WILLIAM .S/A'.J/A.Y.s; F.R.S. 179 



with such a sudden increase of production of gaa. The 

 result is smoke, and smoke is waste, whichever way it is viewed. 

 .Moreover, it is a public nuisance, and as such it should be done 

 away with. 



Then, in using gaseous fuel, the supply can be kept constant, 

 and when the supply of air is once regulated, it can be employed 

 in the exact proportion to produce the maximum result. This is 

 an important argument in favour of gaseous fuel. Then in 

 us fuel we have already a product of manufacture, and we 

 have it free of ashes, and those drawbacks which attach to solid 

 fuel, making disturbance and dirt not only in the atmosphere, but 

 in works or dwellings where it is employed. Again, by the use 

 of gaseous fuel, labour is saved to a very great extent. We have 

 not to cany coal, but the fuel is supplied through tubes to the 

 place where it is used, and the labour of producing the gas being 

 concentrated labour, involves very much less expense than it 

 would if solid fuel had to be dealt with. 



Lastly, gaseous fuel admits of the attainment of results such as 

 cannot possibly be produced with solid fuel. You can heat gas to 

 any degree almost within ordinary furnace temperatures before it 

 enters into combustion, and I have shown by means of furnaces 

 which I have been constructing for the last twenty years, that air 

 can be heated to a very high temperature before entering into 

 combustion with gas, and there is thus produced a compound, 

 regenerative, cumulative action, which enables us to obtain by 

 means of gaseous fuel the highest temperature which can be 

 attained by combustion at all. You are all aware that the 

 temperature attainable by combustion is limited by the point of 

 dissociation, as Bunsen and St. Claire Deville have shown in their 

 beautiful researches. I may mention that in applying a gas 

 furnace for the fusion of steel on the open hearth, the point of 

 dissociation is practically very nearly attained. 



Although this furnace is sufficiently well known by this time, 

 I may just shortly refer to its leading details. It comprises si 

 gas-producer which is presented in a somewhat novel form ; I 

 shall refer to it again presently. 



The furnace itself consists of a furnace bed, and of brick 

 chambers filled with refractory material piled up loosely so 

 us to admit the circulation of air or gas through the same ; gas 



N 2 



