cxxviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



after its withdrawal from the public streets of Paris, upon 

 which it was placed awhile for trial, have done more, per- 

 haps, than any thing else to divert public interest from it ; 

 but the Vienna experiments, involving, as they do, numerous 

 modifications upon the original plan, are declared to have 

 proved so strikingly successful as to leave no doubt of the 

 entire practicability of the system, within limits of reasona- 

 ble economy. 



The old plan as practiced in Paris, and likewise in New 

 York, involved the carbureting of the coal-gas, previous to 

 combustion, with oxygen a process attended with incon- 

 venience, both on the score of introducing an additional item 

 of expense and complicated apparatus. The burner em- 

 ployed, also, was of the argand pattern, the oxygen being in- 

 troduced into the interior of the gas flame, which was of a 

 tapering, cylindrical form. The concentrated character of 

 the light aflbrded by this arrangement of burner was of a nat- 

 ure to seriously pain the eyes of the beholder after a time, 

 and it was from this cause open to objection. 



The experimental trials which have proved so successful 

 in Vienna, under the intelligent direction of Herr Bernhard 

 Andrae, have shown that, where the oxygen system is to be 

 largely employed, it will be far more practical and economic- 

 al to modify the existing gas-works so as to produce a very 

 rich gas, than to employ the old plan of carbureting with 

 benzine, or with compressetl boghead cannel-gas, heretofore 

 in practice. In addition, the argand form for the burner, and 

 the method of supplying the gases, have been much improved 

 and modified. 



In the plan found most satisfactory in Vienna, the central 

 position is given to the burning gas, and the oxygen is ad- 

 mitted to the exterior, while the flame proper has the broad- 

 surfaced flat form aflbrded by the well-known Scotch burner. 

 The latter is made in the ordinary way, the oxygen being 

 brought to the iiame by a peculiar attachment separate from 

 it. One of the existing gas-works has been so modified as to 

 produce a rich gas, thus obviating the necessity of carburet- 

 ing, and an oxygen gas-works has been located beside it. 

 Thus, with all the factors at hand, which are of value in esti- 

 mating the practicability of the new process, the favorable 

 judgment which has been expressed must be regarded with 



