Both of these objections will
probably disappear under the experience that time must furnish. More
wells and tributary lines will lessen the cost and tend to regulate the
pressure for manufacturers. Cut-offs and escape pipes outside of the
house will reduce the risk of explosions within. The danger in the
house may also be lessened by providing healthful ventilation in all
apartments wherein gas shall be consumed.
This subject of, the ventilation of rooms in which common gas is
ordinarily used is beginning to attract attention. It is stated, upon
scientific authority, that a jet of common gas, equivalent to twelve
sperm candles, consumes 5.45 cubic feet of oxygen per hour, producing
3.21 feet of carbonic acid gas, vitiating, according to Dr. Tidy's
"Handbook of Chemistry," 348.25 cubic feet of air. In every five cubic
feet of pure air in a room there is one cubic foot of oxygen and four
of nitrogen. Without oxygen human life, as well as light, would become
extinct. It is asserted that one common gas-jet consumes as much oxygen
as five persons.
Carbonic acid gas is the element which, in deep mines and vaults, causes
almost instant insensibility and suffocation to persons subjected to its
influences, and instantly extinguishes the flame of any light lowered
into it.
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