119 



Gas Burners and Standards of Candle-Power. 



By R. R. Ramsey and Hirojiitsu Oi. 



It seems to be taken by commou consent that 16-candle-powei" gas 

 means that the candle-power of the lamp burning the particular gas 

 should be IG candle-power when the rate of consumption is 5 cubic feet 

 per hour at 1-inch water pressure. The kind of burner used is more or 

 less an open question. The fishtail burner is specified by some of the 

 older authorities. The common practice of gas companies seems to be 

 to use an Argand or circular burner with a chimney. The question 

 "What is the candle-power of the gas?" is one of considerable moment at 

 the present time. Dr. Foley, of the Department of Physics, Indiana 

 University, has been employed by the city of Bloomington during the last 

 two years to make monthly reports of the gas supplied to the city. As 

 a result of these measurements suit has been brought to annul the fran- 

 chise of the gas company. Indianapolis has its gas troubles. Almost 

 every city seems to have more or less trouble with gas. The fact that 

 the burner used on the Bloomington gas company photometer gave higher 

 values than a standard fishtail burner and that commercial Argand 

 l)urners gave results consistent with the fishtail burner, suggested the 

 experiments which were carried out by Mr. Oi. The work consisted in 

 changing the air supply and the number of openings in the commercial 

 Argand gas Ijurners and comparing the candle-power to the caudle-power 

 given by the standard fishtail. The Argand burner used had 36 openings 

 in a circle of 2.2 cm. diameter and used a chimney 5 cm. in diameter. 

 The one used by the gas company had 2-i holes in a circle | the diameter 

 of the commercial burner, and used a chimney S the diameter of 

 the commercial chimney. The air supply in the burner was largely 

 through the center, while the commercial was supplied about equally 

 inside and outside the cylindrical flame. The supply of gas was regu- 

 lated by regulating the pressure of the gas by an automatic regulator. 

 The results will be given by means of curves where candle-power is 

 plotted against the consumption in cubic feet. Since the quality of the 

 gas was variable a curve for the standard fishtail was taken for each set 

 of observations. Fig. I gives the curves for three burners with the actual 

 values shown by points. The points in triangles [\^ are for the standard 



