Miscellanies. 189 





44. Peaty (turf,) its application to gas light ; by Dr. Lewis 

 Feuchtwanger, of New York. — Great advantages may be anti- 

 cipated from the introduction of peat, in making gas for gas light. 

 1, it is less expensive than the gas from either coal, oil or resin; 2, 

 the produce is nearly as much as from those substances ; 3, the gas 

 is quite harmless and inoffensive, and has in respect to healthfulness 

 great advantages over the others ; 4, the peat after having been 

 used for the production of gas, may be used for fuel, and is equal to 

 any charcoal. 



According to the experiments of Merle, who is director of a Gas 

 Company in France, one thousand kilogrammes of peat when distill- 

 ed like the stone coal for two hours, yields eight thousand cubic 

 feet of gas, which is of rather weak luminating power, and con- 

 tains much carbon, and which although apt to be purified by water, 

 loses a great deal more of its strength ; but if the same quantity is 

 distilled for three fourths of an hour only, five thousand and five 

 hundred cubic feet of a pure gas are obtained, which is said to afford 

 a stronger and whiter light than coal or oil gas. 



An apparatus, consisting of a condensator with eighteen tubes is 

 fixed for purifying the gas completely ; each tube stands in a reser- 

 voir of flowing water, so that the gas has to pass eighteen times through 

 the water, and is not deprived of its carbon ; before the gas arrives 

 in the large gasometer, it has to pass through two layers of dry 

 lime ; the gas thus purified, may be respired without any difficulty. 



The construction of all other apparatus, may be made like that 

 for other gases. 



45. New mode of preparing Supercarbonate of Soda ; by Dr. 

 Lewis Feuchtwanger. — It has a short time ago been stated that 

 supercarbonate of soda, may be prepared by mixing ten parts of 

 crystallized sal soda, and four parts carbonate of ammonia, and ex- 

 posure to atmospheric air, which method was then considered too 

 expensive for practical use, but more so, since the ammonia which 

 ought to be collected at the same time, could not be well obtained 

 on account of the quantity of crystalline water, which keeps the 

 mixture always soft, and when evaporated again, gives a loss in car- 

 bonic acid gas ; Schoy however, recommends to use the dried soda 

 in combination with the crystalline, and ammonia, so that one atom 

 of the soda should after the process, be combined with one atom of 

 water. According to him, 5.0 dried soda, 1.5 crystalline carbon- 



