OCR Text |
Show ANCIENTS WERE ' AFRAID OF GAS! Br I L i I !, CHICAGO, Nov 20. Th diCOV-ery diCOV-ery and utilization of pas marked thc( most important Step in tho progress! of modern Illumination, according to tho Illinois committee on public utll- ATtViouch ffM was rtlseovered about I the middle of the seventeenth century. It -was not until the later years of tlicj eighteenth century and the beginning, of the nineteenth that man learnr. how to "make It serve a useful pur-; pose, members of the committee !i stated. ,M I Gas wan tho first public utility Ijfcter CJUHO electricity, ilie telephone and the electric lullVT. These li-- coverlet) have made r ' 'urine the last century, tcrratcr pro l'C3S and rlevelnpmerit than In all the thousands! f years of civilization that preceded . r, it. I SEARCH FOR IlKTIFTS. Man's eternal nenrdi for riches and I tho futile endeavors of alchemist to I change the lose,- metals Into (Old led to the accidental discovery of artificial oas Although alchemy was a fruitless fruit-less ei fort, it i ep1 alii e b apirll of inquiry regarding the metals that iater led to many important discoveries John liaptlst van Elmont of Brussels Brus-sels studied and practiced medicine nno later turned to chemistry and research work in the seventeenth century. cen-tury. In the course of his experiments experi-ments with fuels In C,T.? no discovered discov-ered thnt they yielded what he rle-itcrlbed rle-itcrlbed n.s "ji srtld spirit '' lie found that this "spirit" could be product by means of conibustion, fermentation fermenta-tion and tho action of acids on lime- stone. I So phantom-like and elusive was van Ili'lmonfs discovery that he rined it after "geSt.' the old Ger-tuan Ger-tuan word for spirit. It was nearH 00 years after mm Helmont's discovery dis-covery that practical steps were taken to harness this elusive spirit. FOUND IN ENGLAND. Natural gas was found several years later In England. Ope of the first descriptions of this being that of Thomas S-'hlrTey. in win. h he mentions men-tions that his attention was directed to what was considered to be a sprinc "where the water 'I'd burn like oyle" and "did boyle and heave like water I in a pet." On investigation found I thLs to "raise from a str..nc breath, I as it were, a wind which ignite, l on i the approach of i lighted candle" and 1 "did burn brlrrht and vigorous." Dr. John Clayton, a Yorkshire mln- j ister with a predilection for the j sciences, robbed the spirit of enrn i of Its elusive qualities by experiments f between 1660 and 167ft. Heating j "shelly coal" In a closed vessel he u found that a "spirit which Issued out! I caught fire nt the flame of a candle", 1 He amused his friends by collecting (j the ens in bladders and prleklng hole- 8 in them with a pin then lighting the . gas with a candle. QT7F.F7R YOUNG MAN. "William Murdock. In 17f'2. by die- j tilling coal In an lion retort ami con-ducting con-ducting the gas through "ft feet of I tinned and coppered tubes Sll eeded in lighting his home at Redruth In Cornwall Later he built an apparatus nn a larger scale and lighted the fne- J tory of James Watt, developer of the 6team engine, for whom he was con- t it j structlon and erection engineer 3 Murdock was regarded as a queer r young man. He was addicted to wear- . ing wooden hats, and also made a t I ; lantern by fixinp a tube In the nee'; J jV of a gas-filled bladder. The slsht or ' 4 him wandering about the streets nt I 7, night with this .strange beacon filled jfl11. the neighborhood with dismay, and ' !,1 some of the good people suspected I jM him of being In league with Lucifer a -il and a person to be avoided. FIRST GAS COMPANY. I ft On May 18. 1 804. Frederick Albert I ' "vVlnsor, a German, obtained tho first I r Fnglish patent for SOS -making pur- j .' :A. poses. Tho first public Street lighting H with gas took place In Pall Mall '- n- V don. January 2S. 1K07 In . - l. I 1S12, parliament granted a rlim . r ' ij this company, "The London ;'nd j Westminster fjas, IJcrht Coke com-! I i pany" and thus the first gas com- y 1 pany In tho world enmo Into being. I I ; oo ! |