16 BULLETIN 102, PART 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
present hand-firing. For industrial purposes, gas offers conspicuous 
advantages, as evidenced by the varied industrial use of natural gas 
in all regions where abundance of supply creates a favorable price. 
In general, gaseous fuel is bound to increase in importance as 
compared to solid fuel, especialfy in the industries. While solid fuel 
lends itself to conversion into power only through the agency of the 
wasteful steam engine, gas may be used in the internal combustion 
engine, which for the same equivalent consumption delivers in general 
over twice the power; while for purposes of producing heat, gas 
presents an ease of control and a mobility of application that place 
it beyond comparison. Moreover, and more important than all, 
solid fuel lias already reached afar fuller measure of development than 
has gas, whose utilization is still in a relatively undeveloped state. 
Improvements in the internal combustion engine, the utilization of 
gas under pressure, and the application of the so-called surface 
method of combustion offer lines of advance that will add a growing 
weight of superiority to the use of gas. 
For domestic purposes, however, the advantages of solid and 
gaseous fuel are somewhat complementary, rather than opposing, 
so that advances toward perfecting the two types of fuel may well be 
simultaneous. The successful operation of an artificial anthracite 
plant will demand increased utilization of gas, involving the employ- 
ment of the latest advances in its application; while the operation of 
an enlarged municipal gas-plant, with adequate by-product recovery, 
however effective in the way of economical gas supply, can not be 
expected to replace fully, at least for some time, the need for a smoke- 
less solid fuel. In either event, therefore, the tendency will lead 
toward an increased role for fuel gas, a trend in line with the in- 
evitable necessity for a more mobile and more efficient source of 
heat and power than is afforded by solid carbon . 1 
The successful instigation and operation of either of the two plans 
proposed will depend upon public initiative and stimulus. Neither 
plan may be expected to come into action under the influence of 
private industrial enterprise; a private organization would have no 
means of getting adequate returns upon the development expenditure 
since the benefits contemplated would accrue alike to all industrial 
activities as well as to the public. The first move, therefore, de- 
volves upon the public; or at least, upon organizations representative 
of the public interest. The accomplishment, however, will call for a 
more effective administration of public utilities than has obtained in 
American cities in the past, and this will come only after full public 
realization that technical affairs must be directed by technical 
knowledge. 
1 It is scarcely necessary to point out that both solid and gaseous fuel are adapted to the generation of 
electricity. 
