1821.] 



of Charcoal and Hydrogen. 



175 



Experiments on the Gat from Oil. 



In obtaining this gas at different times, I used the same kind 

 of whale oil, which had been heated a little below its boiling 

 point during two hours, in order to deprive it of water. The oil 

 was admitted by drops into an ignited iron tube filled with frag- 

 ments of broken crucibles, and no difference, that I am aware 

 of, existed in the circumstances under which the decomposition 

 was effected, except that the degree of heat was purposely 

 lowered in the latter processes, till that temperature was 

 attained, which was barely adequate to the production of gas. 

 The oil gas procured from London, I obtained through the kind- 

 ness of Mr. Richard Phillips. It had been prepared from cod 

 oil, at the manufactory of Messrs. John and Philip Taylor, and 

 having been conveyed to Manchester in bottles accurately stop- 

 pered and tied over with a double fold of bladder, it was found 

 not to have acquired any admixture with atmospheric air. The 

 results are contained in the following table, in which the expres- 

 sion entire gas is applied to the gas precisely as it came over, 

 except that the carbonic acid had been removed by liquid pot- 

 ash, applied in the smallest quantity and with the least agitation 

 that were adequate to the effect. 



Table I. — Containing the Results of Experiments on the Gas 

 obtained from Whale Oil. 



From the foregoing table it appears, that the gas obtained 

 at different times from oil of the same quality is far from being 

 of uniform composition, and that great differences, as to its 

 specific gravity and chemical properties, are occasioned by the 

 temperature at which it is produced. So far as my experience 

 goes, no temperature short of ignition is sufficient for the decom- 

 position of oil into permanent combustible gases ; but the lower 

 the heat that is employed, provided it be adequate to the effect, 

 the heavier and more combustible is the gas, and the better 

 suited to artificial illumination. 



From the experiments which I published in 1805, and which 

 were made on a single specimen of oil gas, I was led to consider 

 it as constituted of one volume of olefiant gas with seven 

 volumes of mixed gases, of which the greatest part was carbu- 



