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Introduction to the Study of Science 



enriched water gas, the production of which is suggested in 

 the experiment on page 119. Its manufacture may be briefly 

 described. 



Water gas. The principal parts of a water gas plant are 

 the generators, the carburetor, and the superheater. The gen- 

 erators are tall, vertical furnaces in which anthracite coal or 

 coke is heated to a white heat. Dry steam is admitted through 

 the ash pit and the grate bars and passing through the incan- 

 descent coals or carbon is decomposed into its elements, oxygen 



FIG. 46. Diagram of a coal gas plant. 



and hydrogen. The oxygen combines with carbon to form 

 carbon monoxid. The carbon monoxid and hydrogen mix and 

 form what is really water gas. 



Water gas is not luminous. It is made so by mixing it with 

 vaporized petroleum oils. The oils are sprayed into the heated 

 carburetor and instantly vaporized. They mix with the water 

 gas and are then conducted to the superheater which is heated 

 to a very high temperature. The superheater breaks down or 

 cracks the oil gases into hydrocarbon compounds which have 

 a stable character and form the enrichment of the resulting gas. 



