MECHANICAL AND USEFUL ARTS. 85 



up from 400 to 500 gallons of oil a day. An explosion soon blew it 

 up. One of three times its size and power was put in its place, and 

 during the first four da) r s threw up 5000 gallons of oil ; 1250 gallons 

 per day, or one gallon per minute for twenty hours fifty minutes 

 per day. The oil, as raised, was worth eighty cents a gallon, which 

 produced the large income of 1800 dollars per day for four successive 

 days, and so the matter goes on, yielding about one gallon per 

 minute during working time. A large company, called the " Con- 

 solidated Rock Oil Company," with a capital of 1,000,000 dollars, 

 has been formed in New York, to buy and work the oil lands. 



WATER-GAS. 



The A merican Gaslight Journal contains a detailed account from 

 Le Journal de I' Eclairage au Gas, of the renewed and apparently 

 successful attempt to introduce Water- Gas into Narbonne, in France. 

 The gas, according to Le Genie Industriel, quoted by its French 

 contemporary, is made without retorts. The decomposition of water- 

 steam into gas is effected by passing the steam over a mass of burn- 

 ing coke in a close furnace, and the more rapidly this is done the 

 more effective and economical is the process. The oxygen and 

 hydrogen of the steam are of course separated, and the oxygen 

 forms with the carbon of the coke carbonic acid gas, leaving the 

 hydrogen unattached even to carbon, so that the water-gas is pure 

 or mere hydrogen. The carbonic acid is withdrawn by means of 

 damp quicklime, which, however, rapidly accumulates in quantity: 

 it is proposed to use carbonate of soda instead, as the carbonate 

 of soda will unite with the carbonic acid and form bicarbonate, 

 from which moderate heat will again expel all the gas absorbed, so 

 that the carbonate of soda, it is calculated, maj' be used over and 

 over agaiu indefinitely. Could not the carbonic acid also be made 

 use of, as in the production of aerated drinks ? Bicarbonate of 

 soda itself, too, is of some value. One chief peculiarity in the water- 

 gas is in the mode of burning it. Hydrogen yields a very weak light 

 of itself, but each burner is supplied with the well-known contri- 

 vance of a small wirework of platinum, which, by adequate pres- 

 sure on the main, becomes white-hot, and produces an intense light 

 with the hydrogen, without wasting the rather expensive platinum. 

 The price of the gas, however, is still high, from the limited number 

 of consumers, it is said. — Builder. (See Year-Booh of Facts, 1860, 

 p. 102.) 



NEW APPLICATION OF PEAT. 



Some improvements in manufactures from Peat have been patented 

 by Mr. H. Hodgson, of Ballyreine and Merlin Park, and Mr. P. 

 M. Crane, of the Irish Peat Works, Athy. The invention consists 

 in preparing from peat, in its natural state, blocks, slabs, or pieces 

 of any size, form, or thickness, which blocks, slabs, or pieces 

 are said, when so prepared, to be useful and economical in the 

 construction of parts of buildings, and for various other useful pur- 

 poses. These blocks are placed between cloths of woven or textile 



