AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 679 



Wiien you desire to estimate the cost of gas, as compared with 

 the light obtained from any burning fluid, wax or tallow, remem- 

 ber that equal quantities of liglit from each substance must form 

 the basis of your calculations. As compared with the most 

 reasonable priced lamp oil, you will find it more than a fifth 

 cheaper, and with Judd sperm oil, nearly a tenth. In a few years 

 we will not only light, warm, and ventilate, but even cook with 

 gas, and it will be found a most cleanly, convenient, commercial 

 and domestic commodity. Meat can be roasted by gas, and made 

 to contain not only its nutritive properties, but its flavor, in 

 greater perfection than by any other fuel. In baking it cannot 

 be surpassed, because the heat can be regulated with the most 

 perfect accuracy. 



I have heard my friends say that gas light is destructive to the 

 eyes. So it may be, and so will any other light be if improperly 

 used, whether oil, turpentine, wax, or tallow. You might as 

 well say that the light of the moon is more useful than the light 

 of the glorious sun, as that the light from a tallow candle is less 

 injurious than that from gas, or that it would be preferable and 

 more congenial to write by fire light than by candle light. 



Try the experiment; read for a week by the dim light of the 

 best wax candle, and note if your eyes are not far more injured, 

 and sight distressed, than by a month's reading by the light of a 

 well regulated and properly adjusted gas-burner. An Argand 

 burner, attached to a jet of gas, can only be compared, as far as 

 the efiect is concerned, to a well diffused sun beam. I would 

 direct your attention to one fact that I have discovered with re- 

 gard to gas in an Argand burner, and that is, if placed invariably 

 above the eyes, and at a studied distance from them, it becomes 

 more agreeable than day light, and exceedingly preservative of 

 the sight. Wherever I have seen it used, the light is invariably 

 brought entirely too near the axis of the eye to yield the best 

 illuminating qualities of the gas. The angular direction must 

 depend mainly on the size of the room, and this can be deter- 

 mined with greater nicety by gas than any other light. 



Those persons having burning fluids, &c., for sale, say that 

 rooms lighted by gas become uncomfortably heated; so they do. 



