September 4, 1890] 



NATURE 



447 



lines is from 6 to 8 lbs., while in the low-pressure lines it does 

 not exceed 4 to 5 ounces. 



The effect of the change from coal-gas to natural gas upon the 

 atmosphere over Pittsburgh has been most marked : formerly 

 the sky was constantly obscured by a canopy of dense smoke ; 

 no A' the atmosphere is clear, and even white paint may with 

 impunity be employed for the house fronts. 



The very rapid development of the employment of natural 

 gas is not confined to the neighbourhood of Pittsburgh ; it is 

 used for heating purposes in the cities of Buffalo, Erie, James- 

 town, Warren, Olean, Bradford, Oil City, Titusville, Meadville, 

 Youngstown, and perhaps twenty more towns and villages in 

 Pennsylvania and North-western New York. In North-western 

 Ohio, the cities of Toledo and Sandusky, the towns of Findlay, 

 Lima, Tiffin, Fostoria, and others in that section are also sup- 

 plied with natural gas ; a pipe line has moreover been recently 

 laid to Detroit, Mich., and it is estimated that in these localities 

 36,131,669,000 cubic feet of the gas were consumed during la^t 

 year, displacing 1,802,500 tons of coal. To the south-west of 

 Pittsburgh there are many smaller places which consume natural 

 gas ; it also occurs in considerable quantity, and is being utilized, 

 in Indiana (whence an account has recently reached us of a 

 terrific subterranean explosion of the gas) ; and it is at the pre- 

 sent time contemplated to carry a natural gas-supply to Chicago. 



The utilization of the natural gas of the Russian oil-fields, 

 although of very ancient date, has hitherto not been extensive, 

 neither does the magnitude of the supply appear to bear com- 

 parison with that of the Pennsylvanian district. 



A form of gaseous fuel which has long been known to technical 

 chemists and metallurgists, but which has of late attracted con- 

 siderable attention, especially in connection with the recent 

 interesting work relating to its applications pursued by Mr. 

 Samson Fox, of Leeds, has become, within the last four years, 

 a competitor, in the United States, both of the natural gas of 

 Pennsylvania and of coal-gas. Since Felix Fontana fir.-,t pro- 

 duced so-called water-gas in 1780, by passing vapour of water 

 over highly-heated fuel, many methods, differing chiefly in small 

 details, have been proposed for carrying out the operation, with 

 a view to the ready and cheap production of the resulting mix- 

 ture of hydrogen and carbonic oxide, and numerous technical 

 applications of water-gas have been suggested from time to 

 time, with v.o very important results, excepting as regards its 

 use for lighting-purposes. Being of itself non-luminous, its 

 utilization in this direction is accomplished, either by mixing it 

 with a highly luminous gas, or by causing a hydrocarbon vapour 

 to be diffused through it ; or the non-luminous flame, produced 

 by burning it in the air, is made to raise to incandescence some 

 suitably prepared solid substance, such as magnesia, lime, a 

 zirconium salt, or platinum, whereby bright light is emitted. 

 The objection to its employment as an illuminant for use in 

 buildings, to which great weight is attached by us, and rightly, 

 as sad experience has shown — viz. that, as it consists, to the 

 extent of about one-half its volume, of the highly poisonous gas 

 carbonic oxide, the atmosphere in a confined space may be 

 rendered irrespirable by a small accidental contamination with 

 water-gas, by leakage or otherwise, not detectable by any odour 

 — appears to constitute no great impediment to its employment 

 in the United States, as it is now manufactured for illuminating 

 and heating purposes by a large proportion of their gas-works, 

 being in some places employed in admixture with a highly 

 luminous coal-gas, in others rendered luminous by the alternative 

 methods mentioned. It is stated that about three-fourths of the 

 illuminating gas now supplied to the cities of New York, 

 Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Jersey, St. Paul, and Minneapolis, is 

 carburetted water-gas ; in Chicago the entire supply now con- 

 sists of this gas, and Boston will also soon be supplied exclu- 

 sively with it. The use of water-gas for metallurgic work does 

 not appear to be contemplated in the United States, but it is 

 especially to such applications of the gas that much attention has 

 been devoted here in Leeds ; and although some eminent 

 experts are sceptical regarding the attainment of advantages, 

 especially from an economical point of view, by the employment 

 of this form of gaseous fuel, especially after practical experience 

 in the same direction acquired in Germany, the technical world 

 must feel grateful to Mr. Fox for his work in this direction, 

 affording, as it does, an interesting illustration of the qualities 

 of perseverance and energy which, when combined with sound 

 knowledge, often achieve success in directions that have long 

 appeared most unpromising — qualities which have been charac- 

 teristic of many pioneers in industrial progress in this country. 



NO, 1088, VOL. 42] 



Leeds has been especially fortunate in the possession of such 

 pioneers, who, when competition brought about great changes in 

 the particular trade through which, for many generations, this 

 city chiefly enjoyed prosperity and high renown, developed its 

 power and resources in new directions, from which success soon 

 flowed in continually increasing measure. The rapid rise of 

 Leeds to its present high position in industrial prosperity and 

 national importance most probably dates from the period when 

 its chief staple industry began to experience serious rivalry, in 

 its own peculiar achievements, on the part of other districts of 

 the kingdom and of other countries. From early days a flourish- 

 ing centre of one of the provinces of Great Britain most richly 

 endowed with some of Nature's best treasures, Leeds could 

 scarcely have failed, through the energy, acute intelligence, and 

 powerful self-reliance e-;pecially characteristic of the men of 

 Yorkshire, to rapidly acquire fresh renown in connection with 

 industries which either were new to the town and district, or had 

 been pursued in comparatively modest fashion, and which have 

 combined to place the Leeds of to-day upon a higher pinnacle of 

 commercial prosperity, power, and influence than her patriotic 

 citizens of old could ever have dreamt of. 



An examination into the present educational resources of 

 Leeds places beyond any doubt the fact that her present pro- 

 sperity in commerce and industries is in no small degree 

 ascribable to the paramount importance long since attached 

 here to the liberal provision of facilities for the diffusion of 

 knowledge among the artisan- and industrial-classes, and 

 especially for the acquisition of a sound acquaintance with the 

 principles of the sciences and their applications to technical 

 purposes, with particular reference to the prominent local 

 industries, by all grades of those who pursue or intend to 

 pursue them. There is, probably, no town in the kingdom 

 more amply provided with efficient elementary and advanced 

 schools for both sexes, while the special requirements of the 

 artisan are efficiently met by the prosperous School of Science 

 and Technology. The resources of the Yorkshire College pro- 

 vide, in addition, a combination of thorough scientific education 

 with really practical training in the more important local 

 industries ; indeed, during the sixteen years of its continually- 

 progressive work, this institution has acquired so widespread a 

 reputation that students come from abroad to reap the advantages 

 afforded by the unrivalled textile and dyeing departments of the 

 Leeds College. The keen competition now existing between 

 these departments and the corresponding branches of the much 

 younger but most vigorous sister College at Bradford, can only 

 conduce to the further development of both, and to their thorough 

 maintenance up to the requirements of the day. 



The very important pecuniary aid afforded to these establish- 

 ments, and to a number of other technical schools in Yorkshire, 

 by one of the most important of the ancient Companies of the 

 City of London, the Clothworkers, affords an interesting illustra- 

 tion of the good work in the cause of education performed by 

 those Guilds, and, especially of late years, by means of their 

 flourishing Institute for the advancement of technical education, 

 which, through its two great instructional establishments in 

 London, and through the operation of its system of examinations 

 throughout the country, extending now even to the colonies, has 

 afforded very important aid towards eradicating the one great 

 blot upon our national educational organization. To have been 

 first in the field in practically developing a far-reaching scheme 

 for the advancement of technical education in this country must 

 continue to be a source of pride to the City of London and its 

 ancient Guilds in time to come, when the operation of efficient 

 legislation, supported and extended by patriotic munificence and 

 by the hearty co-operation of associations of earnest and com- 

 petent workers in the cause, shall have placed the machinery 

 and resources for the technical instruction of the people upon a 

 footing commensurate with our position among nations. 



The remarkable address delivered by Owen here in 1858, 

 wherein the condition, at that time, of those branches of natural 

 science which he had made particularly his own was most com- 

 prehensively reviewed, included some especially interesting 

 observations on the importance to the cultivation and progress 

 of the natural sciences, and to the advancement of education of 

 the masses in this country, of providing adequate Jspace and 

 resources for the proper development of our national Museum 

 of Natural History ; and it cannot but be a source of great 

 satisfaction and pride to him to have lived to witness the 

 thoroughly successful realization of the objects of his owa 



