428 



NA TURE 



[March 5, 1903 



lowering- of the Parliamentary standard of sixteen to four- 

 teen candle power in the case of the South Metropolitan, 

 Commercial and West Ham Companies will soon be 

 followed by many companies now saddled with a higher 

 standard than fourteen candles seeking relief. That relief 

 cannot in fairness be refused, whilst experience of the benefits 

 conferred by the reduction will soon lead to the further step 

 that will place gas manufacture in this country on the same 

 advanced footing that it has already gained in the most 

 progressive cities in Germany. 



In making low-grade gas of this character, several pro- 

 cesses may be employed, but probably the most economical 

 is to utilise water gas as an aid to the distillation of the 

 coal in the retorts, the proportion of water gas so used being 

 kept down to a point at which the carbon monoxide in the 

 finished gas shall not exceed 16 per cent. 



The cheapening in mantles which is now taking place, 

 together with improvements in their manufacture which 

 will give an increased length of life and light, promises a 

 great extension in the use of gas for this purpose. 



Another direction in which the future of coal gas will 

 benefit largely, by a cheapening in price owing to economies 

 in manufacture an«l distribution, will be for use as a fuel. 

 Already the ever-increasing demand made upon the metro- 

 politan companies during the day marks the advance of the 

 utilisation of coal gas for cooking, heating and power, so 

 that whilst the increase in the amount of gas used at night 

 is only rising by some 3 per cent, annually, the day con- 

 sumption shows an increase of 16 per cent. Directly it 

 becomes possible to reduce the price of gas to about 2s. a 

 thousand, advance on these lines will become extremely 

 rapid, and the gas companies are naturally doing every- 

 thing in their power to foster this development. It is, 

 however, necessary, in order further to popularise gas as a 

 fuel, that everything that can be done should be done to 

 remove any prejudices that exist against heating by gas. 



There are many excellent gas stoves on the market, well 

 designed, and giving high heating duty for the gas con- 

 sumed, but there are also many that, both in their per- 

 formance and their effect upon the atmosphere, are radically 

 bad. Now that the gas companies have so largely taken 

 over the sale and pushing of gas-heating apparatus, it is 

 a duty they owe to themselves and to their customers to 

 take care that only stoves of scientific construction and 

 good efficiency should be supplied. Many of the worst stoves 

 are the most ornate, and for that reason find their way into 

 many homes, as they, in the first place, appeal to the eye of 

 the housewife, and afterwards to the nose and health of the 

 household, the result being that a good customer is con- 

 verted into an enemy of gaseous fuel. No gas fires should 

 be sold or let on hire that do not do a large proportion of the 

 heating by radiation, and a gas company that sells a fiueless 

 ;j is stove, save for hall or passage heating, should be 

 prosecuted. 



A cubic foot of coal gas on its complete combustion yields 

 0.52 cubic foot of carbon dioxide and 1.30 cubic feet of water 

 \ . 1 ]■■ .cir, and if you do not mind breathing hot polluted air 

 highly charged with water vapour, and getting chilled with 

 cold walls, a Bunsen burner stood on the floor is the most 

 'I!- 'live method of getting the whole of the heat of com- 

 bustion into the air of the room, and no flueless stove ran 

 do more than this. In order to get something to sell, stoves 

 are constructed in which some of the water is condensed, 

 and the public are gravely informed that this removes all 

 deleterious products. But it is impossible to get away 

 from the fact that if healthful heating is to be obtained, it 

 is the solid objects and walls of the room that must be 

 heated, and not the air, and that although some of the heat 

 is lost thereby, a flue to take off all products is an absolute 

 essential. 



The gas companies have it in their power to govern the 

 gas-stove trade, and unless they choose to take the initiative, 

 it will retard the popularity of heating by gas to a most 

 serious degree. With all stoves in which solid bodies like 

 asbestos are heated by atmospheric burners, a trace of 

 carbon monoxide is always produced, and if there is not a 

 proper flue passing well into the chimney, a headache is 

 added to the other discomforts. 



Improvements in gas motors and gas engines are steadily 

 going on, and as soon as the price of coal gas can be re- 



NO. I74O, VOL. 67] 



duced sufficiently to attract this class of custom, a wide 

 field will be opened up for it. 



The development of large gas engines during the last few 

 years gives promise of an entire revolution in our methods 

 of procuring power, and it is highly probable that within 

 a very few years the gas engine will make great inroads 

 upon the generation of power by steam. Already gas 

 engines up to 1500 horse-power have been constructed, 

 whilst engines of more than double that power are under con- 

 struction. 



In England, Messrs. Crossley Brothers and other well- 

 known makers are producing a very large number of such 

 engines for driving dvnamos, whilst it is stated that on thi 3 

 Continent Messrs. Korting Brothers have made, or have under 

 construction, thirty-two gas engines, with a total of 44,500 

 horse-power, averaging 1390 horse-power each engine, and 

 the John Cockerill Company and several German com- 

 panies follow not far behind. 



With such a development of gas for motor purposes, it is 

 manifestly the policy of the gas companies to make a deter- 

 mined bid for so wide a field of output, and if they can 

 supply a clean heating gas with 460 to 500 B.T.U.'s heat- 

 ing power, it is clear that the convenience of doing away 

 with separate generating plant would cause a large pro- 

 portion of this business to fall to their share, if the price of 

 the coal gas could be made to compete with a fuel gas, that 

 is to say, if nearly the same number of thermal units could 

 be obtained by its use at the same cost. 



Gas fittings should be entirely taken over by the gas 

 companies, which should supply incandescent fittings and 

 mantles and keep them in order at a small yearly rental ; 

 and where swinging brackets and other causes demand flat- 

 flame burners, the companies should fit nipples with broad 

 slits regulated to burn at the lowest possible pressure. 



Everything at the present time points to the gas of the 

 future being a twelve-candle-power gas, with a calorific 

 value of not less than -|i" B.T.U.'s net and a selling price 

 of not more than 2s. a thousand, the economies necessary 

 to reach this lower price being brought about by making 

 the gas in the holder at qd. to 93d. a thousand and dis- 

 tributing it at a considerably increased pressure, the pressure 

 being regulated down to \\ inches at the entrance to the 

 consumer's meter. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Camhridge. — Mr. C. B. N. Cama, St. John's College, 

 has been elected to the Isaac Newton studentship in optics 

 and physical astronomy. 



The Smith's prizemen are Mr. H. Knapman, Emmanuel, 

 second wrangler 1901, and .Mr. A. P. Thompson, Pembroke, 

 filth wrangler 1901. Mr. W. H. Jackson, Clare, bracketed 

 third wrangler 1901, receives honourable mention. 



The following have been appointed as representatives of 

 1 he University to the joint committee of the Royal Society 

 for the purpose of securing an appropriate memorial of 

 the late Sir G. G. Stokes : — The Chancellor, the Vice-Chan- 

 cellor, Profs. Jebb, Eorsyth, Darwin, Ball, Thomson and 

 Mr. W. Burnside. 



The Sedgwick Memorial Museum syndicate, in an 

 amended report, estimates that the cost to the University 

 of the new building, over and above the amount contributed 

 from the memorial fund, will be not less than 18,480?. 



It is stated that Mr. David Davies, of Llandinam, grand- 

 son of the late millionaire, has presented the University 

 College of Wales, Aberystwyth, with a sum of 20,000/. 



The New York correspondent of the Daily Mail 

 announces, on the authority of the Nov Voile Journal, that 

 Mr. Carnegie has arranged to present 200,000/. to Prince- 

 ton University as a thank-offering for his recovery from 

 his recent illness. 



Lord Avebury will take the chair on March 17 at a 

 conference on higher education at the Institution of Me- 

 chanical Engineers, Storey's Gate, Westminster. Repre- 

 sentatives of the county and county borough councils and 



