[91 J 



Art. XXI. On a ntw Means of producing Heat and Light, 

 with an Engraving, hy J, L. Sullivan, Esq, of Boston. 



Boston, May 7, 18)8. 

 To Professor Silliman. 



Sir, 



JLF the following account of a method of usuig tar and steam 

 as fuel, recently invented by Mr. Samuel Morey, should be 

 found sufficiently interesting to occupy a place in the Journal 

 of Science, I am sensible its usefulness will be much extended 

 through that medium of information. 



The inventor, not unskilled in chemistry, and aware of the 

 attraction of oxygen for carbon, conceived it practicable to 

 convert the constituents of water into fuel, by means of this 

 affinity. 



Whatever may be the fact, chemically considered, the ope- 

 ration, in various experiments, promises to afford a conve- 

 nient mothod of applying to use several of the most combusti- 

 ble substances, not hitherto employed as fuel. By the process 

 I shall briefly describe, all carbonaceous fluids may be conveni- 

 ently burnt, and derive great force from their combination with 

 the oxygen ajid hydrogen gases of water or steam, before or 

 at the moment of ignition. 



A tight vessel, cylindrically shaped, was first employed, con- 

 taining rosin, connected with a small boiler by a pipe which 

 entered near the bottom, and extended nearly its length, having 

 small apertures, over which were two inverted gutters, inclin- 

 ing or sloping upwards over each other ; the upper one longer 

 than the other, intended to detain the steam in the rosin, in its 

 way to the surface. The rosin being heated, carhuretted hydro- 

 gen gas would issue from the outlet, or pipe, inserted near the 

 top of the vessel, and being ignited, afforded a small blaze, 

 about as large as that of a candle ; but, when the steam was 

 allowed to flow, this blaze would instantly shoot out many hun- 

 dred times its former bulk, to the distance of two or three feet 



