OCR Text |
Show THE ADVANTAGES OF GAS SERVICE IN THE HOME thousands of thrifty investors among the people throughout the country who have bought the securities, stocks and bonds of these companies with the,ir savings. Unlike any private pri-vate business the gas companies are regulated and controlled by government govern-ment commissions which fix the rates and supervise the gas com-! com-! panics and all other utilities, in the interest both of the patron and the stockholder. Gas today is applied to more than one thousand different uses where heat is required both in industry and in the home. Present methods of mauufcture are so advanced by the discoveries of science and the application of improved methods so that it is no longer necessary for brought aboutf a reduction1 in jthe cost both of gas and of ranges and people to waste their great inheritance inheri-tance from a bounteous nature in the extensive deposits of coal and oil and it is no longer necessary in such communities as are favorably located so as to enjoy this modern gas service, for them to waste their energy by burning raw coal nor to pollute the 'atmosphere with the dirty smoke and soot and ashes, resulting from the extravagant use of coal and oil. (From the following article, points may be taken for use in the high school girls' essay contest conducted con-ducted by the Utah Valley Gas and Coke Company.) Practical application of gas for ! lighting purposes was made at the close of the eighteenth century and from 1S04 to 1S16 artificial gas began be-gan to be used in Europe and America Amer-ica for lighting purposes. In this latter lat-ter year street lihting in the United States began first in Baltimore and in the year 1S20 Paris was lighted with gas. (See any encyclopedia under "gas.") The first authentic recorded use of gas for domestic purposes was about 1S30 when James Sharp of North Hampton, England, demonstrated demon-strated the serviceability of gas for cooking in his own home. In 1850 gas cooking began to become be-come quite extensive in the United States and England and by the time the Centennial Exhibition was held in 1S76 in Philadelphia, a great showing of different types of gas ranges was made. The use of gas for cooking and lighting grew steadily stead-ily until 1805 when better methods of production and distribution and the great demand for gas appliances These natural deposits of coal and oil are Hot increasing by natural operations but are being rapidly exhausted by man's use. A proper application of the means provided by science to the preparation prepara-tion of Coal and oil for all domestic and industrial fuel needs will not only save labor and dirt to the people whereby their , homes and cities may be kept clean apd wholesome, whole-some, but will conserve for many years to come the bounteous natural stores which lie at the hands of the present generation. ' In the home gas can now be applied ap-plied under such control and by such convenient methods for all kinds of cooking, .lighting, water heating and house heating'' that everybody should embrace .the opportunity op-portunity to enjoy the modern service of this great fuel agent. " One thing especially which everybody every-body should understand with regard re-gard to the economy of gas in the home as well as industry, is the simple truth that the more the customers cus-tomers use the cheaper the price of gas will become. In Provo, Springville Spring-ville and Spanish Fork the people have the very fortunate opportunity of getting gas in any quantity through the service of the Utah Valley Gas & Coke company, as a result of its arrangements with the Columbia Steel corporation, whereby where-by the surplus gas from the steel plant can be turned to supply every fuel need of the people in these three cities at the present time and eventually throughout Utah valley. The gas company has certain fixed operating expenses and over head charges including interest and dividends and taxes which must be met and which are paid for out of the present volume of business done by the company. As the volume of business increases through the addition addi-tion of new customers and the increased in-creased use of gas by all. the price of gas will automatically fall so that this modern ideal fuel will become be-come available to everybody at a price cheap enough for the humblest, lamps, and the' general use of gas began to grow by leaps and bounds. In 1000 the annual consumption of gas in the United States alone reached one hundred billion cubic feet. By 1010 it had reached one hundred forty-nine billion cubic feet, annuallly. In 1020 it ran over three hundred twenty billion cubic feet and Inst year, 1024, the American Amer-ican people alone consumed over four hundred billion cubic feet of manufactured gns. This is all in addition to the natural gns that is used throughout the country. Today there are over nine hundred hun-dred seventy gas companies in the United States serving more than four thousand six hundred cities and towns, having upwards of nine million four hundred thousand separate sep-arate customers . which means that a population of over forty-eight million people is now being served by the manufactured gas companies of our country. ! This shows the enormous growth of this essential industry. For the mauufcture of this amout of gas, it took last year over ten million five hundred thousand tons of coal, two million four hundred hun-dred thousand tons of coke and nine hundred fifty million gallons of oil. It is estimated by the American Gns association that about sixty per cent of all this gas is used for cooking cook-ing and other domestic uses, about sixteen per cent is used for lighting light-ing and about twenty four per cent for industrial purposes. There are today in use in the United States alone upwards of seven million two hundred fifty thousand gas stoves and cooking plates, one million seven hundred thousand gas water heaters of various var-ious types and one million five hundred thousand gas room and house Iheaters. The gas companies, like the electric elec-tric and telephone and street railway rail-way companies, are not owned by those employed to manage and operate op-erate them, but by the hundreds of |