Working At The University To Cheapen Light

WORKING AT THE UNIVERSITY TO CHEAPEN LIGHT

The First Fruit of the Scholarship Given by Michigan Gas Companies.

The Problem is to Make the Gas Mantel Last Longer Than It Does -- Now Making It More Feasible for Public Lighting.

That the University of Michigan should be the center of so many discoveries is astonishing and rather perplexing to many eastern institutions of learning. It now seems that it will be left for Michigan men to revolutionize the lighting of large cities. The problem has been before the gas compaines and contractor for gas light in all the cities of the United States for several years, in fact ever since the introduction of the gas mantle. The problem is simply this: To discover a means of hardening the present mantle now in use so that they will not have to be changed so often as at present, or, if possible, to make them durable enough to last a year or so.

The first thing necessary in the perfecting of any such work is to find the cause of the deterioration of the mantle and then the remedy. The Michigan Gas Association has for the past two years given a scholarship to a graduate of the University capable of carrying on the work in the opinion of the faculty. Last year some remarkable investigations were carried on under the direction of Professor Campbell and Professor White in the chemical department of the University and early in the spring M. E. Mueller was appointed as the holder of the scholarship for this year. All during the summer he visited the various gas concerns in the middle west making notes of what might prove valuable in the work to be done this winter.

Immense sums have been offered by every large city in the country for the perfection of the gas mantye so as to increase its efficiency even in the slightest degree. This greatly encouraged the work and the city of Columbus, O., was the first to get any light on the subject from an old Michigan graduate. He made a groove under the mantle in which quicksilver was placed and the mantle suspended from above on stiff wires on the ends of which a small ball rested in the mercury. This enabled the mantle to withstand a great jar, but it did not overcome the deterioration of the mantle. That is the problem now nearly solved in the chemical laboratories of the University.

Whatever is accomplished by M. E. Mueller along this line will be for the benefit of the public companies at large and not for the Michigan State Gas association, as the agreement with the University faculty when the scholarship was offered was to that effect. Should anything immediately turn up in this matter of course the Michigan companies will be given the information first. M. C. Dunkle, who has the contract for the lighting of Chicago, made an offer this summer for $10,000 to any man who would put a mantle on the market twice as expensive as the one used at present and to last twice as long. It is hoped by the professors in the chemical department that something will be accomplished at an early date.