New Fire Apparatus for Heat and Light. 91 
Art. XXI. Onanew Means of producing Heat and Light, 
with an Engraving, by J. L. Sullivan, Esq. of Boston. 
Bosron, May 7, 1818. 
a Yo Professor Silliman. 
sIR, 
F the following account of a method of using tar and steam 
as fuel, recently invented by Mr. Samuel Morey, should be 
found sufficiently interesting to occupy a place in the Journal 
of Science, I am sensible its usefulness will be much extended 
through that medium of information. : 
The inventor, not unskilled in chemistry, and aware of the 
attraction of oxygen for carbon, conceived it practicable to 
conyert the constituents of water into fuel, by means of this 
affinity. 
Whatever may be the fact, chemically considered, the ope- 
ration, in various experiments, promises to afford a conve- 
ment method of applying to use several of the most combusti- 
ble substances, not hitherto employed as fuel. By the process 
I shall briefly describe, all carbonaceous fluids may be conveni- 
ently burnt, and derive great force from their combination with 
the oxygen and hydrogen gases of water or steam, before or 
at the moment of ignition. 
A tight vessel, cylindrically shaped, was first employed, con- 
taining rosin, connected with a small boiler by a pipe which 
entered near the bottom, and extended nearly its length, having 
small apertures, over which were two inverted gutters, inclin- 
ng or sloping upwards over each other; the upper one longer 
than the other, intended to detain the steam in the rosin, in its 
Way to the surface. The rosin being heated, carburetted hydro- 
en gas would issue from the outlet, or pipe, inserted near the 
top of the vessel, and being ignited, afforded a small blaze, 
about as large as that of a candle; but, when the steam was 
allowed to flow, this blaze would instantly shoot out many hun- 
dred times its former bulk, to the distance of two or three feet, 
