16 Transactions of the 



The President explained the use of the weather charts, which are 

 now placed in the Cloisters every morning. 



R, M. Johnston next read a paper on Pome recent Inventions. 

 The paper was illustrated with some very effective experiments. 



THE NEW HYDROGEN GAS. 

 Although my paper this evening is chiefly on the "New Hydro- 

 Carbon Gas," as a substitute for Coal Gas, yet my intention is to bring 

 before your notice several improvements and inventions in other 

 branches. 



But, first, T shall proceed with the Hydro-Carbon Gas. Every one of 

 you who has touched a newspaper within the last six months must 

 have become heartily tired of the numerous articles written on the 

 cost and scarcity of coal, besides many impossible proposals to find 

 substitutes for it. And yet it is a subject of great importance, worthy 

 of your deepest attention, and one that is occupying the miuds of 

 many of our leading men of science. What would England do if her 

 coal-fields ceased to" yield their valuable produce ? Could you bear to 

 see England drop from her seat among the greatest powers in the world 

 into a purely agricultural Island of no importance ? May that time be 

 very far distant ! We are told that at the present rate of consumption 

 our coal supply will last for 200 years, so you or I are never likely 

 to see the last of it, yet we should do well to have a means of making 

 gas independently of coal. At present the high jirice and scarcity of 

 coal is due to the miners being on strike rather than to its supply having 

 actually failed. The present scarcity may not be thrown away if it 

 will only teach people ■ its real value, and make them less wasteful of 

 this blessing. 



There are several plans on foot for new gases to take the place of 

 coal-gas, but the first I shall mention, and in my opinion the best, is 

 called the Hydrogen or Hydro-Carbon Gas, patented by Mr. Ruck. 

 I had always thought it an impossibility to set the Thames on fire, 

 but I will endeavour to show you that Mr. Ruck has, by the new gas, 

 literally succeeded in doing this. From Thames .water he obtains 

 hydrogen, which is the principal component of the gas, and therefore, 

 he is really burning Thames water. 



The gas is formed in the following, manner : — Steam is led from 

 a large b-nler by a pipe into a horse-shoe tube, maintained at a red 

 heat by being inserted in a coke furnace. By this means the steam 

 is superheated, and raised to a temperature such that it breaks up 

 into its constituents, namely : — Oxygen and Hydrogen. It is then 

 passed into retorts at the lower part of the furnace, loosely packed 

 ivith coke and old iron, generally in the form of old iron chain for the 

 convenience of withdrawal. The gases have to traverse the entire 

 length of the retorts amidst the heated metal. The Oxygen combines 

 with the iron forming black iron rust, aud the Hydrogen passes on 

 with only a slight taint of Carbonic Acid, and a very small percentage 

 of sulphurous vapours. The chemical change may thus briefly be 

 expressed : 



