Gas Stocks and Light.
NEW YORK, N.Y., Oct. 27.—Recent foreign advices show that gas stocks were experiencing decline, in extreme cases as much as 12 per cent., upon the publication of alleged discoveries by Mr. Edison in the development of the electric light. It so happens that although the fact has attracted no general attention, there has been a very large decline in gas stocks here as well, as the following comparison shows:
| Oct. 1 | Sept. 1 | Aug. 1 | Jan. 1 | July 1, 1877 | |
| Manhattan | 160 | 180 | 185 | 210 | 190 |
| New-York | 70 | 91 | 90 | 120 | 130 |
| Harlem | 40 | 70 | 70 | 95 | 100 |
| Mutual | 70 | 80 | 72 | 95 | 100 |
| Metropolitan | 120 | 130 | 130 | 129 | 130 |
| Brooklyn | 140 | 145 | 145 | 155 | 155 |
| Citiz’s of Br’kl’n | 60 | 73 | 70 | 80 | 75 |
| Nassau, Br’klyn | 60 | 72 | 70 | 80 | 80 |
| Baltimore | 100 | 95 | 95 | 120 | 125 |
| Boston | 150 | 155 | 158 | 160 | 161 |
What gas companies have always been is a matter of common notoriety, public opinion having always held them as in the same category with plumbers. No monopoly could be more close, complete, and arrogant than theirs. For their franchises they paid nothing; the City, which gave them their opportunity for existence, they made their best customer, and, if they nominally owed it any dues, never paid them; they held to their territory most tenaciously; they furnished whatever quality of light they pleased, all test and regulation having been more pretended than real; they practically made bills what they pleased, for although the read off the quantity by the meter, that instrument was their own, and could be made to tell a lie of any magnitude; and the matter of regulating the pressure was always in their own control. Everybody has always hated them with righteous hatred, and not without reason; the very custom of exacting a deposit as security was evidence of this; for it meant not merely that the occupants of houses sometimes “skip” without pausing to adjust all their pecuniary obligations, but that if a person omitted to pay any bills at all, he would certainly begin the omitting with his gas bill. Yet—as the neighbor who wished to qualify the post-mortem condemnation of a very gad man by some sort of praise, remarked that, anyhow, he was a good smoker—we can admit one thing: That the companies always received “blowing up” at their offices with quiet, although sometimes exasperating, politeness; holding the “hand,” they could afford to let the other party use the bad language.
Their financial position has been, of course, bloated and altogether lovely. Water hardly collected more regularly and naturally than it did in their stocks, thereby swelling the nominal 10 per cent. dividends into a figure altogether more pleasant to the recipient but not more aggravating to the public, inasmuch as these little matters were never published from the housetops. In fact, the companies have always been modestly retiring in disposition, showing an unwillingness to be talked about in the newspapers, and not desiring to be heard of except by their messengers ringing the area bell on their rounds. The stocks have had a nominal, bid price, seldom altered, because the article seldom appeared in market, except “to close an estate”; if they were offered as collateral, it was between parties who knew all about them, and but seldom, for the owners were heavy men, who kept their affairs as tight as their little tin boxes, and had slight occasion to borrow on securities. Gas stocks, in short, have always been the embodiment of unctuous plumpness, quiet comfort, and eminent respectability.
But some change seems impending, for the decline shown by the above figures is much too heavy and swift to be accounted for by any considerations applicable to all sorts of shares. The desire to economize has somewhat reduced the quantity of gas consumed, but the use of kerosene has been a vastly greater interference. Notwithstanding the practical objections to its use, that fluid costs only one-fourth to one-third as much as gas at the present reduce price of the latter, even supposing that the slight reduction is not offset by an increase of pressure or a further lowering of quality. Scarcely anything has been done for many years to improve gas fixtures, either the burner or the so-called “shade”; on the other hand, inventors have been exceedingly busy upon the oil-lamp ever since the first petroleum excitement, early in 1865, and the arrogance of the gas companies has been practically capital for the dealers in lamps. Kerosene stores are now thickly scattered along all the avenues where retail stores abound, and during the last few years there has been an enormous abandonment of gas, both in this City and in Brooklyn, especially in the hundreds of small retail stores up town and back from the ferries, to which the bills for light have been a serious burden. Even in dwellings there has been a large displacement of gas; and, although the figures are not accessible to the public, the inroads upon the business of the companies must be very serious.
To this is added the threatened development of electric lighting. Some months ago, in discussing the Holly system of steam heat, we remarked that, in domestic economy, particularly in lighting and heating, there has been a marked lack of progress. We need light and heat in houses; we do not need to produce them on the spot from coal; and the process of cooking and heating, as at present conducted, is not less a nuisance because we are accustomed to it. Few persons are aware of the advantages of gas as fuel, even under present conditions. The we-known Bunsen burner, which mixes the gas with air before burning, thus making the mixture that explodes when a light is carried near a leak, produces a blue flame, so free from tase and odor that meat can be excellently cooked in direct contact with it without impairing the flavor in the beast. For either cooking or heating, gas has power enough, and its convenience is even greater than in producing light; the only obstacle to its constant and general use is the same which has kept inventors from improving the appliances—its prohibitory cost. But this is not necessary. Burning gas is about as abundant in nature as water itself; water itself will yield it, and although we cannot now enter into this matter minutely, we say unhesitatingly that it is practicable to furnish gas at a price which will banish the miserable abomination of stoves, furnaces, and ranges, with their dirt, labor, cost, fire-risk, and subjection to rule of Bridget. We do not say that the ability to do this is already attained, or that it is immediately at hand; but that the steps to reach it are few and not hard. As for the electric light, it is in the stages of development. The cost of the materials consumed in producing it is nominal, and in that respect it is incomparably cheap; but the methods of managing it need simplifying, and its glare must be greatly modified before it can come into use for ordinary purposes. At present, it is too concentrated and intense to be practicable, but it is only in its beginnings, and if the report be correct, that the problem of dividing it from one powerful light into many small ones has been solved, the whole difficulty is ready to be overcome. The gas companies, at all events, have reason for anxiety, and the time ought not to be remote when gas, steam, or electricity will enable us to banish coal fres and burn nothing larger than a match.
(The New York Times, October 27, 1878)
Farm Barn Burned. YORK, Penna., Oct. 27.— By the explosion of a can of kerosene, caused by bringing a lighted candle near the can while Mary Ann Wenger, a farm girl, was filling a lamp, the girl was burned to death on Thursday evening east of Red Lion. Two horses and a cow were likewise destroyed, and the flames, taking hold of the hay, soon consumed the barn.
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