GASS LIGHTS. 



The wholfl of the rooms of this cotton mill, which is, 1 believe, 

 the most f xtensire in the united kingdom, as well as its counting, 

 houses and store-rooms, and the adjacent dwelling-houses of Mr. 

 Lee, are lighted with the gass from coal. The total quantity of 

 light used during the hours of burning, has been ascertained, by 

 a comparison of shadows, to be about equal to the lights which 

 2500 mould candles of six to the pound would give ; each of the 

 candles, with which the comparison was made consuming at the 

 rate of 4-10ths of an ounce (175 grains) of tallow per hour. 



The quantity of light is necessarily liable to some variation, 

 from the difficulty of adjusting all the flames, so as to be perfectly 

 t-qual at all times ; but the admirable precision and exactness with 

 which the business of this mill is conducted, afforded as excellent an 

 opportunity of making the comparative trials I had in view, as is 

 perhaps likely to be ever obtained in general practice. And the 

 experiments being made upon so large a scale, and for a consider- 

 able portion of time, may, I think, be assumed as a sufficiently 

 accurate standard for determining the advantages to be expected 

 from the use of the gass lights under favourable circumstances. 



It is not my intention, in the present paper, to enter into a 

 particular description of the apparatus employed for producing 

 the gas ; but I may observe generally, that the coal is distilled in 

 large iron retorts, which during the winter season are kept con. 

 stantly at work, except during the intervals of charging ; and that 

 the gass, as it rises from them, is conveyed by iron pipes into large 

 reservoirs, or gazometers, where it is washed and purified, pre- 

 vious to its being conveyed through other pipes, called mains, to 

 the mill. These mains branch off into a variety of ramifications 

 (forming a total length of several miles), and diminish in size, as 

 the quantity of gass required to be passed through them becomes 

 less. The burners, where the gass is consumed, are connected 

 with the above mains, by short tubes, each of which is furnished 

 with a cock to regulate the admission of gass to each burner, and 

 to shut it totally off when requisite. This latter operation may 

 likewise be instantaneously performed, throughout the whole of 

 the burners in each room, by turning a cock, with which each 

 main is provided, near its entrance into the room. 



The burners are of two kinds : the one is upon the principle 

 of the Argand lamp, and resembles it in appearance ; the other is 



