June 21, 1894] 



NA TV RE 



'75 



productive of results that we should be the last to 

 impugn ; but this we believe is the first attempt at a 

 purely scientific investigation of Central Australia, while 

 the names of the distinguished men whom Mr. Horn 

 has been so fortunate as to engage in it, are a guarantee 

 of the serious way in which it will be conducted. We 

 doubt not that he and his companions will find plenty of 

 rough work before them, and possibly some risk ; but if 

 good wishes can help them they may rely on those of 

 all our readers, together with their high and hearty 

 appreciation of the spirit which has prompted that 

 Lrentleman not only to defray the cost of the Expedition, 

 but to put himself at the head of it at a time of life 

 when most men think of retiring upon the fruits of their 

 labours. 



If the gas companies could only get an Act passed 

 authorising the use of the regenerative burner as the 

 standard, there is no leason why they should not call 

 the gas at present supplied 40-candle gas ; the consumer, 

 however, using the flat-tlame burner would still be only 

 obtaining the same light as at present. Incandescent 

 mantle burners, which act on a totally different principle, 

 also yield a high illuminating value. 



On carefully testing the burners in ordinary use we 

 find that for an equal consumption of gas the results at 

 once show the enormous advantage to be obtained by 

 regeneration, and also how serious is the loss which 

 attends the employment of ordinary burners. 



THE EXRICHMENT OF COAL-GAS. 



IT is almost impossible to over-estimate the importance 

 of the influence which coal-gas has exercised upon 

 the advancement of civilisation during the past fifty 

 years, and at the present time it has reached a phase in 

 its existence upon which its future career and utility is 

 very largely dependent. 



Up to the middle of the century but little attention 

 was paid to the quality of the gas supplied t'or illuminat- 

 ing purposes ; the gas manager made the best gas he 

 could with the coals at his disposal, and the consumer 

 was content as long as he obtained a reasonable amoimt 

 of light. 



In JS50 a Bill was passed which enacted that the light 

 emitted by a brass argand burner with 15 holes, con- 

 suming five cubic feet of gas per hour, should be equal 

 to the light of 12 wax candles of the size known as 

 ■ sixes.' These wax candles were, however, only equal 

 in illuminating power to 103 of the sperm candles at 

 present used for testing purposes. In 1S60 an Act 

 changed the illuminating power to 12 sperm candles, 

 and in 1S6S this was again raised to 14 candles, and by 

 '.he Act of 1S76 this was increased to 16 candles, and 

 remains so to the present time. 



In 1864 the 15-hole brass argand was discarded as a 

 standard testing burner, and was replaced by a 15-hole 

 steatite burner, which by increasing the temperature of 

 the tlame developed more light, whilst in 1869 the 

 " London argai'd " 24hole burner was introduced, and 

 gave a still furiher increase in the light obtained from 

 the gas, so that when we speak of London being supplied 

 with iC candle-power coal-gas, it means that the light 

 emitted by the gas when burning at the rate of 5 cirbic 

 feet per hour from a London argand shall be equal to the 

 light of 16 sperm candles of the size known as sixes con- 

 suming 120 grains of sperm each per hour. 



When we come to consider what this in reality amounts 

 to, we find that by one of those subtle strokes of humour 

 m which our legislative body occasionally indulges, it 

 means to the consumer almost anything except a light 

 equal to 16 candles. The illumination which can be 

 obtained by the consumption of coal-gas is entirely 

 dependent upon the method by which the gas is burned. 

 From a so-called i6-candle coal-gas the consumer rarely 

 obtains a value of more than 12 candles per 5 cubic feet 

 of gas consumed ; whilst by using burners of rational 

 construction, upwards of 40-candle illuminating power 

 could be obtained for the same consumption of gas. 



The light emitted by a coal-gas fiame is dependent 

 upon its temperature, and llat flame burners, exposing 

 a thin sheet of tlame to the cooling action of the air, 

 give the worst lesults. Argand burners are better, 

 as the cooling is not so great, whilst the regenerative 

 burners lately introduced, by utilising the heat of the pro- 

 ducts of combustion for raising the temperature of the 

 gas and air supplied to the fiame, give an enormous 

 increase in the light emitted. 



NO. 1286. VOL. 50] 



Li^hl obtained per cubic foot of lb-candle ^as con: 

 liurnffr. Candl 



Regenerative and incandescent 7 to 



Standard argand 

 Ordinary ,, 

 Flat-flame No. 7 ... 



>> ,, 6 



,, ,, 5 



.. 4 



.. 3 



,, 2 



umed. 



t units. 

 1000 



3-20 

 2 'go 

 244 

 215 

 187 



"74 

 163 



I '22 



085 

 059 



These burners were by well-known makers ; but there 

 are plenty of cheap German nipples in the market which 

 will give even worse results. In the above table No. 7 

 is the largest flat flame burner given, as any larger size 

 would never be used for indoor illumination : but with 

 some of the big flat-flame burners employed for outdoor 

 work as much as three candle power per cubic foot of gas 

 is developed by the best make, while it is also quite 

 possible to find cheap imitations of them, which can 

 scarcely be distinguished by their appearance, only de- 

 veloping a little more than one candle per cubic foot. It 

 seems probable that lo-candle units represent the 

 maximum light to be obtained in practice per cubic foot 

 from the so-called 16-candle coal-gas, as, although 

 greater regeneration will increase it as high as sixteen 

 units, the heat is so intense that the burner is quickly de- 

 stroyed. Taking )o-candle units as being the maximum 

 amount of light for a consumption of one cubic foot of 

 gas per hour, an approximate idea of the waste of illum- 

 ination which attends the ordinary methods of burning 

 the gas can be formed. 



If the burners most commonly in use in houses be 

 e.xamined they will be found to consist chiefly of No. 4 

 and Xo. 5 flat-flame nipples, and it would not be 

 overestimating the number in use to put them at 85 

 per cent, of the total. The remaining 15 per cent, is 

 made up of larger flat-flame burners, argands, and re- 

 generative lamps, which give a higher service ; but it 

 will be found that the total value obtained will not exceed 

 2'5 candles per cubic foot. This means that 75 per cent, 

 of the total value obtainable from the gas is wasted, and 

 that for our present expenditure in coal-gas we could 

 obtain four times as much light. 



Mr. George Livesey some time ago proposed that un- 

 enriched coal-gas should be supplied to the consumer at 

 a lower rate than is at present charged for the enriched 

 16-candle gas, and this question is of such interest and 

 importance to both consumer and gas company that it 

 deserves the gravest consideration. 



In large towns like London, where the gas companies 

 have to supply a gas of specific illuminating power, and 

 where the gas is continually subjected to photometric tests 

 at stations spread over the whole area supplied (any 

 deficiency in the lighting value of the gas being visited 

 with rigorously enlorced penalties^, enrichment in some 

 form or other becomes a practical necessity. In London 

 the gas has to have an illuminating power of sixteen 



