USEIS OF OIL. — On.-GAS. 421 



it is also extensively used for reducing friction in va- 

 rious kinds of machinery ; comi)ined with tar, it -is 

 much employed in ship- work and in the manufacture 

 of cordage ; and either simple or in a state of com- 

 bination, it is applied to many other useful purposes. 



One of the most extensive applications of whale 

 oil, that for ilhmiination, has recently suffered a 

 considerable diminution, in consequence of the ap- 

 propriation of gas from coal to the same purpose. 

 This discovery, brilliant as it is acknowledged to be, 

 which, in its first application, bore such a threaten- 

 ing aspect against the usual consumption of oil, 

 may soon, it is probable, be the means of bringing 

 the oil of the whale into more extensive use than it 

 has at any former period been. Whale-oil of the 

 most inferior qualities is found to afford a gas, 

 which, in point of brilliancy, freeness from smell, 

 ease of manufacture, &c., is found to be greatly su- 

 perior to that produced from coal. Some remarks 

 on the properties of this gas, and the mode in which 

 it is produced, may be proper in this place ; and 

 that I may be acquitted of giving a too favourable 

 character of oil-gas, I shall follow some jiecounts tliat 

 liave been published in the " Quarterly Journal of 

 Literature, Science and the Arts." 



The process for the formation of gas from oil, is 

 simple, and the apparatus compact and not expensive. 



One or m.ore retorts being provided and brought 

 to a moderate red heat, oil, contained in an air-tight 



