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♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Dec. 5, 1884. 



OUR SCIENTIFIC INDUSTRIES. 



By W. Slingo. 



II.— GAS AND ITS USES— MANUFACTURE— (co«ft7i«(;d). 



IF anything were wanting to demonstrate the truth of 

 the old saying that " history repeats itself," we can 

 surely find it in the history of illuruinants. To-day it is 

 proposed, with all seriousness, to deliver at our doors daily 

 a source of electricity whence to derive the current to 

 maintain the electric light, and ninety years ago the self- 

 same proposition was urged, and more than urged, on behalf 

 of gas. 



In the first days of gas manufacture it was collected in 

 bladders, leather, varnished silk, and metallic vessels pro- 

 vided with a small tube and stopcock, through which "the 

 gas issuing from a minute orifice was ignited and made to 

 serve as a lantern." Important as is the question of gas- 

 storage, it is scarcely more so than is the question of 

 orifices or burners, and we shall find that there are many 

 interesting features concerning them well worthy of 

 consideration. 



Murdoch, to whom brief reference was made at the close 

 of the previous article, had some little prescience of the 

 value of the work he had taken in hand, and tried very 

 hard to induce James Watt, son of the James Watt, to 

 take out a patent with him for the process. But hi.s 

 eflforts were unavailing, and the process for obtaining an 

 illuminant from coal became public property, although in 

 France an engineer, Lebon by name, obtained in 1799 a 

 patent for a similar process. Exhibitions of the new light 

 were made by Murdoch at Birmingham in 1798, and on a 

 larger scale four years later. Lebon's experiments were 

 repeated in Loudon in 1804 by Winsor, who then and sub- 

 sequently strove very hard, albeit inetFectually, to prove 

 the priority of Lebon's invention. During the earlier years 

 of the century Murdoch appears to have been busily 

 engaged in erecting works for private houses, mills, ifcc. 

 One of the more important of these " installations " was 

 that in the extensive cotton-mills of Messrs. Phillips <fc Lee, 

 of Manchester. " The burners were of two kinds, one on 

 the principle of the argand lamp, the other a cock.-pur 

 burner, consisting of a small curved tube with a conical 

 end having three circular apertures or perforations about 

 one-thirtieth of an inch in diameter, cue at the point of the 

 cone and two lateral ones. The gas issuing through these 

 apertures formed three divergent jets of flame somewhat like 

 a fleur-de-lis. The whole of the burners erected in the 

 mills amounted to 271 argand", each of which gave a light 

 equal to four mould candles of six to the pound, and 633 

 cockspurs, each of which gave a light equal to two and 

 a quarter of the same candles. The quantity of tallow 

 consumed by each candle was at the rate of four-tenths of 

 an ounce per hour." Tlie cost of the gas even then was 

 computed at less than a third of that involved in the use of 

 candles. An account of this work having been communi- 

 cated by Murdoch to the Royal Society in 1808, he was 

 awarded the Rumford Gold Medal, and a year later Clegg, 

 another worker in the same field, was awarded a silver 

 medal fur a communication to the less exclusive Society of 

 Arts. 



Winsor had, however, in 1804, obtained a patent for the 

 extraction of gas from coal, and, although Murdoch suc- 

 ceeded afterwards in proving his priority, his competitor 

 had the field very much to himself. The path of Winsor 

 was, however, no more bestrewn with ro>es than are those 

 which lay before the electricians of to-day. Prejudices 

 and interests of all kinds had to be confronted and borne 

 down ere the supremacy of gas over oil and tallow were 



established. We are all well acquainted with the scarecrow 

 held up to the followers of Stephenson, whereby it was 

 gravely predicted that the breed of horses would diminish 

 in consequence of a decrease in the demand for those 

 animals. Some, in their enthusiasm, went so far as to 

 prophesy an almost total extinction of the breed, and to 

 express a fear that the time was not far dibtant when we 

 should regard the noble equine as a something relegated to 

 the pages of more or less ancient natural history. But even 

 worse evils were foreshadowed for those who would have 

 the misfortune to exist in post-oil days. The early portion 

 of this century was notorious for the victories of Nelson^ 

 which demonstrated the naval supremacy of England, but, 

 said the opponents of the newly-introduced illuminant, 

 " if this (gas - light) becomes successful, then our naval 

 supremacy is gone, for at present we obtain principally 

 our artificial light from the Whale Fisheries. These are 

 the nurseries of our best sailors ; therefore, if we destroy 

 the one, the other roust be sfiected. If the fisheries no 

 longer exist, our navy must degenerate." 



Great dangers to the community were anticipated in the 

 event of steam being adopted for locomotive purposes, as 

 also are they at the present day from electricity. Similarly 

 it was feared that the explosion of a gas-main under the 

 streets would destroy a town. Another parallel is, however, 

 unfortunately, discernible. As in the present day ignorant 

 and over-sanguine " electricians " have taken upon them- 

 selves to champion the electric light, and have tried their 

 hardest to make the world imagine that it is to be revolu- 

 tionised by the electric light, so likewise did many would- 

 be fathers of gas-lighting do a deal of harm, and bring 

 down upon the system ridicule and trouble. Even Winsor 

 himself could not keep to fair and truthful lines, for it is 

 recorded that he " often committed the most egregious errors, 

 at one time asserting that our atmosphere in its pure state was 

 too powerful, and that a mixture of coal-gas rendered it 

 more salubrious ; again, that gas would not explode when 

 intermixed with air, and that its adoption would purify the 

 atmosphere ; whilst the prospectus issued by him contained 

 most extraordinary exaggerated and fabulous accounts of 

 the enormous profits to be derived from gas-lighting." 



However, progress was made, although, of course, less 

 rapidly than would have been the case had less extravagant 

 pretensions been urged, and in 1807 Pall Mall was lighted 

 with gas ; Westminster Bridge was similarly lighted in 

 1813, and in 1814 gas lamps were substituted for the oil 

 lamps in the parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster. In 

 the latter year, a great efiect was produced by illuminating 

 a pagoda erected in St. James's Park with 10,000 jets of 

 gas, lighted instantaneously, and forming " an immense and 

 brilliant fountain." 



Many of these and other experimental displays were 

 made by a company formed by Winsor. The original 

 company was formed in 1808, and their object was to 

 obtain the exclusive privilege of lighting all the British 

 possessions with gas. And for this task they proposed to 

 raise a capital of £1,000,000 1 After several reverses 

 the " Gas- Light and Coke Company," with a capital of 

 £200,000 was established, and secured a royal charter in 

 1812, with privileges, however, far short of their original 

 ambitious desires, and teeming with disadvantages. They 

 were not allowed to extend their operations outside 

 London, and were not in the least degree protected agidnst 

 competition, should any possible rival have the temerity to 

 enter the field against them. 



Under such inauspicious circumstances was the first gas 

 company started. They had many other troubles to con- 

 tend with, both inside and out, and the only wonder is that 

 they survived the ordeal. If it proves anything, it proves 



