Art. II. — Notes on the Quality of Hartley and Greta 

 Shale for the Manufacture of Gas, together with a 

 Description of the New Goal Seam at Greta. By 

 A. K. Smith, C.E., F.R.S.S.A., &c. &c. 



[Read 4th October, 1869.] 



I have been recently engaged in a neighbouring colony 

 testing some of the coals and shales from the districts of 

 Hartley and the Hunter River, in New South Wales, 

 principally for ascertaining their value for luminiferous pur- 

 poses. I now beg to submit a brief account of the results 

 anived at. 



I may premise that the experiments were made at the 

 request of the provisional committee of the Consumers' Gas 

 and Oil Company, Sydney, for the sole purpose of deter- 

 mining the value of Hartley shale for the manufacture of 

 gas, to be used either by itself or to enrich (by mixture) 

 the gas obtained from the ordinary Hunter River (New- 

 castle) coal. 



EXPERIMENT WITH HARTLEY SHALE. 



Having examined the shale, I had it broken up into small 

 pieces, and carefully weighed 224 lbs., with which I charged 

 two fireclay retorts, first having noted the index of the 

 station-meter to be standing at 5,586,294. Charging the 

 retorts commenced at lOh. 27m. 40s. a.m., and finished at 

 lOh. 30m. a.m.. thus occupying 2m. 20s. in the operation. 

 At— 



Mins. h. m. 







7 10.37 the meter indicated the production of 100 



91 10.461 





200 



10 10.56| 





300 



10 11. ^ 





400 



10^ 11.17 





500 



111 11.28J 





600 



12| 11.41 





700 



13 11.54 





800 



13 12. 7 





900 



19 12.26 





1000 



24 12.50 , 





1100 



23 1.13 





1126 



163 



2 165 = 2h. 45m. 







