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Show THE CENTENARY OF GAS. ' Will Another Hundred Years Supersede It as an Iliuminant? Among the many anniversaries which are being celebrated this year is the centenary of the invention of gas as an iliuminant, says the New York Tribune. It was in 1792 that William Murdock first lighted up his humble home at Redruth, in duchy of Cornwall, by means of coal gas made in an iron kettle, into which he inserted a rough iron tube. It was not until six years -later that the invention was developed on a large scale, when Murdock Mur-dock was employed to establish a gas-lighting gas-lighting apparatus at the great Soho foundry at Birmingham. In 1803 the Lyceum theater in London was first lighted by gas, and in 1S18 the gas lamps which had been used to illuminate illumi-nate Piccadilly since 1S07 became common com-mon throughout London. It was at this time, too, that David Melville, of Newport, R. I., first adapted gas, for the manufacture of which he had secured se-cured a patent in 1806, to the Beaver Tail lighthouse, and it has since become be-come one of the principal illuminants used in those watch towers which, in imitation of the ancient pharos, are scattered all over the globe for the guidance and protection of ships and mariners. It is doubtful whether a hundred years hence, on the occasion of the bicentenary bi-centenary of the invention of gas, the latter will still retain the commanding position which it now occupies as an iliuminant. On every side signs increase in-crease which presage that the age of electricity is at hand that age which is far more likely to revolutionize the civilization of the world than any of its predecessors. Gas will probably be gradually forced into a hack seat and its use confined to stoves and fireplaces, fire-places, which find such favor among the small households of crowded cities. It will be entitled, however, to the grateful remembrance of man as a powerful factor in the development of his civilization and progress during the last one hundred years. It has contributed, contrib-uted, moreover, to his enlightenment as well as to his comfort, and has done much to increase the broad and deep gulf which separates humanity of the nineteenth century from mankind of the dark ages. |
