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. THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF 



be carried into effect in the gas-producer would cease, and the 

 temperature would never attain the degree necessary to convert 

 carbonic acid back into carbonic oxide. There would result a 

 poor vapoury gas, which on analysis would show a very large 

 proportion of carbonic acid still present, and probably free 

 oxygen, which never had combined at all. This is a point to 

 which I have wished particularly to call the attention of this 

 Society (which has for its object to combine strictly scientific 

 investigation with its practical applications), viz., the degree to 

 which water can be advantageously used for effecting this decom- 

 position, and its re-combustion. 



When this process is properly conducted in the old form of 

 producer, the result of the total combustion is a gas of moderate 

 temperature, perhaps 400 F., found on analysis to contain of 

 carbonic oxide 24 per cent., hydrogen 8 per cent., carburetted 

 hydrogen 2 per cent., carbonic acid 4 per cent., nitrogen 61 per 

 cent. ; whereas in a well-organised gas-producer of the new form, 

 the proportions of hydrogen and carbonic oxide could be materially 

 increased, and the amount of nitrogen diminished proportionately. 

 I may also mention with regard to this form of producer, that the 

 earthy constituents of the coal are fused, or brought into a semi- 

 fused condition, and are carried down in that condition by the 

 weight of the fuel itself ; the object being to produce this semi- 

 fused mass of clinkers within the mass of the fuel without giving 

 them the opportunity of attaching themselves to the furnace, and 

 thus to save labour. 



Another matter I wish to call attention to is the supply of gas 

 that can be carried to a distance. After all, gas produced by total 

 distillation in the gas-producer can only serve at works where it 

 can be used at once, but for the multifarious purposes of daily life, 

 for small works, and for domestic purposes where heating gas will 

 become from day to day used to a larger extent, there it is necessary 

 to send through pipes a gas of a much richer character than that 

 coming from a gas-producer. It must be a pure combustible gas, 

 such as marsh gas, or hydro-carbons, or hydrogen. This may be 

 produced in retorts of the ordinary kind, or, as I proposed eighteen 

 years ago, when I suggested the supply of heating gas to the 

 Town Council of Birmingham, by the use of large vertical retorts 

 heated by a regenerative furnace, and furnished with a supply of 



