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THE BEBi OMAIIA, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1910.
Public Utilities
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MANY IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS
Year by Year Better Wayi Are Found
for Adapting It to Uie,
BETTER BUHNERS HELP MOST
Omaha Plant Growl to Bait th O row
ins Needs of the Cltr Mnr
Mra lr Emplored All
Year Around.
All of man's comfort! come from hli abil
ity to extract from the earth and from the
materials of the earth the special products
which he needs. One of the more natural
elements for man to make use of Is the
Illuminating; gas, a product easily obtained
and useful both as a fuel and for lllumln
at! on.
But. like other natural products, rs can
not be cot by each man for himself. It
. takes a special effort to manufacture It,
tV purify It and prepare It for use, and
finally to bring to a man's house where It
will be of Immediate service.
4 4j ini is um Bun ul ijiiub mat uigwusuu
J capital, the public service corporation can
do It is for doing this sort of thin
that the publlo service companies are given
privileges and franchises and on this basis
they make their profits the return of their
venture.
When gas was first Introduced as an
Illuminating material, the only way of
burning It known was the fishtail or simple
burner, which allowed a certain ouentlty
of gas to escape and burned It free In
the air. ThU sort of a burner consumed
more than eleven feet of gas an hour, and
the service which it gave was only a small
per cent of the maximum lighting effi
ciency of the gas.
The first Improvement was the Argand
lamp, which helped a little, but even with
this new devloe, the quantity of gaa con
sumed was very large, for a very small
amount of light.
The first real advance In gas burners was
made In the year 1878, In the Welsbach
burner. This invention, with its Incandes
cent, white flaming mantle, immediately
made a great change In the gas Industry,
Its usefulness and the great addition it
made to a lamp's burning efficiency were
evident to the consumers at once. The
new lamp used up about three feet an
hour, and It gave a soft light of at least
100 per cent more brilliant than the ordin
ary fishtail
Cats Voleme at First.
The Introduction of these lamps was at
'A KT
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j I CHAS. E. FANNING f
j J Contractor of Publio Works T
j'jt OMAHA. NED. i
J j J enturlngn Vitrified Lng e'
The Magic Cily Barrel Co.
Dealers In all kind of SECOND HAND BARRELS AND
BOXES. Also Jobbers of all standard sizes new slack
barrels. W can furnish you a package suitable for
mj purposo you ma muna.
....
319-21-23-25 North 25th Street. South Omaha, Neb.
rraak E. Deaner
- -. .Jt" IM-M Boyd Tbeelre Bldg.
i alia suashebx tiy tti
kill .1 Uoil iakti
Tel. BeU Red 171.
Omaha, Neb.
GEORGE ZIMMER, Sr.
FLORIST
CUT FLOWERS
Plants and Flowers Designs on Short Notice
Mall Orders shipped mum day a received.
Telephone Webster ISIS, 62SS North 28d Street,
HI
A. Doaoghue
FLORIST
1607 Farnam Street
Phones Bill, Douglat 100 It
Independent A-1001.
Cot Flowers and All
Kinds e! Flora.
Work.
Flowers Fresh
Eyery Day From
Our
Greenhouses
5425 N. 24th Street
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I I a a ri h H
r Omaha
Casket wmil
1618-24
Izard Stre.t
Omaha, Neb.
. V
!pe eJ. A. SIMONES, Monagcp
Phone Douolas HOfl
first almost an adverse blow to the gas
Industry. They burned so much less in
miantitv that for a time the sas companies
sold less than they had been selling-. It
was not unUl their eKIolency Began xo
acquaint the peole with possibilities of
lighting that they had not thought of be
fore, that the volume of trade was re
stored. Tha final result of the Improvement was
Just what always happens when a publlo
service company puts In an improvement
The first expensive step is paid for many
times over in the later addition to patron
age. When consumers saw the cheapness
and the avalUblllty of these new lamps
they were put in everywhere and the gas
Industry continued to grow.
It Is not by any means illumination alone
that makes gas so useful. It is used as
a fuel In thousands of homes and factor
ies. The old fashioned coal range has been
replaced by the modern gs range, which
doee the cooking more qulokly and oheaply
and saves the housewife work, worry and
dirt. The boy of the household has wel
comed Its introduction for It saves him
th nM chore of carrying coal and in raci
k mAi the coal hod no longer a neces
sary household Implement. And it is not
only the gas range, but tne gas iron, m.
gas conveniences of every sort that are
Amnm to the comfort of homes.
in inrfiLtrv the use of gas has become
a recognised faotor. In newspaper offices
it ! used in the composing and eiectrotyp
Ing rooms to keep molUa the lead that is
used in up-to-date printing, in me oig
wholesale grocery houses" It is used for
nffM rnaiters and such machinery. Ons
of the largest wholesale grocery companies
In the west that has its main oinces ana
factories In Omaha uses 8,000,000 feet of gas
a year for its coffee roasters.
Gas Supplants Coal.
Although gas Is used only to a very
small extent to replaoe fuel for generat
ing power it has very largely supplanted
coal in furnishing fuel for machines that
require heat directly.
The gas company In Omaha has been one
of the most influential factors in the city's
development Omaha has grown in such a
u v that comDanles have had to assume
heavy burdens In order to give anything
like complete service.
Tor a Jong time the progress of the city
was slow and timid. It did not seem to
have even the ordinary vitality of western
towns. Then came a sudden burst of energy
and the town began to expand. Specula
tion and forced real estate booming took
possesslon of everybody's mind and the
true business good of the town was entirely
forgotten. Without the slightest regard for
.v... nn.hintta of future collapse or the
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disaster that was certain to follow Omaha
went ahead to make a big city or nerseii.
Th. mnm (lomnUT. BS Well SS SOOIS Other
publlo service corporations, was oaUed upon
to help. When some speculator wwum
choose a spot In the woods upon whloh to
locate a new city addition he would swing
every possible influence to get a gas main
.vt.nrtrf out to him. Then, as things
changed rapidly, bis tenants or bis buyers
might be gone from that part of the city
by the time the gas was readly for them,
a., .han the crash came and the town
found Itself spread over four or five times
as much territory as it could really laae
car of. the sas mains that tne company
had extended were absolutely useless.
But since the exposition year the growth
of the olty and the growth of Industry In
ranaral has been steady and substantial.
The unused mains of the gas company have
been gradually drawn upon by tne ever
growing suburbs and the open spaces in
the city's territory are being filled with
homes.
Many Street Lamps.
The publlo as a whole gets the benefit ol
street lamps as well as house lighting and
heating from gas. When the gas lamps
were first installed in the streets they were
fishtail burners, but since the Introduction
of Welsbach's they have been used alto
gether. There are now U26 such lights in
the streets with a candle power per light of
13.S2.
The street lamps are not as powerful or
useful as slectrlo arcs, but a special sort
of gas arc called a Humphrey light is used
in oftloes and gives a more powerful il
lumination than electric lamps. There were
1.S6S of these and similar Wslsbach arcs
In uss last year.
The aas mains of the Omaha company.
if put end to end, would reach half way to
Chicago, and ticking away at regular Inter
vals along their ramifying length are M.U1
meters.
To the consumer tba gas meter Is the
embodiment and Incarnation of all the
diabolical schemes ever Invented to beat
hlra out of his money. Perhaps there Is a
pyschologloal reason why he hates the
meter, since It Is a machine and is per
fectly impassive and unhurt by all the
abuse It gets, but the fact of the matter
Is that the meter Is almost Infallible. The
exptrlments of the gas commissioner's
office show that most meters vary about
I per cent from exact measurement. It Is
impossible to make them any better than
that and more than that much they very
seldom go wrong.
They will wear out in time, but the
wearing out results altogether in the favor
of the consumer. They are constructed of
leather dlaphrama and as the leather wears
out they let more and more gas through
without registering It. Many a consumer
sees his gas bill going down rapidly until
It stops altogether. Hoarcely ever does he
say a word about it, although he knows
that he Is burning as much gai as ever,
but If it Is ever a. dollar more than he
thinks It ought to be he mmedlately raises
a complaint and wants his meter tested.
How Gas Is Made.
Omaha gas Is made from the combustion
of coke and crude oil by what is known
as the Lowe process of manufacture. The
main factory, with its generating plant, Its
purifying tanks and Its enormous storage
tanks is at Twentieth and Centur streets.
At night the factory Is a very picturesque
and Interesting sight As the flames are
taken off of the burning oil and coke they
are allowed to shoot up Into the air nd
at regular Intervals at the gas plant the
whole sky Is lit up with a miniature pillar
of fire.
The storage tanks number three and the
biggest one will hold 1,100,000 cublo feet of
gaa The company maintains other tanks
at Eleventh and Jones streets.
if
Two
Hot
Weathe
jjj3 Necessities
A Gas Range
A Gas Water Heater
By cooking with Gas you can save the price
of a Gas Range in a few months.
Heat your water with a Gas Water Heater
enjoy real comfort.
BBSS
Our representative will gladly bring you one of our
1910 Catalogues, or wc will mail you one on request
Omaha Gas Company
fWATCH US
GKQW
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Five hundred thousand people in Nebraska use
the Bell telephone every day because it is the only
telephone that gives satisfactory and universal service.
Omaha's Census in 1950 Should Show 300,000 People
Oar Census in 1950 Will Show 75,000 Bell Telepkeies in Use in Omaha
ferslstent Advertising is the Road to
Big Rsturna.
WE GROW FASTER THAN
THE POPULATION
Four years ago Omaha had
about 110,000 people, and
the present census is likely
to show about 130,000; four
years ago there were 10,000
Bell telephones in Omaha,
and now there are 25,000.
From City
to Country
OUR GROWTH IS CONFINED
TO NO LOCALITY
Like a mighty spider web
our lines have extended over
the state, reaching hundreds
of new subscribers every
month. Our growth in
Omaha for the last four
years has averaged more
than a dozen telephones a
day.
Reaches All the People Everywhere All the Time.
One Policy.
If
One System. Universal Service.
r
W Every Del) Telephone is a Long Distance Station Qttk
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