546 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
An account of the appLicaTion of Gas- 
from coat to economical pu RPOSES.* 
ELS facts and results communicated 
in this paper, are founded upon 
observations made, during the last win- 
ter, at the cotton-manufactory of Messrs. 
Philips and Lee at Manchester, where 
the Jight obtained by the conbustion of 
the gas from coal is used upon a very 
large scale ; the apparatus for its pro- 
duction and application having been pre- 
pared ‘by me at the works of Messrs. 
Boulton, Watt, and Co., at Sohe. 
. The whole of the rooms of this cotton- 
mill, which is, I’believe, the most exten- 
sive in the United Kingdom, as well as 
its counting-houses and store-rooms, and 
the adjacent dwelling-house of Mr. Lee, 
are lighted with the gas from coal. ‘The 
total quantity of light used during the 
hours of burning, has been ascertained, 
by acomparison of shadows, to be about 
equal to the light which 2500 mould can- 
dles of six in the pound would give ; each 
of the candles, with which the compari- 
son was made, consuming at the rate of 
4-10ths of an ounce (175 graiis) of tal- 
Jow per hour. 
The. quantity of light is necessarily lia- 
ble to some variation, from the difficulty 
of adjusting all the flames, so as to be 
perfectly equal at all times; but the ad- 
mirable precision aud exactness with 
ewhich the business of this mill is conduct- 
ed, afforded as excellent ,an opportunity 
of making the comparative trials T had 
in view, as is perhaps likely to be ever 
obtained in general practice. And the 
experiments “being made upon so large 
a scale, and fora considerable period of 
time, may, I think, be assumed as a suf- 
ficiently accurate etandard for determin- 
ing the advantages to be expected from 
the use of the gas lights under favourable 
circumstances. 
Itis not my intention, in the present 
paper, to enter into a particular descrip- 
tion of the apparatus employed for pro- 
ducing the gas ;_ but I observe generally, 
that the coal is distilled in large iron re- 
torts, which-during the winter season are 
kept constantly at work, except during 
the intervals of charging; and that the 
gas, as itrises from them, i is conveyed by 
iron pipes “into large reservoirs, or ga- 
someters, where it 1s washed and puri- 
fied, previous to its being conveyed 
* This paper appeared in the Philosophical 
Transactions for 1808, and is written by Mr. 
William Murdoch. We copy it om account of 
its singular enportance. 
‘ 
RAs 9 tie y = a" 
Important Experiments with Gas Lighis. 
[Jan 1, 
through other pipes, called mains, to the 
mill. ‘These mains branch off into a va- 
riety of ramifications (forming a total 
length of several miles), and diminish in 
size, as the quantity of gas required to be 
passed through them becomes less. The 
burners, where the gas is. consumed, are 
connected with the above mains, by 
short tubes, each of which is furnished 
with a cock to regulate the admission of 
the gas to each burner, and to shut it 
totally off when requisite. This latter 
operation may likewise be instantane- 
ously performed, thoughout the whole of 
the burners. in. each room, by turning a 
cock, with which each main is provided, 
hear its entrance into the room. 
The burners are of two kinds ; the one 
is uponthe principle of the Argand lamp, 
and resembles it i appearance; the 
other is a small curved tube with a coni- 
cal end, having three circular apertures 
or perforations, of about a thirtieth. of . 
aninchin diameter, one at the point of 
the cone, and two lateral ones,, through 
which the vas issues, forming three diver- 
gent jets ot lame, somewhat like afleur-de 
lis. The shape and general appearance of 
this tube has proc ured i it, among the work- 
men, the name of the cockspur burner. 
The number of burners employed in 
all the buildings amounts to 271 Ar- 
gands, and 635 cockspurs; each of the 
former giving a light equal to that of 
four candles of the description above- 
mentioned; and each of the latter, a 
light equal to two and a quarter of the 
same candles; making therefore the to- 
tal of the gas light.a little more than 
equal to that of 2500 candles, “When 
thus regulated, the whole of the above 
burners require an hourly supply of 1250 
cubic feet of the gas p »roduced from can- 
nel coal; the episod quality and quan 
tity of the gas produced from that ma- 
terial having, given it a decided prefer- 
ence in this situation, over every other 
coal, notwithstanding its higher price. 
The time during which the gas light is 
used, may, upon an average of the whole 
year, be Siated at least at two hours per 
day of twenty-four hours. In some 
mills, where there is over work, it will be 
three hours; and in the few where 
night-work is still continued, near] 
tweive hours. Buttaking two hours per 
day as the common average throughout 
the year, the consumption in Messrs. 
Philips’ and Lee’s mill will be 1250 K 
— 2500 cubic feet ‘of gas per day ; 
to ‘produce which, seven hundred weight 
of cannel coal is required in odes 
1G 
‘ 
