€>4 APVlACkflOU OF THt GAS FROM COAt, 



cede the oxalic acid, and afterward to be converted into it 

 by the subsequent action of nitric acid ; but on the compo= 

 sition and formation of this latter acid I avoid making any. 

 observations at present, as I propose to make them the stib* 

 ject of a separate dissertation. 



HI. 



An Account of the Application of the Gas from Coal to eco-^ 

 nomical Purposes, fiy Mr. William Murdoch. Com." 

 municated by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart» 

 K. B. P. R. S.* 



Light fiom Ji^ HE facts and results intended to be communicated in 



•n^faTgescale. *^^* Paper are founded upon observations made, during 



the present winter, at the cotton manufactory of Messrs, 



Phillips and Lee at Manchester, where the light obtained 



by the combustion of the gas from coal is used upon a very 



large scale; the apparatus for its production and application 



having been prepared by me at the works of Messrs. Boul- 



ton, Watt, and Co. at Soho. 



-Qaantlty of The whole of the rooms of this cotton mill, which is, I 



light required i^ejieve, the most extensive in the United Kinodom, as well 



on a c'jmpari- i i j- ^ 



son with caa- as its counting-houses and store-rooms, and the adjacent 



•'**• dwelling-house of Mr. Lee, are lighted with the gas from 



coal. The total quantity of light used during the hours of 

 burning, has been ascertained, by a comparison of shadows, 

 to be about equal to the light which 2500 mould candles of 

 six in the pound would give ; each of the candles, with 

 which the comparison was made consuming at the rate of 

 4-lOths of an ounce (175 grains) of tallow per hour. 



The quantity of light is necessarily liable to some varia- 

 tion, from the difficulty of adjusting all the flames, so as 

 Experiment to be perfectly equal at all times; but the admirable preci- 

 made under vjion and exactness, with which the business of this mill is 

 circumstances, conducted, afforded as excellent an opportunity of making 



• Phibs. Trans, for 18C8, p. 124, 



the 



