246 On Mr. Ricardo's comparative Advardages 



Theory we have quite done with ; all is now matter of fact, or 

 rather of assertions taken by Mr. R. as matter of fact: and in our 

 endeavour to come to a due appreciation of these facts, we will 

 endeavour to answer the most prominent })oints of his objections 

 against coal gas, by adducing substantial facts which are daily 

 before the eyes of thousands. " Oil gas (he says) requires no 

 purification ;" yet in the very next page, in describing an oil gas 

 apparatus, he says " the oil gas having passed through the 

 condenser, is then conveyed into a wash vessel, where it passes 

 through water to deposit any oil, or other condensible vapour 

 that may have come over with it." 



To wash then, it seems, is not to purify! Now to manufacturers 

 of oil gas, and still more to their neighbours, it is known that 

 this said washing water is the vilest nuisance that ever passed 

 down a sewer; in more instances than one, actions have been 

 threatened on account of this no-purifying process. " It con- 

 tains no sulphuretted hydrogen, which is one of the admixtures 

 of coal gas, and of this all the purification to which it is sub- 

 mitted cannot wholly deprive it;" therefore, to make short, 

 does every thing that is bad to our health and property, which 

 of course oil gas does not. One- feels very much inclined to 

 ask, where, or in what town, did Mr. Ricardo find this fact, as 

 a general thing ? Certainly not in London ; for I have there en- 

 joyed its light in rooms the most elegantly furnished, where both 

 pictures and plate, had its effects been deleterious, would have 

 been assuredly injured. 



As to the assertions of Dr. Henry, that it is easy to purify coal 

 gas so that it shall not test -rj-o-.V-o-o^th part of sulphuretted hy- 

 drogen, why surely that most accurate chemist must have been 

 mistaken; but then I cannot doubt the evidence of the three last 

 years in our own house, every room of which, not excepting bed- 

 rooms, proves the possibility of purifying coal gas. As to the 

 accidental escape of coal gas being more annoying than a similar 

 escape of oil gas, I think we need not waste words to prove, that, 

 for the same reason, it is less dangerous. Mr. R. forgets to 

 mention that acetic acid is sometimes formed in making oil gas, 

 when he talks of ohe pipes stopping up. To satisfy myself, I last 

 week cut open a copper tube which has conveyed more coal gas 

 than any other pipe about our premises, but found not the 

 slightest deposit in it ! So much for Mr. R.'s first division, 

 *' The qualities of the two gases for producing light." 



The second point for consideration is " the comparative faci- 

 lity with which a coal or oil gas establishment may be carried 

 on." Hitherto I have endeavoured to go along with Mr. Ricardo 

 with as grave a face as possible; but if, at the conclusion of this 

 division, you, Mr. Editor, your reader, and even Mr. Ricardo 



himself. 



