INTRODUCTORY--THE COST AND ADVANTAGES OF ACETYLENE LIGHTING

Acetylene is a gas [Footnote: For this reason the expression, "acetylene
gas," which is frequently met with, would be objectionable on the ground
of tautology, even if it were not grammatically and technically
incorrect. "Acetylene-gas" is perhaps somewhat more permissible, but it
is equally redundant and unnecessary.] of which the most important
application at the present time is for illuminating purposes, for which
its properties render it specially well adapted. No other gas which can
be produced on a commercial scale is capable of giving, volume for
volume, so great a yield of light as acetylene. Hence, apart from the
advantages accruing to it from its mode of production and the nature of
the raw material from which it is produced, it possesses an inherent
advantage over other illuminating gases in the smaller storage
accommodation and smaller mains and service-pipes requisite for the
maintenance of a given supply of artificial light. For instance, if a
gasholder is required to contain sufficient gas for the lighting of an
establishment or district for twenty-four hours, its capacity need not be
nearly so great if acetylene is employed as if oil-gas, coal-gas, or
other illuminating gas is used. Consequently, for an acetylene supply the
gasholder can be erected on a smaller area and for considerably less
outlay than for other gas supplies. In this respect acetylene has an
unquestionable economical advantage as a competitor with other varieties
of illuminating gas for supplies which have generally been regarded as
lying peculiarly within their preserves. The extent of this advantage
will be referred to later.

The advantages that accrue to acetylene from its mode of production, and
the nature of the raw material from which it is obtained, are in reality