18 



THE CIVIL EiNClNEEil AM) AUrillTKCTS JOURNAL. 



[J ANl' AR V, 



THE BUDE LIGHT. 



In coiiscqueiice of a strttPinent in uur Journal relative (o an accidciit 

 at Messrs. Hancock ami Rixon's, Pall Mall East, causeil by tlit^ explosion 

 of a bag of oxygen gas, a correspondent of the Timii sent to that 

 pajier a letter, of which we subjoin a cojiy. 



T,) THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. 



Sir — In the new nuiubrr of the Ciril Enr/incer and Arcltiircl'n Jntirnal^ 

 tlicre is an accoaiit of a fearful cxijlosion of a hag of oxygen at the picinises 

 of Messrs. Hancock ami Uixoii, t^w the 7th iilt., tlui'ing some cxiieriiiients <tn 

 tlic IJiuIe lijvht. Everything in the room ai)[)cars to have been sliaticred to 

 pieces, one pci.soa llung into the shop wiiulo^v. another projeetcil up .T stair- 

 e.ise, ;nitl all present more or less injured. The cause of all this seems iu- 

 \ohcd in mystery. It is tlierefoie important that luihlieity should he given 

 t() the ntVior, that it may he tlinroughly investigated, j)articnlarly as it is pro- 

 posed to adopt this light lor the Houses of ParUament. It may be recollected 

 by some of your readerj that an explosion of oxygeu occuiTcd a few months 

 .Tgo at the Lowihcr .\rcade, the c.iusc of which was not satisfactorily st.-.tcd, 

 though it was conjectured to he owing to its being contained in a Mackietosh 

 bag. 



Pure oxygen is considered by chcunsts to be pcifcetly iuexplosivc and un- 

 inflammable. Faraday and (turney have said this in their evifienee on light- 

 ing the House; therefore some other gas must have been accidentally mixed 

 w ith it ; and what thai gas was, and how it got there, it seems at the present 

 moment particularly importaat to ascertain. 



I remain. Sir, 



Limrlon, Your's obediently, 



Dcccmhrr 2. J. K. 



In reply to this (he foUowine; letter ap|iearefl on the next day in the 

 same jiaper, from Mr. (jioklsworthv Gnrney, the Inventor and Patentee 

 o{\\\CUud,: Lti^hi." 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. 



SiB.. — Your paper of this morning contains an exaggerated statement of a 

 gas accident at Messrs. Hancock and Rixon's, said to have been occasioned 

 by the explosion ol" oxygen, during some (experiments on the Budc light. I 

 beg most positively to stale, th.at the accident so erroneously noticed was in 

 no way caused by the Budc light, neither is the cause involved in any mys- 

 tery, as your correspondent supposes ; it was occasioned by common carbu- 

 rettcd hydrogen gas. Oxygen used for the Budc light is not inflammable. 

 Coal gas, oil gas, vr.pour (if naplha, or other intlamnialde aeriform bodies, 

 mixed in certain projiortious with the atmosphere, which contains about a 

 quarter part of ox\pen, or i)urc oxygen, becomes explosive ; in the IJude 

 light no such mixture ever occurs. In those lamps in which an inlhanimable 

 gas and oxygen arc both used, they are never allowed to come in contact. 

 In the Budc light at the House of C'ommnns no intlannnable gas of any de- 

 scription is employed, and exiilosion of any kind, therefore, as Adly borne 

 out by the evidence taken before the cnuunitlce, is physically impossible. 



I am. Sir, 



lonihm, Your obedient scnant, 



Vccemder 4. Goi.dpwoutiiy Gurnky. 



It will ho seen that Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney's 19 a flat contradiction 

 of (mr sl.itement, and we liave conse(|uently deemeil it advisable ta 

 exandne into the ease more minutely and nnire critically than we 

 otlu-rwise slu old have (hnie. Mr. Gurney might have been satished 

 witli (MU' report, hut as lie has chosen to designate it an exajrgerated 

 (uie, and to state that the accident was in no way caused by the " Hude 

 l.iglit," we have to inform him that our statement was from an eye 

 w itncss and snIVerer by the accident, whom we have again consulted 

 on (he suhjeet, and who positively states that it is in no wise "ex- 

 aggerated," exce]>ting that part which stated that one of the party 

 was throw n " inlu the silioji iiiiidviv," it should have been iii/o the 

 cuiiiiltiig hoiiM. The remainder of the statement he fully maintains, to 

 be s(distantially correct; and we will now add a few more particulars 

 to show Mr. Gurney that our information was obtained from a party 

 present. So far are we from having exaggerated, it a|ipears tliat 

 we have nnderrated; one gentleuuin was stunned, and did iKjt recover 

 his senses for some minutes, another was so seriously bruised about 

 the body lliat he was obliged to be taken to Ur. Stone in Spring (iar- 

 dens — one of the .Messrs. Uixons was also considerably injured — one 

 (d' the persons had his thigh cut, and indeed the wliole parly 

 were either more or less seriously injured. The damage done to the 

 |ireinises by the explosion was sin h, that a compensation has been paid 

 to Messrs. ilancoek and Co. by the Insurance Ctmipany. 



We understand from one of the party that to the best of his recol- 

 leeHon the accident occurred in the following inaiuier: — .-V. bag was 

 lying on the floor ccnitaining oxvgeii gas, to wdiieh was attached a 

 llexihle tube; astlie attendant w^as .i outto apjily the tube to the lighted 

 lamp, he heard .^oiue (Uie s ly "Now put on the weight," but at the instant 

 the tidie was being applied to lla- light, the accident look jdaee, as 

 descri'ied by us last niuid,U. Hy the explosion, the hag, wliieh wss 

 made of Macintosh's prepared cloth, was completely rent into pieces. 



Wo have al.so seen some of the other ji.irties who were present, and 

 they all confirm our report of the accident, excepting as to the before 

 mentioned error, that one of the party had been forced into the shop 

 window. The whoh? alfair is so unsatisfactory that we nnist esrtainly 

 express our mistrust as to e\ en the alleged causes of the accident. 



We shall now give a letter addressed to us hy Messrs. Hancock and 

 Co., in w liicli the accident is iittrilmted to carburetted hydrogen. 



TO IHE EDITOR OF THE CIVIL EXGINEEr's JOUR.N.M. 



Sir — \Ve beg the favour of your inserting the following statement in your 

 .Io\irn,Tl, ill reply to the exaggerated and incorrect account of the explosion 

 which took iilaee upon our premises, and which appeared in the last month's 

 nundicr, the cause of ^^luch was unwarrantaltly cast upou the Budc light. 



The facts are these: — a bag of oxygen gas was sent to us, which had prc- 

 \iously been used for carburetted hydrogen, and which had not all been emp- 

 tied out when the oxygen was put in, there heiug sutlicient hydrogen left in 

 the bag to render it an explosive mixture. 



The Ibide light can only be jirodiiced by pure oxygen, which every one 

 knows is not cxploiive ; and we hope that any stigma that may have been 

 cast upou the Ilude light hy being the attributed cause of the accident, will 

 now he rcniovcil. 



AVe are. Sir, 



Your most obedient servants, 

 Hancock, Rixon & Dunt. 



After a careful perusal of this letter, can the public be satisfied 

 without having a strict enquiry made into the whole affair .' Public 

 safety is too seriously threatened to be thus trifled with. We should 

 like to know how this bag came to be used previously for the purpose 

 of holding Hydrogen Gas, — for we are very fearful that Messrs. Han- 

 cock and Co. have been misled upon the subject. — witnesses ought to 

 be brought forward who filled the bag with the carburetted hydrogen 

 previouslv, and to state for what jnirpose it Iiad been used, and the 

 (juantity that was likely to have been left in the bag- — at any rate it is 

 undoubtedly a fact that oxygen gas is highly explosive, if it be slightly 

 contaminated with carburetted hydrogen, the same as gunjiowder 

 would be if a spark were applied. 



Having laid before our readers the above particulars, we will leRve 

 it to them to judge xvhether we are liable to be impugned for the ac- 

 curacy of our statement. < )ur own impressions are justified lioth as to 

 the propriety «f demanding an enquiry then, and as to the necessity of 

 its being made now. We entertain no ill will towards Mr. Gurney, but 

 we are bound to jusHfy to the public any attacks upon our editorial 

 character, at the same lime that it is our duty to protect the public 

 interests. 



ON THE ADHESION OF THE WHEELS OF LOCOMOTIVE 

 ENCilNES, by W. K. Casey, C. E., of the Umkd States. 



[We are indebted for the following communication to the kindness 

 of its able author, by whom it was prepared for ihe ^dnurican Rail- 

 rood Journal.] 



Pow"Ki!KOr, loC(nnotive engines will seldom be required for passenger- 

 trains, and, lip to this time, the (piantity of freight carried over any 

 railroad in the Cuion, as far as ! can ascertain, falls short of lllO,(XIU 

 tons per annum, whilst the average, according to De Gersfner, is only 

 l."),UOii tcnis, carried over each railroad in the (Mnintry. This is about 

 the one hundredth part of what can very well be done on a well located 

 railway with a single track. 



We may however confidently expect that railways will very soon 

 be used for the transportation of freiglit on a scale sulliciently exten- 

 sive to prove their capaeitv for this object. As yet there can be little 

 danger in asserting, that theru is not a railroad in the country, which 

 has been located, constnieted, and subsequently managed, so as to be 

 even tolerably well adapted to the traiisptu-tation of a large quantity 

 of freight. 'I'lie Heading railway will be first in the field to show the 

 power of this new mear.s of coniinunieation, and it TTould he difficult 

 to fisd a better (diampion for the cause (d' railroads. On the Heading 

 road there is, however, no ascending grade in the direction of the 

 greatest trade, and the common 8 or \) tons engine will easily draw 

 I'lO to -UtJ tons on a level' — the greatest resistance oifered with the 

 admirable grades of that road ; but, where inclinations of from 41J to 

 (it) feet per mile are to be surmounted, engines of that weight are 

 utterly inadequate to the task, wdiilst heavier or more powerful ones 

 require a more substantial and consequently more costly superstruc- 

 ture. 



The question then naturally suggests itself — cannot the power of 

 llie engine be increased without an increase of weight ? which again 

 iinniediatelv leads us to consider, what it is which limits the power of 

 the loeomoiive steam engine. This is well known to be the friction, 

 ur, as it is generally termed, "the adhesion" of the wheel to the rail 



