» 
364 Lluminating Gas from Colton Seed. 
of the fire. A eonducting tube is connected with the opeit 
end, to convey the gas into a receiver standing over water. 
Simply passing the gas through water purifies it sufliciently 
for use. 
_ 4, Avery moderate fire is applied, sufficient barely to 
keep the part of the tube exposed to its direct action at a per- 
ceptible degree of redness. The heat being thus slowly 
communicated to the seed, converts successive portions of its 
oil into vapour, which traversing the ignited parts of the tube, 
is decomposed into carburetted hydrogen gas. The first por- 
tions may be burnt at the mouth of the conducting tube, until 
the gas becomesas luminous asa candle, after which it may 
be collected for use. 
** 5, When the gas begins to come over less freely, the 
tube may be drawn forward, by little and little, into the fur- 
nace. Near the close of the operation, the gas becomes 
again less luminous, and it may be burnt off at the mouth of 
the tube as at first. 
“If the furnace be of sufficient dimensions to permit a con- 
siderable space of the tube to remain ignited, the oily va- 
pour will be all decomposed ; but if the ignited space be small, 
a portion of vapour will make its way into the receiver unde- 
composed. A spiral or recurved tube for a small furnace, or 
a long iron tube for a broader fire, would effect the decom- 
position very perfectly. 
‘¢ An ounce of seed, according to this process, yields 1018 
cubic inches of gas, neglecting the firstand last portions as 
before specified. Consequently, a pound of seed yields 
16,288 cubic inches, or more than a hogshead of the gas. 
‘“‘ According to the former estimate, the quantity of seed 
annually produced in the United States, above what is re- 
quired for replanting, would afford 2,827,500,000 cubic feet 
of illuminating gas, but little ifat all inferior to that produced 
directly from oil. During the last year the culture of the 
cotton crop was greatly extended, perhaps doubled, and the 
quantity of seed proportionally augmented. 
“It was suggested by a correspondent of South Carolina in 
a late number of this Journal, that the seed was more valuable 
than what I had represented it ;—that it was a rich manure, 
and often sold very high for planting. It might doubtless be 
profitably applied as a manure, especially, in the way of a 
compost, where its volatile principles might be arrested, and 
its powers rendered more permanent; but the fact is, that in 
