136 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION'. 



pipe, and on applying a light to the mouth of 

 the pipe, he found, to his great surprise, that a 

 large flame issued from it. It was not long 

 before he conceived the idea of applying it to 

 domestic purposes, and, in pursuing his experi- 

 ments, he found that it was not necessary to 

 convey it -from the place where it was first dis- 

 covered, at a distance of about 150 yards from 

 his house, as in driving a pipe some inches into 

 the ground, under the floor of his cottage, he 

 procured a continuous flow of the gas. There 

 are, at the present time, seven burners in the 

 cottage, which enable the owners to dispense 

 with lire and candles ! The next cottage is also 

 supplied with two. It appears to make no dif- 

 ference to -the supply of gas if allowed to burn 

 for weeks together. The flame is always of the 

 same colour. In windy weather the flame is 

 unsteady : when there is a blast of wind outside 

 the flames of gas rise several inches, but as each 

 blast dies away, they return to their original 

 size. The escape of gas is larger in wet weather 

 than in dry ; but whether the gas is produced 

 near the surface or not, has not yet been satis- 

 factorily ascertained. The place where it issues 

 from the earth is quite a mile from any coal-pit, 

 and is outside the eastern edge of the Stafford- 

 shire basin. Upon analysis it turned out that 

 the gas was chiefly composed of light carburetted 



