Abstract
THE economist who wished to point the moral of a healthy competition in industrial commerce could scarcely find a better instance to his hand than the progress made by gas illumination under the impetus given in the last few years by the rise of electric lighting. It is not overstating the case to say that greater improvement in the use of gas has been made since Jablochkoff introduced his electric candle than in the previous sixty years' history of gas lighting. Compared with the recent development of invention, the long period of non-competition appears almost stagnant. With the introduction of electricity arose a popular demand for “more light.” With a new illuminant competing for favour, consumers growled more openly at “bad gas” and high gas bills. Each advance of the electric light was greeted with acclamations by the popular voice, shareholders began to tremble, and. gas shares came down with a rush. It was time for gas managers and manufacturers to bestir themselves. The happy days of a monopoly in light seemed over. The consumers have reaped the benefit. Under the stimulus of competition the price of gas has been lowered, impurities have been cut down. Some half a dozen years ago the great London Companies were endeavouring to prove before a Parliamentary Committee that coal-gas could not be purified from bisulphide of carbon without creating such a nuisance as to be intolerable. Their object was to do away with the lime purifiers, made necessary by the regulations of the Gas Referees, and to use only oxide of iron. Since the advent of the electric light not a word has been heard about the impossibility of purifying coal-gas by lime. On the contrary, every effort is now made to supply gas as free from sulphur as possible. But while the gas has thus been improved in quality and lowered in price, a still greater improvement has been effected in the methods of burning it. By the application of the regenerative principle to gas-burners, the illuminative value of coal-gas has been doubled.
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References
"Gas-Burners, Old and New." By Owen Merriman . (London: Walter King, 1884.)
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Gas-Burners 1 . Nature 30, 270–271 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/030270a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/030270a0