622 GAS-WORKS 



or in very rapid succession, by providing each burner with a valvo or cock, to be 

 opened and closed by means of an electric current, acting directly upon it by moans 

 of an electro-magnet or coil, or indirectly by a releasing detent, an electric spark 

 being passed through the issuing gas at the moment of opening the valve, or imme- 

 diately afterwards. 



'At about the same time Mr. Isham Baggs proposed certain arrangements for 

 instantly igniting gas by the use of frictional or high-tension electricity, as also 

 means for turning on and off the gas when required. The burner of each lamp was 

 to be provided with a strip of glass, or other non-conducting material, placed hori- 

 zontally, having a couple of wires passed through it, one at each side of the burner, 

 the ends of the two wires being brought close to each other at a short distance above 

 the aperture of the burner. To the lower ends of these wires others were to be 

 attached, suitably insulated from the metallic portion of the lamp, and joined to 

 wires connecting it to the other lamps in a given circuit. Several plans were 

 suggested for turning the gas on and off, one being to provide several burners with 

 a common tap, to be turned on and off by air pressure and vacuum in a small cylinder 

 containing a piston connected to the lover of the gas-tap. For effecting the ignition, 

 Mr. Baggs preferred to use an ordinary plate electrical machine and a Leyden jar, or 

 combination of jars, for sending the requisite currents of electricity through the wires 

 of each circuit. 



' Another plan, proposed by Mr. Denny Lane, was the use of a portable battery, to 

 be carried from lamp to lamp, a piece or pieces of platinum wire being suitably placed 

 in proximity to the orifice of each burner. 



' More recently Mr. Robert Cornelius has brought out a plan for igniting gas, by an 

 electric spark generated by frictional electricity, at the point of a wire bent over the 

 top of a gas-burner. A chain attached to this wire was carried to some accessible 

 point, and upon being touched by a portable electric apparatus, or acted upon by a 

 stationary battery fixed in any convenient position, a current of electricity was con- 

 veyed to the pointed -wire over the burner, and the gas issuing from it thereby ignited. 

 He proposed several kinds of small stationary frictional batteries suited to the purpose 

 named, and also a small portable battery, in the form of a tube, with a metal rod, 

 coated with vulcanite working loose in the inside. The tube was to bo lined with 

 lambs'-skin or other suitable material adapted for the purposes of frictional electricity, 

 the depression or elevation of one end of the tube causing the metal rod to slide down- 

 wards by its own gravity, so as to generate sufficient electricity for lighting the gas 

 issuing from the burner. 



' Mr. Barbarin subsequently proposed two plans, one involving the combined use of 

 electricity and clockwork, a very complex arrangement ; the other dispensing with the 

 clockwork and electric currents, and employing a quicksilver closing and hydrogen 

 gas, in conjunction with spongy platinum, for igniting the gas. 



' The following are the lighting arrangements at the Royal Albert Hall, South 

 Kensington : The lights are arranged in thirty clusters of five stars each, each star 

 containing twenty-one jets or burners. A bichromate battery is made to work an 

 inductorium, or induction coil, connected to which is a semicircular insulated arrange- 

 ment. Attached to this are thirty wires, which lead off, one to each of tho thirty 

 clusters. The burners are arranged in sets of three, somewhat like a three-pronged 

 fork, and the ends of a couple of platinum wires, connected with tho battery, are fixed, 

 within a short distance of each other, near the orifice of tho centre burner of one set 

 in each star, there being a special conducting wire from the battery to one of the stars 

 in each cluster, or thirty wires in all. When tho galvanic circuit is closed, by lowfring 

 the plates of tho battery into tho acid, a spark is caused to fly from the point of 

 one platinum wire to the other, and thereby ignites the gas issuing from tho burner. 

 Since that burner is within lighting range of its neighbours at each side, they in 

 turn with those next to them, and so on, the ignition of the gas proceeds from 

 one to the other all round the star. The platinum wires are held by iron wires, 

 attached by a small block of steatite to the stem of tho burner, and are placed 

 slightly below the horizontal line of. the small burner orifice, so that when the gas 

 is alight tho upward draught draws tho flame away, and so prevents deposit of 

 carbon upon them. The gas is turned on and off by stopcocks in tho mains in the 

 ordinary way. 



'Professor Klinkerfues' arrangements aro based upon tho use of compact platinum, 

 in connection with a galvanic battery, without the intervention of any coil, tho TIK>\ v- 

 ment of tho plates or of the electro-motive liquid by mechanical means, or 1 

 pressure completing tho galvanic circuit, tho pas l.rin:/ at Hi-' same, time, brought into 

 contact with tho heated platinum viiv, ami thereby ignil 



demonstrated that for this purpose) It-s.s than HIV: required, as a platinum 



wire inserted between the poles of a very small pair of zinc and graphite, v 



