Gas from Oil. — Otto Von Kotzeli/e's Foyage. 309 



ployed for the gaseous mixture. The heat is then more intense, 

 and the carbonic gas which is not consumed is of use in the re- 

 duction. 



** Dr. Clarke says that under the flame of his pipe a piece of 

 meteoric stone, which fell at L'Aigle in Normandy, was reduced 

 into metallic iron without losing any of its weight. A piece of 

 stone which fell at Stanner in Moravia, submitted to the same 

 trial in the laboratory of the University of Pavia, did not experience 

 any such effect. The thunder which forms these stones must 

 possess at least as much intensity of heat as this new flame. 



GAS FROM OIL. 



Mr. J. B. Emmett of Hull has published some experiments 

 which he made during the summer of last year, with a view of 

 ascertaining whether a gas might not be obtained from oil, equal 

 to that obtained from coal ; so as to prevent the injury threatened 

 to the Greenland trade by the rapidly increasing use of the lat- 

 ter in the lighting of towns, &c. By distilling various oils pre^ 

 viously mixed with dry sand or pulverized clay, at a temperature 

 little below ignition, he obtained a gas which appeared to be a 

 mixture of carburetted hydrogen and supercaiburetted hydrogen 

 gases. This gas produces a flame equally brilliant, and ofterr 

 much more brilliant than that produced from coal. It differed 

 very little in quality, whether obtained from mere refuse, or from 

 good whale sperm, almond or olive oil, or tallow. The gas 

 when burnt produces no smoke, and exhales no smell or unplea- 

 sant vapour. Whatever oil is used, it evolves much more light 

 when burnt as gas than when consumed as oil ; in the latter 

 case the flame is obscured by the evolution of a quantity of soot; 

 — in the former, the soot remains in the distilling vessel, and the 

 flame burns with a clear light destitute of smoke. 



With respect to the interest of the Greenland traders in this 

 discovery, Mr. E. observes, that fish oil has long been banished 

 almost entirely from private houses and shops — and that in the 

 shape of a gas light its safety and oeconomy may again introduce 

 it into these places, and thus increase in no inconsiderable de- 

 gree the consumption of oil — particularly since the gas may be 

 rendered so far portable, that liouses situated in parts of a town 

 which are not provided with gas pipes may daily receive sufli- 

 cient supplies of it without having to make it themselves. 



OITO VON KOTZEBUE's VOYAGE UOUND THK WORLD. 



The Berlin Gazette gives the following account of this expe- 

 dition, which has been received from Kamtschatka. Letters of 

 an earlier date, which, after having doubled Cape Horn, he sent 

 from the coast of Chili, have been lost, or at least are not yet 

 U 3 come 



