INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 187G. ccxi 



cubic feet, and their actual production for a number of months, until 

 the unfortunate destruction of the works by tire, was about 120,000 

 cubic feet daily, representing a total production during the eight 

 months of their existence of about 21,000,000 cubic feet. These works 

 were so remarkably successful as to have attracted the attention 

 of gas engineers throughout the country. They demonstrated the 

 adaptability of the Lowe system for the production of illuminating 

 gas of high quality and permanence upon the largest scale, and se- 

 cured for the system the distinction of being the first thoroughly 

 practical solution of the " water-gas " problem, which a generation 

 of inventors had been vainly striving to accomplish. The establish- 

 ment of a Lowe plant at Manayunk during the last year, upon a 

 much larger scale than had previously been attempted, has afforded 

 those who are interested in this subject a most admirable opportu- 

 nity of estimating the jiracticability of the system, and the results 

 achieved have been, in every essential particular, all that the most 

 ardent chamj^ions of the innovation could have desired. The two 

 most striking features of the system, which attract the attention of 

 the gas engineer, are the great compactness and simplicity of the 

 plant, and the surprising rapidity with which gas of excellent illu- 

 minating power and permanency is produced. The following state- 

 ments will give an idea of the results of its practical operation. The 

 Lowe Establishment at Manayunk was erected during the summer 

 of 1876, and went into operation on the 4tli of August. The plant 

 consists of three generators and six superheaters. The other por- 

 tions of the plant consist of the usual washing and purifying de- 

 vices of the common gas-works. The generators are 10 feet 6 inches 

 high, and have an internal diameter of 40 inches. The superheaters 

 are 15 feet high, with an internal diameter of 34 inches. Both gen- 

 erators and superheaters are very solidly constructed of fire-brick, 

 and have double walls, leaving an intervening air-space. Genera- 

 tors, superheaters, condenser, scrubbers, and station-meter are con- 

 tained within a building 27 by 57 feet. 



The old coal gas-works, which the Lowe plant just described dis- 

 places, occupied with all their necessary appurtenances about an acre 

 and a half of ground. The retort-house (109 feet long by 33^ feet 

 wide) was furnished with ten benches of threes, and when worked 

 continuously to their full capacity could produce about 5000 cubic 

 feet of gas per hour a quantity insufficient to supply the local re- 

 quirement ; in consequence of which the deficiency was supplied by 

 pumping into the holder an additional supply from the works at 

 Market Street, several miles away. The old works required the 

 services of thirty-four men. 



The new works occupy scarcely one tenth the space of the old 

 (the essential portions of the plant being, as before remarked, con- 

 tained in a building 27 by 57 feet). Until lately they have not been 



