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 combustion 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 incidental 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 otherwise 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 narrated, for its cost would preclude its general adoption for industrial
