froih the Nature of Coal Gas, 43d 



you may have received from other quarters. The brilliancy 

 of the light which is produced tftfrifig the combustion of 

 coal gas, is so superior in splendour and beauty, that it sur- 

 passes not only wax candles and the best spermaceti oil, 

 but every other substance hitherto employed for artificial 

 illumination. The coke obtained in the same process is 

 no valuable, that it appears inexplicable that men should 

 not avail themselves of th*; mode of procuring %ht, to the 

 almost total exclusion of all other methods now W mo. As 

 a landholder, placed among an industrious but 'wholly il- 

 literate society of men, ! have had the more opportunity 

 of trying this species of fuel' or Coke, which I' coiul not 

 otherwise procure in this sequestered spot, at a felen 

 cheap rate, for purposes to which it has not, as far as I 

 know, been hitherto employed. I must tell you that I am 

 my own lime-burner, plaster (of Paris) baker, arid brick- 

 maker ; and that in these proeesscs of rural ceconomy I 

 have derived the greatest benefits from this species' of fuel, 

 which I now prepare at a cheap rate, although I waste 

 almost the whole of the light of the cual gas intentionally. 

 The coal which I employed formerly for the burning of 

 Jimestone into lime is a very inferior kind of small coal, 

 called here Welsh culm', the only kind of limestone I can 

 command is the gray kind, which strongly effervesces with 

 acids. It readily splits into distinct layers, and becomes 

 perfectly white after haying been exposed to a red heat. The 

 kiln for burning it into lime is a cup-shaped concavhv, 

 surrounded with solid brick -work, open at the top, and 

 terminating below by an iron grate. It has a stone door 

 that may be opened and closed for charging and emptying 

 the furnace when required. This furnace' I formerly charged 

 with alternate strata or layers of small coal and limestone, 

 the latter being broken previously into pieces not larger 

 than a man's fist, QWtil the kiln was completely filled. The 

 stone is thus slowly decomposed; the upper part of the 

 charge descends, and when it has arrived at the bottom of 

 the furnace new strata are super-imposed, so as to ketp the 

 furnace continually full during a period of 50 hours. The 

 Quantity of lime I thus procured with small coal formerly 

 Vol. 33. No. 134. June 1609. E ©* amounted 



