GAS

Hokitika Guardian, 30 January 1930, Page 6

GAS

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY FUEL. v (By a Scientific Correspondent in London Commercial Journal.) Fifty years ago false prophets declared that the death-knell of gas was sounding—electricity would usurp its position. But they were wrong! Never has there been so marked a progress in the gas industry as during the past twenty years. There have been sound reasons for this advance. Gas is proving itself particularly adaptable to the needs of industry and the home. It is an inexpensive, clean and ever ready fuel. It can claim to have helped to improve industrial conditions (for the worker, provided good food in staff canteens, and healthy warmth in the commercial sphere, and considerably lessened the work of the housewife and the maid in the home.

GAS IN INDUSTRY

A few months ago a great industrial leader said that “industry requires, above all, three tilings: saving of labour, more efficient application of power, and more efficient application of heat.” The distribution of solid fuel to individual factories and work causes much unnecessary labour and expense, and tends to increase the traffic congestion on our roads. When gas is used most of the preliminary waste can be saved; the fuel is brought silently and unobstrnstively to its destination. Again, much valuable space has to be sacrificed for the storage o'f solid fuel and labour used to tend the fires and to keep tin* boilers .and ovens in working order. With the use of gas, on the other hand, labour costs are reduced to a negligible amount, for gas is laid on-.to the points where it will be required, and its use will not create ash. dust or smoke to destroy health and property.

The managing director of a large firm of cake and biscuit manulactur- ! ers which lias substituted gas heated ovens for a type using solid fuel, gave 1 as the reason for the change that the gas heated ovens have the advantage of “cleanliness, greater oertainity of i control, ability to van' the temperatur es more rapidly, greater regularity of baking results, and, as a minor point the probability that the risk of fire is diminished by the use of gas as compared with solid fuel ifor the purposes of heating ovens.” Referring to the | need of hanking up the fires for the night in the old type furnaces, he said “To-dav, even before the last; biscuit' to he baked is out of the oven, the gas burners are turned out and are not lit again until about an hour before the first biscuits are due to he baked the next day. With the modern machines and ovens which have ‘arrived’ 'hiring the last fmtv years in tne biscuit industry a higher output per hour is obtainable than was ever possible with the solid fuel oven, thus enabling employees to have a shorter working week without diminishing their output.” Gas for biscuit making is cheaper than solid fuel, when allowance is made for stoking, ash removal and other dead expenses involved in the latter. A well-known firm found the respective costs for baking a given quantity of biscuits to be £29 Is 2. with gas, and £44 3s. Id. with solid tuel. 1 |

Among the numerous industries in which gas is used in many processes ! are the motor, shipbuildings, metal texj tile, leather and printing industries. , Gas is also employed for lighting textile and other mills, where its economy, its reliability and its colour are in its favour. The rays of gas light are a close approximation to those of the sun, so that in the leather industry no difficulty is experienced in matching skins by this light. Gas is used for power in many industrial processes. It is popular because of its economy and reliability, the small space the power generating unit occupies, and the fact that no room is needed for storing fuel. It is used extensively in laundries and printing works, and in the boot making industry ; also for the economical generation of electricity for theatres, cinemas and the like.

Gas is also the ideal fuel for large scale catering, and the boiling and heating of water, because of its cleaniness, the ease and accuracy with which the temperature can be controlled, and the saving of space, time and labour which follows the subsitution of gas for solid fuel. It can he adapted quickly to sudden and varying demands.

RESEARCH IN FUEL ECONOMY. The increase in the number of processes in which gas is used largely dne to the research work which has been and is being, carried out in the,, research workshops of several large,' gas undertakings, as for example, those of the Birmingham Gas Department, the Sheffield Gas Company, and the Gas

j Light and Coke Company, London, as well as in the laboratories of appliance j manufacturers. To these research workshops and laboratories manufacturers can bring their own material for . heat treatment, so that they are able | to test the efficiency and running costs oif gas furnaces before they order any to he fitted in their own factories. "When those in control of these laboratories discover in the course of their general work that improvements can be effected in any operation, manufacturers who may be benefited by the discovery are notified. There are over 3,000 trades in this country in which gas is used for an average of seven processes in each.

CENTRAL AND PANEL HEATING. Gas is being increasingly used for central heating on a large scale. The efficiency of the water heating operation in large gas fired boilers has been brought up to a high level. This fact—to which, must be added (1) the saving of' labour, (2) the saving in storage space, which was hitherto required when solid fuel was used, (3) the satisfactory application of thermostatic control, and (4) the practicability of fixing the boilers in positions unsuited to those heated by solid fuel, such as on the upper floors of buildings—is undoubtedly responsible for its adoption in London and tile provinces in a number of large buildings designed by leading architects. Another interesting development in the use of gas for heating is a system of panel heating which lias just been put on the market. The panels, called “gas-rads” have flat or ornamented surfaces, and can he iixed flat against the wall, or flush with the surface of ithe • plaster. Each panel is provided with a gas burner which heats up the water in a series of inter-connected pines cas 1 into the panel. These tubes in. turn : i-tribute the heat over the whole surface, of the; plate. Tile • products of comb'stion are discharged into the o'-en air. "be panels are never heated to a very high temperature, and this is one 01 their main advantages, as if Ins lieen found that a roan heated by low temperature radiation is more comfortable to live in than oiie with oxcatly rhe, same amount of heat provided by radiator? with a higher temperature wbii-.li heat mainly by convection.

DOMESTIC AND HOTEL GAS FIRES. For domestic beating, gas fires are becoming more and more popular. They are favoured by most doctors; ! in the area of one London gas uncfertaking affine d.3?0 medical men | are using gas fires,and additional fires are be.ing fitted in that area at the rate of 40,030 per annum. Gas tires are also rapidly becoming' the popular form of heating in many hotels. In the area of the -London gas undertaking just referred to over 30.000 hotel bedrooms have gas fires. One hotel in Knightsbridge has just been remodelled and equipped with a g,".s fire in almost every bedroom. In some rooms the fires were fixed in front of the old grates, and the original mantelpieces retained; in others, combined tiled fireplaces and gas fires were substituted. Each fire lias its .own small shilling-in-the-slot check meter enclosed in a plain wooden box, which is painted and varnished to match the. rest of the work in..the room. -.- . • ■■ ‘ For some years now. experiments-, have been in progress with a view to producing a gas radiant that will give out the shorter infra-red rays—rays which pass through the skin and warm the blood without scorching the skin. These efforts have at last been successful. Radiants are now being manufactured which produce, when heated, a radiation more than ever like that of the sun. These radiants have been welcomed by medical men. They are the standardised equipment on all fires supplied by one large group of gas fire manufacturers.

(1 ' S FOR DOMESTIC PURPOSES. This year has seen a market] growth in the popularity of gas cookers finI isliecl in attractive colourings. Therj mostatic control of oven temperature is already incorporated in a number of cookers of different makes. Coke boilers are also being finished in enamels to match those of the cookers, and are being fixed in large numbers at the sides of the cookers in tiled recesses. In some cases as much thought is expended on the colour scheme in the kitchen as in the living j rooms of the house. The most notable development in the- use of gas for domestic water heating during the past year has been the growing popularity of the gas “thermal storage heater” for providing hot water for domestic purposes. These heaters are a combination of I gas water heater and storage tank, the latter very thoroughly lagged. For the small house there is now a heater of this type which uses a maximum, of only 10 cubic feet of gas per hour; and this consumption is automatically reduced to cubic feet an hour when all the water in the tank is fully heat- ( ed up. s This lower rate of burning. , is sufficient to maintain the temperature until water is drawn off; then the higher consumption is automatically brought into play again. These heaters have a cream cellulose finish, so that they are easily cleaned with very little labour.

A NEW CONNECTION FOR FLEXIBLE TUBES. A small device which |ha» just been introduced to meet a long felt need is a '‘bayonet'” fitting which, by a simple push and turn, connects the inlet end of a flexible tube to the gas supply. It makes a sound connection which can be made and broken quickly, and is used to connect gas irons, poker ‘burners, standard and table lamps, curling iron heaters and other small gas heated appliances. After this rapid review of the uses of gas, it will be readily understood why the returns of the output of gas show that 318,509,000,000 cubic feet were produced in the year 1928-1929, compared with 314,582,000,000 cubit feet in the preceding year, showing an increase of 3,927,000,000 cubic Feet as a lecord of one year’s progress, and as proof of the increasing reliance which is placed in gas for industrial, and domestic purposes.