294 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ascribing to the use of solid fuel coal or wood. And I take this 

 opportunity of putting myself on record before you, as I have done 

 for years persistently in the scientific journals, as an earnest advocate 

 of fuel in the gaseous form, not only for industrial and manufacturing 

 purposes, but also in the household. Let me give you a few thoughts 

 on this subject. 



The great and obvious advantage of gaseous fuel to leave the 

 question of its convenience, at present, out of sight resides in the 

 fact that the character of the fuel permits of its instantaneous and 

 perfect intermixture with the air, by which a vastly more perfect com- 

 bustion is insured an advantage that finds admirable expression in the 

 regenerative furnace of Siemens. Where Nature, however, supplies 

 us with an abundance of combustible gases, as in certain favored 

 localities in our oil regions, to which I shall have occasion to refer 

 hereafter, an additional advantage is gained, since she has saved us 

 the necessity of making it ; and the practical utilization of the product 

 of the numerous gas-wells of our oil regions has proved of enormous 

 advantage to the manufacturers of these localities. 



But in addition to the advantage I have just alluded to, namely, 

 the great gain due to the more perfect combustion of gaseous fuel, 

 there are other advantages on the score of convenience and economy 

 that are no less important. I refer here to the saving in the carriage 

 of coal from the yard to the place of delivery, and the recarriage of 

 ashes charges which are especially onerous in the numerous cases 

 where boilers, stoves, etc., are located in the upper stories of buildings, 

 or situated inconveniently as regards ordinary delivery by wagons. 

 The saving in wages of stokers, to clear the fireplaces, and keep 

 the heat of the furnace always at the proper intensity difficulties 

 which the adoption of gaseous fuel would entirely obviate, since 

 it furnishes no ashes to remove and the proper regulation of the 

 gas supply, would insure a perfectly uniform heating effect for hours 

 together, without supervision or attention of any kind. The inci- 

 dental saving of fuel or steam, whenever, by improper regulation, or 

 the inattention of stokers, the furnaces are allowed to become too hot ; 

 and, on the other hand, the saving in time and material that would oth- 

 erwise be wasted by low fires and the frequent necessity of stoppages, 

 until the required steam pressure is restored ; and last, but not least, 

 the great saving of fuel now universally wasted in keeping up boiler, 

 and range, and heater, and stove fires overnight, and at all seasons 

 all these, and other items that I have probably overlooked in this 

 hasty outline of the subject, form together an array of objectionable 

 features sufficient to bring any system into disuse, where a remedy so 

 easy to apply as the adoption of fuel in the gaseous state is at hand. 



I do not wish to be understood as intimating that the use of our 

 common burning-gas would be a panacea for all the ills I have nar- 

 rated, for its cost would preclude its general adoption for industrial 



