Dr Urc on the Bade Light. 91 



steam, and thus rendering those parts wet and warm, while, cutting off 

 the supply from more northern parts, leaves those parts dry and cold. — 

 Athenceum, No. 720, page 624. 



lieport on the Bade Light. By Andrew Ure, M.D., F.R.S. 



From the Report of a Committee of the House of Commons^ it ap- 

 pears that this light is so called from Bude, in Cornwall, the residence of 

 its inventor, Mr Gurney — a name bestowed upon it at the Trinity House, 

 to distinguish it from the ignited lime light which he first described in his 

 work on chemistry in the year 1823. 



The Bude light originally consisted of an oil argand flame, having a 

 stream of oxygen thrown up over its internal surface, which produced a 

 very vivid illumination. It was found, however, after having been used 

 for some time in lighting the House of Commons, that oil lamps thus fed 

 with vital air were expensive and difficult to regulate. 



Mr Gurney then tried to illuminate the House with naphthalized coal- 

 gas, in argand burners, similarly supplied with oxygen; and though this 

 produced a light of sufl&cient intensity, he encountered a formidable ob- 

 stacle to its continuance from the deposition of liquid naphtha in the tubes 

 of distribution. He next happily discovered a method of obtaining, from 

 ordinary coal-gas, purified in a simple apparatus of his own, and burned 

 with oxygen derived from the atmosphere, an effulgence adequate to 

 ever}' purpose of internal and external illumination, which is now used in 

 the House of Commons with perfect success, and at a cost of only twelve 

 shillings per night, whereas that of the candles previously used there 

 amounted to six pounds eleven shillings per night. 



This new Bude light possesses the following advantages over all other 

 kinds of artificial illumination hitherto displayed. 



First. — It gives as much light as the best argand gas flames, with only 

 one half the expenditure of gas. This very remarkable fact was estab- 

 lished by experiments carefully conducted with the same standard wax 

 candles which I employed for comparison prior to my examination be- 

 fore the late committee appointed to ascertain the best mode of lighting 

 the House of Commons. A common argand gas flame was found to emit 

 a light equal to ten such candles (three to the pound) ; and a Bude 

 burner, called No. 10, gave a light equal to 94.7 of the candles. Thus, 

 the Bude flame had nearly' ten times the illuminating power of the gas 

 argand flame ; while, by means of an accurate gas-metre, the former was 

 ascertained to consume only 4.4 times the quantity of gas consumed by 

 the latter, demonstrating the economy of the Bude light over common 

 gas to be greater than two to one ; and this economy increases in propor- 

 tion to the magnitude of the light. The source of this surprising supe- 

 riority may be obscrred by comparing the two flames : the base of the 



