TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 735 



Tables were given showing the chemical composition of the gas, ns well as its 

 thermal and jjhysical properties, and a great deal of information was afforded as to 

 the cost of production both in materials and labour. The author next discussed 

 the manufacture of non-illuminant gas, and mentioned that not much progress has 

 been made in its use in the States, where its inodorous character has proved a 

 source of danger. He gave tables of analysis which exhibited the composition and 

 properties of the gas. 



By the ' Evans ' proces.s the coie from ordinary coal-gas retorts is raked by hand 

 into a generator s(>t underneath, and converted into water-gas by the usual method, 

 but without being carburetted. 



By the ' Loomis ' proceHs bituminous coal is treated directly in a generator, the 

 air for combustion being drawn down through the fuel instead of being driven up. 

 Two hinds of gas are produced and stored separately : ordinary i)roducer-gas during 

 the ignition period, then wator-gas and hydro-carbon vapours given off durin"- the 

 gas-making period. A new process, patented by Walton f'lark, is in course of^trial 

 by tlie United Gas Improvement Company. Bituminous coal is charged by gravity 

 into inclined retorts, which are heated by the combustion of the blast "a'ses from 

 the generators in which the water-gas is made. The coke, after distillation, falls 

 by gravity into the generator, where it is subjected alternately to an air-blast and 

 to steam. When the air-blast is on, the products of combustion pass through a 

 flue into the retort benches where they are burned and provide the heat necessary 

 to distil the coal. When steam is injected into the generator the water-gas pro- 

 duced passes through the retorts, and so to the hydraulic main. There beino- two 

 generators and two retort settings in the system there is a continuous flow of 

 producer -gas to the ovens, and of water-gas into the mains. The two benches of 

 retorts are expected to yield 400,000 cubic feet of gas per 24 houi-s, with a 

 calorific value of from 400 to 450 units per cubic foot, and to obtain a yield of 

 45,000 cubic feet to the ton of coal. This practically non-luminous gas can, of 

 course, be carburetted at a cost of from 3^ to 3J gallons of low grade oil per 1,000 

 cubic feet. 



Tlie author pointed out the importance of the system above described to this 

 country, because it enables soft bituminous coal to be used instead of anthracite 

 which is found but in small quantities here, and he concluded thus : ' In closing, it 



may not be amiss to give expression to the belief that tlie day of gas fuel-oas 



js rapidly approaching, and, as has been before pointed out, fuel-gas must mean, in 

 part, water-gas. Even the great rival of gas, the electric light, may yet be depen- 

 dent upon it for the cheapest means of producing the electric current. Tlien will 

 the gas engineer and the electrical engineer, shoulder to shoulder, be striving to 

 correct the present wasteful strains upon nature's storehouses.' 



h 



FRTDAT, SEPTEMBER 13. 



The following Papers were read : — 



An Apparatus for prov id hig a Steady Platform for Guns, Search Lights, 

 Telescopes, Sfc.^ By Beauchamp Tower. 



The author described an apparatus large enough to cany a 3-pounder gun, 

 ■which he has constructed and mounted on a 25-ton steam yacht, and which keeps 

 perfectly steady even when the vessel is rolling and pitching -violently. 



The paper was illustrated by three diagrams. 



Thf apparatus consists of the platform, which is the part to bo kept steady, 

 and which is hung in gymbals. The steadying forces are applied by four cylinders 

 attached to the platform, which push by means of rams at four external' points. 



' Substantially identic.il with the paiicr read before the Institution of Naval 

 Architects on April 12, 1889, and published in their Transactions. 



