TECHNOLOGY. 591 



ployed as early as 1874 in the electric lighting system of 

 Messrs. Ladiguin and Kosloff, of which an account will be 

 found in the Record of that year. 



Whether or not we are on the eve of a quiet revolution of 

 the present system of domestic illumination, as many are dis- 

 posed to believe, the idea appears to be a most erroneous one 

 that the gas companies will find their occupation and their 

 revenues gone. For, supposing the extreme case that the 

 perfection of the electric light should have caused it to be 

 very generally used for domestic illumination, there is still 

 no reason for the belief that the demand for gas will be les- 

 sened by the cessation of its use for illumination ; on the con- 

 trary, there is excellent reason to believe that the gradual 

 withdrawal of gas as a lighting agent would go hand-in-hand 



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with its increasing employment as a heating agent, a con- 

 summation that far-sighted engineers have long since pre- 

 dicted. 



THE FUEL OF THE FUTURE. 



No less important than the foregoing subject is that of 

 gaseous fuel for domestic and industrial uses, the ultimate 

 success of which (which has long been prophesied by pro- 

 gressive engineers) will carry with it consequences far more 

 revolutionary than those which may result from the general 

 introduction of electric lighting. The Lowe water-gas proc- 

 ess, the successful operations of which in the direction of 

 supplying cheap illuminating gas for cities and towns have 

 been from time to time recorded in our annual volumes, and 

 which since our last Record has been placed in operation on 

 the largest scale for lighting the cities of Indianapolis and 

 Baltimore, may be said to have given to engineers certain 

 positive data as to cost of production, which seem to fully 

 warrant the prediction that the present wasteful and inef- 

 ficient use of fuel will sooner or later have to give way 

 to improved systems, in which fuel, in gaseous form, will 

 supersede the use of solid fuel in cities and towns both 

 for domestic and industrial purposes. The advantages of 

 gaseous fuel (the question of its economical production be- 

 ing assumed) in respect to the economy and completeness 

 of its combustion, perfect manageability, absence of dust, 

 dirt, and ashes, and its high calorific value and general con- 

 venience, are so universally acknowledged as to require no 



