QAS FOB COUNTRY HOUSES. 



such success, that the diiriculties ami (laiif:;er8 of the manufacture have vauislicd, 

 and a new era in tlie mode of lif:;hting ])rivatc dwcUinf^s, churches, liotels, public 

 and private schools, villages, factories, Sic, has been ojiened. Oas lights, hereto- 

 fore considered a luxury only to be enjoyed by those residing in cities, can now 

 be employed in every i)lace. Simplicity, safety, and economy, have been studied, 

 and the results are so satisfixctory that we anticipate a large business for the 

 maiiufacturers, and increased orders for gas fitters. 



Our illustration represents a simple cylindrical vessel, containing the oil from 

 which the gas is generated. The retort is an iron, hollow cylinder, with a sjihe- 

 roidal bottom and flat cover, bolted and screwed to a ])rojccting rim. The stove 

 containing the retort is of sheet or cast iron, arranged upon the most approved 

 plans, to economize the heat. The siphon box, or condenser, is a cast-iron vessel, 

 with a movable lid bolted and screwed upon it. This is divided into compartments, 

 and half-lilled with water, with a siphon attached, so as to keep the water at all 

 times to its proper level. The water tank, in which the gasometer floats, is made 

 of wood or iron, and placed upon the surface of the ground, or, which is better, 

 sunk to the level of the water. The gasholder is of sheet iron, suspended upon 

 fixed pulleys, and forms the receiver for the gas when generated and ready for 

 consumption. The reservoir communicates with the retort by a feed-pipe, or by 

 a feed-pipe and cock, through a siphon screwed into the cover of the retort. 



This siphon connects with a tube suspended perpendicularly in the middle of 

 the retort, pierced with small holes in its lower end. Through this feed-jiipe and 

 siphon the liquid passes into the tube thus suspended, and, by the small holes at 

 the end of the tube, becomes dispersed upon the bottom and sides of the retort. 



The working of the machine, and management of it, require no more than 

 ordinary skill, and may be safely intrusted to a domestic. A fire is made in the 

 stove as in an ordinary furnace, and the retort is heated to a bright cherry-red 

 heat. The cock is then opened, to allow the oil to pass in through the pipes from 

 the reservoir upon the heated sides and bottom of the retort, where it is instan- 

 taneously converted into gas. 



Ascending from this decomposing chamber, the gas is forced through a super- 

 stratum of chemical substances suspended upon an iron grating for its purification 

 into a vacant upper chamber, thence it is conducted by an iron pipe into the con- 

 densing box. This iron pipe, passing through the cover of the condensing box, 

 descends below and discharges the gas into the water of the condensing box. 

 Thence it rises into the vacant chamber above the water, which, becoming filled, 

 forces the gas again into the water under one of the several compartments above 

 referred to, into a second chamber, and then on through consecutive baths before 

 it finds its exit from the last of the series of consecutive chambers. 



This exit is through a pipe which communicates from the condenser with the 

 water tank into which it enters, and, passing through the water above, again 

 descends, and discharges the gas into the water for its last bath, thence it rises 

 into the vacant chamber of the gasometer, ready for use. Connected with the 

 siphon of the condenser is a small covered vessel, which receives the impurities 

 washed from the gas in its passage through the baths. The machine, as above 

 described, occupies a space of eight feet by twelve, and in height thirteen feet, 

 with the tank upon the ground. If the tank be sunk, then the height will be but 

 seven feet. 



The material used is an oil from rosin, though not what is generally understood 

 as rosin oil. It is an earlier, cheaper, and better product of collophony, decom- 

 posable at a lower, and therefore more economical degree of heat. There cannot 

 be found, in the whole range of chemistry, a compound more richly laden with 



