GAS- LIGHTING, REGENERATIVE SYSTEM OF. 



381 



English experimenters found that, with the 

 London sixteen -candle gas, results were ob- 

 tained varying from 5'30 candles per foot to 

 7*13, while in this country careful tests have 

 shown, with eighteen-candle gas, as high a 

 result as ten candles per foot, in burners con- 

 suming 50 feet an hour. This result is nearly 

 three times that obtained with the ordinary 

 flat flame. Burners of such large consumption 

 are of course suitable only for the lighting of 

 streets, areas, and large interiors, and hence 

 this great economy is not attainable by the 

 ordinary consumer. While the small burners 

 give a decided advantage over the ordinary 

 domestic lights, still the cumbrousness of the 

 lamp and the care required in operating it ren- 

 der it unsuitable for domestic lighting. 



Other inventors have, however, taken up 

 the problem, and, working in the direction 

 pointed out by Siemens, have succeeded in pro- 

 ducing burners well suited to domestic light- 

 ing, and free from the objectionable features 

 of the Siemens. A burner of this kind has 

 been brought out in England by Mr. Grimston, 



an electrical engineer in the employment of 

 Siemens Brothers. The body of the burner, 

 instead of being below the flame, as in the 

 Siemens, is placed above it, and the flame 

 burns downward, the light being wholly un- 



obstructed by any portion of the fixture. The 

 construction is shown in Fig. 6. The burner 

 consists of a ring of tubes, a, a, arranged within 

 an annular casing, &, b. Lateral tubes, e, con- 

 necting the casing, 5, 6, with a concentric outer 

 one, admit air to the flame. The annular space 

 crossed by these tubes constitutes the flue 

 through which the products of combustion pass 

 upward to the chimney e'. A glass globe, d, 

 made with an indentation or nipple at its cen- 

 ter, incloses the flame, which takes the form 

 of an inverted convolvulus. The extraction of 

 heat from the escaping products of combustion 

 is so complete that the air, it is claimed, reaches 

 a temperature of from 1,100 to 1,200 Fahr. 

 The burner may be turned on full at starting, 

 and is not liable to smoke. It therefore re- 

 quires no more attention than any ordinary 

 flat flame. It can be constructed of any size 

 from three-foot upward, and is reported to 

 yield almost as good results in the smaller as in 

 the larger size. In burners consuming twenty 

 feet an hour, the light yielded per foot of gas 

 is seven candles, or just double that given by 

 the standard Argand, consuming five feet an 

 hour, and the results in the smaller burners 

 are but little short of this. 



A burner which can be made in small sizes, 

 and is therefore suitable for domestic lighting, 

 has also been brought out in this country by 

 Mr. A. B. Lipsey. It may be briefly described 

 as an inverted Siemens burner. It consists of 

 a central flue, provided with a cylindrical por- 

 celain extension at its lower end. The burner 

 is an inverted Argand -encircling the central 

 flue, the flames from which burn downward 

 around the porcelain, and turn upward :md in- 

 ward at its lower edge. The air to support 

 combustion is admitted through an annular 

 space above the flames, formed by the wall of 

 the central flue and an outer casing. A globe 

 fitting tightly against a flange or plate just 

 above the burner-tips incloses the apparatus. 

 This design does not admit of as high heating 

 of the air as either the Siemens or the Grim- 

 ston, but the downward burning of the gas se- 

 cures complete combustion, and the results ob- 

 tained compare favorably with them. No tests 

 have been made of the later and more perfect 

 burners, but those made with two ^izes of some 

 of the first burners constructed gave, for a 

 burner consuming 8'50 feet an hour, 4'62 can- 

 dles per foot with 17'47-candle gas, and 6'52 

 candles per foot with a 23-foot burner with 

 17'05-candle gas. 



The results so far obtained with regenerative 

 burners make it reasonably certain that, with 

 the sizes suitable for domestic illumination, a 

 .lighting effect double that now obtained can' 

 be depended upon. Such a' burner as the 

 Grimston is universally applicable, and as there 

 is nothing about it to get out of order, and it 

 requires no more attention than the ordinary 

 flat-flame burners, there seems to be no impedi- 

 ment to its wide introduction. As burners of 

 this kind lend themselves readily to sanitary 



