PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 4tT 



wished to know whether the manufacture of gas at private houses 

 was attended with satisfactory results. 



Mr. Hedrick thought it was. 



The Chairman suggested that they pass from the subject of 

 the composition of gas, to the examination of the consumption 

 of gas. 



Mr. Johnson produced a number of burners — fifty in all — for 

 the purpose of experimenting on them, and went into a minute 

 description of each of them. 



Professor Mason stated that from information which he re- 

 ceived mainly from the Manhattan Gas Company's office, he had 

 noted the following points : 



1. That a yellowish red light is the best for the eye. 



2. That one burner, rather than many, is better for a given 

 quantity of light, when it is practicable. 



3. That the flow of gas should be regulated automatically. It 

 is necessary that there should be a slow escape, and that the 

 flow should be regulated by some arrangement independent of 

 the street pressure, and independent of the hand. That is con- 

 sidered by the company as the main thing to be sought for, and 

 upon which the economy of gas burning must ultimately depend, 

 because we know that human carelessness is just sufficient to 

 produce all the evils of gas burning, unless the flow is automati- 

 cally regulated. 



4. Gas can be made economically by the companies just in 

 proportion to the perfection of the instruments for regulating 

 the flow. 



Mr. Seeley agreed with the President that the thing to be 

 sought for is a self-regulating burner. By experiments he had 

 ascertained that whether the pipe was partially blocked up at 

 the point of exit, two or three feet from it at the metre, or the 

 other side of the metre, the result would be the same. He ex- 

 plained Thompson's regulating burner, and stated that he had 

 experimented on two of them, and on one of the best ordinary 

 burners now in use, with the following result : 



Ordinary Burner. 



1.3 



3.2 



4.1 



5 



6 



