In 1846 T. W. Whitsey advertised his public baths at the corner of Monroe and Randolph streets and in rivalry with him G. W. Tucker announced the opening of his "toilet saloon" on Jefferson Avenue near Shelby Street. At both places it was announced that hot, cold, shower and salt baths were "on tap.'

Then came numerous private bathtubs of tin. The earliest designs were coffin-shaped, portable affairs which were set in the middle of the floor for use and afterward were stood on end in the woodshed at the rear of the house. Few of us will regret the departure of those good old days of the simple life.

F

CHAPTER LXXVIII

THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS

NOR the first 150 years of its existence Detroit was lighted in the homes of the people and on the public streets

by candles and by small lamps which burned lard or whale oil. The lamps were not introduced until about 1830. Matches, such as we have today, came into use by slow degrees. In every home was a tinder box and a flint and steel for making fire. The tinder was merely slightly charred bits of cloth kept very dry in a closed tin box. The steel was a broad bar or oval ring of steel which was made rough on its outer edge. The flint was a piece of very hard flint stone. To light a fire a piece of tinder was laid on the hearth and close above it a person would hold the piece of flint in his left hand and strike it a quick, downward, glancing blow with the roughened piece of steel. Sparks would fly from this contact and fall upon the tinder. The tinder would catch the sparks and begin to glow and then, by blowing it, the tinder would soon be sufficiently ignited to set fire to fine splinters.

About 1815 pine splinters began to be used for matches by dipping one end in melted sulphur. These sulphur matches could not be ignited by scratching, but on touching the burning tinder they would take fire. Such matches were called "locofocos." A little later phosphorus was introduced. It was kept in a small vial and when a match tipped with sulphur was dipped into it the match would readily take fire. The phosphorus match was a real wonder for a time. In 1829 a new type of match was introduced which could be lighted by drawing it quickly between two folds of sandpaper. Soon after that the ordinary match was invented.

The first use of illuminating gas in Detroit was a small private venture. H. R. Johnson built a hotel at the foot of Third Street for the accommodation of passengers who traveled by

the Michigan Central Railroad. As a novelty to attract custom he introduced a small plant for distilling coal in his basement and the resulting gas was used to light his hotel. All guests had to be watched carefully to prevent them from blowing out the gas when they retired. For reasons of safety the gas was commonly shut off about 10 P.M. This innovation came in 1849.

At about the same time came the invention of camphene or “burning fluid,” a highly inflammable and explosive compound of alcohol, turpentine and camphor gum. This was used in lamps with special burners, but many fires and explosions resulted. In 1851 the first coal gas was produced commercially in Detroit. Lamp-posts were erected at the street corners and on September 24, 1851, the principal streets were first lighted with coal gas. Gradually gas lighting was installed in business houses and in the homes of the more wealthy citizens, but the cost of the gas was very high and the gas itself, insufficiently purified, made such a disagreeable odor in the houses that it was used but sparingly for a long time.

In 1861 came the advent of the kerosene lamps, which were another menace for a time. Kerosene refining was unskillfully done. Sometimes the oil was perfectly safe to use and at other times it contained so much benzine and gasoline that the lamp would explode and set fire to the building in which it was used. It took some time to learn how to make an efficient burner that would be safe and a still longer time to devise the glass lampchimney which would prevent the lamps from smoking. For a period of more than 20 years the kerosene lamp was a strong rival of the gas companies, but when the electric light was produced at low cost kerosene was virtually banished from the cities and found its last stronghold on the farms.

In 1848 the first company was organized in Detroit for the manufacture of coal gas for illuminating purposes. The utilization of gas for fuel began nearly 30 years later, when the price of gas began to come down while the prices of wood and coal began to rise. The promoters of the first gas company were the Brown brothers of Philadelphia.

Like the invention of the steam engine, steamboat, locomotive, printing press, telegraph, and many other epoch-making devices, the first utilization of coal gas is a matter of dispute. Late in the Eighteenth Century, William Murdock of Scotland and Philippe Lebon of France both experimented with the manufacture and distribution of coal gas for illuminating purposes. The first utilization of coal gas in America was a strictly private enterprise undertaken when David Melville of Newport, R. I., installed a little coal distilling plant on his own premises from which he conducted pipes for lighting his own house and the street in front of his home. This was in 1806, just four years after Boulton & Watt had made a private display of gas illumination at their Soho factory in London and nine years after William Murdock had begun lighting his premises in Old Cumnock, 12 miles east of Ayr, in Scotland.

Melville found much trouble in ridding his gas of sulphur, but finally obtained a patent on his process in 1813. Soon after he introduced a gas-lighting system in a cotton mill at Watertown, Mass., and in another mill at Pawtucket, near Providence. In 1816 a gas company was chartered in Baltimore. Boston followed in 1822 and New York in 1823. By 1859 there were 297 gas companies in the United States, and one of these was in Detroit. The capitalization of the industry at that time was $42,861,000 and the aggregate population of the gas-lighted towns was 4,857,000.

The City of Detroit Gaslight Company was organized March 14, 1848, and the principal Detroit shareholders were G. V. N. Lothrop, Jacob S. Farrand, Theodore H. Eaton, Alexander Dey, and Lemuel Davis. They erected a small plant in Woodbridge Street between Fifth and Sixth streets, and began supplying street lights in 1851. Service in private houses and business blocks soon followed. The rate charged was $3.50 per thousand feet, with a discount of 5 per cent for prompt payment. This was then the standard rate throughout the country, and it continued for 15 years in Detroit.

The company was reorganized in 1851 and the name was changed to the Detroit Gaslight Company. Its first engagement

with the city was under a 10-year contract, which gave it exclusive use of the streets for laying gas mains until 1861. At the expiration of that period the citizens began to hope for competition which would bring down the gas rate, so the contract was renewed for only five years. This was granted on condition that the company furnish gas for public lighting at $1.50 per thousand, while private consumers of less than 500,000 feet were to pay $2.50. At the end of this period the common council began to assert its right to regulate the price of gas. The company disputed that right and service was continued without a contract until 1869. Consumption presently outgrew the original plant, so in 1867 the company built a west side plant at the foot of Twenty-first Street and an east side plant at the foot of Chene Street. One purpose of this division of gas production was in ⚫ furtherance of its claim to the exclusive right to the streets of Detroit under its charter, which ran to 1898.

In 1872 the Mutual Gas Company was organized by Thomas Dean, William H. Fitch, E. W.Meddaugh, Frederick E. Driggs and others. It erected a plant at the foot of Meldrum Avenue, which was then outside the city limits. This was done because the old company stubbornly defended its exclusive right to the streets and stood ready to make use of the restraining power of the courts by injunction. The Mutual Company secured patronage during the seven years while this war over exclusive rights was waged by offering reduced rates. The Detroit Gaslight Company met the competition by a still lower rate, and in the fight which raged between the rivals the common rate for gas went down to 50 cents per thousand. A few favored consumers got a rate as low as 10 cents.

Naturally the consumers did not worry over the rate war, but it is said that even when they were getting their gas at the cost of production, or less, some of them still complained of fast meters. The rate war was of one benefit to the rival companies, for it encouraged everybody to adopt gas lighting. Such rate wars between rival companies which are contesting for the exclusive privilege of services which are natural monopolies have one common ending. Either the whale swallows Jonah or Jonah