300 LIGHTING BY GAS. 



in pipes wherever the light from it is wanted. Even the 

 flame of burning wood from a fire is the flame of gas, you 

 recollect." 



" I remember you told me once," replied John, " how I 

 might draw it off from the fire through a pipe-stem, and 

 burn it at the end of the stem." 



"Yes," rejoined Lawrence; "and we might easily draw 

 it off farther than that, if we chose, by means of an India- 

 rubber tube. 



" Only, in that case," added Lawrence, " it would be bet- 

 ter to take some other larger and stronger receptacle than 

 the bowl of a pipe for a retort a gun-barrel, for instance. 

 Chemists employ gun-barrels very often for such experi- 

 ments. An old gun-barrel which is past service for shoot- 

 ing, such as can generally be obtained at a gunsmith's, will 

 make a very good retort for such purposes." 



Lawrence went on to explain that, by taking such a gun- 

 barrel, and, after plugging up the touch-hole, filling it half 

 full of some hydrocarbon and connecting a long India-rub- 

 ber tube with the outer end of it, the gas could be con- 

 veyed away to any distance to a stand of some kind, for 

 example, upon a table in the middle of a room and there 

 burned just like gas from a pipe laid in the street. 



John said that he should like very much to see that 

 done. 



"Very well," replied Lawrence ; " we can do it, or, rath- 

 er, you can do it yourself under my direction, when we get 

 home. I mean to fit up a little laboratory and workshop 

 in Carlton, and you can then perform as many such ex- 

 periments as you like." 



" I mean to make some gas, at any rate, for one thing," 

 replied John. " Only," he added, after reflecting a mo- 

 ment, " I should think that the end of the India-rubber 

 tube, where it is slipped over the end of the gun-barrel, 



