
eian chemist Van HelmOnt coined the
word gas because 1t appeared to be
a "geest,' the Dutch word for ghost
However. he paid the penalty for talk.
ing about ghosts. for his superstitious
neighbors bounded him into obscur-
ity. At first the seventeenth cen
turv public was afraid of the new
J Ettoii 30 iNi f'EAAAi AAiNN 'hN
burning of a gas jet was a strange
] phenomenon. People thought that
gas pipes we're filed with fire and
that the jets were only openlnS-
through which the flames escaped.
They would touch the pipes fearfully,
expecting to find them hot When
the early installations were made the
pipelayors actually had TO set the
pipes several feet from the wall
for fear il would burnt
Gas lighting was really launched
on It's career In England i'm 1870 by
, man named Winsor However
) mot until 1880 did the modern scien
b tist become dissatisfied with tn,
q crude open fame. and set about tC
D transform it into a thing of convent
q once and beauty.