Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-20

In deciding how they will heat
their new homes, people who are
building houses in cities today are
confronted with a new angle to the
problem-the desirability and advisa.
blity of using manufactured gas as a
fuel. Not so long ago the only fuel
that was considered for domestic heat
ing purposes was COAL and the only
question the householder had to de-
eide was whether to use anthracite or
bituminous. Then came the introduce
ton of oil heaters with automatic con-
troll, and now comes the gas heater
The use of gas for heating purposes
is not new, Of course. Natural gas
has been used for years in the
favored communities in the natural
gas fields of the country, and in cities
sufficiently near those fields to permit
Of piping this natural fuel to them
without running up it's cost to pro-
hibitive figures.
In the heyday of the natural gas
boom in the Middle West and South
west houses could be heated with that
fuel at cost that seems today almost
incredibly low. 1t was the cheapest
fuel ever known. the supply seemed
ineXhaustible, and it was wasted
prodigally. Furnaces were rarely
used. Houses were built with open
gas fires in every room, or in the
rooms without CRATES there were
stoves in which a roaring fire could
be started instantly. Turn a key,
throw In a match and the trick was
done.
Der of residents living in the same
section would club in and dig a we'll.
Pipes laid on top Of the ground to
their respective houses solved the
distribution problem. The wells never
had to be pumped, the gas gushing
forth with a pressure so strong that
it had to be regulated. The whole
cost was not great and there were
no maintenance charges. So long as
the gas continued to flow each MEM
Der of the club. or cooperative. as 1t
perhaps should be termed, could burn
all the gas he wanted at no cost be-
yond his small original investment
All this sounds like a fairy tale to
the harassed householder of 1927, but
its truth win be attested by tens of
thousands of people in various sec
tons of the country.
Day Of the FIaEing Flambeau.
Those were the days of the fiaring
fiambeau for street lighting in the
natural gas region. An inch pipe
running up or 10 feet from the
ground, with a tin cap. or sometimes
merely an old tin can on the top to
force the flame toward the ground
and give it q spread or flare, consti
tuted the flambeau. There would be
at least two and sometimes four at
every street crossing, and frequently
one midway Of every block. No one
knows how much gas they consumed,
for there was never a. meter to meas
ure, and only the widest conjecture
could approximate the total amount
of the wonderful fuel that was wasted
in this manner.
But. to get back to manufa otured
gas, until quite recently its use for
domestic heating has been confined
to the kitchen range and the con-
traption that supplies hot water to
the bathroom, with now and then a
gas log in a CRATE or a small stove
for occasional or emergency use. 1t
was deemed far too expensive to be
burned in a furnace to supply the heat
for an entire house all the time.
Advancing prices of coal, with Pc
riodic disturbances at the mines,
when 1t would be difficult, Ii not i'm
possible, to secure coal at any price,
have constituted one of the big fac
tors IN DEtIlElH6 duOut eAS AAASAOo~S
ton of manufactured gas Tor generai
domestic heating purposes, just as II
has served to bring about a rapidly
growing use of Oil. Another i'm
nortant factor is the increasing de-
sire on the part of an increasing
number of people to nave tnelr
household esta blishments run with a
minimum of trouble and labor. Heat
ing equipment that runs ltself ana
maintains a. home at uniform tenn
perature makes a big appear 10 such
people.
ing q big drive to build up new line
of business. opened up to them in
| domestic heating. People VINO are
h,,iiding houses are we'll aware OF
that fact. The gas companies have
| the active cooperation also of the
manufacturers of domestic oil burn
ers. who saw a new field for their
nrod,ct ff people can be persuaded
| of the advantages of gas heaters.
ADVANTAGES Claimed for Gas.
The advantages claimed for gas as
| a fuel for domestic purposes are pri-
marily efficiency, dependability, con-
venience, cleanliness and saving or
| labor. No one recommends it for its
| cheapness. Arthur d. Little of Cam =
| bridge, Mass, who has made a study
| OF the question, says in his Industrial
| Bulletin that the prime cost of gas
| is practically double that of oil and
| almost three times that Of anthra-
cite. What 1t costs the consumer
| depends upon so many various fac
! tors that no general comparative