84 Account of an Explosion of Oil Gat 



species. While the giant of mechanism has been thrusting 

 his brawny arm into the bowels of the earth, and stretching it 

 over the face of the deep, a more gentle spirit has been scat- 

 tering around us every species of refinement, and transferring 

 to the humblest dwelling, what were once the ornaments and 

 the luxuries of the palace. 



Numerous as these improvements are, there are none that 

 so eloquently bespeak the predominance of science, as the in- 

 troduction of gas-light into our cities, our manufactories, and 

 our dwellings. To convert the blackest coal, and the most 

 rancid oil, into an ethereal element almost capable of turning 

 night into day, was a step in practical discovery, which the 

 most sanguine speculator could scarcely expect to realize ; 

 but even after this step was taken, how much invention, 

 how much skill, how many combinations were requisite, 

 before the inflammable element could be made to flow in 

 currents beneath our streets, and circulate in safety between 

 our partitions ? All this, however, has been accomplished, and 

 we may safely affirm, that there is none of the powers of na- 

 ture, which Providence has made subservient to man, more 

 completely under his control, or less likely to break loose 

 from the bondage to which science has committed them, than 

 that gaseous element of which we are now treating. It has, ac- 

 cordingly, been introduced into all the principal cities of the 

 united kingdom, both for public and for private use ; and in 

 our own northern metropolis, two extensive establishments have 

 already been completed for coal, and for oil gas ; and a third 

 is in a state of forwardness, for supplying the public with 

 compressed oil gas in portable vessels. All these establish- 

 ments are placed under the management of able and respect- 

 able individuals, who have hitherto shown themselves more so- 

 licitous to promote the interests of the public, than to look 

 after their own individual advantage ; and we venture to say, 

 that there are no establishments conducted with more liber- 

 ality, more skill, and more attention to the public safety, 

 than the two gas establishments in our own city. 



The oil gas establishment had just began its operations, 

 when that alarming and melancholy accident took place, of 

 which Ave propose to give some account ; but in order that our 



